The Ritz's NEW YEAR'S EVE Feast!

The Ritz's New Year's Eve Feast:
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
Friday 12/31, 7:00 @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

While we can't quite promise your New Year's Eve will end with big smoochies and proclamations of love as the clock strikes midnight, we can promise a supremely entertaining and classy night of watching, laughing, and feasting to close out 2010 in style. Ritz head chef Elijah Horgan has composed a special menu themed to the film, and of course we'll have our very own New Year's champagne toast. And if you do find yourself kissing your long time "friend" and professing your love after the show, well, you can thank us later.

The menu is below, as are the optional drink pairings:

"I'll Have What She's Having"
Ciabatta, proscuitto and salami with roasted tomato and herbed ricotta.
Everything served "Sally Style"... on the side.
Laetitia Pinot Noir - $10.00

"Chef's Salad"
Shrimp, baby spinach, red pepper, orange slices and pomegranate seeds.
Orange vinaigrette... yup, on the side.
Zen Sangria - $7.50

"When Harry Met Sally - Sweet and Sour"
Braised pork belly, poached pear, and "grilled raddichio" with a sweet and sour reduction (on the side).
Honey Pear Champagne Cocktail - $7.00

"Apple Pie"
Tartlet filled with strawberry and apple compote. Fresh cream topping... on the side.
Hot Apple Cider either non-Alcoholic for $4.00 or with Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum for $7.00

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Celluloid Handbag presents VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

Wednesday, December 29

7pm at the Ritz

Get your tickets here!

This month Celluloid Handbag has joined the act as part of High for the Holidays and is proud to present VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. This movie is packed with intoxicated starlets including Patty Duke, Sharon Tate and Barbara Parkins. Watch them wrestle with ambition, men and all the substances they have to abuse as they cope with the highs and lows that accompany being either extremely talented or extremely attractive.

As usual Austin's most fantastic drag personality will take the stage before the movie. On this special night conceived with the intention of celebrating altered states, you can bet Rebecca Havemeyer's opening act will have the audience rolling.

High for the Holidays: DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW

Dorothy, Toto and Pink Floyd:
DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW
Scattered Shows Sunday 12/26 thru Friday 1/7, @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

We may never know if Pink Floyd had the foresight to record their greatest album with the notion that it was meant to sync almost perfectly to Victor Fleming’s, THE WIZARD OF OZ. Some say that this is just a happy coincidence, perpetuated by bong rips and the child-like naiveté of your average stoner. Even though the band has categorically denied that this was their intent, others swear that the list of coincidences is too great for even Jungian Psychologists to deny.

Whatever your stance, it’s hard not to get excited when the ‘cha-ching’ from Money coincides with the exact moment Dorothy steps out into technicolor munchkin land. Even if DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW was not a brilliantly hatched plan, more meaningful than a double rainbow (all the way!), the two go together better than Funyuns and Mountain Dew (warning: while DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW can be enjoyed in any state of mind, Funyuns and Mountain Dew are only safe to ingest if you are high out of your mind).

Prizes courtesy of Red 7 at this and all other High for the Holidays shows.

Get your tickets for this great show now.

TRUE GRIT Opens Village, Lamar & Lake Creek!

Jeff Bridges & Matt Damon in the Coen Brothers':
TRUE GRIT
Now Playing @Lamar, Lake Creek & Village
Advance tickets available here

Pulp-auteurs Ethan and Joel Coen emerge with a new picture that is going to grind you up and spit you out. They’ve teamed up with their old friend Jeff Bridges (who they originally worked with on the classic THE BIG LEBOWSKI) and created a Western masterpiece. Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed Federal Marshall with perfect aim and no restraint. His performance is an awe-inspiring achievement in deadpan comedy.

When Cogburn is hired by a 14 year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld, in a role that could make her a star) to track down the man who killed her father, the two embark on a revenge expedition through Indian territory. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon, who has never been so funny), a hanger-on with his own intentions for the hunted man.

This is the Coen’s true follow-up to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MAN, another masterfully shot Western that infuses their distinct voices into an older genre. Here, the script is unbeatable and the strange phrasings and quirky way of talking will have you immersed in the story while tickled with glee. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is breathtaking. The film’s painstaking recreation of mid-nineteenth century West is fantastic.

Get your tickets for TRUE GRIT: Now Playing at Lamar, Village and Lake Creek

You Better Watch Out!

