We’re teaming up with Mother’s Brewing to screen “Top Gun” in Mother’s Backyard! (215 South Grant Ave.) So bring your blankets and/or lawn chairs to ensure you are comfy during the movie. Better yet, bring your picnic fixins so you can dine outside while watching a great movie! You can’t bring booze, but don’t worry, Mother’s has you covered on that. They will have beer flowing outside so you don’t even have to go inside for a refill during the movie! This is a 21+ event. Tickets are $5 and on sale at the door. Try to bring cash!

Summary: Devil-may-care navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the coveted “Top Gun” award.

When Senior investment banker Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn) is passed over for a promotion at her firm, she fights for the opportunity to take a start-up public, hoping this promising IPO will secure her a place at the firm’s highest level. But when an employee at the start-up raises questions about a possible crack in the company’s walls, Naomi must decide whether to investigate rumors that may compromise the deal, or push forward with the confidence her superiors expect. [Sony Pictures Classics]

On January 9, 2006 The New York Times sent shockwaves through the literary world when it unmasked “it boy” wunderkind JT LeRoy, whose tough prose about a sordid childhood had captivated icons and luminaries internationally. It turned out LeRoy didn’t actually exist. He was the creative expression of 40-year-old San Francisco former phone-sex operator turned housewife, Laura Albert. Author: The JT LeRoy Story takes us down the infinitely fascinating rabbit hole of how Laura Albert—like a Cyrano de Bergerac on steroids—breathed not only words, but life, into her avatar for a decade. Albert’s epic and entertaining account plunges us into a glittery world of rock shows, fashion events, and the Cannes red carpet where LeRoy becomes a mysterious sensation. As she recounts this astonishing odyssey, Albert also reveals the intricate web spun by irrepressible creative forces within her. Her extended and layered JT LeRoy performance still infuriates many; but according to Albert, channeling her brilliant fiction through another identity was the only possible path to self-expression.

This free screening is sponsored by the Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Registration is available only by calling the nature center at 888-4237, beginning September 15.

Su Rynard’s wide-ranging and contemplative documentary THE MESSENGER explores our deep-seated connection to birds and warns that the uncertain fate of songbirds might mirror our own. Moving from the northern reaches of the Boreal Forest to the base of Mount Ararat in Turkey to the streets of New York, THE MESSENGER brings us face-to-face with a remarkable variety of human-made perils that have devastated thrushes, warblers, orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks and many other airborne music-makers.

On one level, THE MESSENGER is an engaging, visually stunning, emotional journey, one that mixes its elegiac message with hopeful notes and unique glances into the influence of songbirds on our own expressions of the soul. On another level, THE MESSENGER is the artful story about the mass depletion of songbirds on multiple continents, and about those who are working to turn the tide.

In ancient times humans looked to the flight and songs of birds to protect the future. Today once again, birds have something to tell us.

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

Gates of Heaven” is the story of two California pet cemeteries transformed into an eccentric portrait of the American dream.

The story goes like this. German director Werner Herzog made a bet with aspiring filmmaker Errol Morris that if the latter ever completed the film he was working on - which was inspired by a news story about the mass relocation of the graves from a California pet cemetery - he would eat his shoe. Morris did indeed complete his film which was called Gates of Heaven (1978) and, true to his word, Herzog boiled and ate his show at the film’s premiere in Berkeley. The real surprise is that Gates of Heaven does not feel like a debut film or a movie made by a first time director. The film’s highly idiosyncratic and original approach to its subject moved German director Wim Wenders to proclaim it “a masterpiece” in its rough cut form and Roger Ebert became an early champion of the film. But Morris had difficulty getting the film distributed and it would be years before Gates of Heaven would be acknowledged as a film ahead of its time, one that was a true independent film before Sundance and IFC were brand names. In fact, Sundance was launched the year that Gates of Heaven was released. [TMC]

In the antebellum South, Nat Turner (Nate Parker) is a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities - against himself and his fellow slaves - Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

Inspired by L’Abbé Prévost’s legendary heroes, Kenneth MacMillan expresses his fascination for offbeat characters and dramatic subjects. The choreographer faithfully follows the novel’s plot and reconstructs the tragic story of the sensual yet naïve creature who is more victim than architect of her own fate.

