Essential Coen Brothers
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!

Summary: In the Depression-era deep South, three escapees from a Mississippi prison chain gang: Everett Ulysses McGill, sweet and simple Delmar, and the perpetually angry Pete, embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they set out to pursue their freedom and return to their homes. With nothing to lose and still in shackles, they make a hasty run for their lives and end up on an incredible journey filled with challenging experiences and colorful characters. However, they must also match wits with the cunning and mysterious lawman Cooley, who tracks men, bent on bringing the trio back to the prison farm.

May 6 & 7: Blood Simple
May 13 & 14: Raising Arizona
May 20 & 21: Fargo (1996)
May 27 & 28: O Brother Where Art Thou (2001)
June 3 & 4: No Country for Old Men (2007)

Following the film there will be a post show conversation led by Rabbi Barbara Block from Temple Israel.

In the last store in a defunct shopping mall, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski - great-grandmother, businesswoman, and Holocaust survivor - runs the tailor shop she’s owned for more than thirty years. But when she’s served an eviction notice, the specter of retirement prompts Sonia to revisit her harrowing past as a refugee and witness to genocide. A poignant story of generational trauma and healing, BIG SONIA also offers a laugh-out-loud-funny portrait of the power of love to triumph over bigotry, and the power of truth-telling to heal us all.

This film is part of our In Translation series of recent foreign language films of note.

Zama, an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer from the town in which he is stagnating, to a better place. His situation is delicate. He must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit. [Strand Releasing]

Essential Coen Brothers
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!

Summary: When a Vietnam veteran discovers two million dollars while wandering through the aftermath of a Texas drug deal gone horribly awry, his decision to abscond with the cash sets off a violent chain reaction in a stripped-down crime drama from Joel and Ethan Coen. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has just stumbled into the find of a lifetime. Upon discovering a bullet-strewn pickup truck surrounded by the corpses of dead bodyguards, Moss uncovers two million dollars in cash and a substantial load of heroin stashed in the back of the vehicle. Later, as an enigmatic killer who determines the fate of his victims with the flip of a coin sets out in pursuit of Moss, the disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) struggles to contain the rapidly escalating violence that seems to be consuming his once-peaceful Lone Star State town. Woody Harrelson, Javier Bardem, and Kelly MacDonald co-star in a distinctly American crime story that explores timeless biblical themes in a contemporary Southwestern setting. [Jason Buchanan, Rovi]

Member Picks showcases the movies that inspired the Moxie’s biggest supporters.

Every month, one member picks a film that impacted their lives and we put it up on the big screen.

June’s pick was made by moxie member Pascal Hamon.
“I love the mystery of a film about film-making that should never have existed. It is the pinnacle of Lynch’s intuitive creativity: confusing, yet meaningful; disturbing, yet beautiful; frustrating, yet fascinating; illusory, yet true. A film that cannot be seen only once.”

Why are you a Moxie member, and why should others consider becoming members?
“In this age of streaming and twitting, a place where film is still a communal experience needs everyone’s support. Plus it’s fun, and the staff rocks!”

Free for members

Synopsis: In this complex tale of suspense, set in the unreal universe of Los Angeles, writer/director David Lynch explores the city’s schizophrenic nature, an uneasy blend of innocence and corruption, love and loneliness, beauty and depravity. (Universal Focus)

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.

Accompanied by a luxurious team of professionals, consisting of the renowned stage director Peter Stein, stage designer Ferdinand Wöger and conductor Ádám Fischer, Teatro alla Scala presents Mozarts Zauberflöte. In this production, orchestra, chorus, soloists as well as outfitters all consisted of students of the Academia Teatro alla Scala, the educational institution aimed to train the young talents, founded by the Teatro alla Scala in 2001. The result was stunning an instant success with all ten performances selling out at La Scala, which is famous for its extremely critical loggionisti. According to Die Presse, Fischer gets the best out of the Academy Orchestra with delicate execution and humane phrasing while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praises Fatma Said as Pamina and Yasmin Özkan as the Queen of the Night.

