1 screen. 1 year. 100 movies.
On July 23rd, it will be one year to the day since we took over the Cinemagic. As far as financial decisions go, buying a movie theater during a pandemic was… unwise. Beyond that? It’s been amazing. The support we’ve seen from our weird little corner of Portland has been wonderful, and more than worth the hardships.
On Friday, July 15, we’re going kick our anniversary week with a re-run of our favorite opening weekend events. After that, we’re piling them on for a total of 15 movies in 7 days, including our premier show of Nope on Thursday night. Thanks to this last-minute sprint, we’re going to run 100th films in one year. Why these movies? It’s a bunch of favorites that never really fit. You could call the selection ‘eclectic’. We didn’t want anything too heavy, because these aren’t just movie bookings… they’re a challenge.
The March to 100
From July 15-21, we’re going to set up a leaderboard. After you’ve seen your 5th movie that week, your name goes on the board. The person who sees the most different movies at the Cinemagic this week gets a pack of stickers from @notcoolpdx, an event poster, and free admission to VHS Night for themselves and a friend for the next year*.
Fri, July 15 - Sun, July 17
SAT, July 16 - 4:15
As movie exhibitors, we’re very aware of the way bad marketing can color the reception of a film. After months of advertising portrayed Crimson Peak as a horror film, the creepy gothic romance struggled to find an audience. Now that The Shape of Water has introduced more people to Del Toro’s style of dark, supernatural drama, we’re hopeful the film might find the appreciation it deserves.
Sun, July 17 - 3:00
There’s never been another movie quite like the Wachowski’s hyper-stylized Speed Racer. It’s a fully realized, meticulously crafted 2-hour sugar rush. It split audiences and critics on release, but sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s a movie that commits to a gonzo idea, and charges ahead with no shame and no restraint. We need more movies like this.
Sun, July 17 - 9:15
Riki-Oh is running right after There Will be Blood, and it’s no coincidence. Considering the name, there’s a relative lack of blood in There Will Be Blood. So we figure, let’s make up for it. Riki-Oh is ridiculously, cartoonishly gory.
It also has a terrible American trailer, so here’s a clip from the film instead. It’s a little bit of a spoiler, but it happens before the film is half over. And yeah, it actually finds a way to escalate from there.
Mon, July 18 - 7:00
An American Werewolf in London wasn’t the first horror comedy, but it certainly shaped the sub-genre. Unlike its predecessors, American Werewolf in London is a goopy, gory, full blooded horror film. The scary bits make the funny parts funnier, and the funny parts make the scary bits scarier. Director John Landis (Blues Brothers, Trading Places) understood this relationship like none before, and used both to maximum effect.
Mon, July 18 - 9:00
Revanchist
You’ve heard of VHS Night, but what about VCD Night? VCD was a format that never caught on in the states. It looks like a DVD, but has about 1/5 the video capacity. The end result is… pretty rough. But, sometimes it’s the only way a movie survives. That’s the case with the Revanchist.
At first, Revanchist seems like a normal 80’s Hong Kong gangster film. Then the first fight scene happens. Revenchist merges a bloody Hong Kong bullet ballet with the floaty wire-fu of a Shaw Brothers film, leading up to a ridiculous, amazing, completely insane final showdown.
VCD isn’t quite VHS, but we’re charging VHS Night price anyways. $5 gets you in the door. It’s very worth it.
Tues, July 19 - 7:00
Cryptic, hallucinogenic, and squirm inducing, Videodrome is Cronenberg in concentrated form. It’s a bleak dive into our relationship with technology that only feels more prescient with every passing year.
Fun fact: The top-notch effects work in Videodrome comes from Rick Baker, the same guy responsible for the top-notch effects work in An American Werewolf in London.
Tues, July 19 - 9:00
We don’t usually do this, but for Electric Dragon 80.000V we’re going to copy the summary straight off IMDB, because it’s just too good:
A violent, guitar-playing, electrically charged boxer faces off against an electronic wizard half-merged with a metallic Buddha.
Electric Dragon 80.000V tells the story of Dragon Eye Morrison and Thunderbolt Buddha. It’s a delirious blur of a movie, with so much blasting noise-punk that it’s almost a music video. It also runs a brisk 55 minutes, so we’re going to charge the VHS night price of $5 for this one
Weds, July 20 - 7:00
A.K.A. Edge of Tomorrow
Edge of Tomorrow has the rare distinction of being a major film with an ad campaign so bad they scrapped it and tried again. It’s easy to see why. It’s a blackly comic, surprisingly violent sci-fi mind bender, and it was probably a bad idea to give it a boring name and promote it with Burger King crossovers.
For home release, the film was retitled LIVE. DIE. REPEAT. and pitched as the grown-up sci-fi movie it actually was. Odds are this is when you saw it, which is a shame, because it’s one hell of a big screen movie.
Weds, July 20 - 9:30
Like a lot of movies we’re playing this week, Upgrade was criminally underseen on release. This time it makes sense, because Upgrade was made for a mind-bogglingly cheap $3 million.
Upgrade is smart, visceral cyberpunk with narrative focus and great core performance from Logan Marshal Green. It’s one of the best in the sub-genre, and it’s great with an audience.
Thurs, July 21 - 4:30
We picked The People Under the Stairs because it’s a surprisingly smart, creepy, underseen gem of early 90’s horror. A few days later we found out that Jordan Peele just agreed to oversee a remake, so it only seemed natural to play it Thursday afternoon, right before premier show of Peele’s new movie, Nope.
July 21 - 7:00
Tickets on sale soon
One Year Anniversary and The March to 100
Schedule by Day
Friday (7/15)
7:00 - They Live
9:00 - Escape from New York
Saturday (7/16)
4:15 - Crimson Peak
7:00 - Escape from New York
9:00 - They Live
Sunday (7/17)
12:30 - School of Rock
3:00 - Speed Racer
6:00 - There Will Be Blood
9:00 - Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
Monday (7/18)
7:00 - An American Werewolf in London
9:00 - Revenchist
Tuesday (7/19)
7:00 - Videodrome
9:00 - Electric Dragon 80.000V
Wednesday (7/20)
7:00 - Live. Die. Repeat. (Aka: Edge of Tomorrow)
9:30 - Upgrade
Thursday (7/21)
4:30 - The People Under the Stairs
7:00 - Nope
*The fine print:
If you’re going for the leaderboard, please make sure to tell us and check in. We don’t want to miss anyone. It’s not a reward for buying a ticket, it’s a reward for watching the movie. If you bought a ticket and no-showed, it doesn’t count. If you watched a movie, but a friend bought your ticket, that counts.
We’re only keeping track of each different movie you see at the theater between Friday (July 15) and Thursday (July 21). You don’t get anything for going to the John Carpenter Double Feature twice, it’s the same movies both nights, so you should only do that if you really like John Carpenter.
Nobody goes on the leader board until their 5th movie. If nobody makes it past 5, nobody wins. That said, we’ve met our customers, and we know that a few of you would have watched a bunch of these movies, prize or no prize.
If there’s a tie for first, everybody wins. Seriously.