In Regency Paris, bourgeois society gorges itself on luxury and easy pleasures. Carried off in this whirlwind, Manon is unable to resist temptation and she drags down the faithful Des Grieux with her in her fall. The choreographer constructs his ballet on a mosaic of extracts from Massenet finding in the music all the drama, freshness and romanticism necessary for this grand fresco in dance. The crowd and ball scenes follow on from spirited pas de deux right up to the ballet’s sublime yet tragic conclusion.

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears. [Criterion]

In 1967, during the height of the Cold War, two young CIA agents (Matt Johnson and Owen Williams) go undercover at NASA to investigate a possible Russian mole. In disguise as documentary filmmakers, they tap phones and break into offices while purporting to learn more about the Apollo project. But when they end up uncovering a shocking NASA secret — and a major government cover-up — they decide to embark on a new mission that may put their own lives at risk

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

Mack the Knife is back in town.

A darkly comic new take on Brecht and Weill’s raucous musical broadcast live from the stage of the National Theatre.

London scrubs up for the coronation. The thieves are on the make, the whores on the pull, the police cutting deals to keep it all out of sight. Mr and Mrs Peachum are looking forward to a bumper day in the beggary business, but their daughter didn’t come home last night and it’s all about to kick off…

With Olivier Award-winner Rory Kinnear (Hamlet, Othello, James Bond), as Macheath alongside Rosalie Craig (As You Like It, My Family and other Animals) as Polly Peachum and Haydn Gwynne (The Windsors, Drop the Dead Donkey) as Mrs Peachum. This bold, anarchic production is brought to you by a creative powerhouse; adapted by Simon Stephens, (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), and directed by Rufus Norris, (Everyman, London Road).

Certification: suitable for 15 years old and above due scenes of a sexual nature, violence and language

Great insights to great films courtesy of Drury’s Humanities faculty.

This series is made possible by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council.

The Third Man (1949): Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s evocative zither score; Graham Greene’s razor-sharp dialogue; and Robert Krasker’s dramatic use of light and shadow, The Third Man, directed by the inimitable Carol Reed, only grows in stature as the years pass. [Criterion]

Drury University professor Dr. Kevin Henderson will lead a post show discussion after the film.

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

An in-depth look at Robert Crumb—king of underground comic-book artists—and his extraordinarily dysfunctional family.

Terry Zwigoff’s landmark 1995 film is an intimate documentary portrait of the underground artist Robert Crumb, whose unique drawing style and sexually and racially provocative subject matter have made him a household name in popular American art. Zwigoff candidly and colorfully delves into the details of Crumb’s incredible career and life, including his family of reclusive eccentrics, some of the most remarkable people you’ll ever see on-screen. At once a profound biographical portrait, a riotous examination of a man’s controversial art, and a devastating look at a troubled family, Crumb is a genuine American original. [Criterion]

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

SUMMARY: Two hapless freight handlers find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man.

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2008, it is still racially segregated. A fascinating investigation into our nation’s history and traditions, this acclaimed, award-winning documentary illuminates the complexities of race relations in 21st century America. [The Cinema Guild]

Star (Sasha Lane), a teenage girl from a troubled home, runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Finding her feet in this gang of teenagers, one of whom is Jake (Shia LaBeouf), she soon gets into the group’s lifestyle of hard-partying nights, law-bending days, and young love

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

• The lead actors in the production switch roles between monster and doctor
  Oct. 29 (Cumberbatch as monster) Oct. 30 (Cumberbatch as doctor)
  Nov. 1 (Cumberbatch as monster)

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

For a limited time only, National Theatre Live’s Encore Series brings a selection of award-winning British theatre productions to your local cinema.

Directed by Academy Award®-winner Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Steve Jobs), this thrilling production features Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, The Imitation Game) and Jonny Lee Miller (CBS’s Elementary, Trainspotting) alternating roles as Victor Frankenstein and his creation.

The production was a sell-out hit at the National Theatre in 2011, and the broadcast has since become an international sensation, experienced by over half a million people in cinemas around the world.