This Free screening will be hosted by the Greater Ozarks Pridefest in partnership with Moxie Cinema.

Summary: How To Survive A Plague is the untold story of the efforts that turned AIDS into a mostly manageable condition – and the improbable group of young men and women who, with no scientific training, infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, and helped identify promising new compounds, moving them through trials and into drugstores in record time. These drugs saved their lives and ended the darkest days of the epidemic, while virtually emptying AIDS wards in American hospitals. (IFC Films)

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

Summary: After traveling the world alongside migrating birds (Winged Migration) and diving the oceans with whales and manta rays (Oceans), Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud return to more familiar ground: the lush green forests and megafauna that emerged across Europe following the last Ice Age. Winter had gone on for 80,000 years when—in a relatively short period of time—the ice retreated, the landscape metamorphosed, the cycle of seasons was established, and the beasts occupied their new kingdom. It was only later that man arrived to share this habitat, first tentatively as migratory hunter/gatherers, then making inroads in the forest as settled agriculturalists, and later more dramatically via industry and warfare. With its exceptional footage of animals in the wild, Seasons is the awe-inspiring and thought-provoking tale of the long and tumultuous shared history that inextricably binds humankind with the natural world. [Music Box Films]

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

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

Staff Picks Series Every month a member of the Moxie staff picks a film that impacted their lives and we put it up on the big screen. June’s pick was made by Tom Hembree.

Free for Members

Summary: Make yourself at home with the Carmichael family as they experience one very special summer in their Brooklyn neighborhood that they’ve affectionately nicknamed “Crooklyn”. A loving, but fiercely independent mother along with her musician husband (Delroy Lindo) struggles to raise her family in difficult but often wonderful circumstances. (Universal Studios)

Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence. [A24]

Lexington, Kentucky, 2004: Spencer and Warren dream of remarkable lives beyond their middle-class suburban existence. They head off to colleges in the same town, haunted by the fear they may never be special in any way. Spencer is given a tour of his school’s incredibly valuable rare book collection and describes it all to Warren. Suddenly, it hits them—they could pull off one of the most audacious art thefts in recent history, from the university’s special collections library. Convinced they can get away with it, they recruit two other friends. Suddenly, the dance of knowing what happens if they cross the line becomes all-consuming. [Sundance]

This film is part of our In Translation series of recent foreign language films of note.

Western follows a group of German construction workers installing a hydroelectric plant in remote rural Bulgaria. The foreign land awakens the men’s sense of adventure, but tensions mount when, Meinhard, the strong, silent and newcomer to the group, starts mixing with the local villagers. The two sides speak different languages and share a troubled history. Can they learn to trust each other — or is the stage being set for a showdown?

Local films are $5. Seating is first come first serve.
A dramatic thriller about a young, female army veteran suffering from PTSD who returns home to the Ozarks to look for her estranged brother and finds an abandoned young boy in the woods. As she searches for answers about who the child is, she discovers a mysterious world of folklore, clan rules and lies, ultimately putting her own life in jeopardy to protect the young boy and find out the truth.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Mister Fred Rogers. A portrait of a man whom we all think we know, this emotional and moving film takes us beyond the zip-up cardigans and the land of make-believe, and into the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.

We’re teaming up with Mother’s Brewing to screen “The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)” 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: Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), had three children—Chas, Margot, and Richie—and then they separated. Chas (Ben Stiller) started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. [Touchstone Pictures]

The 2018 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 95-minute theatrical program of seven short films selected from this year’s Festival, widely considered the premier showcase for short films and the launchpad for many now-prominent independent filmmakers for more than 30 years. Including fiction, documentary and animation from around the world, the 2018 program offers new audiences a taste of what the Festival offers, from laugh-out-loud comedy to contemplative reflections of the world we live in.

Maude
U.S.A, 10 minutes. Written and directed by Anna Margaret Hollyman.
Teeny thought it was just another routine babysitting job – until she’s shocked to meet the client. As the day goes on, Teeny decides to become the woman she had no idea she always wanted to be…until she gets caught.

