Tuesday, the feature film debut from writer-director Daina Oniunas-Pusic, is extraordinary, not least because it’s a hard film to pin down in genre. As a film about a mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is struggling to accept the terminal illness of her daughter (Lola Pettricrew), it has the potential to be one of the great weepies of cinema, akin to Terms of Endearment or Beaches. And, truthfully, I can’t watch the trailer myself without welling up; perhaps some of you have had a similar experience if you’ve seen the trailer at the Pickford. But Tuesday isn’t quite Terms of Endearment; it’s also a film that could rightly be called a fairy tale with a fantastical bird functioning as one of the key characters. The film has such a wonderfully imaginative strangeness that Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, when she read the script, said she knew she had to spend a long time talking to the director before committing to the project; it’s the kind of risky script that needed the right director. It could only work in the right hands. But Dreyfus was assured after her discussion with Pusic and decided to throw herself into the project, putting all her brilliance as an actress into the work. The result is the kind of magical film we rarely get to see in cinemas: a depiction of motherhood and loss through the vehicle of fantasy, a rare vehicle for adult viewers and one that thus makes the themes all the more potent.

We Grown Now, the second feature film from director Minhal Bing, is a lyrical and engaging coming of age story about two young best friends, set over a few months’ period in 1992 in the Cabrini-Green public housing in Chicago. The film has drawn some apt comparisons to Sean Baker’s wonderful The Florida Project, as a story from a child's perspective and set in an impoverished community, where poverty or hardship is not the central perspective but the feelings and exhilarations of children are. Bing beautifully captures how childhood feels -- the textures of play and friendship, the uninhibited joys and the unexpected sudden pains. The difficulties of the family's circumstances, being a racialized minority and being poor in America, are certainly hinted at around the edges of the film, but it's gentle enough for a PG-rating, and the film emphasizes the joy of living that the young boys experience. 

The two boys at the center of the film are played beautifully and naturally by the two young actors, and the adults around them, played by Jurnee Smollett and Lil Rel Howery and others are also pitch perfect. In short, it is a wonderful film that has quietly become one of the best of the year. 

We also have three special events this week: First up is Kid Pickford’s Monsters, Inc. one of my favorites of the Pixar classics, showcasing so many of the things early Pixar, especially, did so brilliantly: wonderful animation paired with creative storytelling and truly clever humor that avoids cheap jokes and manages to capture audiences of both children and adults. Monsters, Inc. meets children where they are at, their particular childhood fears and joys, but it also appeals to adults, referencing both the workplace as well as what it feels like to be a parent.  

Monsters, Inc. begins our summer break edition of Kid Pickford, where Pixar classics will be playing twice a month (instead of once) and we’ve added a Wednesday morning showtime to the line-up.  Monsters, Inc. plays this Saturday, 1:30 pm, Sunday, 10 am, and Wednesday, 10 am.  (Watch out for Finding Nemo, too, which starts June 29, and The Incredibles, which starts July 6.)

Finally, we have the third set of films in our Summer Camp! Pride Series: a double feature of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Mommie Dearest.  Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) stars notorious off-screen rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford playing on-screen rival actresses and sisters, and Mommie Dearest(1981), based on the memoir of Joan Crawford’s daughter, stars Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford as the aging actress who can’t bear to see her young daughter eclipse her in youth, beauty, and talent. While Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was hailed a serious drama of its time, garnering an Oscar nomination for Davis (Crawford was ignored), and Mommie Dearest has been regarded, with glee, as an outrageous camp classic, the films deeply inform each other and deliver some of the things we love best: an extravaganza of on and offscreen drama, and some of the greatest actresses in the world turning it all the way up to 11.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane starts at 6 pm, and Mommie Dearest starts at 8:40, with individual tickets or discounted double feature tickets available, and series co-curator Chris Vargas will be with us to give an introduction to the films.  Join us for a grand time Thursday evening!  

See you at the movies, friends! 

Melissa