Starring: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia, Richard Pryor

Visualizing the variations of memory and conscience, David Lynch’s Lost Highway is a dreamlike journey through a murder mystery. Like dreams, the film’s narrative isn’t linear nor does it apply to the logic of reality. Instead what unfolds is a fluidly bizarre unraveling of a jazz musician’s journey into madness. After a bizarre encounter at a party, he is accused of murdering his wife and inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic; basically avoiding one fate by embracing another. Lost Highway is a definitive Lynchian adventure not to be missed on the big screen.

As a long-time composer for David Lynch’s films, Angelo Badalamenti provides a tactile ethereal score to Lost Highway. Set amidst the soundtrack produced by Trent Reznor (featuring everyone from Marilyn Manson to the Smashing Pumpkins), Badalamenti’s score nearly becomes a character itself.

Fifty Shades of Grey had nothing, we repeat nothing, on Secretary in which two flawed people engage in a beautifully obsessive sado-masochistic relationship.

Thank you, Daddy. Let’s face it, nobody really does creepy-sexy like James Spader (think Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Crash) and he certainly hits the mark in Steven Shainberg’s quintessential S&M film, Secretary. As the demanding lawyer Mr. Grey, Spader meets his match after hiring a young woman (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as his new legal assistant. Newly out of the mental hospital with a host of conditions ranging from cutting to shyness, Ms. Lee Holloway not only learns to open up but also to express herself in the bizarre sexual play with her boss. Make no mistake, although this movie has its comedic moments, Secretary is 100% sincere in its accpeting portrayal of an unconventional love affair.

Angelo Badalamenti’s instrumental score to Secretary retains the moodiness he’s known for that is particularly effective in connoting Lee Holloway’s personal evolvement.

Part of Nitehawks series THE WORKS – ANGELO BADALMENTI.

Eli Roth’s flesh eating bacteria tale puts a whole new spin on the “cabin in the woods” genre.

You know the horror story: a group of friends leave the city, head towards the remote cabin of one of their relatives to partake in a weekend of drug-taking, fooling around, and relaxation. But while Cabin Fever is self-aware of its cinematic genre origins (there are the inbred hillbillies at the local gas station, police officers are bumbling idiots), writer/director Eli Roth (in his directorial debut) puts an interesting twist in the horror trope by making the killer an unrelenting bacteria strain. Of course the outcome is the same in that friends start to distrust each other, morality is questioned, and their deaths are so gruesome it borders on comedy but, fourteen years after its release, Cabin Fever remains a surprisingly refreshing horror flick perfect for midnight revivals. Plus, Roth’s cameo and that shaving scene (!!) make the whole movie.

Angelo Badalamenti’s score to Cabin Fever seems like an unlikely match but his mesmerizing score that oscillates between powerful punches and screeching symphonies breathes new life into a horror film score.

Part of Nitehawks series THE WORKS – ANGELO BADALMENTI.

Starring: Mel Gibson, Joanna Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley

NOTE: This is a live music event creating a new film score for Mad Max. The film will be shown with subtitles and no audio track.

Revenge, murder, automobiles. The post-apocalyptic future depicted in Mad Max hearkens back to a more medieval, violent existence. Set in a dystopic Australia, a policeman (Max played by a young Mel Gibson) sets out to avenge the deaths of his partner, wife, and child who were murdered by a motorcycle gang in retaliation for the death of their leader. Following our anti-hero through his undoing into madness, Mad Max takes audiences on a wild ride through this strange, yet recognizable, future.

Nitehawk celebrates the 30th anniversary of SPLASH with a special weekend brunch 35mm screening!

Certainly a wild concept – a man reunites with the mermaid who saved him from drowning as a child in Cape Cod – but the unconventional love story in Ron Howard’s Splash has continued to charm audiences for three decades. Tom Hanks plays Allen, a lonely man who falls for the stunning Madison (Daryl Hannah) who harbors the secret that she’s actually from the sea. And while she adapts to life on land in New York City (learning to talk via television, taking salt baths, being naked at the Statue of Liberty), she must eventually tell her love the truth. What happens next is the ultimate convergence of fantasy and reality. Splash has it all: romance, comedy, sprawling seas and urban grit.

