WELCOME TO THE CINEMA INC’S
57TH SEASON
SEPTEMBER 2025-AUGUST 2026
SEASON 57 SCREENING SCHEDULE
The Cinema, Inc screens films at 7:00pm on the second Sunday of each month at the Rialto Theatre, 1629 Glenwood Ave (near Five Points) Raleigh.
*Please note the screening dates in red. These films will be shown on alternative Sundays.
Sept. 14th, 2025
Young Frankenstein
USA, 1974, PG, Color, Parody/Farcical Comedy/Slapstick, 106 min
Directed by Mel Brooks; Starring Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Cloris
Leachman, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle
Let’s get on thing straight. It’s FRAHNKEN-SCHTEEN.
Our beloved national treasure, Mel Brooks, pulls a stellar cast of his classic actors into a
constellation of rollicking hilarity. American medical school’s lecturing physician, Frederick
Frankenstein (Wilder), inherits the family castle from his grandfather Victor Frankenstein - the
infamous mad scientist. Upon discovering the secret entrance to Victor's laboratory and
reading his private journals, Frederick resumes his grandfather's experiments of bringing the
dead back to life. Honestly, why wouldn’t he? He has castle and a creepy side-kick (Feldman).
The belly laughs are inevitable.
*Oct. 19th, 2025
Get Out
USA, 2017, R, Color, Psychological Horror/Suspense Mystery, 104 min
Directed by Jordan Peele; starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford
Talented young photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) agrees to meet the family of
his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), with some reluctance because Rose has
not shared with her family the Chris is black. As the weekend progresses, a series of
increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
When motives start to appear more sinister, Chris decides it is time to get out. Get Out is
essentially about that unsettling feeling when you know you don’t belong somewhere; when
you know you’re not wanted or perhaps wanted only to be utilized as an object. Peele uses the
age-old horror genre essential of knowing something is wrong behind the closed doors. He
uses the, “Don’t go into the basement” theme imbued with a racial, satirical edge.
Nov. 9th, 2025
Closely Watched Trains
Czechoslovakian, 1966, Not Rated, Satire/Drama, 92 min.
Directed by JirÍ Menzel; starring Václav Neckár, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodský
The Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, awarded in 1968.
Young Miloš Hrma (Václav Neckár) works at a train station in German-occupied
Czechoslovakia. Though Miloš is a mere apprentice dispatcher earnestly trying to lose his
virginity, he soon finds a path to glory as he is recruited into a plot to bomb a munitions train.
Love, angst, and innuendo amid the back drop of Nazi propaganda. This isn’t, however, a
purely a political war film. It is a surprisingly upbeat, sensual story of a young man interrupted.
Dec. 14th, 2025
The Grand Budapest Hotel
USA, 2014, R, Color, Quirky Comedy/Drama 99 min
Directed by Wes Anderson; starring Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric
Take my hand and sleepwalk with me into the intricately immersive texture of Wes Anderson;
the trademark stylization, the colors, meticulously composed shots, precise camera
movements, the Matryoshka doll layering of the crucial-to-the-plot opening.
In a place lost to time, a once grand hotel stands nobly perched upon a rock mountain. It’s
lively days of glory are long past, yet it remains. History of the aging auberge comes alive as
it’s told by the owner to a visiting writer. It’s a fascinating, compelling, dynamic tale of an
extraordinary concierge and his faithful lobby boy.
Jan. 11th, 2026
A Face in the Crowd
USA, 1957, Not Rated, B&W, Political Drama, 126min
Directed by Elia Kazan; Starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa
Currently incarcerated, hard drinking drifter, Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith) lucks upon a modest
dose of fame. With his “aww shucks” Will Rogers Jr., he soon rises to great fame and influence
on national television. His buoyant folk-singing charisma takes a turn towards egomania as his
popularity rises and his public persona goes unchecked. As his fortunes allow, he becomes a
womanizing bigamist and proves to be a rather despicable person. He won’t quit, even as he
makes himself a target for destruction by his once promoter and love interest Marcia Jefferies
(Patricia Neal). Oh, to have again the halcyon days of old, when an indiscreet moment on a hot
mic could take a man down.
*Feb. 1st, 2026
Chungking Express
Hong Kong, 1994, Color, PG-13, Crime-drama/Comedy,102 min
Directed by Wong-Kar-wai; starring Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung, Faye Wong
Late shift on the seedy side of Hong Kong, Cops ramble around looking for food and a respite
from heartbreak. In two sequential tales, two police officers, He Zhi Wu (Takeshi Kaneshiro)
and Cop 663 (Tony Leung) are both mourning the loss of love. Their paths seem to have no
obvious connections, but secrets don’t always reveal themselves at first glance. Both stories
speak of disconnections and loneliness in a vast and crowded city.
Love unfolds rather awkwardly, visualized in rhythmic switches between film, video, and
pixilated images that call to mind the style of a 90’s music video. We must follow the plot to
wherever it wants to take us.
