The Grand Illusion

Presented by The Sprocket Society.

The Saturday Secret Matinees are back for an epic 16th season, with weekly serial episodes plus secret classic features, all on 16mm film! Save with a series pass!

In FLASH GORDON’S TRIP TO MARS (1938), galactic dictator Ming the Merciless has escaped certain death and fled to Mars! Aided by the evil Queen Azura, Ming is destroying Earth as a mere stepping stone in a new war of interplanetary death and conquest! Intrepid Flash Gordon, steadfast Dale Arden, and super-genius Professor Zarkov once again fly between worlds and against all odds in a desperate bid to stop Ming’s ruthless campaign of fascist doom! Rarely screened, this second of the three Flash Gordon serials is considered among the best cliffhangers ever made.

Each week’s show also includes a secret feature film. Bi-weekly themes provide clues, but it could be almost anything: mysteries, sci-fi, art house, or monsters; a forgotten gem or a beloved classic.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars is “a nearly ideal sequel…it’s also a nearly ideal serial. …It balances good acting, atmosphere, action, and plotting in such fine style that it would still be a notable achievement if it were the sole entry in the Flash Gordon series.” – The Files of Jerry Blake

“The beauty of the film is that it manages to outshine its extremely primitive background and create a world of pure wonder.” – Moria Reviews

Jan. 6: Flash vs. Ming: The epic begins!

Jan. 13 & 20: Forgotten British Sci-Fi
Lost gems from across the pond

Jan. 27 & Feb. 3: Weimar Noir
Dark tales from a dark time, by German masters

Feb. 10 & 17: Revenge Westerns
Two legendary actors redefining the genre for grown-ups 

Feb. 24 & Mar. 2: Deadly Intrigues
Life or death plots and thrilling battles in the distant past 

Mar. 9 & 16: Pulp Detectives Strike!
Dime magazine faves in B-movie mysteries

Mar. 23 & 30: Kookoo for Kaiju
Japanese giant monster classics

Director Luke Lorentzen’s A STILL SMALL VOICE follows Mati, a chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency, as she learns to provide spiritual care to people confronting profound life changes. Through Mati’s experiences with her patients, her struggle with professional burnout, and her own spiritual questioning, we gain new perspectives on how meaningful connection can be and how painful its absence is.

Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards; Winner of the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival; named one of the top five documentaries of 2023 by the National Board of Review.

Part of our Documentaries of Distinction film series.

“CRITIC’S PICK! One of the ten best movies of 2023. The nature of mercy, mortality and belief in the face of unimaginable pain makes this, somehow, a hopeful film, though it’s a hard-won hope.” Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“The kind nature of A Still Small Voice comes through in its matter-of-fact landscape of alien and uncaring observation rooms juxtaposed against the warm comforts the chaplains of Mount Sinai provide.” Andre Couture, Geek Vibes Nation

“Tough, penetrating and deeply moving.” Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

In this bold political slasher, a small town is shaken by a series of ominous killings in the days leading up to a heated mayoral election. As accusations fly and the threat of a masked killer darkens every street corner, the residents must race to uncover the truth before fear consumes the town.

“The Bloomquists know exactly what they are doing and they play with the audience mercilessly, practically torturing fans of the genre. It’s so much fun.” Norman Gidney, HorrorBuzz

“Fresh and unexpected, with likable characters, Founders Day is sure to delight slasher enthusiasts.” Tyler Doupe, Dread Central

“If you’re a longtime devotee of the horror genre, and a particular fan of slasher films, you’ll find a small-scale whodunit packed with love for all the movies that came before it, and you’ll find that love is infectious.” Matthew Jackson, The AV Club

After a shootout goes wrong with the death of his partner, Zeus (George Pan-Andreas) is ordered to turn in his gun and badge. Never missing a beat, he is immediately recruited by the CIA -- the President of the United States has promised to rid the streets of crime. Zeus is the hero and a cop. Now he is the killer of crime.

“We know what you’re thinking: ‘I love the Dirty Harry movies, but the only flaw is that Clint Eastwood isn’t Greek enough.’ Well, problem solved, my friend. Problem solved.” 7/10 IMDB Review

“Pan-Andreas was the director, writer, the editor, did stunts and was also the lead… Some of you may read that and wonder, ‘Can someone do all of those jobs and still make a good movie?’ And others are salivating knowing that this is the kind of vanity project that delivers some majestic entertainment.” BandSAboutMovies

“While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of classics like Samurai Cop (1991) or Miami Connection (1987), it comes very, very close.” 10/10 IMDB review

ONLY ON VHS! ONLY $3!

The past collides with our precarious present in Steve McQueen’s bravura documentary OCCUPIED CITY, informed by the book Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945) written by Bianca Stigter. McQueen (12 YEARS A SLAVE, SMALL AXE) creates two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city, and a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest. What emerges is both devastating and life-affirming, an expansive meditation on memory, time, and where we’re headed.

In English and Dutch with English subtitles. Runtime includes a 15-minute intermission.

Named one of the ten best movies of 2023 by Manohla Dargis of The New York Times; Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominee for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Historical Documentary.

