Starring: Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Richard Brestoff, George Carlin, Irwin Corey, Otis Day, Ivan Dixon, Bill Duke, Michael Fennell, Garrett Morris

Scandalous humor abounds in Car Wash (George Carlin and Richard Pryor star after all) as these eccentric car wash employees have the strangest day ever. This episodic comedy takes place in one day at a Los Angeles full-service car wash detailing one bizarre encounter after the next including fare-dodging prostitutes, transvestites, full body casts, evangelists and the Pointer Sisters. But lest you think it’s all laughs, Car Wash is a cult film way ahead of its time in its forthright depiction of the African American working class and openly gay characters.

A very varied group of people are in a precarious situation aboard a plane flying to Mexico City.

A technical failure has endangered the lives of the passengers on Peninsula Flight 2549. The pilots, hardened, experienced professionals are striving, along with their colleagues in the Control Center, to find a solution. The flight attendants and the chief steward are atypical, baroque characters who, in the face of danger, try to forget their own personal problems and devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers, while they wait for a solution. Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons, which could be summarized in two: sex and death.

The travelers in Business Class consist of a pair of newlyweds, partygoers, worn out by their wedding celebration; a financier and embezzler; unscrupulous in business but also a father afflicted by his daughter’s estrangement; an inveterate Don Juan with an uneasy conscience who is trying to say goodbye to one of his women (girlfriends); a rural psychic; a queen of the gossip magazines and a Mexican with an important secret. Each of them has a project in Mexico City, either to work or to escape. They all have some kind of secret, not just the Mexican.

Their defenselessness in the face of danger provokes a general catharsis among the passengers and the crew, and this ends up becoming the best way to escape from the idea of death. This catharsis, developed in the tone of a riotous, moral comedy, fills the time with sensational confessions that help them forget the anguish of the moment.

Nitehawk Cinema Presents:
Spirits, Dinner and a Movie with The Dead Rabbit
GANGS OF NEW YORK

In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father’s killer.

Nitehawk’s launches its new signature series SPIRITS, DINNER AND A MOVIE this August as we’ve teamed up with The Dead Rabbit (2013 Tales of the Cocktail World’s Best New Cocktail Bar) to present Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. This screening will include incredible crafted cocktails by The Dead Rabbit paired with a delicious food menu inspired by the film. The best part? You’ll be served each course during the specific moments inspired by the film so you can experience edible sensations while watching the action unfold on-screen!

Jack McGarry (2013 Tales of the Cocktail International Bartender of the Year) and Sean Muldoon join us from The Dead Rabbit.

Giving us some of the classic representations of gangsters in cinema, Gangs of New York is Martin Scorsese’s epic love letter to the gritty roots of New York City. At heart, it’s a revenge movie about a young man who returns to New York in order to avenge the death of his father by rival gang member, Bill the Butcher (one of the most memorable performances in film by Daniel Day Lewis). But it’s also about immigration, territory disputes, and the changing landscape of America in the mid 19th century. Larger than life, the film has it all: history, love, loyalty, revenge, and true o.g. gang violence.

Food & Cocktail Menu*
Bill The Butcher
Redbreast 12 Year Old Irish Whiskey, poire eau de vie, lemon sherbet, Dead Rabbit Orinoco Bitters, mace tincture, boiling water, freshly grated nutmeg 

The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.

Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, director Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station follows the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being better son to his mother, whose birthday falls on New Year’s Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina , who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to Tatiana, their beautiful four year-old daughter. Crossing paths with friends, family and strangers, Oscar starts out well, as the day goes on, he realizes that changes are not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day. Oscar’s life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area – and the entire nation – to its very core.

For Halloween, ART SEEN screens a film classic where art and horror meet. A portrait painting becomes the site of horror in this stunning cinematic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Artist Film Club presents Marnie Weber’s The Night of Forevermore and Frieze Video: Richard Mosse’s The Impossible Image.

Dorian Gray is a young man so distraught after realizing that his portrait (painted by his friend Basil Hallward) would always stay beautiful while he would age that he manages to magically transmit the wear-and-tear of his deviances onto this work of art. As such, the painting bears the brunt of his indecent actions (murder, drug use, sex), turning ugly and old while Dorian remains exactly the same. And while his decades-long reign of the 19th century’s version of ‘sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll’ leads him down many regretful paths, he delights in each of the painting’s new evil transformations knowing that he’s cheating death. But when a young woman believes in his goodness, his guilt starts to weigh heavy on him and the inevitable downfall comes.

The infamous evil painting in The Picture of Dorian Gray was painted by Ivan Albright, an artist who dove into representing the dirty and discarded aspects of humanity in his captivating images. The painting currently hangs in the permanent collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.

