The Grand Illusion

50th anniversary of the American classic starring the late, great Robert Redford!

In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (Redford) covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns it to Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) who find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually to the White House itself.

“It provides the most observant study of working journalists we’re ever likely to see in a feature film… And it succeeds brilliantly in suggesting the mixture of exhilaration, paranoia, self-doubt, and courage that permeated the Washington Post as its two young reporters went after a presidency.” Roger Ebert

“…a legendary piece of American cinema… watching the film all these years later, its ardent message of persistence is somehow all the more powerful. If Woodward and Bernstein can climb over every wall, turn over every stone and reroute themselves at every dead end, perhaps it’s not too late for some good, old-fashioned salvation.” Coleman Spilde, Salon

Tickets on sale June 17th, provided the forecast for the 26th looks okay.

25th anniversary of Tom Green’s singular work of cinematic anarchy.

Gord Brody (Tom Green) is a struggling cartoonist trying to pitch an animated show to Hollywood executives. When he fails, he returns to his hometown with no choice but to live with his parents and younger brother, Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas). His father (Rip Torn) doesn’t approve of Gord’s career path, and pressures him to gain independence. As father and son exchange barbs, Gord comes up with a lie that changes everything: He claims his dad is molesting Freddy, leading to drastic consequences.

Tickets are pay-what-you-will with a $7 minimum. Any net profit from ticket sales (after the movie’s licensing fee is paid) will go to the Grand Illusion’s relocation fund. Please note that this movie is definitely NOT appropriate for the young’uns.

Approximate showtime is 9:15 pm, depending on when it gets dark enough. Be sure to come early to claim your spot, hang out, and get great drinks from the brewery.

“Mr. Green stage[s] his gross-outs with a demented but unmistakable integrity. Like it or not, he’s an artist.” A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels… The day may come when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism.” Roger Ebert

Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly erratic behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice.

In English and Hungarian with English subtitles.

“There is a pulsating ache at the heart of writer/director Sophy Romvari’s assured feature debut Blue Heron that hits with such precision, it could break you open from the inside.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

“Heartbreaking barely begins to describe it, although the terms masterful and transcendent also apply.” Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“My favorite movie of 2026 so far… an emotionally ferocious but elegant reconstruction of memory…” Sean Fennessey, The Big Picture podcast

35th anniversary of Todd Haynes's New Queer Cinema classic.

The second feature directed by Haynes, this groundbreaking American indie was one of the most fervently debated film of the early 1990s and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema. A work of immense visual invention; audacious, disturbing, and thrillingly cinematic.

Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, POISON deftly interweaves a trio of transgressive tales — “Hero,” “Horror,” and “Homo” — that build toward a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot in mock TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice; “Horror,” filmed like a delirious ’50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague; while “Homo” explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival.

“Boldly self conscious, Poison switches channels among its three stylistically varied but thematically linked tales with cumulative, claustrophobic power.” David Ansen, Newsweek

“‘The whole world is dying of panicky fright’ are the words that open the movie. Poison makes the fear palpable.” Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle

“Has restored my faith in youth.” John Waters

30th anniversary screening of the cyberpunk nightmare underground classic in memory of makeup effects artist Yoshihiro Nishimura (TOKYO GORE POLICE) and director Shozin Fukui. Presented in a new 4K remaster.

Rogue scientists conduct sadistic experiments, pushing the boundaries of sensory overload and drug-induced psychic abilities, leading to madness and destruction. From the visionary mind of Shozin Fukui (964 PINOCCHIO), RUBBER'S LOVER is drenched in industrial horror and psychedelic visions that transport viewers into a world of tech, sensory overload, and mind-melting paranoia. This brutal fusion of body horror and high-concept sci-fi is shot in stark black and white, creating a raw and visceral look that fans of extreme cinema and the cyberpunk genre won’t want to miss!

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Presented in collaboration with our friends at Central Cinema, legendary independent director, writer, actor Alex Cox (REPO MAN, SID & NANCY) joins us in-person for a special screening of his brand-new film, DEAD SOULS!

For his directorial swan song, Alex Cox stars in this frontier fable of American greed. Follow mysterious drifter ‘Strindler’ as he scours the West for the names of dead Mexican labourers.

Here at this border town in 1890, Strindler – or is it ‘Swindler’? – raises eyebrows when he offers to pay a pretty penny to add to his list of names. Wandering affably from saloon to ranch, Strindler exercises the old adage that money talks – but sometimes too loudly. Between the town drunk, hot-headed cowherds and local outlaws, Strindler soon finds himself tangled up in his own tall tales.

