As a down-and-dirty saloon singer and a gun-averse lawman in a thoroughly corrupt frontier town, Dietrich and Stewart light up the screen in this enduringly influential comic-western. Director Marshall’s sui generis oater somehow manages to spoof the western genre while also being a sterling example of said genre at its finest. With its hoofprints evident in scores of comedic westerns to follow, and practically a blueprint for Blazing Saddles, Destry stands the test of time as a truly pioneering classic. Presented in a new 4k digital restoration by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation. (BR)

In a gentrifying Oakland, CA, black-and-white best friends Collin (Diggs) and Miles (Casal) work for a moving company while practicing their rapping. Tensions rise between the two pals when the on-parole Collin witnesses a violent incident involving police. Acclaimed at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Blindspotting has been called “the most exciting cinematic take on contemporary race relations since Do the Right Thing nearly thirty years ago” (Peter Debruge, Variety).

A gifted but self-absorbed teenage cartoonist bails on his comfortable suburban life to pursue his artistic passion straight into the gutter. Subletting a scary apartment in Trenton, he enters a cracked milieu of freaks and weirdos who seem ripped from the pages of his beloved underground comics. Full of memorable New Jersey misfits and produced by the Safdie brothers, this charmingly scrappy indie carries on the acerbically witty tradition of classic comix artists. “A deliciously dark coming-of-age comedy” (The Guardian). (MK)

Abandoning her husband, pregnant Natalie (Knight, in her finest performance) begins an aimless drive across America, picking up the mentally disabled Kilgannon (Caan) along the way. Coppola’s last directorial effort before taking on The Godfather, this surprising, moody, and fascinating road movie presents a sensitive portrait of a real woman and her problems. It’s also a great showcase for future Corleone clan members Duvall, who plays a highway cop, and the late, great Caan. New 4K restoration.

In this post-apocalyptic sequel to The Heroic Trio, Hong Kong’s water supply has fallen into the hands of a masked maniac intent on seizing political power—forcing Wonder Woman, Thief Catcher, and Invisible Girl to settle their differences and once again unite to stop him. Notably darker in tone than its predecessor, Executioners finds director Johnnie To continuing to push his whirlwind action set pieces to new heights of cartoon craziness while adding grungy, dystopian atmosphere and a fresh dose of anti-authoritarian attitude. 

A couple buys a house in the suburbs with a one-of-a-kind amenity that will change—or maybe destroy—their lives. They want to show their mind-bending discovery off, but it turns out the neighbors have something even weirder going on. The funniest film yet from absurdist extraordinaire Dupieux (Rubber, Deerskin) is a farfetched, droll, and definitely untrue yarn that’s best left unspoiled. (MK)

"Singing, dancing, pratfalls, romance, preening machismo, convoluted reincarnation plots--what more could you want from the movies? India’s most visible cinematic export, the Bollywood-popularized ur-genre known as the masala film, offers all of these things, a formula for success that has resulted in some of the most internationally popular films ever made. A watershed blockbuster and one of the most beloved films the industry has produced, Om Shanti Om became an enduring hit with fans of Indian cinema through affectionately skewering the overblown spectacle and theatrical sentimentality of Bollywood while still serving up plenty of its own elaborately staged production numbers and genuine soap operatics. Opening in 1970s Mumbai, the moment when the city would begin to develop its reputation as an epicenter in international film production, Om Shanti Om introduces Om Prakash Makhija (played by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan at the height of his fame), a buffoonish background player intent on worming his way into movie stardom, and subsequently finds him embroiled in all sorts of business involving a scandalous pregnancy, a cursed movie script, and a cross-generational supernatural revenge plot. Directed with abundant personality and visual panache by superstar choreographer Farah Khan and jam-packed with affectionate nods towards Indian cinema’s past glories, Om Shanti Om is about as perfect an introduction as the Bollywood newcomer can find around, and as rapturous an ode to the industry as long-time devotees could ever wish for." (Cameron Worden, Chicago Film Society). Print Courtesy Chicago Film Society.

