They say you can’t outsmart the farmers—but nobody told Mr. Fox. Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox scampers back to The Frida just in time for Thanksgiving.
George Clooney voices Mr. Fox, a dashing ex-thief turned family fox who can’t resist one last heist against the fearsome trio of farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. When his plan goes spectacularly awry, Fox and his eccentric woodland neighbors must band together to outwit their human enemies and dig their way to freedom.
Adapted from Roald Dahl’s classic story, Anderson’s version is both faithful and boldly his own—every frame a diorama of autumnal wonder, every line of dialogue dry and delightful. With a pitch-perfect cast (Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe), Alexandre Desplat’s jazzy score, and stop-motion that feels alive with personality, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a triumph of craft and heart.
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Just added: at the 5:30PM screening on November 29th, Creepy AF will be opening the screening with a raffle/giveaway! For every movie ticket purchased, they will supply you with one raffle coupon for a chance to win a special prize!
The Addams are back—and this time, they’re raising hell!
Barry Sonnenfeld’s Addams Family Values returns to The Frida, bringing America’s favorite macabre family to deliriously funny new heights.
When Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) welcome a new baby, little Pubert, Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley aren’t thrilled—so they hatch a plan to “play” with their new sibling…permanently. Enter Debbie Jellinsky (a gloriously unhinged Joan Cusack), the kids’ new nanny and a gold-digging serial killer who’s set her sights on Uncle Fester.
From a summer camp of WASP nightmares to candlelit gothic mansions, Addams Family Values turns family dysfunction into a dark art form.
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In his controversial masterpiece The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin offers both a cutting caricature of Adolf Hitler and a sly tweaking of his own comic persona. Chaplin, in his first pure talkie, brings his sublime physicality to two roles: the cruel yet clownish “Tomainian” dictator and the kindly Jewish barber who is mistaken for him.
Featuring Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard in stellar supporting turns, The Great Dictator, boldly going after the fascist leader before the U.S.’s official entry into World War II, is an audacious amalgam of politics and slapstick that culminates in Chaplin’s famously impassioned speech.
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Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard).
With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times—though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!)—is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.
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City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill) and mistakes him for a millionaire.
Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form. The result was the epitome of his art and the crowning achievement of silent comedy.
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Charlie Chaplin was already an international star when he decided to break out of the short-film format and make his first full-length feature–The Kid. The movie doesn’t merely show Chaplin at a turning point, when he proved that he was a serious film director—it remains an expressive masterwork of silent cinema.
In it, he stars as his lovable Tramp character, this time raising an orphan (a remarkable young Jackie Coogan) he has rescued from the streets. Chaplin and Coogan make a miraculous pair in this nimble marriage of sentiment and slapstick, a film that is, as its opening title card states, “a picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear.”
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Charlie Chaplin’s silent comic masterwork, The Gold Rush, is the next film up in our Art House for Families series!
Set during the Klondike Gold Rush, the film follows Chaplin’s iconic Little Tramp as he searches for fortune in a frozen wilderness filled with comic catastrophe. Along the way come some of the most legendary moments in film history, from the famous “dance of the rolls” to a cabin teetering dangerously over the edge of a cliff.
Shot partly on location in the Sierra Nevadas and featuring such timeless gags as the dance of the dinner rolls and the meal of boiled shoe leather, The Gold Rush is an indelible work of heartwarming hilarity. Our friends at Janus Films have granted us the rights to Chaplin’s definitive 1942 version, for which the director added new music and narration.
Our Art House for Families series celebrates the magic of moviegoing across generations all summer long. From silent comedy and international classics to science fiction and fantasy adventures, the series invites longtime cinephiles and first-time art house audiences of all ages to discover some of cinema’s most enduring films together on the big screen. This event is sponsored in part by the City of Santa Ana.
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Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s new “adaptation” of Dracula is coming to The Frida Cinema!
A Dracula film made in modern day Transylvania? What does it contain? Well…a vampire hunt. Oh, and zombies and Dracula crashing a strike. Also…a science-fiction story about Vlad the Impaler coming back. An adaptation of the first Romanian vampire novella. A love story. A montage film reusing a classic vampire film. A vulgar folktale. Oh, and did we mention it’s three hours long?
While not a “straightforward” adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, Jude’s take is a bold, satirical, and multi-layered deconstruction of the Dracula myth. Are you ready for the big screen event of the year*?
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She’s not messy. She’s busy! To celebrate new films coming out this year from directors Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, we are presenting our favorite collaboration between them–the 21st century masterpiece Frances Ha!
Frances is a 27-year-old New Yorker chasing her dream of becoming a dancer long after the world has stopped applauding. When her best friend and roommate Sophie (Mickey Sumner) moves out, Frances stumbles through a series of apartments, odd jobs, and almost-romances in a city that both resists and reshapes her.
Shot in luminous monochrome and pulsing with French New Wave energy, Frances Ha is funny and quietly profound—a portrait of creative uncertainty and the friendships that carry us through it. Baumbach and Gerwig co-wrote the film with such honesty and rhythm that every awkward conversation feels so horrifyingly alive.
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Our In Defense Of…series for November is Chloe’s pick, and she’s chosen the 2011 animated classic Rango!
When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.
A love letter to Spaghetti Westerns and cinematic misfits alike, Rango dazzles with eye-popping animation that can’t be missed on the big screen!
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