The Western fits storied filmmaker Cox as snugly as the black bowler hat he wears throughout DEAD SOULS, a loose adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 novel of the same name. Pistol duels and crooked officials abound, and spaghetti Western legend Gianni Garko claims a co-writer credit. But Cox’s idiosyncrasy stands out as the film veers tonally through the picaresque, dark satire and genre curveballs you won’t expect.

A meditative, sincere landscape at the borderlands of the American nightmare: where fortunes rest on a dirty deal, and legacies are built on blood and gold.

Please note: Special event ticket pricing is in place to help support Mr. Cox’s travels.

“Wild, original… Dead Souls is funny in that offbeat, purely Cox kind of way.” Bobby LePire, Film Threat

“Jauntily odd and surreal… a diverting love letter to the spaghetti west of the movies, and a satirical thorn in the flesh of Trumpian politics.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“[An] enjoyably quirky labour of love from an admirably uncompromising indie auteur… a charmingly eccentric, mischievous late-career effort with an impressively strong authorial voice.” Stephen Dalton, The Film Verdict

The new movie from director Adam Rehmeier (DINNER IN AMERICA, SNACK SHACK), CAROLINA CAROLINE is a romantic crime thriller starring Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner). Together, they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.

“Nestled into its classic blueprint like a pair of old, reliable jeans, it banks on the quality of its ingredients — its magnetic stars and soulful sincerity.” Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times

“If you’re looking for an update on the old Bonnie and Clyde story, this is it. It’s modern without feeling like it’s pandering, it toes the line between feeling almost fantastical without actually being fantasy, and the love on screen is as addictive as the heists those two lovers pull… From the country music needle drops to the oozing on-screen chemistry, anyone who loves a good crime movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously will need to get their butts into the theater for this one.” Therese Lacson, Collider

TRAINS is a deeply personal and contemplative journey through the twentieth century, composed entirely of archival film footage. In this wordless film, full of beauty and bitterness, the excitement of adventure becomes a curse, and tears of joy mingle with the pain of despair.

A train compartment is a place where, for a while, people are taken out of their everyday context. For a few hours or days, they inhabit a temporary community, and their lives unfold according to a timetable. A train journey is something beautiful, magical, but also often very dramatic. Sometimes, the journey is accompanied by the hope that something will change in our lives upon reaching the destination, or conversely, by a stark absence of hope.

Co-presented with Mount Analogue Art + Cinema, TRAINS is a documentary crafted in the found footage genre, using archival film materials from 46 archives around the world. This film harnesses the vast potential of cinematic language to forge an emotional connection between the viewer and the archival reality.

“Trains is not just a technical achievement – a skillful and patient result of working with archives – but also a meditation on the moral weight and responsibility of images.” Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

“Like Koyaanisqatsi with an Interrail pass… this magnetic cine-essay is also a hidden tribute to that second voyager in space and time: the train’s contemporary, the movie camera.” Phil Hoad, The Guardian

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler, THE CURRENTS is a quietly gripping psychological mystery with dreamlike, hallucinatory threads that weave a portrait of a woman on the verge of unraveling.

While visiting Switzerland to accept an award for her work in the fashion industry, Argentinian designer Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola) is seized by the sudden urge to jump off a bridge into an icy river. She survives the plunge and returns to Buenos Aires; she tells no one of the incident, yet a transformation has taken place within her. Left with a paralyzing fear of water, Lina finds it impossible to readjust to her former identity as a wife, mother, and artist. She distances herself from her husband (Esteban Bigliardi) and career, growing increasingly isolated and fragile as she confronts long-buried existential questions.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Critic’s Pick! “Superb, sensuously realized… Its bravura filmmaking is all in the service of letting us travel alongside Lina as she feels her way to self-understanding.” Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times

“A lush, hypnotic character study… a work of impressive, at times thrilling, assurance from start to finish. The elegance and, especially, empathy with which Mumenthaler captures the gaping chasm between how we present and who we are give the film a voluptuous pull all its own.” Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter

John Woo’s Vietnam War-era saga of greed and betrayal, newly restored!

Three friends fleeing Hong Kong after a violent crime find themselves trapped in the chaos of the Vietnam War, where their loyalty and morality are tested beyond repair. What begins as a desperate bid for escape descends into a harrowing portrait of friendship under unimaginable pressure. As war strips away ideals and innocence, the bonds between the men fracture, leading to betrayals that cut deeper than any bullet.

Fueled by rage and grief Bullet in the Head trades balletic elegance for raw emotional devastation. This is heroic bloodshed turned inward, and a legendary filmmaker pushing himself into completely new territory.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“As operatic as he is in crafting his set pieces, John Woo proves he is equally adept at making a Shakespearean tragedy from characters of great depth. Bullet in the Head is a reminder that John Woo is considered a master because of his expertise and supreme style. At the same time, some of his great works, like this one, also possess great substance.” Aneesh Raikundalia, High on Films