I’m a big fan of Nitehawk Cinema. It’s one of my favorite places to go. You can see great films, eat great food, and enjoy great beverages – at the same damn time. Since I often share information about their events, I thought it would be fun to start doing a monthly preview. Here’s a look at what will be playing in September.
If you didn’t know, Nitehawk offers a mix of new films and wide range of older ones. They have monthly series and different programs that feature installments throughout the year. Some are routine, some pop up at random or as the moment inspires. The common bond is that all of them promise to be interesting and memorable viewing experiences.
Right now, the current films at Nitehawk are Obvious Child, Boyhood, and The Trip to Italy. In September, The One I Love and The Skeleton Twins will open. I can recommend Obvious Child and Boyhood, and I think the other three all look great.
The monthly theme for both the weekend midnight screenings (Fridays & Saturdays) and brunch screenings (Saturdays & Sundays) is 1994. It was a great year for cinema – this was the same year that gave us the Lion King and Pulp Fiction, after all. You can catch Danny Boyle’s debut feature Shallow Grave (9/5 & 9/6), action horror classic The Crow (9/12 & 9/13) and pre-LOTR, post-Dead Alive Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (9/19 & 9/20) at midnight. For brunch, there’s the Arnold Schwarzenegger film that launched the theme, True Lies (9/6 & 9/7) and the absolutely hilarious Dumb & Dumber (9/13 & 9/14).
Nitehawk will get an early start on their October theme the final weekend of the month. It’s going to be “Final Girl” Halloween (so named after the last woman standing heroines of horror films), and it’ll kick off with last year’s You’re Next (9/26 & 9/27) at midnight and the original 1963 The Haunting (9/27 & 9/28) for a spooky brunch. The other film to screen at midnight will be the latest installment of the Nitehawk Nasties series. Nasties is devoted to the weird and violent. Flesh For Frankenstein (9/5 & 9/6) is the September entry. It looks insane, and it’ll be in 35mm.
There are plenty of other films happening at brunch:
- Bonnie and Clyde (9/6 & 9/7), part of Country Brunchin’, which features live Southern music before the show – this month by Tatters and Rags, Southern inspired food specials, and of course an appropriate film to the theme, like this revolutionary Beatty and Dunaway picture.
- Llyn Foukes One Man Band (9/13 & 9/14), part of Art Seen, a series on the intersection of film and art. This is a documentary chronicling seven years in the life of a septuagenarian artist. The film also plays Tues 9/9, and each of the three screenings will be introduced by someone special.
- Every month, Nitehawk devotes one weekend to cartoons. Mix the best of childhood with the privileges of adulthood (drinking!) at Spoons, Toons, & Booze. In September, the theme is Rock and Roll (9/20 & 9/21).
- Another great series is Live Sound Cinema, where a band comes to perform a score to a film as you watch. This month, you can see Black Lodge provide the soundtrack to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s groundbreaking 1932 film Vampyr (9/27 & 9/28)
There’s still more! Special event screenings in September:
- As part of Fashion Week, there will be a screening of The Devil Wears Prada on 9/10. It will be introduced by the founder of Dreamcliq, feature pre-film cocktails, and everyone will receive special gift bags.
- The Deuce is devoted to the memory of 42nd Street back when it was filled with movie houses. All films are presented in 35mm. This month is the 1976 version of King Kong, playing on 9/11.
- As a lover of music and film, I’m a big fan of the Music Driven series, which devotes itself to bringing those two together. Two films are playing this month: Charles Bradley: Soul of America on 9/25 and Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All on 9/29. The former is about the soul singer and will have a Q&A with director Pouell Brian and soul/funk party in the bar after; the latter is about the California punk band and will have a Q&A with co-director Matt Riggle.
- Finally, the Journalists in Film series nears its conclusion with the biting Billy Wilder film Ace in the Hole on 9/30.
That’s all, at least as of press time. If you’re looking for recommendation, my picks are Boyhood, my favorite film of 2014, and Dumb & Dumber, one of the first comedies I ever loved. Of films I haven’t seen, I’d be most intrigued to see Bonnie & Clyde, Vampyr, and Ace in the Hole. But that’s just me. There’s plenty of great options. I put links in each section so you can read more, view trailers, and buy tickets.