Films

Together with his genial mentor (Dustin Hoffman), a talented piano tuner (Leo Woodall) tends to high-end pianos across New York until his meticulous skills lead him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes — turning his life and his new relationship with a music student (Havana Rose Liu) upside down. A whip-smart script with great chemistry across the board makes for a thriller with perfect pitch.

If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to... DISCLOSURE DAY, a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Conner, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo.

This soaring music documentary traces Gregg Allman’s journey from a childhood scarred by his father’s murder to the heights of Southern rock and late-life sobriety, exploring grief, addiction, love and the racially charged American South through his transcendent music. Tender and unsparing, featuring electrifying performances and archival recordings, the film reveals how Gregg’s unforgettable blend of rock, country and blues mirrored the music and struggles of his soul.

A desperate ronin arrives at the manor of a powerful Lord where he begs to be allowed to commit ritual suicide in this tragic, eviscerating anti-samurai film. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, HARAKIRI, directed by Masaki Kobayashi is a fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.

An isolated Australian small town hosts the evils of religious fanaticism and its consequences for wayward youth — and star-crossed Niam and Ryan must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other.. At times sensual, and just as often thrilling, LEVITICUS shines as both a harrowing experience and a queer social horror.

Closing out Bleak Week and screening in advance of and with a nod to his latest film (I WANT YOUR SEX, opening Jul 31), we offer Gregg Araki’s harrowing chronicle of childhood innocence lost. At the age of eight, Neil and Brian played on the same little league baseball team. When the boys' parallel lives inevitably intersect 10 years later the pair unearth dark, repressed secrets.

In the last seven days of her life, Laura Palmer, besieged by a transuniversal conflict reaching back into infinity, must face her own immovable destiny amongst the myriad of secrets in the town of Twin Peaks. Note: FIRE WALK WITH ME bridges Season 2 and Season 3 (Coming Soon)

Sinister goings-on at Camp Arawak center around a shy, traumatized girl as her tormentors get their comeuppance one-by-one in this absolutely bonkers entry in the Summer Camp Slasher genre.

In an attempt to save the threatened ecosystem, the Florida government hosts an annual competition to remove invasive pythons from the Everglades. For 10 grueling nights, python-mania overtakes the 'glades as an eclectic group of amateur hunters contends with unforgiving terrain, aggressive nocturnal creatures, and their own desires and demons that push them into the swamp, searching for slithering glory.

A wealthy countess is murdered for her bayfront real estate, leading to the systematic slaughter of ruthless developers, greedy heirs and bad neighbors in this archetypal slasher from genre maestro Mario Bava.

Prisoners Red (Morgan Freeman) and Andy (Tim Robbins) forge an unlikely bond that will span more than twenty years. Under horrifying conditions and the ever-present threat of violence, two lifers reclaim their souls and find freedom within their hearts. Based on the novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King.

A petty criminal sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm gains the respect of his fellow inmates through his intelligence, unbreakable spirit and unwillingness to play by the rules––all traits that earn him the ire of the sadistic warden.

Philip Hartman’s priceless artifact of New York’s pre-gentrification East Village follows down-and-out jukebox operator Macabee Cohn, played with deadpan melancholy by David Brisbin, who wanders the cheap tenements, dive bars and derelict streets of the East Village in search of a mysterious woman in a striped dress. Post-screening discussion with director (and Two Boots founder) Philip Hartman

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Barry Jenkin’s dreamy, melancholic masterpiece chronicles the story of Chiron, a shy, sensitive boy struggling to stay afloat in the proverbial waters of South Beach. Kicking off Queer Qlassics, it returns to the Belcourt for the first time since its blockbuster 2016 debut.

MADDIE’S SECRET is comedian, writer and actor John Early’s critically acclaimed directorial debut, starring himself as Maddie, a plucky dishwasher who leaps to viral superstardom at a trendy food content creation company whose mounting professional pressures threaten to reawaken a hidden secret from her troubled past. A pitch-perfect blend of satire, melodrama, daring tonal shifts and intimate performances.

30 years ago, the Rose of Nevada disappeared at sea. Now, it has returned. Desperate to make ends meet, two men (George McKay, Callum Turner) join its crew and set sail once again but soon discover they’ve been transported back into the past and mistaken for the original crew. Mark Jenkin’s latest film is a haunting, trance-like excavation of time, memory and collective disquiet, rendered in the filmmaker’s unmistakable visual and aural languages.

With vivid, hallucinatory attention to historical detail, Mary Harron captures the explosive cross-pollination of New York’s political and artistic countercultures as well as the creativity, snobbery and decadence at the heart of the legendary Factory. Anchored by the electric Lili Taylor as militant feminist Valerie Solanas — and featuring a blistering score by John Cale as well as covers of ‘60s hits by some of the ‘90s’ most iconic bands (R.E.M., Wilco).

Part of Staff Picks and programmed by Erin, who says: “Mike Myers writes and stars in one of the greatest comedies of all time. Come see how this ‘shagadelic’ spoof holds up almost 30 years on!”

From a screenplay by Jonathan Harvey, BEAUTIFUL THING is a love story in full blossom with themes of acceptance in queer love and coming out — in a coming of age movie. The characters in the film are vibrant and hard not to love — with Mama Cass on full volume throughout the movie’s tender awakening.

Joe and Angela's marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. A fiercely energized chamber dramedy, THE INVITE revitalizes the classic, largely bygone cinema of marital strife. Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton.

Groundbreaking upon its release and newly restored in 4K, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK follows Shy and Valentine, two trans-butch grifters navigating friendship, loss and survival on society’s margins. Written, directed by and starring Silas Howard and Harry Dodge, this landmark queer indie shot on Mini-DV helped redefine LGBTQ+ representation.

After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Exclusive 35mm Engagement

Thirty years after the rise of the Burnish, when pyrokinetic abilities suddenly catalyzed throughout the population, a ragtag bunch of firefighters — led by the endearing, perpetually shirtless lunkhead Galo — contain and clear up the wreckage and ashes left behind. But there are always questions to be asked and other paths available — buildings will crumble, hearts will explode in flames, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance!

In Japanese-occupied Korea, a pickpocket poses as a handmaiden in order to convince a Japanese heiress to marry her con artist associate. This seemingly simple gambit quickly falls apart when the heiress falls for the handmaiden instead. Ten years after its debut in 2016, Park Chan-wook’s hypnotic erotic thriller returns to the Belcourt.