Horror Remix: You Better Watch Out
Thurs, Dec 23 at Lake Creek
Reserve your seat with a $5 food voucher!

Start a holiday tradition like no other. Three holiday horror classics sliced and diced down to a power-packed 2 hours. Plus, lots of fun extras, shorts and your puppet MCs, Cheesecake and Thunderclap. SO BAD… IT’S GOOD!

Featuring:
Iced (1988)
This straight-to-video snow ski slasher is a special little film; and much like skiing, this thing is best when drunk or stoned. Iced is the type of movie that get better with repeated viewings. If that’s the criteria for a great film, this might be a masterpiece… of shit.

In terms of traditional filmmaking, it does everything wrong. However, for a slasher film, it does everything right. When these two polarizing forces collide, a huge explosion occurs and cocaine rains down on the entire film… Iced is born. Don’t eat the red snow.

Christmas Evil (1980)
A really great, well made film, even with its ridiculous premise and even more ridiculous ending. Basically, Christmas Evil is a character study of a righteous man slowly going insane, and eventually believing he’s Santa Claus. This innocent delusion suddenly becomes dangerous and naysayers who don’t believe get waxed.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987)
This movie gets universally dogged for being one of the great rip-offs in film history. And rightfully so. Almost half of its runtime are clips from the first film! It’s shameless; yet awesome. You see, SNDN 2 essentially makes the original obsolete. All the good stuff from the first is here, plus new stuff. The combination of the two creates one of the largest body counts I’ve ever seen.

If you don’t treat the original like sacred art, you’re sure to enjoy this money grab. Terrible acting. Groan inducing one-liners. Unique kills. This is a really fun movie and a true crowd-pleaser. (EJ Antilla)

Admission is FREE, but you can reserve your seat with a $5 food voucher here

Lost Bill Murray film NOTHING LASTS FOREVER w/ filmmaker Tom Schiller LIVE!

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER with Director LIVE
Wed - 7 PM - Ritz

ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME RARE 35MM SCREENING!
NEVER RELEASED ON VIDEO OR DVD!

Writer-director Schiller is best known for his short films from the early days of SNL and, together with producer Lorne Michaels, concocted this imaginative fantasy-comedy about true love, bad art, magical bums, Carnegie Hall and space travel. Sweet, absurd and crammed with moments of inspired brilliance, it was barely released and never found the cult-audience it so rightfully deserved...

Set in some bizarre, retro, b&w time-period (with occasional Technicolor splashes!), the film follows a young man (a pre-GREMLINS Zach Galligan) on an adventure that will take him from beneath the earth to the surface of the moon, where Bill Murray is a sky host for a group of interplanetary grandmas. Things just get wilder from there.

It’s entirely incomparable to anything you’ve seen, and Schiller doesn't pander to his audience -- if you don't understand his surreal humor, then screw you! This is a true original that's alternately charming, crazy and utterly unique. Also featuring appearances from a skinny Dan Aykroyd, 1978 Playboy model Appolonia van Ravenstein, Lawrence Tierney and Larry “Bud” Melman, this is indisputably one of the most vivacious and inventive films of our lifetimes. Unbelievable, and unseeable anywhere else!

Accompanying the show will be a special, ultra-rare reel of Schiller's work!

Also, available TONIGHT ONLY will be the incredibly rare, glow-in-the-dark LUNARTINI. Just $7 and guaranteed to blast you to the mooooon!

Get your tickets NOW!

Get HIGH FOR THE HOLIDAYS at the Ritz

Don't Get Low, Get:
HIGH FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Monday 12/20 thru Sunday 1/2 @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

Our annual intoxication tradition is back! High For the Holidays - a time when Mistletoe and Eggnog are replaced by multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers and whatever else does the trick. High for the Holidays is a transcendental experience!

Monday 12/20: HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE w/ All-You-Can-Eat Mini-Burgers! - 7:40pm
Music Monday: The Monkees: HEAD - 10:15pm

Wednesday 12/22: THE HOLY MOUNTAIN - 9:45pm
Weird Wednesday: THE MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE - 12:30am

Sunday 12/26: FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS - 6:45pm
DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW - 9:50pm

Monday 12/27: DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW - 7:00pm
Music Monday: The Monkees: HEAD - 9:45pm

Tuesday 12/28: FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS - 7:00pm

Wednesday 12/29: Celluloid Handbag: VALLEY OF THE DOLLS - 7:00pm
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN - 9:50pm
Weird Wednesday: THE DEAN'S WIFE - 12:30am

Thursday 12/30: SUPER TROOPERS Quote-Along - 7:00pm

Saturday 1/1: DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW - 10:00pm

Sunday 1/2: DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW - 7:00pm

Get your tickets for these great shows now.