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered Creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.

Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: In this spoof of Mary Shelley’s gothic tale, the grandson of Victor Frankenstein, a neurosurgeon, has spent his life living down the legend of his grandfather, even changing the pronunciation of his name. When he discovers his grandfather’s diary, he begins to feel differently, and returns to the family castle to satisfy his curiosity by replicating his ancestor’s experiments. In the process, he creates one very unique monster.

Great insights to great films courtesy of Drury’s Humanities faculty.

This series is made possible by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1929): With its stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc convinced the world that movies could be art. Renée Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France. Long thought to have been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981—in a Norwegian mental institution. Criterion is proud to present this milestone of silent cinema in a new special edition featuring composer Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, an original opera/oratorio inspired by the film. [Criterion]

Drury University professor Dr. Shelley Wolbrink will lead a post show discussion after the film.

1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl (Kim Tae-ri) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Kim Min-hee) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle (Jo Jin-woong). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count (Ha Jung-woo) to help him seduce the Lady to elope with him, rob her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. The plan seems to proceed according to plan until Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

Summary: Kermit the Frog is persuaded by agent Dom DeLuise to pursue a career in Hollywood. Along the way, Kermit picks up Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and a motley crew of other Muppets with similar aspirations. Meanwhile, Kermit must elude the grasp of a frog-leg restaurant magnate.

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

An identity in crisis; a country in revolution. ‘The Royal Ballet: Anastasia’ is a ballet about one of the great historical mysteries of the 20th century, only recently solved. At the height of the Russian Revolution the royal family were executed, but afterwards a young woman appeared - apparently a surviving royal princess, the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

One of Kenneth MacMillan’s first creations on becoming Director of The Royal Ballet in 1970, ‘Anastasia’ is a dramatic and haunting exploration of Anna’s nightmare of memory and identity to music by Tchaikovsky and Martin?.

A powerful, psychological challenge for the principal ballerina, this is a rare opportunity to see a landmark ballet by a major choreographer.

One of MacMillan’s first creative acts on becoming Director of The Royal Ballet was to adapt Anastasia into a three-act, full-length work, his first for the Company since Romeo and Juliet. He created two preceding acts to the Berlin act, using music by Tchaikovsky to explore Anna’s ‘memory’ of events in the Imperial family leading up to the Russian Revolution – providing a powerful context for the disturbed Anna’s nightmares of the final act. The full ballet, first performed in 1971, was a declaration of intent: it showcased MacMillan’s dual influences, of classical, Royal Ballet tradition in the first two acts, and of German expressionism – a style then entirely new to British audiences – in the final. The ballet remains one of MacMillan’s most experimental and poignant works

Great insights to great films courtesy of Drury’s Humanities faculty.

This series is made possible by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council.

Like Water for Chocolate (1992): Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Esquival, this internationally popular romantic fable from Mexico centers on a young woman who discovers that her cooking has magical effects.

Drury University professor Dr. Elizabeth Nichols will lead a post show discussion after the film.

Loving celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry - and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: A surreal, hyperactive farce in which a bumbling petty thief and the lady cop who keeps arresting him fall in love and decide to start a family. When they discover they can’t have babies, they steal one from a furniture mogul who has just sired a set of quintuplets. The joys of parenthood are soon marred, however, by the difficulties of raising an infant on the run. The none-too-bright couple must flee across the southwestern desert in order to elude the villainous biker that has been hired to retrieve the tyke. (20th Century Fox)

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

For a limited time only, National Theatre Live’s Encore Series brings a selection of award-winning British theatre productions to your local cinema.

Since its first performance at the National Theatre in 2007, War Horse has become an international smash hit, capturing the imagination of millions of people around the world.

Based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford, War Horse takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France. Filled with stirring music and songs, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness. At its heart are astonishing life-size puppets by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage.

