Killer of Sheep (1977)
NEVADA THEATRE 4/27: The first full-length feature film from celebrated American director Charles Burnett, KILLER OF SHEEP has long been considered a hard-to-find masterpiece. Unable to secure wide distribution due to copyright issues with its soundtrack, this film nevertheless achieved critical acclaim, winning the Critics’ Award at the Berlin International Film Festival upon release. In 1990 the Library of Congress declared the film a national treasure and placed it among the first 50 films inducted in the National Film Registry for their historical significance. KILLER OF SHEEP examines life in the Black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a teacup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor. Now, thanks to restoration work done by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, this touchstone of African American cinema returns to the screen.
Le Samouraï
NEVADA THEATRE 5/4: The Onyx Downtown pays homage to a pair of suave, Samurai-inspired assassins with our Cool Killers series! In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, LE SAMOURAÏ is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture —with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology. In French w/ English subtitles
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
NEVADA THEATRE 5/11: The Onyx Downtown pays homage to a pair of suave, Samurai-inspired assassins with our Cool Killers series! Jim Jarmusch combined his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him. Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a sublime score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
Paris, Texas
NEVADA THEATRE 5/18: The Onyx Downtown presents our Wandering Souls series, a globetrotting cinematic odyssey that highlights the transformative and transcendental nature of the road movie. New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in PARIS, TEXAS, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. The film follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon.
His Motorbike, Her Island
NEVADA THEATRE 5/25: The Onyx Downtown presents our Wandering Souls series, a globetrotting cinematic odyssey that highlights the transformative and transcendental nature of the road movie. From visionary director Nobuhiko Obayashi (HOUSE), HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND is a stylish and imaginative depiction of young love. Ko, a reserved young man fresh out of a breakup, finds solace in the open road and in his motorcycle. When he meets Miiyo, a free-spirited woman whose uninhibited nature contrasts sharply with his own, their relationship unfolds as a series of fleeting moments—rides through the countryside, conversations carried by the wind, and the quiet tension between adventure and permanence. In Japanese w/ English subtitles
Wild at Heart
NEVADA THEATRE 6/1: The Onyx Downtown presents our Wandering Souls series, a globetrotting cinematic odyssey that highlights the transformative and transcendental nature of the road movie. There is nothing quite like WILD AT HEART, a uniquely insane romantic black-comedy that frequently cites THE WIZARD OF OZ. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s written and directed by the late great David Lynch, paired with a dream cast that includes frequent collaborator Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Isabella Rossellini, and Harry Dean Stanton. The film follows passionate lovers Sailor Ripley (Cage) and Lula Fortune (Dern), as they reunite after Sailor’s stint in prison for a self-defense killing. The pair skip town to California, whilst Lula’s mother hires a hitman to end the relationship once and for all.
Hit the Road
NEVADA THEATRE 6/8: The Onyx Downtown presents our Wandering Souls series, a globetrotting cinematic odyssey that highlights the transformative and transcendental nature of the road movie. Panah Panahi, son and collaborator of embattled filmmaker Jafar Panahi and apprentice to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, makes a striking feature debut with this charming, sharp-witted, and deeply moving comic drama. HIT THE ROAD takes the tradition of the Iranian road-trip movie and adds unexpected twists and turns. It follows a family of four – two middle-aged parents and their sons, one a taciturn adult, the other an ebullient six-year-old – as they drive across the Iranian countryside. Over the course of the trip, they bond over memories of the past, grapple with fears of the unknown, and fuss over their sick dog. Unspoken tensions arise as the film slowly reveals the furtive purpose for their journey. The result is a humanist drama that offers an authentic, often comedic, and deeply sincere observation of an Iranian family preparing to part with one of their own. In Persian w/ English Subtitles
The Blues Brothers
NEVADA THEATRE 6/15: Join us as The Onyx Downtown embarks on a decades-spanning retrospective of one of the most beloved film genres: the movie musical! Based on a recurring sketch from Saturday Night Live, few could have guessed that the story of Jake and Elwood Blues, two brothers who set out on a mission from God to get their band back together and raise money for the Catholic orphanage they grew up in, would become a legendary cult classic. Yet 45 years after its initial release, THE BLUES BROTHERS remains one of the greatest and most outrageous musical comedies of all time. Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and featuring performances from legendary musicians such as James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin, THE BLUES BROTHERS is a rare treat on the big screen.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
NEVADA THEATRE 6/29: The Onyx Downtown teams up with Nevada County Pride as we conclude our retrospective on movie musicals with HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH! With this trailblazing musical, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask brought their signature creation from stage to screen for a movie as unclassifiable as its protagonist. Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig (Mitchell) undergoes a traumatic personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an “internationally ignored” but divinely talented rock diva, characterized by Mitchell as inhabiting a “beautiful gender of one.” The film tells Hedwig’s story through her music, an eclectic assortment of original punk anthems and power ballads by Trask, matching them with a freewheeling cinematic mosaic of music-video fantasies, animated interludes, and moments of bracing emotional realism. A hard-charging song cycle and a tender character study, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is a tribute to the transcendent power of rock and roll.