SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our LET'S ALL GO TO THE MOVIES Series, Saturday, June 17, 2023
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate.
9pm BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW (2010, dir. Panos Cosmatos, Swank, Canada, 109mns, 35mm)
11pm MANDY (2018, dir. Panos Cosmatos, RLJE Films, Belgium/US, 121mns, Digital)
As this Programmer said in the notes for the Martin Scorsese documentary preceding this double bill, today is kind of a fruit loops day at Secret Movie Club.
First we’re showing Scorsese’s incredible near 4 hour documentary on the history of American cinema. Then we’re showing two movies by Italian-Canadian movimaker Panos Cosmastos (the son of Cobra and First Blood and Tombstone director George Cosmastos). How does this make sense?
Well it makes sense like this: first a documentary on how amazing cinema is. Then two proofs of just how crazy, out there, and boundary pushing cinema can still get even 100+ years after its ascendancy.
Panos Cosmastos may have only given us two movies so far in the last fourteen years but listen y’all: these are two bat sh@t crazy, head exploding, slap yourself silly it’s so bonkers, incredible cinema.
First up is Beyond the Black Rainbow which plays like some dysfunctional child of the 1980’s fever dream of some deep seated familial trauma that manifests itself as a story about a really weird psychiatrist who appears to be imprisoning a child with incredible supernatural powers in a really unsettling asylum for the dangerous and gifted.
We’re drenched in dread and darkness for the first hour or so of the movie and then. . .it gets even crazier as we go on some kind of psychedelic origin story trip that changes what we understand about everything. . .
This is a kind of 2001 for teenagers addled and upset by MTV and Ronald Regan on loop. You must experience it to understand it. And then let it set you free. . .
Okay. . .I can’t end with that sentence. Too cult-y. Look, Beyond the Black Rainbow is totally bizarre but it’s also really darkly funny, visually stunning, and ends in the most bizarre satisfying way imaginable. It’s singular. And we should celebrate that.
We follow it up with Cosmastos’s next feature which went a long way to bringing Nicolas Cage back from the outer regions into the popular consciousness of moviegoers where he belongs: Mandy.
Look is this Nic Cage’s John Wick? I don’t know. What I do know is that when a mobile home hick cult kidnaps Cage’s beloved wife Mandy (played by Andrea Riseborough making her second appearance in just as many days at the Secret Movie Club) because of the sexual whims of their leader, they just signed up for a whole heap of trouble.
Because when Nic Cage decides to go unhinged there is no competition, no equal, no answer.
This programmer remembers when a sequence roughly mid-film of Cage charging into a bathroom, downing an entire bottle of vodka, cleaning his wounds, and screaming in grief, rage, and fury in an uninterrupted take occurred, this programmer’s belief of cinema (already very strong) notched up to 110%.
And from that scene to the end of the movie, Cage is on such a driven tear to get vengeance on everyone who has upset his domestic happiness that all you can do is get out of the way and marvel.
A truly bizarre movie like Beyond the Black Rainbow that nevertheless manages to be consummate in its hypnotic music, craft, and emotion, Mandy really announced to the world the Nicolas Cage had a third act and he was going to play the hell out of it.
So come join us for two of the most fascinating entries into the new canon, showing that even at this stage, cinema has some tricks up its sleeve.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.