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

Summary: Wolfgang Petersen adapted Michael Ende’s children’s story for this charming fantasy film that spawned several sequels. Bastian (Barret Oliver) is dealing with his mother’s recent death. His father (Gerald McRaney) is an imperious sort who continually lambastes Bastian for daydreaming and falling behind in school. On top of his father’s badgering, he has to contend with a bunch of school bullies waiting for him in the schoolyard. One day he decides to play hooky and walks into a strange bookstore, where in the attic, he discovers a book called “The Neverending Story”. As Bastian reads the book, he’s enveloped in the unfolding tale. A sickly child-like empress (Tami Stronach) from a land called Fantasia is concerned about who will take over the land if she dies. She decides it is best for Fantasia if she remains alive, so she dispatches a young warrior named Atreju (Noah Hathaway) to find a cure for the empress’s malady. It turns out the land is consumed with a plague called The Nothing, generated by blighted dreams and hopeless fantasies. As Atreju continues onward to search for a cure for The Nothing, he encounters an assortment of strange creatures. Bastian is so consumed with the tale that he finds himself catapulted into the land of Fantasia himself. Atreju realizes that the only way to save the land from its blight is with the help of this strange earth boy, Bastian

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: This ultimate romantic comedy weaves together a spectacular number of love affairs into one amazing story. [Universal Pictures]

The Moxie: On Stage is a new series showcasing world class performances from stages across the globe.

Tickets: $20/adults; $15/members & students

This series is made possible thanks to a grant from the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

In George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, Tchaikovsky’s beloved melodies transport the young and young at heart to a magical world where mischievous mice besiege a battalion of toy soldiers, and an onstage blizzard leads to an enchanted Land of Sweets. New York City Ballet‘s famously extravagant staging features Balanchine’s stunning choreography amidst awe-inspiring set pieces, ornate costumes and grand one-of-a-kind visual effects, like the one-tonne Christmas tree that grows to an astonishing 12 meters.

Set to Tchaikovsky’s score, Balanchine’s Nutcracker features New York City Ballet’s roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet, the New York City Ballet’s official school. In addition to Balanchine’s choreography, the work features scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates.

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

Film Summary: The story of a plucky, red-haired girl who dreams of life outside her dreary orphanage. One day, Annie (Quinn) is chosen to stay for one week with the famous billionaire “Daddy” Warbucks (Finney). One week turns into many and the only person standing in the way of Annie’s fun is Miss Hannigan, the gin-soaked ruler of the orphanage (Burnett). (Sony)

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: Brazil is a surrealistic nightmare vision of a “perfect” future where technology reigns supreme. Everyone is monitored by a secret government agency that forbids love to interfere with efficiency. When a daydreaming bureaucrat (Pryce) becomes unwittingly involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mystery woman, he becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions. [Universal Pictures]

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

A true iconoclast known for her intelligence, determination and fierce demeanor Katharine Hepburn demonstrated remarkable staying power in a screen career that spanned more than six decades, winning three of her four Best Actress Oscars after the age of 60.

Film Summary: A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist. [TCM.com]

Bringing Up Baby (1938) is one of versatile director Howard Hawks’ greatest screwball comedies and often considered the definitive screwball film. It is also one of the funniest, wackiest and most inspired films of all time with its characteristic breathless pace, zany antics and pratfalls, absurd situations and misunderstandings, perfect sense of comic timing, completely screwball cast, series of lunatic and hare-brained misadventures, disasters, light-hearted surprises and romantic comedy. [Filmsite.org]

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

A true iconoclast known for her intelligence, determination and fierce demeanor Katharine Hepburn demonstrated remarkable staying power in a screen career that spanned more than six decades, winning three of her four Best Actress Oscars after the age of 60.

Film Summary: Set among the upper class in 1930s Philadelphia, this irreverent classic romantic comedy features radiant performances by three legendary stars. On the eve of her marriage to an uninteresting man, a headstrong socialite jousts verbally with her charming ex-husband, drinks too much champagne, and flirts outrageously with a handsome reporter.

