Fear and fury are sizzling in the Florida Keys!
We’re attempting to ride out the storm with our next Bogie Fest entry: Key Largo! This hurricane-lashed drama brings Humphrey Bogart together once more with Lauren Bacall in a story where danger rises with the tide.
Set in a remote Florida Keys hotel, war veteran Frank McCloud (Bogie himself) arrives to visit the family of a fallen comrade, only to find himself trapped as a powerful storm bears down. The hotel is then seized by a gang of mobsters led by the ruthless Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson doing his very best Edward G. Robinson impression), a larger-than-life crime boss whose presence turns the claustrophobic setting into a pressure cooker of fear and defiance.
As the winds howl outside, tensions escalate within, and McCloud must decide whether to remain the detached observer he claims to be…or take a stand against tyranny. Anchored by crackling dialogue and powerhouse performances, Key Largo is a bit underrated these days, sometimes lost in the sea of masterpieces that director John Huston bestowed upon us.
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He killed…and there on the crest of Sierra’s highest crag…he must be killed!
We’re hitting the road with one of the defining films of Humphrey Bogart’s early stardom: High Sierra! This gritty crime drama finds Bogie stepping into a role that helped transform him from supporting heavy into full-fledged leading man.
Bogart stars as Roy “Mad Dog” Earle, a hardened criminal freshly released from prison and pulled into one last heist in the mountains of California. As he assembles his crew and plans the job, Roy crosses paths with Velma (Joan Leslie), an innocent young woman he becomes unexpectedly devoted to, and Marie (Ida Lupino), a tough, world-weary drifter who sees through him more clearly than anyone else.
Successfully mixing a gangster film intensity with a tragic romance, High Sierra builds toward a tense and unforgettable finale high in the Sierra Nevada. The film cemented Bogart’s ability to bring depth and vulnerability to dangerous men, hinting at the layered performances that would define his greatest roles.
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Memory is a mirror.
Join us for a free screening of the award-winning indie film, I’ve Seen All I Need To See, from writer/director Zeshaan Younus. After the screening we will be joined by various cast and crew for an in-depth Q&A about the making of the film!
The film follows Parker (Renee Gagner), an actress living in Los Angeles, who returns to her hometown after the sudden and violent death of her estranged sister, Indiana (Rosie McDonald).
An experimental ghost story noir, I’ve Seen All I Need To See has screened at the Glasgow Film Festival, Manchester Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and many more. For fans of Mulholland Drive, A Ghost Story, Personal Shopper, and Memoria.
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Bogie Fest, our 14-film retrospective on the films of the incomparable Humprey Bogart, continues with one of the all time great films from the Noir genre: John Huston’s debut film The Maltese Falcon!
In shadow-drenched San Francisco, private detective Sam Spade (Bogart) is pulled into a deadly web after his partner is murdered. What begins as a routine case spirals into a hunt for a priceless, jewel-encrusted statuette: the elusive Maltese Falcon. Surrounded by liars, thieves, and the dangerously alluring Brigid O’Shaughnessy, Spade must navigate shifting loyalties and his own code of ethics to uncover the truth.
The Maltese Falcon is widely regarded as the blueprint for Film Noir. Its hard-edged dialogue and stark visual style set the tone for an entire movement in American cinema.
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We’re presenting a Kiyoshi Kurosawa double feature of the new restoration of 1998’s Serpent’s Path and his 2024 film Chime!
Serpent’s Path: Straight off Cure (1997), his international breakthrough, Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed two low-budget films using the same basic premise and the same lead actor (Sho Aikawa) to completely different ends. The experiment first resulted in Serpent’s Path (1998, later remade in 2024), a dark gangland thriller with philosophical overtones. Obsessed with avenging his young daughter’s murder, yakuza subordinate Miyashita (Teruyuki Kagawa) recruits Nijima (Aikawa), a brilliant yet strangely detached math teacher, to help carry outcarry out a scheme to kidnap and torture the man allegedly responsible. But the plan goes awry when their target, Otsuki (Yurei Yanagi), fingers another mobster as the mastermind behind Miyashita’s tragedy. As the two partners ascend the yakuza chain of command in search of the true culprit, Miyashita and Nijima follow the cold, calculating logic of revenge, descending into a moral abyss from which they may never surface.
