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A film that “raises the bar for trans stories onscreen,” MONICA opens Friday at the Laemmle Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center and NoHo.

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Monica is an intimate portrait of a woman who returns home after a long absence to confront the wounds of her past. Reconnecting with her mother and the rest of her family for the first time since leaving as a teenager, Monica embarks on a path of healing and acceptance. The film delves into her internal world and state of mind, her pain and fears, her needs and desires, to explore the universal themes of abandonment and forgiveness.

Monica marks a major first foray into U.S. theaters for filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro, a fresh new voice in Italian cinema who has been making a stir with audiences overseas. A collaboration between breakout star Trace Lysette (Transparent), Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson, and Emily Browning, the film stood out at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion, Queer Lion, and won the Arca CinemaGiovani Award for best Italian Feature before eventually screening in competition at major film festivals in Chicago, Annecy, and Warsaw.

Critical praise for Monica has been almost universal:

“Monica raises the bar for trans stories onscreen, and Lysette takes her rightful place as its muse.” ~ Jude Dry, indieWire

“With uncommon sensitivity toward the interior lives of its characters, as well as to the shifting codes of trans representation, Monica is a film about making amends, where the person who deserves the apology is also the one doing all the work.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety
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“Monica is an intimate look at the complexity of grief, reconciliation and family.” ~ Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times
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“A quiet, heartfelt, and beautifully nuanced drama that feels unique and universal.” ~ Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

“Director Andrea Pallaoro doesn’t burden this delicate tale of reconciliation with long monologues or extensive back stories, and the performances are compelling in their restraint.” Teo Bugbee, New York Times

“Placing a uniquely trans story in the center of a well-worn road creates a path to a new sentiment to be granted to a tale that many people have and will face in their life.” ~ Niko Stratis, Autostraddle
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“Monica is a wondrous work in terms of painting with light, in which the select shadows tell their own story.” ~ Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

“Director and co-writer Andrea Pallaoro banishes easy sentiment and proselytising in this touching film, allowing the audience to take a journey with the titular Monica and discover her story on the way.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

STAY AWAKE Q&A schedule at the Royal.

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Stay Awake Q&A schedule at the Royal:

5/25 – Jamie Sisley (writer-director) and cast members: Wyatt Oleff, Fin Argus, Cree Cicchino and Chrissy Metz.

5/27 — Jamie Sisley (writer-director) and cast members: Wyatt Oleff, Fin Argus, Cree Cicchino

5/28 — Jamie Sisley (writer-director).

“A subtle, bold and thoroughly feminine political thriller,” CHILE ’76 opens May 19 at the Royal.

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Chile ‘76, director Manuela Martelli’s second feature film, is set during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. It builds from quiet character study to gripping suspense thriller as it explores one woman’s precarious flirtation with political engagement. We open the film on Friday, May 19 at the Royal.
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“An intimate psychosocial character study that unfolds at a national scale. This isn’t a story about one affluent woman’s gradual radicalization against authoritarianism, it’s a story about the illusion of not taking sides.” ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire

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“Martelli’s film demonstrates remarkable skill in reconstructing he time period, giving consideration both to recreating the appearance of the era and its emotional tenor.” ~ Teo Bugbee, New York Times

 

“At all times, and in every way, Chile ’76 is a film defined by layers, with pleasant everyday facades masking a dark, corrupt authoritarian underbelly.” ~ Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
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“What begins as a muted marital melodrama slowly boils into a restrained political thriller, with an ease and skill all the more impressive in a first feature.” ~ Manuel Betancourt, Variety

“Küppenheim is terrific, her precision and restraint in the role drawing us into the story. Mariá Portugal’s analogue electronic score is eerily atmospheric.” ~ Wendy Ide, Guardian

“An outstanding performance from Aline Küppenheim is the driving force in this engrossing suspense drama-thriller about an elegant and prosperous woman being drawn into Chile’s anti-Pinochet resistance in 1976.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“A subtle, bold and thoroughly feminine political thriller.” ~ Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies

 

VERMEER: THE GREATEST EXHIBITION at the Claremont, Glendale & Monica Film Center May 15 & 16.

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Even if you have the time and money to visit Amsterdam and see the Rijksmuseum’s historic, never-to-be-repeated Vermeer exhibition before it closes on June 4, tickets sold out within hours of being made available last year. However, a good plan B is available next Monday and Tuesday in nearby Claremont, Glendale and Santa Monica: Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition. (We’ll also be screening Close to Vermeer on July 17 and 18 at the same venues. It’s also about the Rijksmuseum show.)

From Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition producer and co-writer Phil Grabsky: “If there is one exhibition that I have been asked about more than any other to inquire whether we filmed it for Exhibition on Screen, it is the 1995 Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. My Exhibition on Screen brand did not germinate in my mind until 2009 and the first film, Leonardo from the National Gallery, did not emerge until 2011
so, no, we didn’t capture that 1995 show.

“Since then we have made two films with a Vermeer theme: one specifically on Girl with a Pearl Earring and its wonderful home, the Mauritshaus in The Hague, and the second film Vermeer & Music based on a very fine exhibition at the National Gallery in London. But when I heard that the Rijksmuseum was planning the greatest Vermeer exhibition in history, I
knew that the Exhibition on Screen cameras had to be there.