Mar. 8th, 2026
El Mariachi
Mexico, 1992, Color R, Dark Comedy/Action, 81 min
Directed, Written, and Produced by Robert Rodriguez; starring Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo
Gomez, Peter Marquardt
A young vagabond musician, El Mariachi (Carlos Gallardo), comes to town wearing black, with
a guitar case and a plan. He has dreams of becoming a mariachi like his father. On the same
day his life intersects with Azul (Reinol Martinez), who has also come to town with a guitar case
and a plan - to exact revenge upon the drug lord responsible for his incarceration.
What follows is an entertaining story of coincidences, mistaken identities, gun fights, and
romance. A film that feels so much bigger than it’s $7000, El Mariachi was selected by the
Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being
culturally significant.
Apr. 12th, 2026
Princess Mononoke
Japan, 1997, PG-13, Color, Animated Action Epic, 133 min
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli; American version voice actors: Billy Crudup,
Claire Danes, Minnie Diver, Billy Bob Thornton, Jada Pinkett Smith
Animation allows for us the possibilities that myths become dreams and dreams to be set free.
Great animation feeds the mind and makes the heart sing. This historical fantasy follows
young Prince Ashitaka’s (Crudup) hero’s journey as he seeks to cure his afflicted arm, cursed
after killing a gigantic dragon. He stumbles into a conflict between the people of Iron Town and
San (the Princess Mononoke, voiced by Danes), a girl raised by wolves, who will stop at
nothing to prevent the destruction of her home. San is the necessary warrior in a time of great
need. The adventure is underlaid with Miyazaki’s deep humanism, which avoids easy moral
simplifications and searches for more complex philosophical consciousness.
May 10th, 2026
Waking Ned Devine
Ireland, 1988, PG, Color, High-Concept Dark Comedy, 91 min
Directed by Kirk Jones; Starring Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan
In the isolated micro-sized Irish Hamlet of Tully More, eccentric locals live by their own set of
rules. A pair of elderly busy bodies covertly seek to ferret out the winner of the National
Lottery. Let’s join them for tea, shall we? Irish shenanigans are afoot as local codgers Jackie
O'Shea (Bannen) and Michael O’Sullivan (Kelly) find the winning ticket in the hand of a recently
dead Ned Devine. A dead Ned just won’t do. Jones invites us to celebrate the nature of
humanity; our sordid nonsense, our absurdity in the throes of greed, and our earnestness in
love and labor. Quaint old charm meets nonsensical curmudgeons.
Jun. 14th, 2026
Junebug
USA, 2005, R, Color, Drama/Dramatic Comedy106 min
Directed by Phil Morrison; starring Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Nivola, Amy Adams, Ben
McKenzie, Celia Weston, Scott Wilson
In the sophisticated art circles of Chicago and in rural North Carolina, tone is everything. It’s
not so much what you said, but how you said it - or didn’t say it. Chicago art dealer, Madeleine
(Davidtz) and new husband George (Nivola) travel to North Carolina’s rural piedmont to meet
George’s family. intelligentGeorge, stifled by guilt ignites an explosion with his angry, sullen
brother Johnny (McKenzie). Junebug serves up two slices of life, each with heaping sides of
derision and compassion. Avoiding the obvious tropes; the intelligent city slicker and the slow-
witted country hick, Phil Morrison sets his characters to their individual melody. While they hit
their notes of good intentions, they can’t seem to harmonize together as a family. Not in times
of joy, surely not in times of sorrow.
Jul. 12th, 2026
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
USW, 2016, R, Color, Mockumentary/Raunchy Comedy with Music, 87 min
Directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccome; starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva
Schaffer, Sarah Silverman, Tim Meadows
Maybe we didn’t know we needed a Spinal Tap for the Avril Lavigne generation, but here we
are. Laugh until your face hurts. This is the behind-the-music rise, falling, and quasi-
redemption of a boy band stand-out, turned pop star, turned rap mega-star. As his career hit
the skids, Conner4Real (Samberg) ruthlessly seeks to recapture his stardom by releasing a solo
album. Conner inhabits a narcissistic arrogance as he is urged by manager Paula (Silverman)
to remember where he came from and make amends with his childhood friends Owen (Jorma
Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) so they can reform The Nasty Boyz.
“Pop-star” spares nothing in it’s quest to lampoon every last bit of artificiality in contemporary
pop music - but in a nice way.
Aug. 9th, 2026
La Dolce Vita
Italy, 1960, B&W, Not Rated, Satire/Comedic Drama, 175 min
Directed by Federico Fellini; starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée
Nominated for four Academy Awards, BAFTA, and winner of Best Foreign Language Film at
New York Film Critics Circle. Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid gossip
columnist. Upon the seven hills of Rome, through the nightclubs and sidewalk cafes, we chase
Rubini along parade of elegant decadence. Rubini slinks around the "sweet life" of Rome in a
fruitless search for love and happiness. An extravagant series of seven nights and dawns,
descents and ascents, there are so many great moments. Yet, it is also a cautionary tale of a
man, uncentered and looking for meaning in his life, and a social scene, glamorous and rife with
promiscuity, while both are hurtling themselves towards decay of the soul.