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

Film Summary: This fascinating documentary offers a unique look into the daily dramas played out amongst the tiny residents of a French country meadow. It is shot without dialogue and begins with an aerial view of the meadow and then drops wildly down amongst the herbs and soil of the meadow where the stage is set. Using specially designed cameras and lighting equipment, the filmmakers Claude Nuridsany (who also did the extraordinary filming) and Marie Perennou spent three years creating this single day. Utilizing astounding close ups, they give the viewer a bug’s eye view where water drops are the size of planets, and grass blades become alien skyscrapers. At this level, the bugs themselves take on an unearthly appearance, as if they were the giants, not us. Among the things depicted are a caterpillar’s transformation into a butter fly, a dirigible sized bee in flight, and the gentle, passionate lovemaking of snails. In the cycle of life and death, a spider makes a gruesome meal of two grasshoppers, and a determined dung beetle futilely attempts to roll a large prize up a steep slope. A tremendous thunderstorm temporarily disrupts the meadow and then as the day turns to evening, the nocturnal insects slowly emerge for the night shift. The film is suitable for families and features an eclectic soundtrack with numbers ranging from opera to New Age music to high-light the action.

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

A true iconoclast known for her intelligence, determination and fierce demeanor Katharine Hepburn demonstrated remarkable staying power in a screen career that spanned more than six decades, winning three of her four Best Actress Oscars after the age of 60.

Film Summary: Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Adam’s Rib is a peerless comedy predicated on the double standard. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, a husband-and-wife attorney team, both drawn to a case of attempted murder. The defendant (Judy Holliday) had tearfully attempted to shoot her husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen). Adam argues that the case is open and shut, but Amanda points out that, if the defendant were a man, he’d be set free on the basis of “the unwritten law.” Thus it is that Adam works on behalf of the prosecution, while Amanda defends the accused woman. The trial turns into a media circus, while the Bonners’ home life suffers. Adam’s Rib represented the film debuts of New York-based actors Jean Hagen, Tom Ewell, and David Wayne (as Hepburn’s erstwhile songwriting suitor), and the return to Hollywood of Judy Holliday after her Born Yesterday triumph. One of the best of the Tracy-Hepburn efforts, it inspired a brief 1973 TV series starring Ken Howard and Blythe Danner.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens. [Criterion Collection]

This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

A true iconoclast known for her intelligence, determination and fierce demeanor Katharine Hepburn demonstrated remarkable staying power in a screen career that spanned more than six decades, winning three of her four Best Actress Oscars after the age of 60.

Film Summary: A grizzled skipper and a spirited missionary take on the Germans in Africa during World War I. [TCM.com]

The African Queen (1951) is the uncomplicated tale of two companions with mismatched, “opposites attract” personalities who develop an implausible love affair as they travel together downriver in Africa around the start of World War I. This quixotic film by director John Huston, based on the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester, is one of the classics of Hollywood adventure filmmaking, with comedy and romance besides. It was the first color film for the two leads and for director Huston. [Filmsite.org]

These FREE screenings are part of MOXIE FLIX, a monthly series focusing on essential films for kids to see before they turn 13.

Film Summary: Cuca’s cozy rural life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity as his small world expands. Entering civilization, industrial landscapes are inhabited by animal-machines, with barrios of decoupage streets and shop windows, and flashing neon advertisements that illuminate the night. The story depicts a clash between village and city, hand crafted and mechanized, rich and poor - and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song. The film’s music is on equal footing with the stunning visuals, a soundscape of pan-flute, samba, and Brazilian hip-hop mixing with the whirling carnival colors and exploding fireworks.

A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

Made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Missouri Arts Council.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in order to win her heart.

This winter, the Final Friday at Mother’s series moves indoors right here to the Moxie. Since space is a wee bit tighter here than at Mother’s backyard, we will be stretching the screenings over three nights. For each of these movies, Mother’s will be sending us a special keg to tap. Welcome to Mondo with Mother’s!

Film Summary: Playing in a manner that can be conservatively described as larger than life, Kurt Russell plays a macho truck driver who agrees to go to the San Francisco airport and pick up his friend’s (Dennis Dun) fiancee (Suzee Pai, freshly arrived from China. Suddenly, a gang of Chinatown toughs kidnap the girl right before Russell’s eyes. After a wild chase sequence, Russell discovers that the girl has been abducted by a genuine, bonafide sorceror (James Hong), the ghost of a 3000 year old warlord. And that’s just for starters.[Hal Erickson, Rovi]