Author: Josh Hornbeck

Josh is the founder of Cinema Cocktail, and he is a writer and director, podcaster and critic, and communications and marketing professional living and working in the greater Seattle area.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939) | May 20, 11:00 am

This heartrending masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi about the give-and-take between life and art marked the first full realization of the hypnotic long takes and eloquent camera movements that would come to define the director’s films. Kikunosuke (Shotaro Hanayagi), the adopted son of a legendary kabuki actor who is striving to achieve stardom by mastering female roles, turns to his infant brother’s wet nurse for support and affection—and she soon gives up everything for her beloved’s creative glory. – The Criterion Collection

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast: Shotaro Hanayagi, Kokichi Takada, Gonjuro Kawarazaki

Country: Japan

Distributor: Janus Films

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 2 hours, 24 minutes

Platform: The Criterion Channel

Special Programming: Classic Cinema

WATCH ON THE CRITERION CHANNEL
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Revenge (2018) | May 20, 12:00 am

Jen is enjoying a romantic getaway with her wealthy boyfriend, which is suddenly disrupted when his sleazy friends arrive for an unannounced hunting trip. Tension mounts until the situation abruptly––and viciously––intensifies, culminating in a shocking act that leaves Jen left for dead. Unfortunately for her assailants, Jen survives and reemerges with a relentless, wrathful intent: revenge. – Shudder

Director: Coralie Fargeat

Cast: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède

Country: France, Belgium

Distributor: Shudder

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Platform: Shudder

Special Programming: Midnight Movies

WATCH ON SHUDDER

La Flor: Part 1 (2019) | May 19, 6:30 pm

A decade in the making, Mariano Llinás’s La Flor is an unrepeatable labor of love and madness that redefines the concept of binge viewing. The director himself shows up at the start to preview the six episodes that await, each starring the same four remarkable actresses: Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa, and Laura Paredes. Overflowing with nested subplots and whiplash digressions, La Flor shape-shifts from a B-movie to a musical to a spy thriller to a category-defying metafiction—all of them without endings—to a remake of a very well-known French classic and, finally, to an enigmatic period piece that lacks a beginning (granted, all notions of beginnings and endings become fuzzy after 14 hours). An adventure in scale and duration, La Flor is a wildly entertaining exploration of the possibilities of fiction that lands somewhere close to its outer limits. – Film Society of Lincoln Center

Director: Mariano Llinás

Cast: Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa, Laura Paredes

Country: Argentina

Distributor: Grasshopper Film

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 3 hours, 46 minutes

Platform: Video-On-Demand

Special Programming: Long-Form Cinema

WHERE TO WATCH