MID-WEEK Movie Night

Tonight's main feature is too sweet and nostalgic to keep a secret - Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, the folksy, 1977 Jim Henson TV Christmas special nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and still leaving viewers with a happy glow each year. This screening will be accompanied by a few mystery short films that round out the vibe.

Tonight's film is a meandering, late-90s indie gem set in (and based on writings about) an early-70's Iowa slacker/drug scene. By turns gut-wrenching and absurd, it transcends the "junkie drama" genre as an ultimately life-affirming character study, and features an incredible, star-studded cast and cameos.

Documentary, art film, and social commentary rolled into one. A group of women gather at a healing cabin in the Northern European wilderness, where secrets and communion unfold. Real women, real bodies, real talk. 

Content Warning: non-sexualized nudity, universally common subjects such as body dysmorphia, cancer and sexual abuse.

Experimental, deconstructed horror and other short films curated by Caterwaul. 

Content Warning: these will contain a bit of everything, including disturbing imagery, gore, strobe effects, media piracy, and confusion.

An almost 2hr, high-octane grossout horror comedy from Spain, featuring bankrobbers and a coven of witches. A potentially feminist subtext filtered through a machismo lens just adds to the narrative spice.

Tonight's film is another animated sci-fi, an esoteric Japanese treasure that somehow eluded canonization. This epic fever dream utilizes avant-garde edits remixing the aesthetics of Metropolis with punk, Pop Art, electronica, and a heavy dose of Thomas Pynchon.

     This time around, we're deviating from the feature film format, screening several shorts that are connected by a focus on street performance and movement art. From documentary to loose narrative to excerpt, from puzzling to poignant to panic attack, and with a total running time of about 100mins.

Regarding the upcoming film - a heady take on the viral/zombie genre, this taut 2008 film brings to life the William S. Burroughs adage, "language is a virus".

A cozy/claustrophobic comedy in a personal favorite genre - a small number of people in a restricted space with lots of crackling dialogue, very much like a stage play, from which this flick was adapted to little or no distribution. It was the final film by a director responsible for scores of wild and woolly satires across 3 decades.

Shifting gears drastically from our previous screening, this week's film is an overlooked, gritty, urban drama from 2018, about lifelong friendship, gentrification, gun violence, and cultural erasure. Funny, perceptive, action-packed and scathing.

The first "test run" screening! We're kicking things off with a classic of international animated sci-fi from the '70s. Expect a dreamy, cerebral trip, that some of you might even remember from late-night cable binges!

Inquiring Minds can scarcely conceive the dimensions of this Cryptic Curiosity.