Our In Defense Of…series keeps on trucking, and it’s Jill’s turn again to pick the movie! This time around, she’s chosen Sucker Punch, Zack Snyder’s 2011 fever dream–a mashup of steampunk warfare, dragons, samurai demons, and burlesque surrealism wrapped inside a story of survival and resistance!
Emily Browning stars as Babydoll, a young woman institutionalized against her will who escapes into elaborate dreamscapes to reclaim her power. Joined by a fierce ensemble—including Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Oscar Isaac—she battles through layers of metaphor and mayhem, blurring the line between imagination and reality.
Dismissed by many and embraced by some, Sucker Punch has become a true cult artifact over the years and is a perfect entry into this series!
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Mary Harron’s pitch-black adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel turns the horror of capitalism into literal bloodsport with American Psycho, the pick for our Page To Screen series this month!
Set in a world of business cards, designer suits, and haute cuisine no one actually eats, American Psycho is as much a razor-wire satire as it is a psychological thriller. Harron directs with icy precision, peeling back the layers of toxic masculinity, status obsession, and moral decay with wit as sharp as an ax to the face.
Stylish, savage, and deeply quotable, this cult classic remains disturbingly relevant and feature’s a star-making performance from legendary actor Christian Bale.
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Celebrate 40 years of Martin Scorsese’s anxiety-dream (nightmare?) New York City classic After Hours, just added for two final encores!
When mild-mannered word processor Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) heads to SoHo for what he thinks is a casual date, he’s thrust into an all-night odyssey of bizarre encounters, escalating misfortunes, and existential dread. From punk clubs to papier-mâché sculptors, sadistic bartenders to vengeful mobsters, every turn deepens the absurdity—and the anxiety.
Shot with kinetic energy and pitch-black wit, After Hours is Scorsese at his most playfully unhinged and possibly most influential onto the aesthetic of some of your favorite new filmmakers!
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Our 21st Century Cult series dives headfirst into psychological horror and comes out with one of the most claustrophobic, nerve-shredding films of the 2000s—Bug. Adapted from Tracy Letts’ stage play (he also wrote the screenplay), this fevered two-hander finds director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in L.A.) stripping things down to the bone: one motel room, two broken people, and a mounting delusion that morphs into full-blown apocalypse.
Ashley Judd gives a career-best performance as Agnes, a lonely, traumatized waitress holed up in a cheap Oklahoma motel. When she meets Peter (an always-electrifying Michael Shannon), a drifter with a haunted past and a theory about government-implanted bugs living under his skin, the two fall into a spiral of shared madness. What begins as a strange romance rapidly mutates into something terrifying, intimate, and hallucinatory—culminating in an operatic crescendo of love, paranoia, and self-immolation.
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Cinematic Void is invading The Frida again as they present the new indie trip from director Joshua Erkman–A Desert!
A photographer’s road trip takes a dark turn when he befriends a reckless couple, plunging him into a nightmarish neo-noir spiral of unpredictable horror.
Stick around after the film for a Q&A with Joshua Erkman, Kai Lennox, and Sarah Lind moderated by James Branscome of Cinematic Void!
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Join us as our friends at VAALA present a very special screening of Daydreamers, the brand new, highly-stylized, and extremely dramatic Vietnamese vampire film. from director Timothy Linh Bui. And as an added bonus, stick around after the screening for an in-person Q&A with the director himself!
Saigon, present day. Vampires, once predators of the night, are all but extinct. The few who remain cling to a desperate truce to not kill. But in the shadows, a brother’s thirst awakens, igniting a dark desire that will pit him against his own kind, shattering the fragile peace and plunging the city into a bloody new era.
Thank you to our friends at Dark Star Pictures for setting us up with this awesome screening!
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Join us on Tuesday, April 15th at 7:30PM, as we once again partner with the nationwide Science on Screen® program to present The Devil’s Backbone, Guillermo Del Toro’s chilling ghost story from 2001. And make sure to stick around after the screening for a pre-recorded 21 minute presentation on the Neurobiology of Horror Movies by Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa!
