Witness the dramatic side of dance with Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, a semi-autobiographical musical drama that blurs the line between reality and fantasy in a dazzling, feverish spectacle, screening for The Frida Zinema in anticipation of their Musical March Madness issue! Copies will be available for purchase in the lobby.
The film follows Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a brilliant yet self-destructive Broadway director and choreographer, as he juggles his demanding career, multiple relationships, and an increasing dependence on drugs and alcohol. As he edits his latest film by day and rehearses a new stage production by night, his health deteriorates, leading him into a surreal, hallucinatory journey where he confronts his own mortality.
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Our Hallucinations series continues with Isao Fujisawa’s Bye Bye Love, a poignant Japanese road movie that captures the spirit of youthful rebellion and existential searching.
The film follows Utamaro, a disillusioned young drifter, who crosses paths with Giko, a mysterious and gender-fluid wanderer. Together, they embark on a journey across Japan, engaging in petty crimes and forging an intense, complicated relationship as they attempt to escape both the law and the constraints of societal expectations. As their journey unfolds, Utamaro is forced to confront his own notions of identity, love, and freedom, leading to moments of deep introspection and emotional reckoning.
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We continue to celebrate the legendary work of actor Gene Hackman, with Wes Anderson’s offbeat portrait of a particularly dysfunctional family, The Royal Tenenbaums, as her film programming pick.
The Tenenbaum siblings – Chas (Ben Stiller), Richie (Luke Wilson), and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) – are all former child prodigies whose lives have unraveled into disappointment and dysfunction. Their estranged father, Royal Tenenbaum (the late, great Gene Hackman), a charming but deeply flawed man, announces he has a terminal illness in a desperate bid to reconnect with his family, forcing the Tenenbaums to reckon with their shared past and unresolved wounds under the same roof.
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, the film remains one of Anderson’s most beloved works; a richly detailed tragicomedy that captures the beauty and absurdity of lost potential, and another iconic performance by two-time Oscar-winner Gene Hackman.
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1940’s Dance, Girl, Dance, directed by Dorothy Arzner, is a groundbreaking and feminist-tinged drama that explores the struggles of women in the entertainment industry.
The film follows Judy O’Brien (Maureen O’Hara), a classically trained ballet dancer with dreams of artistic success, who finds herself working alongside the bold and ambitious Bubbles (Lucille Ball), a brassy burlesque performer. As their careers take divergent paths — Judy yearning for legitimacy while Bubbles embraces the spotlight — the two women become rivals in both dance and love, particularly over the affections of a wealthy playboy (Louis Hayward).
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Just added! The director of The Accidental Getaway Driver, Sing Lee, will be joining us for an-person Q&A after the Sunday, March 9th screening at 12:00PM!
Drive out for Sing J. Lee’s The Accidental Getaway Driver, a tense and emotionally charged crime thriller based on a true story. These screenings are presented by our friends from VAALA !
The film follows Long Ma, an elderly Vietnamese taxi driver in Southern California who unwittingly picks up three escaped convicts in the dead of night. What begins as a routine fare spirals into a harrowing hostage situation as Long finds himself caught between fear and an unlikely connection with the group’s conflicted leader. As the night unfolds, tensions rise, past traumas resurface, and Long must navigate both physical and psychological survival in an environment where trust is a dangerous gamble.
VAALA was founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists, and friends to fill a void in the community and provide a space for newly resettled immigrant artists to express themselves. VAALA’s mission is to connect and enrich communities through Vietnamese art and culture. Historically run entirely by volunteers, VAALA is a community-based non-profit organization. Over the years, VAALA has collaborated with diverse community partners to organize numerous cultural and artistic events. VAALA’s four core programs include the annual Viet Film Fest and Viet Book Fest, the Gallery Beyond Walls program featuring art exhibitions, and free art and film workshops for youth, such as Youth in Motion: A Filmmaking Workshop for Emerging Filmmakers.
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Just added: after the screening on Wednesday, March 12th at 8:00PM, the star of Nickel Boys, Ethan Herisse, will be joining us for an in-person Q&A moderated by our Film Membership Coordinator Bobby Thornson!
RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is finally coming to The Frida Cinema!
The film follows Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), an idealistic young man inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose dreams are shattered when he is unjustly sentenced to the school. There, he befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), a more cynical and pragmatic boy who teaches him the hard truths about survival in an institution rife with corruption, racism, and violence. As the two navigate the horrors of Nickel Academy, their clashing philosophies on resistance and endurance lead them down paths that will forever shape their fates.
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Join us for a one-night-only screening of 2018 neo-noir crime thriller Destroyer, followed by an in-person discussion with the director of the film, Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation, Girlfight) and author Marya E Gates (Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words)!
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Kick off March with us as we present brand new 2K restoration screenings of the rarely-screened Japanese film Love & Pop!
July 1997. Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends spend the summer going on dates with older men for money. Armed with only a cellphone, Hiromi sets out to date her way to ¥128,000 in order to purchase an expensive topaz ring before the mall closes for the day.
Based on the novel by Ryū Murakami, Love & Pop is the live action feature debut from Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the most celebrated anime series of all time. The film is radical in its stylistic approach to teenage ennui, taking to the seedy streets of Shibuya with handheld digicams, distorted lenses, and a barrage of unconventional camera angles. Criminally underseen for years, Love & Pop remains a singular portrait of Japanese youth coming of age in the approach to the 21st century.
All screenings will be presented the original Japanese language with English subtitles.
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Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the explosive French crime drama La Haine!
Director Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with his a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income Banlieue districts on Paris’s outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui)—a Jew, an African, and an Arab—give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point.
A work of tough beauty, La Haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country’s ongoing identity crisis.
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Just added: actor Sean Gunn (Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Suicide Squad, Gilmore Girls) has agreed to moderate the post-screening Q&A!
Join us for a free screening of the new indie found footage paranormal drama The Buildout, written and directed by local filmmaker and former Frida Cinema Board President Zeshaan Younus! Stick around after the screening as Zeshaan, Natasha Halevi, and other cast and crew from the film take part in a Q&A!
Produced by The Frida Cinema’s Programming Director Trevor Dillon, The Buildout stars Jenna Kanell (Terrifier, Faceless After Dark, Renfield), Hannah Alline (Doom Patrol, Mayfair Witches, The Hunt), and Natasha Halevi (Give Me An A). This Terrence Malick-inspired tale of high strangeness follows a friendship that is put to the ultimate test as two women experience something strange in the desert.
The Buildout is a feature film that was shot in 7 days, on a crowdfunded budget, entirely on location in the Southern California wilderness.
An official selection at Panic Fest, Chattanooga Film Festival, Popcorn Frights Film Festival, SoHo Horror Film Festival, MidWest Weirdfest, Oceanside Film Festival, and many more, this is a community event celebrating the VOD release of the film on 2/25/25.
Thank you to Ethos Releasing for making this screening possible.
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