GET CRAZY!: A rare 35mm screening of the wildest New Year's rock explosion ever made!

Zzang!!!: GET CRAZY - Not on DVD!
Sun, Dec 19 - 10:00 - Ritz

This year, we unleashed our new series ZZANG!!!, a relentlessly wild monthly celebration of '80s insanity on film. We've dedicated ourselves to celebrating the most rabidly garish and spastic movies the neon decade had to offer.

GET CRAZY destroys them ALL.

Director Allan Arkush's follow-up to his beloved ROCK N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL offers up an even more outrageous look at rock, roll, sex and drugs! It's New Year's Eve in New York City and a wicked promoter has a plan to hatch a massive concert at the biggest venue in town. As the bands and the fans start showing up at The Saturn, things do indeed Get Crazy.

Every conceivable musical stereotype is on the lineup for the night: a zany Bob Dylan-esque character played by Lou Reed; Reggie Wanker (Malcolm McDowell), an egotistical rocker in the Mick Jagger mold who ends up having a conversation with his penis; and an all-girl new-wave band called Nada who arrive in a beat up old Chevy with a license plate that says "GET BENT." The trunk pops open and out comes the band's secret weapon: an aggressive punk rock maniac named Piggy (Fear's Lee Ving). He immediately bashes his head into a wall, signs a contract by smashing his skull into the form and punches a stagehand in the gut!!

OUR GUARANTEE: this movie is rabid, manic and totally raging! ZZANG!!!

One night only! Rare as hell!
Get your tickets NOWWWWW!!!

TRON Opens Village, Lamar & Lake Creek on Friday!

The Game Has Changed:
TRON: LEGACY
Starts Friday December 17 @Lamar, Lake Creek & Village
Advance tickets available here

In 1982, Disney created the mind-altering TRON. A flurry of cutting-edge computer graphics, the original film created a world that we've often returned back to in our dreams. TRON brought videogames into the cinema in a big way, and the world inside the game, THE GRID, is still one of the most iconic CG-realms ever created.

Now, after more than 25 years, we're finally able to return to the world of this beloved cult classic. Technology has certainly improved, as you'll see in the amazing 3D photography. Those weary of sequels need to hold their judgments - in a film so centrally about technology, an update like this can only be good. Add to that the fact that Jeff Bridges revives his role from the original film, and you've got a bona fide smash on your hands.

None of this mentions the absolutely out of control fantastic score by Daft Punk, the greatest robo-techno band on this planet or any other. Lifelong fanatics for the original film, the French bots of Daft Punk have made possibly the best orchestral-electro score in movie history. It's unbelievable.

Get your tickets for TRON now: Opening at Lamar, Lake Creek, and Village this Friday!

Join Daft Punk on their quest to become human

Daft Punk's ELECTROMA
Thurs, Dec 16 at Lake Creek
Advance tickets available here

In our excitement for the opening of TRON: LEGACY, which features a killer soundtrack by our favorite robots-cum-electronic musicians Daft Punk, we decided it was about time to revisit the group’s visual and musical odyssey ELECTROMA. Have you ever wondered what is was like to become a robot? This is not the case for Daft Punk, as they already know what it’s like to be a robot (and French). Rather, ELECTROMA follows the pair as they embark on a quest to become human.

In this experimental film, the duo decided it best not to use their own music, and instead relied on such musical heavyweights as Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, Sébastien Tellier and Curtis Mayfield to score the film. If you’re expecting the film to be as upbeat and fast-paced as Daft Punk’s music, you may be sorely disappointed. That being said, Electroma is as visually stunning as it is nuanced, and totally worth a watch (especially on gorgeous 35mm).

If you purchase tickets to both the 10p ELECTROMA and the midnight TRON: LEGACY, we'll reserve you a seat and help you bypass the line!

Click here to grab your tickets now!

A CHRISTMAS STORY Christmas Feast!