Starring: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Hume Cronyn, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge

Family ties get tested when young school teacher Charlie (played by Teresa Wright) discovers that her favorite uncle (Joseph Cotten), also named Charlie, is actually not the nice man he portrays. In classic Hitchcock style, Shadow of a Doubt is a sophisticated murder mystery that unfolds from the dark shadows, with clues strategically placed for our discovery, taking the audience along for one enjoyable crime-solving journey. Suspense and terror build as charming Uncle Charlie fights to keep his cleverly suspicious niece and undercover detectives from discovering his secret.

Shadow of a Doubt is noted as Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film (watch for his cameo about 15 minutes in) and it is critically considered to be his first “masterpiece.”

Orson Welles adapts William Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy, MACBETH, for the March screening of VICE Presents: The Film Foundation Screening Series at Nitehawk Cinema.

Something wicked this way comes…Moody and atmospheric, Macbeth tells the story of a doomed Scottish General (Macbeth, played by Welles) who murders his way to the throne to become the King of Scotland. This devious action, foretold by a trio of witches that get more prominently featured in the film, was spurred on by his conniving wife (Lady Macbeth, played by Jeanette Nolan) and sets the course of a lifetime of guilt and paranoia. As a tyrannical ruler, Macbeth commits numerous murders to retain his power while the resulting civil war takes his family into the realms of madness and death.

Shot for little more than three weeks and on B-movie sets, Orson Welles underscores the darkness of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth in film by usage of shadowing and unique camera angle work. A few adjustments were made for the big screen; most notably the inclusion of the prophetic three witches casting a spell on Macbeth in the beginning and their return at the end. 

MACBETH (Orson Welles, 1948)
Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures with funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

For One Nite Only, Nitehawk Cinema and Peter Oasis of LiveNDirect present a 60 minute “Best Of” Videograf screening featuring New York’s top bombers from the 1980s and 90s. Post screening Q&A with Carl Weston (Director) moderated by Sacha Jenkins (Ego Trip, Mass Appeal)

Videograf Productions was the first group to produce a recurring video series on the graffiti scene. Most films on graffiti up to this point were traditional documentaries. Videograf Productions used a video magazine format to profile graffiti artist and graffiti bombers. At the time, most people documenting urban culture tended to be from outside the culture so what made The Videograf series unique was that it was produced by active and former graffiti writers.

Nitehawk Cinema Presents
FILM FEASTS: TRUE ROMANCE
Sponsored by Lagunitas

The crazy little love story of Clarence and Alabama.

Spend a romantic dinner at Nitehawk with Alabama, Clarence, and the mob for our special Valentine’s Day Film Feasts presentation of TRUE ROMANCE. As always, the screening includes delicious beverage and food menu pairings related to the film. The best part? You’ll be served each course during the specific moments that inspired the film so you can experience edible sensations while watching the action unfold on-screen!

The Quentin Tarantino penned True Romance certainly isn’t your run-of-the-mill love story but the passion (borderline obsession) between Clarence and his reformed hooker wife Alabama sure is palpable. A modern day Bonnie and Clyde, they meet, fall in love, and then proceed to steal a whole lot of drugs from her pimp. As with most things in love and life, things are never easy (there’s murders and mobsters) but the one thing that remains true is their romance. The film includes stellar performances by Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt (as a total pothead), and James Gandolfini. Even “Elvis” makes a cameo.

MENU ($75)

Movie Theater Popcorn
popcorn, goobers, raisinets
Drink Pairing: Lagunitas Pils

Detroit Egg Roll – The Hani
fried chicken, citrus ranch, cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, wonton wrapper, tomato relish
Drink Pairing: Lagunitas IPA

You’re an Eggplant
prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin with moorish spices, sicilian eggplant caponata, and saffron sauce
Drink Pairing: Lagunitas Imperial Stout

Read my lips…NO!
powdered sugar doughnuts with pomegranate and blood orange jam
Drink Pairing: Lagunitas Sucks

Talking with the King
Oddfellows Elvis Shake
Drink Pairing: Lagunitas Kronik

Sponsored by…

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Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost

A year after her breakthrough performance in Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts elevated this remake of the 1998 Japanese horror movie Ringu with a committed performance as the journalist aunt seeking answers after the mysterious and horrible death of her niece. Seattle is the gloomy backdrop and the color palette works mostly in grays and blacks, effectively creating an unsettling atmosphere and showing restraint from the usual Hollywood glitzing of the sparse original. There is plenty to captivate the eye – creepy kid drawings, troubled horses, and even a bit of that signature Japanese menacing long black hair. If there was any warning to be heeded from how video infects our brains, in this age of YouTube and TikTok it seems rather quaint that one passed-around VHS could do that kind of damage.