Harrowing, but overflowing with humanity, The Day After follows the lives of a number of citizens of a small city in Kansas, before, during, and after a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Originally produced for broadcast on American television at 122 minutes, The Day After will be shown in the slightly longer international theatrical version. After the screening, an in-person conversation with Director Nicholas Meyer.

Looking to help Sherlock Holmes (Williamson) with his increasing addiction to cocaine, Dr. Watson (Duvall) lures Holmes to Vienna, in order to initiate psychiatric sessions with Sigmund Freud (Arkin). While Freud looks to unlock the mysteries of Holmes' subconscious, Holmes attempts to find kidnapping victim Lola (Vanessa Redgrave). The supporting cast for this fleet-footed period thriller also includes Joel Grey, Samantha Eggar, and Laurence Olivier as Professor Moriarty. Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer, who adapted his own best-selling novel, will join us in-person after the screening for a discussion.

This intimate documentary portrays one Asian American family living in rural Michigan during the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and rising racial animosity.  While their main goal is to keep their family-run restaurant afloat, filmmaker David Siev and his siblings are also on a journey to figure out their place in their family, their town, and the world. After the screening, David Siev will join us in person to discuss his powerful movie. (LKL)

With loan sharks on his back, undocumented deliveryman Ming Ding is given 24 hours to pay off his debts and ensure his safety. Filmed inside a functioning Chinese restaurant in Manhattan for a total of only $3,000, this microbudget marvel was the first film produced by the team behind Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. (MK)

A war saga that unfolds almost entirely in peacetime, this captivating epic brings the legendary true story of Japanese Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda to vivid life. Late in WWII, Onoda was sent on a secret mission in a remote Philippines jungle—refusing to believe the war ever ended, he lived there for nearly 30 years, while the world moved on. Onoda’s fascinating time in the jungle was recently the subject of Werner Herzog’s bestselling first novel, The Twilight World. (MK)

Fleeing an unhappy marriage and returning to her Rhode Island hometown, Jo (Adams) attempts to close old family wounds but winds up entangled in the even messier problems of the equally troubled Donna (Van Devere). Originally shown on PBS, but never released theatrically until 2022, this powerful and quietly observed drama is the work of writer-director Michael Roemer, best known for two other wonderful American independent features, Nothing But a Man (1964) and The Plot Against Harry (1971, but unreleased until 1989). “The rediscovery of a third Roemer feature as good as the others is a cause for celebration, and something of a miracle” (A.S. Hamrah, Screen Slate). A new 35mm print, courtesy of The Film Desk, will be screened.

This seductive, twisty neonoir is first movie in six years from South Korean master Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, Oldboy). A straightlaced detective investigating a suspicious death begins to fall for the victim’s beautiful young wife—even as history begins to repeat itself. Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Park’s romantic thriller is the work of “a world-class artist at the top of his game” (The Hollywood Reporter). (MK)

An aspiring ballerina (Harper) gets more than she bargained for when the prestigious European dance academy she transfers to turns out to be a hotbed of murderous supernatural doings. Director Argento’s horror classic - generally considered his best film - is a ravishing feast for the eyes and ears, with an overwhelmingly saturated color palette (the better to see all of that blood) and immersive sound design (truly cacophonous) and an iconic, baroque musical score by Argento’s band, Goblin. Suspiria is a surreal, Technicolor nightmare, the stuff bad dreams are made of, and, just in time for Halloween, best experienced on the big screen. A stunning new 4K DCP will be screened. (BR)

Riseborough gives one of the year’s best performances in Amanda Kramer’s smirkingly flamboyant, gender-blurring knockout. Stylish down to the last detail, Please Baby Please inhabits a neon-drenched, leather-clad 1950s New York replete with lusty greaser cruising, gangland showdowns, and lovelorn musical numbers, equal parts Marlon Brando, Kenneth Anger, and John Waters. “Delightfully off-kilter… an ebullient, campy thrill ride” (Variety). (MK)

Heston stars as a former football star forced to choose between Gardner and Genevieve Bujold amidst a Los Angeles in ruins in Robson’s soapy epic. An all-star cast keeps things moving and grooving, with particularly vivid turns from Marjoe Gortner as a sublimely creepy grocery store clerk and Kennedy as the ultimate L.A. cop. Celebrated for innovative visual effects and a gut-punching Sensurround soundtrack, Earthquake, co-written by The Godfather creator Mario Puzo, is arguably the best of the 70s disaster films and a must-see on the big screen. (BR)