ABOUT THE FILM
Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.
ABOUT DR. LAURI NUMMENMAA AND THE PRESENTATION
Ever wondered what happens in your brain when you watch a horror movie? Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa will explore the neurobiology of fear, explaining how filmmakers use techniques like vicarious simulation and unpredictability to create a chilling experience. We’ll uncover the scientific reasons behind our paradoxical love of horror and how it allows us to explore dangerous situations from the comfort of a movie theater.
Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa leads the Human Emotion Systems laboratory at the Turku PET Centre and Department of Psychology, University of Turku in Finland. He earned his PhD in neurocognitive mechanisms of social attention from the University of Turku and conducted postdoctoral research at the MRC CBU in Cambridge, UK. Dr. Nummenmaa has published over 150 scientific articles on the brain basis of emotions and social cognition and his research focuses on the neural mechanisms of human emotions and social interaction using various neuroimaging and behavioral techniques.
ABOUT SCIENCE ON SCREEN
Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and their grant initiative brings science to cinemas nationwide. The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s series has enhanced film and scientific literacy with this popular program, which launched at the Coolidge in 2005 in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and its pioneering nationwide film program. Since 2011, Sloan has awarded the Coolidge over $4 million to develop and administer Science on Screen programs around the US through partnerships with other nonprofits. The Coolidge has in turn awarded 393 grants totaling over $2.5 million to 121 film and science-focused organizations in 44 states (plus Washington, DC) across the country. Learn more at scienceonscreen.org.
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Celebrate the thrilling tension of Crimson Tide on its 30th anniversary, screening at The Frida Cinema as part of our Gene Hackman tribute! And as an added bonus, there will be an introduction and post-screening book signing by Jason Bailey, author of the new biography Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend out on 4/29 via Abrams Press!
The film takes place aboard the USS Alabama, a nuclear submarine during a tense international crisis. When the captain (Gene Hackman) and his executive officer (Denzel Washington) clash over the proper response to a potentially catastrophic situation, the battle for control of the ship escalates into a gripping psychological duel. With the fate of the world at stake, each decision becomes a matter of life or death. This high-stakes submarine drama, directed by the amazing Tony Scott, remains one of the most riveting military thrillers of all time.
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Celebrate the endlessly quotable Clue as it marks its 40th anniversary with a special three night limited engagement at The Frida Cinema!
Based on the classic board game, Clue follows six colorful characters—each with their own dark secrets—who gather at the eerie mansion of Mr. Boddy. When he turns up dead, it’s up to the guests (and the audience) to figure out who did it, with what weapon, and in which room. Directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring an all-star cast including Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael McKean, Clue combines slapstick humor, clever dialogue, and a plethora of twists and turns that keep audiences guessing and laughing from start to finish.
Though initially a box office disappointment, Clue has since become a cult classic, praised for its rapid-fire comedy, outrageous performances, and multiple endings that let viewers experience the mystery from different angles. Which ending will you get?
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A young mother, contending with a rare brain condition and desperate to save money for her daughter’s future, takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, and gets entangled in a web of revenge, deceit, and murder. Shot in magnificent 16mm and co-written with the magnetic lead actress, Ariella Mastroianni, Gazer gazes fondly back on the masters of the 70s paranoid thriller while keeping itself grounded firmly in the cutting-edge of today’s independent filmmaking.
From Cannes Film Festival to Fantastic Fest, this indie noir is a potent reminder of how exciting American independent filmmaking can be!
“Critic’s Pick! Marrying the manic paranoia of ‘After Hours’ with a ‘Memento’-esque unreliable protagonist and touches of flesh-bending body horror that could be ripped straight from ‘Videodrome,’ ‘Gazer’ is the kind of debut that should restore your lost faith in independent cinema.” -Indiewire
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