Train Dreams: Film Club Members Only

Posted on January 31, 2026

Our first Film Club Members Only screening for the month of February is Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams, now nominated for Best Picture at The Academy Awards in 2026!

Based on Denis Johnson’s novella, Train Dreams follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton in a classic Joel Edgerton role), a stoic laborer in the early-20th century American West who struggles with profound loss and rapid modernization of the Idaho wilderness, haunted by trauma and the changing landscape.

The film recently secured 4 Oscar nominations at the 98th Academy Awards (2026), including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Adolpho Veloso), and Best Original Song (“Train Dreams” by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner).

Thank you to Netflix for allowing us to play this film where it deserves to be seen: on the big screen.

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Frankenstein

Posted on January 31, 2026

Only monsters play God.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, the movie he was born to make, is finally coming alive at The Frida Cinema starting on February 27th!

The story follows a brilliant but egotistical scientist (played by Oscar Isaac) who brings a monstrous creature to life in a daring experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

The film has now received 9 Academy Award nominations for the 98th Academy Awards (2026), including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Jacob Elordi’s transformative performance as The Monster. The film also scored major technical nominations for cinematography, original score, costume design, makeup/hairstyling, production design, and sound.

Thank you to Netflix for allowing us to play this gorgeous creation where it belongs to be seen: on the big screen.

Tiger on the Beat

Posted on January 30, 2026

“Like Lethal Weapon only far funnier and with more chainsaw action.” -Total DVD

After so much emotion and violence, we are choosing to close our Hong Kong Action Essentials series by cutting loose with little bit laughter and…uhhh…more violence.

Directed by Lau Kar-leung and starring Chow Yun-fat, Tiger on the Beat follows a pair of mismatched cops on the trail of a violent drug dealer, a case that escalates from street-level comedy into something far more savage and unhinged. What begins as a rambunctious action/comedy steadily sheds its humor, morphing into a full-throttle collision of gunplay, hand-to-hand combat, and sheer physical excess. By the time it reaches its infamous finale, the film has abandoned restraint entirely, delivering the perfectly brutal and messy ending to our series.

Our Hong Kong Action Essentials series explores the time from the mid-’80s through the early ’90s, where Hong Kong filmmakers rewrote the grammar of action cinema forever. Directors like John Woo, Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Ringo Lam, and Lau Kar-Leung fused balletic gunplay, risky stunts, martial arts virtuosity, and raw emotional intensity into a new cinematic language that would be oft-imitated but never replicated. (sorry, The Matrix, we love you too!) Join us every month in 2026 as we explore this golden age where style and emotion collided to change movies forever.

Once Upon a Time in China

Posted on January 30, 2026

Never was a Hero needed more…

Once Upon A Time In China, Writer-producer-director Tsui Hark’s sprawling vision of a changing nineteenth-century China, is coming back to The Frida Cinema!

This blockbuster hit cemented Jet Li’s status as the greatest martial-arts superstar of his generation. Li displays his stunning, fast-and-fluid fighting style as the legendary martial-arts teacher and doctor Wong Fei-hung, who, with a band of disciples, battles a host of nefarious forces, foreign and local, who are threatening Chinese sovereignty as British and American imperialists encroach upon the Mainland.

Once Upon a Time in China’s breathtaking blend of kung fu, comedy, romance, and melodrama climaxes in a whirlwind guns-vs-fists finale that is also a thrilling affirmation of Chinese cultural identity.

The Killer

Posted on January 30, 2026

One Vicious Hitman. One Fierce Cop. Ten Thousand Bullets.

Step into the operatic heart of Hong Kong action cinema with John Woo’s The Killer!

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim’s sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

What unfolds is a tragic dance of loyalty and doomed brotherhood, escalating into some of the most iconic slow-motion gunfights ever put on screen. See it how it was meant to be seen: loud and emotionally overwhelming.

A Better Tomorrow

Posted on January 30, 2026

Brothers by blood. Enemies by chance. Killers by nature.

Welcome to the birth of the Heroic Bloodshed era of Hong Kong cinema as we are proud to present John Woo’s masterpiece A Better Tomorrow!

When a deal goes disastrously wrong, loyalty is tested, friendships fracture, and revenge becomes unavoidable. As Ho attempts redemption and Kit is pulled deeper into moral compromise, the film builds toward a tragic reckoning where honor, survival collide in a storm of gunfire.