“We weren’t alone in requesting access to show, but we’ve worked at the Rijksmuseum before and they trust us – and, I think, like us. Thus it was, on the eve of the opening, we the team (led by director David Bickerstaff) found ourselves in the enormously privileged position of having the galleries to ourselves to film in. We were given the time to interview the key
participants as well as one of the United Kingdom’s leading art historians. I knew from the minute that I saw this exhibition it was something special but even I was amazed that all tickets sold out within hours for the entire three month run. That only confirms how important it is that as often as we can Exhibition on Screen captures, for posterity, not only the huge efforts of those who put on a show like this but also the way that the art looks when hung together in this way.

“We can only do this if you keep coming to the cinema and spread the word about Exhibition on Screen to your friends and colleagues. Please visit our website for more background clips, etc and lots of offers and goodies. I hope you enjoy the film.”

WILD BEAUTY Q&As May 12 & 13 at the Monica Film Center.

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Friday night Q&A special guests:
Ashley Avis (Writer/Director of WILD BEAUTY & Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY)
Edward Winters (Producer, WILD BEAUTY & Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY)
Richard Avis (Producer, WILD BEAUTY)
Erik Molvar (Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project)
Marty Irby (Top animal lobbyist in D.C.)
Scott Beckstead (Director of Campaigns, Animal Wellness Action)
Kimerlee Curyl (Fine artist)
Saturday Night Q&A special guests:
Ashley Avis (Writer/Director of WILD BEAUTY & Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY)
Edward Winters (Producer, WILD BEAUTY & Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY)

ONLY IN THEATERS now on VOD.

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If you or someone you know want to see the acclaimed documentary about Laemmle Theatres Only in Theaters at home, it’s now available for rent via Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and other on demand platforms. The film about the 85-year history of the family owned and operated foreign and indie movie exhibition company has been praised as both “heartbreaking and heartening…its subject the movies themselves” (Longtime lead L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan). Robert Abele of the Times wrote “like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” The interviewees include Turan, Greg and Tish Laemmle, Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory and Leonard Maltin.

 

 

 

Bronx Bomber Yogi Berra bio-documentary IT AIN’T OVER opens May 11 with 2-for-1 discounts.

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Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra is one of baseball’s greatest. He amassed ten World Series rings, three MVP awards and 18 All Star Game appearances. He caught the only perfect game in World Series history. Yet for many his deserved stature was overshadowed by his simply being himself and being recognized more for his unique personality, TV commercial appearances and unforgettable “Yogi-isms,” initially head-scratching philosophical nuggets that make a lot more sense the more you think about them. In telling the whole story, It Ain’t Over gives Berra his due in following the life of a savvy, commanding, bad ball-hitting catcher with a squat frame but also a D-Day veteran, loving husband and father and, yes, product endorser and originator (mostly) of his own brand of proverbs now ingrained into everyday life. Granddaughter Lindsay Berra tells his story along with his sons, former Yankee teammates, players he managed, writers, broadcasters, and admirers (such as Billy Crystal), plus photos and footage on and off the diamond. Berra famously said, “I’d be pretty dumb if I started being something I’m not,” and It Ain’t Over lovingly makes clear he stayed who he was for the benefit of baseball and everyone else.

We open the film on Thursday, May 11 at the Royal and Friday, May 19 at the Town Center, Newhall, Glendale and Claremont.

On Thursday, May 11 and Sunday, May 14, we’re running a two-for-one promotion: buy one ticket for any screening of It Ain’t Over at the Royal on either day and get a second one for free. The only restriction is you have to buy your tickets at the Royal box office, not online.

“Yogi Berra lived the kind of life we wish our heroes to have: filled with love, respect, and integrity. This is a film fans can embrace and younger generations can learn from. I loved it.” ~ Leonard Maltin, leonardmaltin.com

“More emotional than you’d expect from a doc about a hard-hitting catcher.” ~ Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

THE TAKING Q&As in Santa Monica & Glendale May 10 & 11.

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The Taking filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe will participate in Q&As following the May 10 screening at the Monica Film Center and the May 11 screening at the Laemmle Glendale. Historian Will Linn will join him for the May 10 screening. John Bucher will moderate.

Bios: Alexandre holds a Masters Degree in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has written and directed numerous award-winning films and documentaries, many of which take on the role of unpacking the most influential works of master filmmakers. Most recently, Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (Venice ’19, Sundance ‘20) and MEMORY: The Origins of Alien (Sundance ’19), 78/52 (Sundance ’17).

John Bucher is a mythologist, storyteller, and writer based out of Hollywood, California. He serves as Executive Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and is an author, podcaster, and speaker. He has worked with government and cultural leaders around the world as well as organizations such as HBO, DC Comics, The History Channel, A24 Films, Atlas Obscura, and The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation. He has served as a producer, consultant, and writer for numerous film, television, and Virtual Reality projects. He is the author of six books including the best-selling Storytelling for Virtual Reality, named by BookAuthority as one of the best storytelling books of all time. He holds a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology and has spoken on 6 continents about using the power of story and myth to reframe how individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations believe and behave.

Will Linn is a co-host of Myths: The Greatest Mysteries of Humanity, which airs on ZDF, Sky and History Channel. He is the founder of mythouse.org, an online community and resource center for mythologists and storytellers, and the founding chair of general education at Hussian College, where he teaches myth and story to filmmakers and performing artists. Will served in various leadership positions for the Joseph Campbell Foundation between 2011-2021, and he holds a PhD in mythological studies.