A CHRISTMAS STORY
With Chinese themed Christmas mini-feast!
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15 at ALAMO VILLAGE
Get tickets HERE!

Think about the double dog dare, the Chinese caroling, the Red Ryder bb gun, those creepy elves and of course that “fra-jee-lay” Italian imported leg lamp. There is more timeless iconography packed into this perfect little gem than any other Christmas film since the birth of Jesus.

For this special presentation your ticket to the theater a multi-course meal themed to A CHRISTMAS STORY. We encourage each and every one of you to snort along and enjoy your plate just like the piggy does as you chow down on Shrimp, Carrot and Mushroom Eggrolls followed by Roast Duck Breast with mashed potatoes and ginger-sesame sugar snaps, and then rounded all off with Fudge with Vanilla Ice Cream and a Fortune Cookie.

Santa and Satan battle it out in Foleyvision

Foleyvision: SANTA VS SATAN
Sun, Dec 12 at South Lamar
Advance tickets available here

The world's most unique film-viewing experience is returning to tackle jolly old Saint Nick in the most riotously bizarre holiday movie you'll see in this lifetime! All music, voices and sound effects will be performed live in the theater!

This holiday season, Foleyvision takes on an incredibly ludicrous Christmas movie from south of the border that features your favorite laughing fat man in a red suit versus your favorite laughing skinny man in a red suit. And this time, it's personal. But when this turf war is over, the only casualty will be your abdominal muscles, sore from laughing for over an hour an a half straight. Watching this movie at Christmas time with the full Foleyvision treatment is one of the most extravagant joys those of us with hopelessly warped minds can hope to experience.

Click here to grab your tickets!

Better Watch Out! RARE EXPORTS opens Friday at Lamar!

Ho Ho Ho:
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE
Starts Friday December 10 @Lamar
Advance tickets available here

Starting Friday, we open the Santasploitation rager RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE at the South Lamar theatre. This Yuletide genre film blew audiences away at our Fantastic Fest this past September, and we're thrilled to bring it back for a run at the Alamo.

If you've seen the RARE EXPORTS trailer, you know why we're exposing you and your family to this madness. In the film, a malevolent Santa Claus is accidentally unearthed during an archeological dig in frosty northern Finland. When an armed band of locals abduct the decidedly non-jolly old St. Nick and hold him for ransom, they are besieged by Santa's ruthless, homicidal elves.

Get the picture? Santa is real and he totally sucks. RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE will have you staying up all night this Christmas, sitting by the chimney with a shotgun in your lap. We wouldn't have it any other way.

And that's not all! In celebration of the opening of the film this Friday, we're going to provide a very special Christmas Card photo op for you. We have captured Santa, and we're keeping him sedated and caged like a vicious animal in our lobby. You can swing by anytime between 6 and 10:30pm on Friday or Saturday and have your picture taken with a snarling, feral Santa Claus. Though he is confined in a cage, we will equip you with a weapon for the photograph - our insurance requires it.

We'll post the photos on our Facebook page and you can tag yourself and send the link to all your dumb friends who don't believe in Santa Claus.

Better watch out, tickets are selling fast. Buy them here now and avoid the rush.

The Nutcracker Suite like you've never heard it before!

Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite w/ Invincible Czars LIVE
Thurs, Dec 9 at Lake Creek
Advance tickets available here

Take one part Stravinsky, one part Van Halen, and one part Captain Beefheart – mix them together and listen while huffing on a rag soaked in ether, and you may be getting close to pinning down the signature sound of Austin's Invincible Czars. Riff rock, classical music, loungey grooves, spacey klezmer, country shuffles, and circusy polka; the Czars blend genres seamlessly and send them all hurtling back in a frenetic, yet sophisticated arrangement.

Never one to rest on their laurels, the Czars have continually pushed themselves into new creative ventures including the scoring of silent films (THE UNKNOWN, AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS, DESTINY) and the re-working of famous classical suites including Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” and Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain.”

Since 2004, the band has made it a holiday tradition of performing their original take on the Nutcracker Suite. As an early Christmas present to you and yours, we’ve teamed up to bring them to the Drafthouse! On Thursday, December 9th, for one night only, the Czars will perform their Nutcracker show in its entirety at the Alamo Lake Creek. This is classical music like you’ve never heard before and certainly a great way to get into the holiday spirit!

