The Italian coming-of-age film Diciannove is making its way to The Frida Cinema!
The highs and lows of a restless youth collide headlong into the concrete realities of adulthood when Leonardo, a teenager from Palermo leaves home for the first time. His studies land him in Siena, by way of London, where he clashes with his instructor, the curriculum, and most chaotically, with himself. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, Diciannove (nineteen), marks the feature filmmaking debut of writer-director Giovanni Tortorici, a bold, brash and bemusing filmmaking talent.
Winner of the Queer Lion Award at Venice International Film Festival in 2024, Diciannove has been celebrated all over the world and is finally coming stateside!
Read More
Join us on Monday, September 1st for a screening of the new indie film Adjunct, and stick around after the screening for an in-person Q&A with the writer, director, and star of the film–Ron Najor!
In Adjunct, a Middle Eastern American writer turned adjunct college professor comes to terms with being undervalued at his job and figures out his next move. A profoundly personal exploration of purpose and resilience in a system that values flexibility over loyalty.
Based on his real life experiences as an adjunct college professor, Ron Najor (producer of Short Term 12 and the upcoming Lucky Lu) wrote, directed, produced and starred in Adjunct as a means of sharing the behind the scenes realities of being an educator in the university system.
Read More
November’s Hallucinations screening is Isao Fujisawa’s lost wonder Bye Bye Love!
Lost and nihilistic drifter Utamaro chances upon Giko, a femme shoplifter who immediately catches his eye. One thing leads to another: the couple soon find themselves on the lam for murder. This provides for a delightful pretext to explore notions of societal malaise, free love and gender fluidity in a rapidly evolving 1970s Japan, as both Utamaro and Giko begin to know each other on the road by way of a variety of surrealistic, psychedelic and frank sexual encounters.
Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.
Read More
Our Hallucinations series is back in September with a brand new 4K restoration of Night Of The Juggler, starring James Brolin!
Night of the Juggler drops you into a sweltering, sweaty New York City in freefall. When an ex-cop’s daughter is kidnapped by a maniac, he tears through the city like a human wrecking ball—dodging traffic, screaming through subway tunnels, and punching his way across five boroughs. It’s part thriller, part urban nightmare, part sweaty fever dream where every street corner feels like the edge of a riot.
It’s the kind of movie that makes you feel like you ran the whole thing yourself—and you might still be out of breath by the end credits.
Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.
Read More
Step into the gritty, electric world of 1970s Harlem as Flickrhappy presents Black Caesar, with a very special Q&A after the film with the legendary Fred Williamson!
Directed by exploitation auteur Larry Cohen, this hard-hitting gangster epic follows Tommy Gibbs, a shoeshine boy turned ruthless crime boss, in a tale packed with ambition, betrayal, and a legendary funk score by James Brown. Don’t miss this rare big-screen presentation featuring Fred “The Hammer” Williamson live in-person for a post-screening Q&A! Hear behind-the-scenes stories and firsthand reflections from the icon himself, in a conversation moderated by Josiah Howard, author of Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide.
Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering this cult classic for the first time, Black Caesar delivers a cinematic punch you won’t forget.
This program is a venue rental engagement. Member discounts and Frida Cinema comp passes not valid. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.
Read More
Started in August of 2015 as Crossfader, Merry-Go-Round Magazine had its genesis in a sweaty Santa Ana apartment with six people cramped together sharing their pop culture opinions, mostly for the benefit of themselves. We’ve spent the last decade recruiting writers across North America to cover everything from Sundance to Comic Con to Cannes, interviewing everyone from Militarie Gun to Joe Pera to Excene, and making niche areas of the Internet mad at us along the way.
We’re thrilled to be celebrating a decade of MGRM back in the town where it all started at The Frida Cinema with a rowdy, rollicking, raunchy evening with the boys of Magic Mike XXL, also celebrating its 10th anniversary! Stanley Donen meets Playgirl in this vibes-fueled highway odyssey: watch the doofiest Greek gods you’ve ever met trek from their home base of Tampa to a Myrtle Beach stripping convention for one last rodeo. Witness the hottest all-American hunks to grace the silver screen dry-hump their way across the American South, and into your heart! Behold the definitive use of “Pony” by Ginuwine!
Hooting, hollering, and rampant applause encouraged. Come help us celebrate 10 whole years of being an independent, online culture magazine and revel in the pinnacle of 2015 cinema (sorry Mad Max, we stan another [adjective starting with M] [generic first name also starting with M] in this household).
Read More
The bold, genre-defying horror-Mermaid-musical mashup The Lure is August’s Frida Cinema Members Only screening!
In this playful and confident debut of Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska — a pair of carnivorous mermaid sisters are drawn ashore in an alternate ’80s Poland to explore the wonders and temptations of life on land. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly aura make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers in the half-glam, half-decrepit fantasy world of Smoczynska’s imagining. In a visceral twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s original Little Mermaid tale, one sister falls for a human, and as the bonds of sisterhood are tested, the lines between love and survival get blurred. A savage coming-of-age fairytale with a catchy new-wave soundtrack, lavishly grimy sets, and outrageous musical numbers, The Lure explores its themes of sexuality, exploitation, and the compromises of adulthood with energy and originality.
Not a member yet? Sign up here: https://thefridacinema.org/memberships/
Read More
Step into the sun-soaked streets of The Young Girls Of Rochefort, where twin sisters Delphine and Solange (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac) dream of love and adventure beyond their small seaside town.
Delphine and Solange are two sisters living in Rochefort. Delphine is a dancing teacher and Solange composes and teaches the piano. Maxence is a poet and a painter. He is doing his military service. Simon owns a music shop, he left Paris one month ago to come back where he fell in love 10 years ago. They are looking for love, looking for each other, without being aware that their ideal partner is very close…
Directed by Jacques Demy, this effervescent musical pays homage to classic Hollywood musicals while infusing them with French flair.
Read More
Our second Volunteer Of The Month pick is Richard Ayoade’s Submarine, courtesy of our volunteer Lyrio!
Meet Oliver Tate: a Welsh teenager armed with a vocabulary beyond his years, a trench coat he barely fills, and a plan to lose his virginity before his birthday. Also on his list? Saving his parents’ crumbling marriage and keeping his mystic next-door neighbor from stealing his mum.
Ayoade’s directorial debut is a funny, melancholic, and stylized coming-of-age tale, drawing from the deadpan charm of Wes Anderson and the aching awkwardness of early adolescence. Featuring a tender original soundtrack by Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys), Submarine is both acerbic and sincere—a story about first love, emotional repression, and the anxiety of being a legend in your own mind.
Read More
David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch isn’t just an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ infamous novel—it’s a hallucinatory biographical fantasia, blending Burroughs’ life, addiction, and text into one grotesque and exhilarating fever dream. And now it’s been restored in a brand new 4K restoration!
Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill’s pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work — which he doesn’t remember writing.
Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider—and featuring otherworldly creature effects by Chris Walas (The Fly)—Naked Lunch is Cronenberg at his most cerebral and disturbing.
Read More
