HEIGHTS THEATER

New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide. Timothée Chalamet stars and sings as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, the electric true story behind the rise of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history.

Hitchhiking across the country, Al (Tom Neal), hops a ride with a gambler. When the gambler croaks suddenly, Al’s paranoia is unleashed, and he knows he’s going to be the stooge. On the run in the dead guy’s car, he foolishly picks up Vera (Anne Savage), the most fatale of the femmes fatales in noir history. She knows whose car he’s driving, knows she can milk him for a load of money, and as he tries to navigate his way through this mess, Al knows that fate is against him, and the electric chair awaits.

David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is a dull businessman on his way to LA through the Mojave Desert. When he cuts off a rusty semi-truck, it pisses off the driver, who begins a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse on this deserted highway. Steven Spielberg’s made-for-TV movie stunned audiences, so Universal tossed it into theaters, and it has since become a classic.

One of the greatest rock documentaries ever made, Elvis: That's the Way It Is captured the King of Rock and Roll in all of his 1970s Las Vegas glory. Documenting Elvis' Summer Festival at the International Hotel, his performances, with the Taking Care of Business Band behind him, will knock your socks off. The Heights presents the Special Edition, actually shorter than the original, removing much of the documentary footage in favor of more incredible concert footage. If you think you know Elvis, you'll be blown away to see him do his stuff in one of the most dynamic shows ever captured on film.

Bart (John Dahl) loves guns. Annie (Peggy Cummins) loves guns and money. Put them together and watch the violence unfold. From this simple plot, director Joseph H. Lewis concocted one of the most thrilling and emotional noirs, which includes an astonishing heist featuring a nearly 3-minute long take in a real town, by a real bank, among real people who didn’t know a movie was being made. Dall and Cummins are simply electric as the doomed pair, whose greed slowly gives way to a passionate love.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s nearly plotless paean to late 1970s Southern California is like a cinematic tone poem. A series of kind-of connected vignettes sees 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour’s son) as he bumbles along with numerous get-rich-quick schemes and tries to win the heart of 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim). Wait, what? Hey, it was the 70s. With director Paul Thomas Anderson’s usual incredible supporting cast, including Sean Penn doing an amazing turn as William Holden. This rare 70mm screening should not be missed!

When postmodernist rock band The Talking Heads met visionary filmmaker Jonathan Demme, the result was a concert film like no one had ever seen before. Opening with Heads lead singer David Byrne alone on a massive stage at L.A.'s Pantages Theater, the band grows with each song, one member at a time, culminating in a nine-person ensemble that brought the house down and changed cinema forever. Arguably the greatest concert film of all-time, the Heights is proud to present Stop Making Sense in its new 4K restoration from A24.

Once upon a time, a beautiful maiden named Buttercup (Robin Wright) fell in love with a handsome man named Westley (Cary Elweys), who bid her farewell so that he could seek his fortune, return, and claim her hand in marriage. Enter pirates. Enter giants. Enter a masked man, enter an evil Price hell bent on marrying Buttercup against her will, and enter Peter Falk as a suburban grandad. What? Yes, gramps is reading this tale to his reluctant grandson and embellishing it to levels of hilarious grandiosity as he goes. The Princess Bride sends up every fairy tale cliche, and with its amazing cast of comedy stalwarts has since come to be known as a modern classic, the perfect treat for our (almost) Valentine's Day screening.

Louise (Susan Sarandon) is a level-headed waitress; Thelma (Geena Davis) is a daffy housewife. Together, they head out in Louise’s turquoise ’66 Thunderbird for a girls’ weekend. But when Louise blows away Thelma’s would-be rapist at a honky-tonk, the pair hit the road, leaving the patriarchy in the dust. THELMA & LOUISE was an instant classic and a box-office smash when it was released, an old school Hollywood picture dropped into the 90s, a feminist masterpiece (written by Callie Khouri, who won an Oscar for the script), and one hell of a great ride.

Eddie (Henry Fonda) is an ex-con, trying to go straight. But when he is wrongfully framed and sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit, with his faithful wife Joan (Sylvia Sidney), he goes on the lam, and unleashes his pent-up, and justifiable, anger on an unsuspecting public. Fritz Lang’s YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE is a shocking indictment of American hypocrisy, as telling today as it was during the Depression, and was a favorite of James Baldwin.