Chime: A masterclass in escalating dread and shocking violence, Chime reaffirms Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of modern horror’s most innovative and unpredictable visionaries. During a class, culinary instructor Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka) witnesses the suicide of a young student (Seiichi Kohinata), driven to insanity by what he claims is a chiming sound that controls his mind. Soon, Matsuoka begins hearing it, too, and descends into a mental abyss that warps his perception of reality and gives vent to his darkest impulses.
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Our Page To Screen series in April is the Paul Newman starrer Cool Hand Luke!
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn’t play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard’s resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy’s unbreakable will. Luke’s bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison’s dreaded solitary confinement cell, “the box,” make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
Based on the 1965 novel by Donn Pearce, Cool Hand Luke is a defining 1960s counter-culture film celebrating anti-authoritarianism through Newman’s iconic portrayal of a charming rebel.
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We’re diving a bit deeper into the gloriously depraved world of John Waters with a double feature of two more of his unhinged creations: Female Trouble and Desperate Living!
Female Trouble: Dawn Davenport wants fame…and she’ll do anything to get it. From petty crime to full-blown notoriety, her life becomes a chaotic mess of violence and warped ambition, all in pursuit of becoming a star. Featuring one of Divine’s most iconic performances, the film is a savage satire of celebrity culture.
Desperate Living: When a neurotic housewife goes on the run after committing murder, she finds refuge in Mortville, a lawless shantytown ruled by a tyrannical queen. As she descends deeper into this bizarre society of misfits and criminals, survival means putting up with the madness…and maybe embracing it.
Waters builds a world with these two films where crime is glamorous and authority is a joke, and he somehow manages to balance is all by making it all feel so filthy and fabulous, the two words we use most to describe him.
There will be a 10 minute intermission between both films. One tickets gets you access to both movies!
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We’re diving headfirst into our tribute to Frida Favorite John Waters by going to the filthiest corners of underground cinema and delivering a double feature of Multiple Maniacs and Pink Flamingos!
Multiple Maniacs: Lady Divine runs a traveling sideshow with her lover, luring unsuspecting patrons into a world of chaos, crime, and depravity. As jealousy and betrayal take hold, her descent spirals into one of the most infamous acts in cult film history!
Pink Flamingos: Self-proclaimed “Filthiest Person Alive” Divine lives in a trailer on the outskirts of Baltimore, defending her title against a pair of perverse rivals determined to outdo her. What follows is an all-out war of bad taste that pushes the limits of what’s acceptable to be shown on screen!
Defiantly transgressive as ever, these films cemented Waters’ reputation as the ultimate patron saint of trash, almost daring audiences to laugh.
There will be a 10 minute intermission between both films. One tickets gets you access to both movies!
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Every mom wants to be wanted, but not for murder!
Our John Waters retrospective is reaching its bittersweet conclusion with us screening his 1994 suburban nightmare-comedy Serial Mom!
Beverly Sutphin seems like the perfect housewife: devoted mother, loving spouse, and model member of her community. But behind her cheerful demeanor lies a deadly secret…she has a habit of murdering anyone who offends her sense of decency, from rude neighbors to ill-mannered strangers, all while maintaining her pristine suburban image.
Serial Mom proves once again that in Waters’ world, good taste is meant to be destroyed, and Kathleen Turner’s iconic performance as Beverly finds both of him having a lot of fun being bad. Please join us to give this series the send-off it deserves!
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Some search for battle, others are born into it…
Paul Thomas Anderson’s towering epic One Battle After Another, fresh off of its six Oscar wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Paul Thomas Anderson), Best Adapted Screenplay (Paul Thomas Anderson), Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Best Film Editing (Andy Jurgensen), and first ever Best Casting award (Cassandra Kulukundis), is finally coming to The Frida Cinema!
Washed-up revolutionary Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa (played by the incredible Chase Infiniti, in her first movie role ever). When his evil nemesis (Sean Penn) resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
Immediately becoming one the defining films, for better or worse, of the 2020s, now is the time see One Battle After Another loud and proud on the big screen.
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