Todd Haynes’ masterful paranoid thriller Safe is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a brand new 4K restoration via our friends at Sony Picture Classics!
The story follows Carol White (played brilliantly by Julianne Moore), a quiet, upper-middle-class homemaker in 1987 Los Angeles whose life is upended by a series of mysterious physical ailments: coughing fits, nosebleeds, panic attacks, and debilitating weakness. As doctors fail to diagnose her condition, Carol becomes convinced she suffers from “environmental illness,” a sensitivity to everyday chemicals in modern life.
Safe is bold, it’s darkly funny, and above everything else, it’s a totally original drama that only Todd Haynes could make.
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There’s no better way to open our 2026 cinematic calendar than with Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore’s timeless ode to moviegoing and childhood.
Set in a small Sicilian town after World War II, Cinema Paradiso follows young Toto, a mischievous dreamer whose life is forever changed when he befriends Alfredo, the kindly projectionist at the local cinema. Through reels of adventure and heartbreak flickering across the screen, Toto discovers not just the power of movies, but the power they have to shape a life.
Since its release in 1988, Cinema Paradiso has earned a reputation as one of the most beloved films about going to the movies ever made. Its unique blend of humor and heartache have made it a staple at The Frida over the years, all brought together beautifully by the incredible score by the maestro himself, Ennio Morricone.
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Kick off your cinematic New Year with the highly-anticipated third film from visionary director Bi Gan: Resurrection.
In a world where humans have forsaken dreams in exchange for immortality, a dreaming monster (Jackson Yee) embarks on a shape-shifting odyssey through illusion, beauty, and terror that takes him across the twentieth century and to the end of time.
Unfolding in five dazzlingly imagined chapters that encompass everything from silent-cinema expressionism to film noir to a delirious vampire love story shot in one of Bi’s signature long takes, Resurrection is a work of breathtaking imagination in which cinema is the ultimate portal to the unconscious mind.
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He’s not Freddy, he’s not Jason…he’s real. HorrorBuzz continues its 2026 series with the 40th anniversary of one of the most unsettling and influential films of the 1980s: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Loosely inspired by the confessions of real-life murderer Henry Lee Lucas, the movie follows drifter Henry (played by iconic silver screen “that guy” Michael Rooker) and his volatile accomplice Otis as they navigate a bleak Chicago landscape. When Otis’s sister Becky moves in, Henry’s flat affect and unpredictable behavior begin to reveal something far darker beneath the surface.
Horror Movie Night takes filmgoing to another level with a full night of entertainment, including a themed HMN Video Pres-how, Trivia, Games, Prizes, and another outstanding horror short from HorrorBuzz’s The Screaming Room Film Festival at Midsummer Scream.
Doors open and video pre-show video begins promptly at 7:30 pm. Games, prizes, and short film begin at 8:00PM. Feature starts at 8:30PM.
This program is a venue rental engagement. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.
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Alright, see…join us for April’s Classic Movie Nights pick: the James Cagney gangster flick Angels With Dirty Faces!
Cagney plays Rocky Sullivan, a two-bit punk who grows into a full-blown gangster with the whole neighborhood full of kids. Trying to set him straight is his old pal Father Jerry, played by Pat O’Brien, now on the right side of the law and sweating bullets over whether those kids are gonna follow the wrong horse.
Directed by Michael Curtiz of Casablanca and White Christmas fame, this is an old school, real-deal Warner Brothers gangster picture, culminating in one of the greatest endings in cinema history.
Make sure to get to the screening early, as our Marketing Director Bekah will be doing a very informative and entertaining presentation on the film before it starts!
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This film contains explicit depictions of sexual violence and psychological abuse that many will find deeply distressing. No one under the age of 17 will be admitted.
Acclaimed Italian poet, writer, playwright, actor, and director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s controversial final film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) relocates the Marquis de Sade’s infamous 1785 novel Les 120 Journées de Sodome – which he wrote while he was imprisoned in the Bastille – to the final days of Mussolini’s Nazi-backed Salò Republic, where four Fascist elites imprison a group of boys and girls and subject them to escalating acts of psychological and physical torment. A bold exploration of how authoritarian power strips away humanity and turns bodies into commodities, the film’s unflinching and clinical style forces audiences to confront the terrifying logic behind the kind of oppression that can become normalized through bureaucratically-imposed obedience and fear.