Check out what people have been saying about this show:

“Every moment of it rocks.”
- Austin Powell – The Austin Chronicle

“The perfect addition to anyone’s holiday season.”
- John Aielli – KUT FM

“…combines all the beauty of Tchaikovsky’s original opus and turns it up to 11.”
- Dusty Rhodes The Houston Press

“…frenzied, turn-of-the-century riot inducing classical music…”
- Michael Chamy The Dallas Observer

Click here to grab your tickets now!

SHOWGIRLS with live commentary by the venerable David Schmader

SHOWGIRLS with David Schmader
Weds, Dec 8 at The Ritz
Advance tickets available here

Upon its 1995 release, Paul Verhoeven’s glitzy stripper drama SHOWGIRLS earned some of the most extravagantly awful reviews in cinema history. “A film of thunderous oafishness,” wrote Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. Critics around the globe unanimously damned SHOWGIRLS as a failure doomed to die in infamy. Only it didn’t.

Since its original release, SHOWGIRLS has grown into a full-fledged cult phenomenon, thanks in no small part to the cinematic missionary work undertaken by David Schmader, the critically acclaimed writer and performer who hosted his first annotated screenings of the film at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum in 1999.

Part art-appreciation lecture, part sit-down comedy routine, all against the backdrop of Verhoeven’s peerlessly offensive, flesh-drenched disaster, SHOWGIRLS with David Schmader was an instant hit, packing theaters in Seattle and touring to film festivals across the country, with Schmader reintroducing Verhoeven’s hideous folly to a generation of filmgoers as the most inadvertent, surreally hilarious comedy in film history.

Click here to grab your tickets now!

Everything's better if you add a little chocolate!

Edible Austin: CHOCOLAT
Mon, Dec 6 at South Lamar
Advance tickets and full menu available here

Hey chocoholics, do we have an event for you! We’ve partnered with Edible Austin to present a special screening of CHOCOLAT, paired with an exquisite dinner inspired by food featured in the film. Alamo Executive Chef John Bullington will prepare a meal featuring CHOCOLATE, and tons of it.

If chocolate is indeed the ultimate aphrodisiac, then consuming a meal featuring close to a pound of high quality, amazing chocolate should get get your motors running. Have we mentioned the word “chocolate” enough to pique your interest? If you’re not already sold on supping on delicious chocolate while you watch a 5 time Academy Award nominated film, then what if I told you that all proceeds would benefit the youth development program, Urban Roots? Okay, then what if I said “chocolate” one more time?

Click here to check out the full menu and grab your tickets now!

STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT & MAGNETIC FIELDS

Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt profiled in:
STRANGE POWERS
Friday 12/3 thru Thursday 12/9 @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

Back by Popular Demand!

With his unique gift for memorable melodies, lovelorn lyrics and wry musical stylings that blend classic Tin Pan Alley with modern sounds, Stephin Merritt has distinguished himself as one of contemporary pop's most beloved and influential artists.

Both a prolific recording artist and composer of theater and film scores, he performs most famously as the Magnetic Fields, whose 1999 three-disc opus 69 Love Songs is widely considered a masterpiece of traditional songcraft and irresistible synthpop.

Ten years in the making, STRANGE POWERS explores Merritt's songwriting and recording process, and focuses on his relationships with his bandmates and longtime manager Claudia Gonson, revealing an artist who has produced one of the most engaging and confounding bodies of work in the contemporary American songbook.

Get your tickets for this great show now.

The INDIE DARLINGS SING-ALONG - ONE NIGHT ONLY!

The Action Pack presents

THE INDIE DARLINGS SING-ALONG

Thursday, Dec 2 at Alamo Ritz

ONE NIGHT ONLY! Get your tickets here!

It's no secret that the majority of our music video Sing-Along parties celebrate the poppiest of pop music. From Ladies of the 80s to Jiggy Crunk: the Pop Rap Sing-Along, our shows are usually all about the songs that we all know and love but sometimes have to pretend like we're too cool for. With the INDIE DARLINGS SING-ALONG we're going in the other direction for the first time ever. There will still be big pop that everyone knows, but it won't be the absolute cheesiest, and there will be much more Brooklyn than our other shows. We're thinking more Bjork than Britney, more MGMT than JT, and more Chromeo than ever before because god damn it "Night By Night" gets our vote for Song of the Year. (Henri Mazza)