In Resnais’ fourth feature, the Spaniard communist Diego (Montand) finds himself in exile in Paris after the Spanish Civil War. Diego has developed a deep malaise after Franco’s fascists took control of the country. After meeting the young radical Nadine (Bujold), Diego learns of an underground plan to mount an armed attack against the Franco government. Will this new plan shake Diego from his post-war ennui, returning him to previous commitments? Or will the anti-fascist activities of Nadine and her fellow leftists mark yet another political disappointment? Just as Resnais explored the bombing of Hiroshima in Hiroshima mon amour and the use of torture in the Algerian War in Muriel, the legendary New Wave director probes memories of the Spanish Civil War in his trademark experimental editing style. The cast is rounded out by Thulin, a regular performer in the films of Ingmar Bergman, playing Marianne, Diego’s concerned lover. (JB)

Acclaimed by critics and audiences at this year's New York, Toronto, and Telluride Film Festivals, Women Talking is the latest feature from writer-director Sarah Polley. The story centers on several generations of women in an isolated religious colony, who have gathered in a hayloft to discuss their future after a series of sexual assaults. Grappling with their faith after confronting reality, the women must decide between leaving their community or staying and fighting. An adaptation of a novel by celebrated writer Miriam Toews, who grew up in a Mennonite family, Women Talking puts the spotlight on several of contemporary cinema's finest actors: Frances McDormand, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, and Ben Whishaw. This special free sneak preview is presented courtesy of Orion Releasing and Allied Global Marketing.

In 1995 Vienna, a young family begins to rupture as the dad sinks into drug addiction. Just as he bottoms out, the film makes a daring 11-year leap forward to deal with the fallout in Paris.  Directed when she was only 25, Mia Hansen-Løve’s astonishingly assured and deeply empathetic debut feature finds many of her key authorial hallmarks already in place, from her singular ability to capture the passage of time to her unerring ear for great music. (MK)       

After her parents' sudden death, Thérese (Gréco) decides to leave the convent to run the family business and care for her younger sister, who is involved with local lowlife Max (Lemaire). Before the startling conclusion, there will be attempted suicide, blackmail, a rigged car accident, and a one-sided love affair. The third feature from director Melville (Le Samourai, Army of Shadows) displays “sophisticated observation and flashy repartee involving those two great Noir topics: money and sex… Melville irresistibly pulls you into an enticing if often nasty world in which desire, often forbidden and/or duplicitous, rules his characters’ every feverish action” (David Noh, Film Journal International).

The late 1920s. Leaving his home in fascist Italy to look for work in the south of France, Toni (played by French actor Blavette) falls hard for another immigrant, the Spanish Josefa (played by Mexican actress Montalván). But when Josefa begins to see a brutal foreman and Toni marries his landlady, the stage is set for jealousy and murder. Inspired by the naturalism in the writings of Marcel Pagnol (Toni’s producer) and taking his story from a real-life crime, director Renoir retreated from studio sets to film outdoors on actual locations in Martigues, using direct sound to capture the wind in the leaves, the chirps of the crickets. Renoir’s work on this movie was an inspiration later to the Italian neo-realists, including Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti, who, at age 27, was Renoir’s assistant director on Toni. This new 4K digital restoration was taken from Toni’s original camera negative. “One of the key films in Jean Renoir’s work... the film in which he pushed his personal and cinematic quest the farthest” (André Bazin). “Very beautiful, kind of lyrical and very sad; a great Renoir movie” (Wes Anderson).

Talking apes play second fiddle to bomb-worshipping mutants in this shockingly nihilistic fever dream of a sequel. Heston is back as his Planet of the Apes protagonist Taylor, but takes a backseat to Franciscus, as an astronaut sent on a mission to discover what may have happened to Taylor and his crew. He finds the answer in one of the darkest and most disturbing visions of the future that Hollywood ever imagined. With a screenplay by Apes series mastermind Paul Dehn, Beneath is a bracing reminder of a time before film franchise rules were etched in stone. (BR)