Completed at a moment of political volatility in Italy, Salò emerged as one of the most daring anti-fascist works ever committed to film. Just weeks before the film’s release, Pasolini was murdered under circumstances that are still widely questioned. While officially labeled as a random act, a long-standing theory suggests his provocative art and activism, culminating in this scandalous cinematic work, placed him in extremely dangerous territory. Whatever the truth may be, Salò remains Pasolini’s final declaration that art must not look away from cruelty or corruption, and that silencing the artist is often the first agenda of oppressive power. Half a century later, the film and its legacy stand as a landmark in the fight against censorship, underscoring how essential it is to defend the voices that dare to confront and expose injustice.
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom will be presented in its original Italian soundtrack, with English subtitles.
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Our dearly beloved Director Of Operations, Martin, is leaving us at the conclusion of this year, so we wanted to give him a proper send-off by letting him program four of his favorite films. The final film in his series, entitled The Last Dance, is legendary filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Camera Buff!
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it’s the first camera in town, he’s named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
Camera Buff is a quietly foundational film that predicted the world we live in, where everyone is a cameraman and every moment might be a movie. It also marked Kieslowski’s international breakthrough as a director with something to say. Without it, we may never have gotten The Decalogue, The Double Life of Véronique, or the Three Colors trilogy, all of which we intend to screen at The Frida Cinema in 2026.
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The members have spoken! We know it only came out a couple of years ago, but our Members Only screening for December is The Holdovers!
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Paul Giamatti’s performance as Paul Hunham cemented him as the most beloved sad-sack teacher since Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (which we are also playing in December!), Dominic Sessa’s breakthrough performance turned him into a sudden indie darling, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s heartbreaking turn became one of the year’s most celebrated, earning her an Oscar at the 2024 Academy Awards.
We love our Film Club Members, and our monthly exclusive Film Club Members Only screenings are just one of our ways of thanking them for their support! Not a Film Club Member yet? CLICK HERE to join our growing family of fellow film-lovers and Frida Cinema supporters!
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Just added: Frida Cinema Board Member/Trivia Night host Atalia Lopez (Chapman University) and Porter Gilberg (Frida Cinema Director of Development) will join us Tuesday 12/23 for a brief presentation on the film’s literary history and cinematic influences. An interactive discussion will take place immediately following the film.
Across our entire staff, if there was a movie we could all agree on being the definitive holiday season masterpiece of the past 25 years, it would be Todd Hayne’s Carol.
Starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (are you kidding me?), the film is set in 1950s New York, and follows a shy young shopgirl and aspiring photographer, who becomes captivated by Carol Aird, an elegant woman trapped in a failing marriage. As the two grow closer, their connection deepens into a forbidden romance that threatens Carol’s custody battle for her daughter. Forced onto a road trip that becomes both an escape and a reckoning, the women must decide whether their love can survive the scrutiny and constraints of their time.
In the years since its release, Carol has become a pop-cultural touchstone that perfectly blends a holiday-season staple and queer cinematic landmark. For pop culture purposes, it’s perhaps the most GIFed slow-burn romance of the internet age. Its influence can be seen all over the rise of prestige LGBTQ+ storytelling across screens big and small. Some movies change your life forever.
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Update: Ticket Of No Return will now be a free screening! If you bought tickets already, they will be refunded and you can join us free of charge!
Our dearly beloved Director Of Operations, Martin, is leaving us at the conclusion of this year, so we wanted to give him a proper send-off by letting him program four of his favorite films. The penultimate film in his series, entitled The Last Dance, is Ulrike Ottinger’s Ticket Of No Return!
This first film in Ulrike Ottinger’s Berlin Trilogy follows an unnamed woman (frequent Ottinger collaborator Tabea Blumenschein) as she drinks her way through Berlin’s various watering holes. Underscoring the scrutiny society applies to “women behaving badly,” with a literal Greek chorus questioning her actions, Ottinger’s film practically predicts the double standard imposed on late 20th-century female artists like Courtney Love.
Premiering at Cannes Critics Week in 1980 and today one of the artist’s most celebrated films, Ticket of No Return proves that “the New German Cinema didn’t live and die with Fassbinder” (Village Voice).
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