Kick off our epic fourteen film retrospective on the works of legendary director Akira Kurosawa with his 1949 crime thriller Stray Dog, now restored in a brand new 4K restoration thanks to Janus Films!
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Starring Toshiro Mifune, as the rookie cop, and Takashi Shimura as the seasoned detective who keeps him on the right side of the law, Stray Dog goes beyond a crime thriller, probing the squalid world of postwar Japan and the nature of the criminal mind.
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Our final Volunteer Of The Month pick was picked by Emma, as she has chosen Orson Welles’s singular adaptation of Franz Kafka’s chilling The Trial!
When bank clerk Josef K. (Anthony Perkins) is arrested on his thirtieth birthday—never told what he’s charged with, never shown his accusers—his attempt at normal life fractures into a surreal labyrinth of law offices, dark corridors, and anonymous verdicts. The law doesn’t need to explain itself, and neither does Welles’ camera—it obsesses over angles, shadows, and the hollowness of bureaucracy.
With its stark black-and-white visuals, towering architecture, and a sense of dread that feels both grand and intimate, The Trial is Welles’ most personal film—a nightmare built not for a moment, but for an eternity.
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Murder. Lust. Insurance. The perfect crime? Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, the film that defined film noir, is our Page To Screen pick for November!
Fred MacMurray stars as Walter Neff, a slick insurance salesman whose routine pitch turns deadly when he meets Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck, all anklet and ice). Together they hatch a plan to kill her husband and collect on his policy—simple on paper, until suspicion, guilt, and one relentless claims adjuster (Edward G. Robinson) start to close in.
Written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from James M. Cain’s pulp novel, Double Indemnity is a razor-sharp descent into desire and doom, crackling with hard-boiled dialogue and the most lethal femme fatale in film history.
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Our friends at See It On 16mm are back to spool up another screening of John Waters’ infamous cult classic Pink Flamingos.
In a twisted contest to determine “the filthiest person alive,” underground icon Divine stars as a criminal anti-heroine living in a trailer with her oddball family, battling a pair of jealous rivals for the title. What follows is an unholy parade of crime, perversion, and pop-art anarchy that rewrote the rules of independent cinema—and left censors reeling.
After 50 year since its initial release, Pink Flamingos is filthier and funnier than ever. An exercise in bad taste or a masterpiece of transgressive art? We’ll let you decide!
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Place your bets. Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter returns to The Frida as our first Volunteer Of The Month pick—this one courtesy of Jonathan!
William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.
Produced by Martin Scorsese and written and directed by Schrader (First Reformed, Hardcore, American Gigolo), The Card Counter is a simmering psychological thriller where every move feels like penance.
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It’s still Spooky Season in our hearts, so we’re dusting off a few screenings of Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace!
Cary Grant stars as Mortimer Brewster, a newlywed whose trip home to visit his eccentric Brooklyn family turns into a macabre comedy of errors. His sweet, elderly aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) have a deadly hobby: poisoning lonely old men with elderberry wine and burying them in the basement. Add in a delusional brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, another who’s an unhinged criminal dead ringer for Boris Karloff, and a frantic race to keep the police—and his new bride—none the wiser.
A twisted favorite of ours that’s bursting with screwball energy and classic Cary Grant charm, Arsenic and Old Lace proves that murder can be murderously funny?
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Frida Cinema Members are invited to a special early screening of American auteur Kelly Reichhardt’s (First Cow, Certain Women, Wendy & Lucy) newest film: The Mastermind! Starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, is Reichardt’s detour into the crime/heist genre, told only the way that she can.
In a sedate corner of Massachusetts circa 1970, an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief plans his first big heist. When things go haywire, his life unravels.
The Mastermind is being hailed as one of Reichardt’s boldest gambits. With a standout central performance by Josh O’Connor and a director pushing her signature minimalism into new terrain, it’s one of our most anticipated releases of 2025.
Not a Frida Cinema Member yet? Sign up here to gain access to this and many other awesome screenings and discounts throughout the year!
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American auteur Kelly Reichhardt (First Cow, Certain Women, Wendy & Lucy) is back with her latest straight from the Cannes Film Festival! The Mastermind, starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, is Reichardt’s detour into the crime/heist genre, told only the way that she can.
In a sedate corner of Massachusetts circa 1970, an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief plans his first big heist. When things go haywire, his life unravels.
The Mastermind is being hailed as one of Reichardt’s boldest gambits. With a standout central performance by Josh O’Connor and a director pushing her signature minimalism into new terrain, it’s one of our most anticipated releases of 2025.
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The Frida Cinema is excited to partner with the Production Designers Collective a very special screening of Spike Jonze’s 2002 masterwork Adaptation! And make sure to stick around after the screening for a very special Q&A with the film’s Production Designer–K.K. Barrett (Her, Marie Antoinette).
Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt “The Orchid Thief,” by Susan Orlean, Kaufman’s life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean’s book, become strangely intertwined as each one’s search for passion collides with the others’.
A modern classic of postmodern cinema, Adaptation fuses Jonze’s inventive direction with Kaufman’s whip-smart script and self-referential chaos.
This event will be an official part of International Production Design Week.
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From the twisted mind of writer/director Ari Aster springs Eddington, his surrealist (or is it?) nightmare time capsule comedy. And thanks to our friends over at Production Designers Collective, stick around after the screening for a very special Q&A with the film’s Production Designer–Elliott Hostetter (The Neon Demon, Bones & All).
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico. Hindsight is 2020.
Starring an all-star cast of Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, the film debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and was released just this past Summer.
This event will be an official part of International Production Design Week.
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