June 6-12, 2025

Hello, friends! 

The laugh-as-you-watch-through-your-fingers comedy Friendship continues for one last week; if you’ve not had the chance to see it yet, be sure to stop by before its final day on June 12. 

And we’ve got two wonderful new films joining our line-up this week: Ocean with David Attenborough and The Phoenician Scheme by our beloved Wes Anderson.  

If you’re like me, David Attenborough’s ravishing and immersive nature documentaries have been a comforting fixture in your life for many years, with series like Planet Earth and Blue Planet, or perhaps going back even further to 1979, when Attenborough launched his Life on Earth films. There are few nature documentarians like Attenborough, who inform us so deeply while also making us fall in love in new ways with the glorious world we live in, and this year, with a film release on his 99th birthday, he has done it again. Ocean with David Attenborough is “a gorgeously-shot film that celebrates the unique beauty and diversity that comes from dipping our heads beneath the surface of the water” (The Standard) and “a visual marvel like all his work . . . [both] absorbing and compelling”  (The Guardian), and it is an extraordinary treat to see such glorious beauty on the big screen. 

The film, too, imbued as it is with Attenborough’s own profound, lifelong dedication to the preservation and protection of our world, comes with an urgent warning as much as it offers celebration: Attenborough “makes a passionate case against the ruin caused by industrial overfishing and the sinister mega-trawlers which roam everywhere, raking the seabed with their vast metal nets, brutally and wastefully hoovering up fish populations of which the majority is often simply thrown away, depleting developing countries and fishing communities of their share.” And he notes that this kind of destruction is “the new colonialism.” A sobering thought. 

The film’s release, purposely timed with the U.N.’s World Ocean Day on June 8, ultimately provides us with a beautiful opportunity to invigorate our love for the natural world, to celebrate its stunning beauty and reaffirm our commitment to its care.   

And hurrah! Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is also here, beginning its official run with us today after a packed sneak preview screening last night. As I intimated in my brief notes last week, this new film has all the classic earmarks Anderson fans have come to know and love: the precisely-ordered composition; the rigorously loving attention to shape and color and costume; the deadpan humor; the sight gags and dry jokes; the unique score and soundtrack; the wonderfully unusual performances from an ensemble cast, with actors often playing seriocomic roles that not many other filmmakers would imagine for them.

Here, Benicio Del Toro--perhaps best known for serious films like Sicario, Traffic, and Che--takes the central role with glorious deadpan aplomb; Anderson newcomer Mia Theapleton pulls off her pipe-smoking nun role with perfect, straight-faced comedy; and Benedict Cumberbatch--also of course, more known for his serious roles--understands the assignment perfectly and nails the Andersonian approach to humor. Perhaps best of all is Michael Cera, whose impeccable comic understanding has been clear from the beginning of his career with such projects as Arrested Development but also more recently in Barbie, and here, he shines in a role that takes a twist halfway through and showcases his wonderful talents. 

More like Anderson’s earlier films ( e.g. The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore), too, The Phoenician Scheme is something of a return to narrative form; it’s less like The French Dispatch, which contained unique and distinct stories, and it instead follows one narrative throughline, making for a satisfyingly propulsive story and ultimately resolving in a layered emotional resonance. Some viewers may grapple a little with the relative overall coldness of Wes Anderson's emotional landscape, his purposeful undercutting of emotion, a hallmark of all of his films. But while this film does not reach the kind of tonal warmth something like Moonrise Kingdom does (my favorite of his films), the emotion of The Phoenician Scheme is here for those looking for it, and I suspect it will gain richness upon rewatches: the sweetness of the quiet, gentle ending has a moving profundity to it that I’m still thinking about. 

Bravo, Wes, you’ve done it again. 

In addition to an encore of National Theatre Live’s Dr. Strangelove on Sunday at 10 am, we also have two very special events: 

First, we are absolutely delighted to welcome to the Pickford Martin Gottlieb and Anne-Marie Johnson, the director and star, respectively, of The Addiction of Hope, an independent film that was largely shot in and around Bellingham. It’s an absolute treat to see locations here in Whatcom County rendered so gorgeously on screen; our hometown and the neighboring locales never looked better!

The film follows the story of Jo (Johnson), an L.A. actress who had enormous success earlier in life but begins to find the roles available to her are drying up--the sexism, ageism, and racism of Hollywood becoming even bigger obstacles--and when her sister, Lynnie (Harley Jane Kozak), invites Jo to come stay with her in the Pacific Northwest, Jo finds herself facing deep questions about her life, her priorities, and her path forward.  Sensitively approached, the drama is heartfelt and timely, and Jo’s character is beautifully complex and played with extraordinary nuance by Johnson, who shows us Jo’s painful rough edges even while we sympathize with her.  The supporting cast, too, is terrific, and among others, fans of Shawshank Redemption and Starship Troopers will recognize Clancy Brown, and fans of Get Out and American Fiction will recognize Erika Alexander. 

Join us on Saturday at 1:30 for this very special film and event, where Gottlieb and Johnson will join us for the film and for a Q&A afterwards.      

Finally, we’re so pleased to celebrate Pride this year with a brand new series lovingly curated by none other than our fabulous Pickford projectionists: Drag Me to the Movies, a celebration of the tradition of drag in film.  

Our projectionists welcome us into the series in this way: “Drag is a performance art used to express, reflect, and analyze gender identities and experiences through costuming, makeup, music, or a number of other outlets.  In Bellingham, drag has had a home here for over a century, with one of its first celebrities being Percy Irvine Yarick, performing at Bellingham's Grand Theater on Holly Street in 1905. Since then, we have been home to hundreds if not thousands of drag performers, all of them seeking to express themselves through art, comedy, sorrow, and fabulous looks. The films for this year's Pride series are just a small collection of works that not only provide entertainment through drag, but also educate and inform us of the wide range of life and drag experiences.”

The series kicks off with the marvelous comedy classic, The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols, adapted by Elaine May, and starring the inimitable Nathan Lane and Robin Williams.  Join us on Thursday at 11 am or 7:45 pm! 

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa