Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

A secret agent embarks on a dangerous, time-bending mission to prevent the start of World War III.

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Norman, Gaby Hoffmann, Jaboukie Young-White, Scoot McNairy, Molly Webster

Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and his young nephew (Woody Norman) forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they are unexpectedly thrown together in this delicate and deeply moving story about the connections between adults and children, the past and the future, from writer-director Mike Mills.

Starring: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, R.J. Cyler

When outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) discovers that his enemy Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) is being released from prison he rounds up his gang to track Rufus down and seek revenge. Those riding with him in this assured, righteously new school Western include his former love Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), his right and left hand men–hot-tempered Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and fast drawing Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler)–and a surprising adversary-turned-ally. Rufus Buck has his own fearsome crew, including “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield), and they are not a group that knows how to lose.

Starring: Winston Chao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Liang Hsiung, Ya-lei Kuei, Tien Pien

Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) and his boyfriend (Mitchell Lichtenstein) live happily as a gay couple in New York City. Wai-Tung has not been open about his sexuality with his Taiwanese parents (Sihung Lung, Ah-Leh Gua), and decides to acquiesce to their wish for a traditional Chinese union by marrying Wei-Wei (May Chin), a struggling artist desperate for a green card. But the simple arrangement turns into a lavish debacle when Wai-Tung’s parents plan an extravagant wedding banquet.

In the spring of 1970, Joe Cocker undertook what became the legendary Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, immortalized in a live album and concert film. Fifty years later, first-time filmmaker Jesse Lauter tells the complete story through the lens of the Grammy Award-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band’s reunion of the Mad Dogs. In addition to Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and the entire Tedeschi Trucks Band, this reunion featured 12 of the original Mad Dogs, including Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear, plus guest performers Chris Robinson and Dave Mason, among others. The film showcases inspired performances from the reunion show, along with an exclusive look at the history of the tour and never-before-seen archival materials, commentary from the original members, critic David Fricke, notable fans who attended shows on the original tour and features the last filmed interview with the late Leon Russell.

In his short documentary A Look Back: Dogtown and Z-Boys, Glen E. Friedman updates the lives of the legendary Z-Boys skateboard crew twenty years after the release of their groundbreaking film. Dogtown and Z-Boys found an audience outside of the traditional skateboard community. Tony Alva, Peggy Oki, Stacy Peralta and more from the OG Zephyr scene break down why it worked and what was missing.

Dogtown and Z-Boys is directed and co-written by skateboard legend-turned-filmmaker Stacy Peralta, it’s the story of a group of accidental revolutionaries, gifted kids who inadvertently changed the world by doing what came naturally. It is also a unique documentary event: a ground-level, eyewitness account of the birth of an organic American pop culture phenomenon.

Starring: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, Brenda Deiss

Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, ex-porn star Mikey Saber decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working the cash register at a local doughnut shop. He falls right back into his old habits.

Starring: Cory McAbee, Rocco Sisto, Gregory Russell Cook, Annie Golden, James Ransone

20th Anniversary screening with writer/director/star Cory McAbee in person!

The story of a rare-goods trading astronaut’s intergalactic adventures, this playfully odd object is the creation of Cory McAbee, who wrote the music as well as writing, directing, and playing the lead. A gumbo of genres – musical, western, comedy, sci-fi, experimental – The American Astronaut obsesses over women, who are talked about but rarely seen, revealing a strange world of ruminating men, meeting in taverns and worshipping at the feet of “The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast.” Comparisons to David Lynch and Guy Maddin may be hard to escape, but this is inventive and inimitable in its own right, with muddy black and white cinematography and a line-up of craggy faced men who aren’t too tough to break out into song.

Starring: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Michael Stefani, Art LaFleur, Telma Hopkins, Richard Herd

Film courtesy of Full Moon Features and the American Genre Film Archive
Print courtesy of Chicago Film Society

“A slice of history caught in amber, from a time when B-movie filmmakers tried to please their audience above all else.” – BLOODY DISGUSTING

Tim Thomerson (Dollman; Zone Troopers) thunders into his iconic role of time-traveling bounty cop Jack Deth in this sizzling slab of straight-up psychic sci-fiyahhh. The year is 2247 A.D! When Deth learns that a mind-controlling madman has whipped back three centuries to the mid-1980s, he shatters the time barrier to bring him back, dead or alive. But what Deth isn’t counting on is an army of obstacles including laser assassins, a drunk in a Santa suit, and a crew of knuckle-dragging punks listening to a hardcore version of “Jingle Bells!” Yep, it’s a Christmas movie, the most harrowingly hectic holiday blast of them all. With a young Helen Hunt (Twister) as Deth’s 20th century new wave partner, it’s a ten-fisted neonized post-nuke noir that will enslave your brain while you party like it’s 1985!