What’s Playing? From 'The Big Lebowski' to 'Mallrats,' Our Movie Picks Showing At Indie Theaters

Another weekend, another slate of great movies around the city! Looking for some recommendations to narrow down your options? Here's what we're suggesting...

For the dancers

Saturday Night Fever

The New Beverly Cinema

Friday May 17 @ 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $13, more info here.

Synopsis: John Travolta gives an iconic performance as Tony Manero, a paint store clerk in Brooklyn, who dons a white suit, platform shoes, and hits the dance floor every Saturday night. Not only did this movie skyrocket Travolta to fame, cement disco’s domination of the 70s, and boast an incredible soundtrack with music by the Bee Gees, it’s also a film about youth, disillusionment, violence, and heartbreak.

You’ll like this if…you’re looking for something that blends music and tragedy like West Side Story (1961), or if you’re into Travolta’s earlier, more heartbreaking work, like in Blow Out.

For diaspora feelings

Minari

The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum

Friday May 17 @ 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $10, more info here.

Synopsis: A film that was swallowed by the pandemic in 2020, Minari is an Academy Award-nominated film starring Steven Yeun that follows an immigrant family moving from California to Arkansas. Oscar winning actress Youn Yuh-jung, who portrays a crucial piece of the family unit, will be at this screening in person.

You’ll like this if…you’re into quiet dramas whose theatrical runs were curtailed in 2020 like The Power of the Dog or First Cow, or if you’re looking for more introspective immigrant stories like Past Lives.

For the 'dudes'

The Big Lebowski

Brain Dead Studios

Friday May 17 @ 8 p.m.

Tickets are $13, more info here.

Synopsis: Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges, doing some of his finest work) is an L.A. slacker, bowling with his pals (John Goodman and Steve Buschemi) and living in a run-down apartment. When he’s mistaken for a different Jeffrey Lebowski, a millionaire living in Pasadena, he’s thrust into a world of stacks of cash, adult film producers, criminals and one wild dream sequence, man.

You’ll like this if…you’re into the absurd comedy of the Coen Brothers, like Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, or Ethan Coen’s solo feature, Drive-Away Dolls.

For the slackers

Mallrats & Clerks – double feature!

The New Beverly Cinema

Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19 @ 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $13, more info here.

Synopsis: A Kevin Smith double feature is here to keep the slacker vibes going. You’re getting what it says in the titles here —Mallrats is about two loafers hanging out at the mall, and Clerks is a black and white low budget debut feature about two friends, slackers, and clerks working in stores next to each other. Boys try to win over girls, customers get annoyed, and Jay and Silent Bob enter the cultural lexicon. What else do you want?

You’ll like this if…you’re into slacker comedies like Dazed and Confused or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or other Kevin Smith movies like Scream 3 or Zack and Miri Make a Porno. 

For the folk heroes

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

Vidiots

Sunday May 19 @ 4 p.m.

Tickets are $12, more info here.

Synopsis: A screening of the revisionist western about Mexican folk hero Gregorio Cortez with Edward James Olmos in person at a celebration of his career. You won’t want to miss this.

You’ll like this if…you’ve loved Edward James Olmos in Zoot Suit, Selena, or Stand and Deliver.