A Better Tomorrow’s influence is impossible to overstate: slow-motion violence, tragic brotherhood, trench coats, and moral codes, the list goes on and on.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Hosted by Arnold Leibovit

Posted on January 30, 2026

The Frida Cinema is proud to present a special 75th Anniversary screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the most important science fiction films ever made whose message has only grown more urgent with time! Plus, get there early and see the iconic 8-Foot-Tall Gort Robot live-on-stage!

Starring Michael Rennie in his unforgettable performance as Klaatu, this 20th Century Fox landmark follows an alien emissary who arrives on Earth with a message that could save humanity…or doom it! At his side the towering Gort Robot whose silent presence became a legend of science fiction design. Directed by Academy Award winner Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound Of Music, The Haunting, Star Trek: The Motion Feature) The Day the Earth Stood Still rejected spectacle in favor of moral urgency during a time of high-anxiety, making it evergreen filmmaking at its finest.

Bernard Herrmann’s revolutionary score, featuring eerie theremins and groundbreaking electronic instrumentation, forever changed the sound of Science Fiction cinema. Lauded worldwide and praised by critics for its intelligence and restraint, the film was selected by the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance.

Arnold Leibovit, a personal friend of Robert Wise, will host the evening and present two more of George Pal’s Academy Award-winning Puppetoons he’s restored: “A Hatful of Dreams” featuring a DC Comics use of Superman and “The Gay Knighties” with a mischievous Ogre.

Also: please join us for Bonus pre-screening of The Puppetoon Movie – A Legacy Revisited, at 5:00PM, a behind-the-scenes look into the making of The Puppetoon Movie with Joe Dante (Gremlins), Floyd Norman(Walt Disney animator – Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book), Peter Lord (Aardman Animations – Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit), Dennis Muren (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), Phil Tippett (Starship Troopers), Mick Garris (Critters 2), Bob Kurtz (Animation Director), Marc Caballero & Seamus Walsh (Screen Novelties Directors), Art Clokey (Gumby Creator), Dallas McKennon (Actor), Jerry Beck (animation historian) and others. Produced & Directed by Arnold Leibovit with archival narration by Paul Frees. This showing will coincide with the new restoraton Blu-ray release of The Puppetoon Movie.

4:00PM Doors Open
5:00PM A Puppetoon Movie: A Legacy Revisited documentary (introduction by Arnold Leibovit)
7:00PM Two Puppetoons shorts + The Day The Earth Stood Still (introduction by Arnold Leibovit)

Tickets are $20 to this event. Frida Cinema comp passes and member discounts do not apply.

The Witch: Presented by Play It By Fear

Posted on January 23, 2026

Evil takes many forms.

Play It By Fear (@playitbyfear.33) continues their brand new Sunday Scaries series by delving into the dark world of Robert Eggers’ 2016 New England nightmare The VVitch.

In 1630, a farmer relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of a forest where strange, unsettling things happen. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love are tested in shocking ways.

Never too far from our programming line, The VVitch has stood the test of time over the past ten years, forever changing the landscape of Indie Horror as we know it.

The Annihilation of Fish + Pre-Recorded Introduction by Robert Daniels

Posted on January 23, 2026

Just added: Robert Daniels, the Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com, will be giving a pre-recorded introduction before each screening of The Annihilation Of Fish!

Robert has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reverse Shot, Screen Daily, and the Criterion Collection. He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto to the Berlinale and Locarno. He lives in Chicago, and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association

The final film in our Three By Charles Burnett series is his charming 1999 drama The Annihilation Of Fish, now restored in a beautiful 4K restoration!

Lynn Redgrave plays Poinsettia, a former housewife with an imagined lover in the form of 19th-century composer Giacomo Puccini. She moves into a Los Angeles boarding house with an energetic landlady (Margot Kidder) where she meets a Jamaican widower, Fish (James Earl Jones), who has recently been released from a mental institution despite his continued battles against unseen demons. In the face of personal challenges and differences, the couple grows together and begins to discover new things about themselves and the nuances of love and happiness.

Released in partnership with Milestone Films, restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Posted on January 23, 2026

William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights is coming to The Frida Cinema as part of our Page To Screen series!

Based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, the timeless story follows orphan Heathcliff, as he is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

This adaptation remains one of the definitive screen versions of Brontë’s novel and a landmark of Golden Age Hollywood romantic drama, admired for its visual poetry and enduring performances from Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier.