Neon Dreams Cinema Club: MIKE'S MURDER (35mm!)
608 College St, Toronto, ON M6G 1B4, Canada
43.6553504
-79.41458169999999
Neon Dreams turns 4 years old! And to celebrate we are keeping with our yearly tradition of unearthing films largely forgotten by time. This April we are doubling down with what we humbly but sincerely believe is the best film we have ever had the pleasure of presenting.
Debra Winger delivers the best performance of her career and possibly the decade as naive bank teller Betty Parrish. When her mysterious on-again-off-again lover is brutally murdered, she is driven to piece together what happened. This takes her down a rabbit hole of L.A.’s debaucherous criminal underworld, realizing far too late that she is in way over her head. Her investigation leads to many shocking revelations and ultimately to a scenario that is so tense you might actually forget to breathe.
In addition to being one of the best crime thrillers of its era, Mike’s Murder contains one of the deepest and most alluring depictions of Los Angeles’s queer underworld. As an openly gay director navigating his way through an industry that has not fully accepted his community, James Bridges (The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy) knows first-hand what it’s like to be an outsider looking in and uses that to masterfully present a vision of L.A. that is simultaneously dangerous and alienating.
Yanked away from Bridges in post-production, recut without his consent, and barely released into theatres, Mike’s Murder is a film that to this day barely exists. For our fourth birthday, we are celebrating by giving Mike’s Murder the respect and admiration it never received while Bridges was alive by honoring it in a gorgeous 35mm presentation.
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This screening and others are made possible thanks to our wonderful sponsor Hollywood Suite. As always this will be a fully licensed event featuring a fabulous on-screen pre-show. Be sure to arrive early!