<<< November 2008 >>>

Also see Outfest Wednesdays!

SHALLOW GRAVE, 1995, MGM Repertory, 91 min. Director Danny Boyle’s break-out feature follows three friends – sensible nurse Kerry Fox, uptight accountant Christopher Eccleston and cutting-edge journalist Ewan MacGregor – as they interview candidates for a fourth flatmate. After accepting enigmatic Keith Allen as their new roomie, things soon wax nightmarish when he turns up dead with a roomful of drugs and money. The three comrades decide to cut up the body and dispose of it themselves, thus enabling them to keep the wads of illicit cash. But things don’t go as planned. More on this film. "…a tar-black comedy that zings along on a wave of visual and scripting inventiveness… a real tour de force of black humor, with multiple double-crosses and twists up to the final fadeout." – Derek Elley, Variety

TRAINSPOTTING, 1996, Miramax, 94 min. If SHALLOW GRAVE put a spotlight on Danny Boyle as someone to watch on the arthouse circuit, TRAINSPOTTING positively rammed him up through the bottom of mainstream consciousness. It even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (John Hodge, adapting Irvine Welsh’s controversial novel). Ewan McGregor heads up a memorable cast as a young man struggling with his love/hate relationship with drugs, principally heroin. Boyle and screenwriter Hodge capture all the camaraderie, angst, backstabbing, horror and gutter humor of a subculture made up of misanthropic misfits who cannot abide the crush of society and will do whatever it takes to ingest something that will cancel out, or at least postpone, personal responsibility. Robert Carlyle is ferociously funny -- and scary -- as one of MacGregor’s nutcase mates. "Dark as its subject matter is, this film manages the incredible trick of remaining jubilant and fresh. And in the face of AIDS, crib death, drug overdose and staggeringly vile bathroom jokes (all of which figure in the story), that is no small feat…Boyle elicits disarmingly droll performances all around." – Janet Maslin, The New York Times "A 95 minute blast of inspiration..." -- LA View (1996) Review Introduction to the films by Danny Boyle.

JULIA, 2008, Magnolia, 138 min. Director Erick Zonca (THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS) makes his English language debut with this superb, gut-wrenching character study of a desperate woman at the end of her tether. Night after drunken night. forty-something Julia (Tilda Swinton) dives headfirst into a frenzy of alcohol and promiscuous sex. When she loses her job, she approaches her ex, Mitch (Saul Rubinek), but he will only help if she returns to AA meetings. Unfortunately, alcoholic single mother Elena (Kate del Castillo) runs into Julia at a meeting and persuades her to help kidnap her son back from the boy’s wealthy grandfather. "…a kidnapping-cum-road movie that ultimately winds up as an action-packed suspense thriller. It's both an exhausting and exhilarating 140 minutes… There's barely a moment that Swinton isn't on-screen, and it's clear that Zonca built the film around her. It's her strongest performance to date… manages to succeed as a character-driven study contained within the framework of a genre film." – Andrew Grant, Filmbrain.com Trailer Discussion following with actress Tilda Swinton.

THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA. 2004, Sony Repertory, 89 min. Dir. Larry Blamire. If you missed it before or just need a refresher, here's the original cult classic! In this lovingly deadpan recreation of those ultra-cheap '50s sci-fi/horror movies, an earnest scientist, his devoted wife, stranded space aliens (and their escaped pet mutant), an evil professor and the alluring Animala descend upon Bronson Canyon in search of the mysterious element "atmosphereum"--unaware that the cranky (and e-e-evil) title character wants it as well. A side-splitting and skillful spoof that's become one of the most quotable movies of recent years...and it's all in the miracle of Skeletorama! Plus Ub Iwerks' 1937 cartoon classic "Skeleton Frolics." Official Website Writer/Director/Star Larry Blamire will introduce the screening.

This is a once-monthly series hosted by Rick Castro of Antebellum Gallery. Each screening will be followed by an informal discussion and debate with the audience. All screenings for this series will have fetish as the main theme and subject matter. Rick Castro is an independent curator, filmmaker and photographer working and living in Los Angeles his entire life. Castro explores the worlds of fetish and subculture. Rick’s photography is in the permanent collections of the Alfred Kinsey Institute and the Tom of Finland Foundation. His books and magazines are archived at the UCLA Library and the Leather Museum in Chicago. Rick co-directed and wrote the cult film HUSTLER WHITE (1996) and the documentary PLUSHIES AND FURRIES (2001) for MTV. (See www.antebellum.us.ms and www.rickcastro.com for more information.) (Screened from a digital source.) This series is for audiences 18 and over. Discussion following the film with the audience, moderated by Rick Castro.

For the total “Old Hollywood” experience take a docent-led tour of the legendary 1922 Egyptian Theatre. See what it would have been like to be in a Grauman stage show with a visit to the dressing rooms and singers' boxes. Check out our state-of-the-art projection booth and more! Discover the painstaking restoration work and the marriage of modern technology with a landmark of Hollywood history. Tours will start promptly at 10:30 AM at the box office. Tours are approximately 60 min. Wear your walking shoes! You will see the old dressing rooms, the singer's boxes and the projection booth (not normally included on our tours). Reservations are not required, we have room for everyone. You can check our website or our voicemail for emergency cancellations. Tours will be held rain or shine.
Tickets: Tour & movie: $10.

For the total “Old Hollywood” experience take a docent-led tour of the legendary 1922 Egyptian Theatre. See what it would have been like to be in a Grauman stage show with a visit to the dressing rooms and singers' boxes. Check out our state-of-the-art projection booth and more! Discover the painstaking restoration work and the marriage of modern technology with a landmark of Hollywood history. Tours will start promptly at 10:30 AM at the box office. Tours are approximately 60 min. Wear your walking shoes! You will see the old dressing rooms, the singer's boxes and the projection booth (not normally included on our tours). Reservations are not required, we have room for everyone. You can check our website or our voicemail for emergency cancellations. Tours will be held rain or shine.
Tickets: $5. Tour & movie: $10.

WEST SIDE STORY, 1961, MGM Repertory, 151 min. The ultra-classic Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins-helmed musical with Natalie Wood as the lovely Maria and Richard Beymer as her star-crossed lover Tony, surrounded by switchblade-carrying gangs led by Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris. Leonard Bernstein’s soaring, instantly memorable score, with lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, stands as one of the finest ever written for the American musical theater. This urban updating of "Romeo and Juliet" won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Chakiris) and Actress (Moreno), Cinematography and Art Direction. More on this film Don’t miss this absolutely stunning brand new 70mm print.

WEST SIDE STORY, 1961, MGM Repertory, 151 min. The ultra-classic Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins-helmed musical with Natalie Wood as the lovely Maria and Richard Beymer as her star-crossed lover Tony, surrounded by switchblade-carrying gangs led by Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris. Leonard Bernstein’s soaring, instantly memorable score, with lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, stands as one of the finest ever written for the American musical theater. This urban updating of "Romeo and Juliet" won 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Chakiris) and Actress (Moreno), Cinematography and Art Direction. More on this film Don’t miss this absolutely stunning brand new 70mm print. Actor George Chakiris In Person!