Baby Brother
U.S.A., 14 minutes. Written and directed by Kamau Bilal.
The director’s baby brother moves back in with his parents.

The Burden
Sweden, 14 minutes. Written and directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr.
A dark musical enacted in a modern shopping center, situated next to a large freeway. The employees of the various commercial venues deal with boredom and existential anxiety by performing cheerful musical turns. The apocalypse is a tempting liberator.

Hair Wolf
U.S.A., 12 minutes. Written and directed by Mariama Diallo.
In a black hair salon in gentrifying Brooklyn, the local residents fend off a strange new monster: white women intent on sucking the lifeblood from black culture.

JEOM
U.S.A., South Korea, 4 minutes. Written and directed by Kangmin Kim. A father and a son both have the same big birthmark on their butt. Believing that the two birthmarks are connected, the son scrubs his father’s birthmark to remove it – but he just can’t get rid of it.

Fauve
Canada, 16 minutes. Written and directed by Jérémy Comte.
Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer.

Matria
Spain, 21 minutes. Written and directed by Álvaro Gago.
Faced with a challenging daily routine, Ramona tries to take refuge in her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter.

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

Film Synopsis: In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig.

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

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

Leaning into the Wind is a vibrant journey through the diverse layers of Andy Goldsworthy’s world. From urban Edinburgh and London to the South of France and New England, each environment he encounters becomes a fresh kaleidoscopic canvas for his art. A lushly-visualized travelogue, Goldsworthy’s work and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s exquisite cinematography redefine landscape and inextricably tie human life to the natural world. [Magnolia 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.

Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934.
This Season The Royal Ballet creates a new production with additional choreography by Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane. Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night. Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score. Given its status today as arguably the best loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky’s score, but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa’s royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.

Staff Picks Series Every month a member of the Moxie staff picks a film that impacted their lives and we put it up on the big screen. July’s pick was made by Shay Rainey. “I wanted to screen this for the Moxie crowd because I think it’s one of the best and least well known movies to come out on the cusp of the 70s cinema revolution, and it’s definitely something for film lovers. Other films like The Last Picture Show, The Godfather, and Deer Hunter are great examples of American stories being told during the same period that have all the idealism of the 50s juxtaposed with the contemporary reality of war and greed. They Shoot Horses is tough, brilliantly shot, and hosts iconic performances from an ensemble cast. It runs the gamut of emotions, making it a true cinematic treasure. In college I had a class with Dr. Pat Elliot that introduced me to seventies film. Her instruction had a profound influence on me. I’ve been in love with the decade ever since. She had a bold intensity and an immeasurable knowledge of film that helped shape her students. This screening is dedicated to her.”

Free for Members

Summary: A total of nine Academy Award nominations went to this wildly acclaimed, allegorical drama set amongst the contestants in a marathon dance contest during the Great Depression. Gig Young stars as Rocky, the obnoxious emcee for a dance marathon that offers prize money of $1,500, a small fortune during hard economic times that brings out the worst in several participants. Among them are Gloria Beatty (Jane Fonda), a malcontent who’s partnered with a drifter, Robert Syverton (Michael Sarrazin); a pregnant farm girl (Bonnie Bedelia) and her husband (Bruce Dern); a sailor (Red Buttons); and an aspiring actress (Susannah York). As the marathon winds into a staggering second month, suspicion, doubt and insecurity rages among the competitors and even the decaying and increasingly manipulative Rocky, leading to a shocking crime.

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

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

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

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

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

Summary: This romantic musical update of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ won ten Oscars. The tale of a turf war between rival teenage gangs in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and the two lovers who cross battle lines has captivated audiences for four decades. The Stephen Sondheim/Leonard Bernstein score is just one of the reasons.

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

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

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

Film Synopsis: You’re in for thrills as Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) confronts snakes, Nazis and one astonishing cliffhanger after another — all topped off by the discovery and opening of the mystical Ark of the Covenant. [Paramount Pictures] A thorough, spoiler-filled Parent’s Guide can be found here.

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