ARTIST FILM CLUB
Marnie Weber’s The Night of Forevermore is a static space housing monsters, demons, witches, human-animal hybrids; all of which come alive with slow, repetitive gestures and sound. It’s a Hieronymous Bosch painting brought to life, a haunting world with creatures familiar and strange, each with their own woe, purpose, and revenge.

FRIEZE VIDEO: Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image (produced in association with Pundersons Gardens). Artist and photographer Richard Mosse reveals the stories behind the making of his latest film, ‘The Enclave’ (2013), in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which will be shown in the Irish Pavilion at this year’s 55th Venice Biennale.

Part of Nitehawk’s Art Seen signature series. In partnership with frieze.

Director Richard Lerner in person for the Friday night screening!

One of the sequels spawns from the original 1973 flick Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders features a squad of naughty students who fight for their school!

Can we get a N-A-U-G-H-T-Y? Richard Lerner’s sex comedy Revenge of the Cheerleaders surely doesn’t reflect everyone’s high school experience but that just makes it all the more fun. The cheerleading team at Aloha High are a bunch of popular ladies who are all about underage sex and drug use, naturally. But their naughty high jinx are the catalyst for major changes as in comes the new principal about to whip them into shape. Still, as they continue to spread school spirit things get sinister when the principal gets kidnapped and the ladies are forced to save the day! David Hasselhoff included.

Part of the Nitehawk Naughties signature series.

Starring: Delphine Seyrig, John Karlen, Danielle Ouimet, Andrea Rau

Perhaps the quintessential cult vampire movie (and the most dazzling take on Countess Elizabeth Bathory on film), Daughters of Darkness pits four dysfunctional people against each other in a desolate winter resort. Newlyweds Stefan and Valerie stop in Belgium during their honeymoon but there’s problems brewing: Stefan is embarrassed by the inferior bloodline of his new wife and doesn’t want to introduce him to his mother (in truly creepy and odd aside). Meanwhile, young female virgins are being found dead left-and-right because the stunning vampire Elizabeth (the breathy Delphine Seyrig) and her sexy protégé Ilona have come into town and their desires must be met.

The sickest acts of torture and sex to ever unfold on the theatrical stage and on the big screen at Nitehawk – Bloodsucking Freaks!

Bloodsucking Freaks (aka “The Incredible Torture Show”) is a classic Grindhouse picture from Troma that’s a perfect match for our Halloween Nitehawk Nasty. The sick tale centers around Sardu, master of the Theater of the Macabre, whose super popular stage performances of torture are actually real! Sardu and his sadistic crew take realism to a whole new level as they toy with the audience’s assumption that it’s “just an act” – but we know the truth! Speaking of unbelievable, is that a little person riding a woman? Why yes he is. All acts (sexual fetishistic and murderous) in this picture must be seen to be believed…or disbelieved!

Part of the Nitehawk Nasties signature series.

Why have a Moulin Rouge! Sing-Along? Because we can, can, can! We’re taking the 90’s jukebox musical sensation and putting it up on the big screen so you (and the whole crowd) can sing along and pretend that it really is Your Song. With a soundtrack that includes Nirvana, The Police, The Beatles, David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John, Queen and the oh so sexy song Lady Marmalade this is going to be one out of control Sing-Along. This one is for all the fans of truth, beauty, freedom and love!

– Dress up in your best turn of the century Parisian clothes or as the Magic Sitar, the Green Fairy or as your favorite courtesan or bohemian for the Moulin Rouge! Costume Contest!

– Party with your fellow Moulin Rouge! fans and interact with the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show style with fun props, drinking games and shout outs during the film!

– Compete for prizes in contests like the Can-Can Dance Off and the Moulin Rouge! Trivia Contest!

– Enjoy themed cocktails like the Green Fairy and the Spectacular Spectacular!

– Get there early to grab a seat and watch a pre-show of Moulin Rouge! themed entertainment!

A failed New York playwright awkwardly navigates the transition from Next Big Thing to Last Year’s News.

After both Imogene’s (Kristen Wiig) career and relationship hit the skids, she’s forced to make the humiliating move back home to New Jersey with her eccentric mother and younger brother (Annette Bening and Christopher Fitzgerald). Adding further insult to injury, there’s a strange man (Darren Criss) sleeping in her old bedroom and an even stranger man sleeping in her mother’s bed (Matt Dillon). Through it all, Imogene eventually realizes that as part of her rebuilding process she must finally come to love and accept both her family and her Jersey roots if she’s ever going to be stable enough to get the hell away from them.