Please note: The 5:30pm showing on Sunday, Jan 21st will be exempt from our weekend “Mask-Up Matinee” policy. Masks will not be required for that showing, though still encouraged.

Part of our Documentaries of Distinction film series.

“Every film is a collection of moving images, but few are as moving as the sights that compose Occupied City.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

“In the hours and days following its conclusion, you might just find your heart and soul demolished, and somehow made whole again.” Tomris Laffly, The Wrap

“CRITIC’S PICK! [An] intense, absorbing and epically scaled chronicle… For McQueen, history isn’t a neat little package that can be experienced at a safe remove and then forgotten. Here, history is in every wintry park and sunlit room because it is insistently present and very much alive.” Manohla Dargis

Award-winning filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, The Other Side of Hope) makes a masterful return with FALLEN LEAVES, a timeless, hopeful and ultimately satisfying love story about two lonely souls’ path to happiness – and the numerous hurdles they encounter along the way. Set in contemporary Helsinki, and shot through with Kaurismäki’s typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan humor, this tender romantic tragicomedy is a timely reminder of the potency of movie-going from one of cinema’s living legends. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

HELD OVER! Encore screenings added Jan. 22-25!

In Finnish with English subtitles.

Golden Globe nominee: Best Motion Picture (Non-English Language) and Best Female Actor in a Musical/Comedy; Named Best Film Not in the English Language by the National Society of Film Critics; Shortlisted for Best International Feature for the 96th Academy Awards.

“CRITIC’S PICK! Modestly scaled and tonally perfect, Fallen Leaves opens in a fluorescent hell-on-earth and ends with a vision of something like paradise.” Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Kaurismäki works magic with understatement, especially in Fallen Leaves, possibly his greatest film.” Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

30th anniversary! New 4K restoration from Severin films!

Ease into the month of love with this cult classic: a bizarre mix of horror, comedy, and romance. Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the groundskeeper at a cemetery where the dead just won't stay dead—and it's up to him to deal with those who come back to life with a hunger for human flesh. But Dellamorte's job soon becomes much more complicated when he falls for an enigmatic young woman (Anna Falchi) whose husband has recently died. Based on the novel by Tiziano Sclavi (DYLAN DOG) and directed by Michele Soavi (THE CHURCH), CEMETERY MAN (or DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE) is a late masterpiece of Italian horror: quirky, gory, romantic, and unlike anything else.

“What makes Cemetery Man so extraordinary and entrancing is the way it manages to balance two very disparate tones: over-the-top zombie comedy and a dreamy arthouse mood. These seem like they’d be constantly clashing with each other, but [director] Soavi casts a spell that carries throughout the entire movie.” Drew Dietsch, Bloody Disgusting

“Soavi sticks to the sex-and-gore-soaked extremism of the giallos he cut his teeth on, but his herky-jerky editing and lunging, spinning camera are most reminiscent of the Evil Dead movies, and the humor comes from the same dark, caustic place, albeit with a romantically sophisticated European twist.” Tasha Robinson, The AV Club

Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?

Named as one of the top seven best documentaries of 2023 by the Producers Guild of America; Grand Jury Prize nominee at Sundance 2023. Executive produced and narrated by Dakota Johnson.

Part of our Documentaries of Distinction film series.

“[An] ultimately absorbing portrait of a complex, at times contradictory woman – shy and flamboyant, unyielding and wounded, a truth-seeker who deserves resurged acknowledgement.” Adrian Horton, The Guardian

“The Disappearance of Shere Hite is an illuminating, haunting, and ruminative documentary worth watching, if not for crystalizing the history of Hite’s work on film then for a look at how much and how little things have changed for women.” Alejandra Martinez, Austin Chronicle

Presented by Kung Fu Clubhouse!

Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) is a notorious criminal on the run from agents protecting the multiverse. He is hunting all 124 variations of himself to achieve godlike powers in becoming "The One." Now he only has one more target: Gabe Law (Jet Li), a deputy sheriff at the LA County Sheriff's Department who has been gifted with heightened powers alongside Yulaw during his killing spree. A battle between good and evil ensues in an uneasy edgelord cinematic state of blood-pumping paranoia, filmed through the lens of a Philip K. Dick novel. Set to a nu-metal soundtrack, THE ONE remains the most of-its-time AND ahead-of-its-time martial arts film of the early 2000s. And with a supporting cast of two Delroy Lindos (BROKEN ARROW, ROMEO MUST DIE), one Jason Statham (SNATCH, GHOSTS OF MARS), and two Carla Guginos (GERALD'S GAME, SPY KIDS), plus a cameo from Mark Borchardt (AMERICAN MOVIE), the multiverse has never been so cool.

“The movie offers brainless high-tech action without interesting dialogue, characters, motivation or texture. In other words, it’s sure to be popular.” Roger Ebert

“every moment of dialogue is extremely cheesy yet highly effective efforts of world building. What it leaves us with at the end of the film is a misunderstood extremely entertaining action flick that sets up numerous sequels that we sadly never got.” London, Letterboxd user

“The One seems at times like a bizarre parody of action films boiled down to 80 minutes of high-tech spectacles. It’s more thrill ride than movie and Wong plays it that way: no sentiment, no complications and no pesky story to get in the way of an arsenal of flashy special effects.” Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer