An Evening With B. Dylan Hollis
Monday 2, BookPeople
Pandemic quarantine boredom and supply shortages led to many of us experimenting more in the kitchen, and in one case it worked out extremely well! B. Dylan Hollis is the guy you’ve probably spotted on Instagram Reels gamely but dubiously taking a stab at absurd Depression-era recipes like Hoover Stew with hot dogs and canned goods or Ration Cake, starring lard, boiled raisins, and molasses. For Hollis’ follow-up to 2023 bestselling cookbook Baking Yesteryear, the social media chef took a cross-country tour of vintage recipes, resulting in the 100 collected in Baking Across America. Retro recipes from the 1900s to the 2000s cover something from every state in the union, and rumor has it that Texas sheet cake reps the Lone Star State. Get your book signed and take in an enlightening conversation with Hollis, Alex Rigby, and Mackenzie Smith. – Kat McNevins
Midnight Run
Monday 2, Alamo South Lamar
Knowing this Drafthouse guest select comes via Ben Affleck doesn’t surprise me a bit. As one part of a famous filmic duo – I see you, Afflection stans – this butting-heads buddy comedy totally fits as an Affleck pick. Robert De Niro is a down-on-his-luck skip tracer, which is possibly the coolest job title for a relatively scummy profession. After getting assigned by his boss (played by the great Joey Pants) to deliver former mob accountant “the Duke” (Charles freakin’ Grodin), what was supposed to be easy cash turns into a hijinks-filled chase from the East to West Coast. Fans of Martin Brest’s work in previous police comedy Beverly Hills Cop are advised to catch this train to the other side of the law. – James Scott
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Monday 2 & Wednesday 4, All Austin-Area Alamo Drafthouses
Feeling a bit dystopian in the current political climate? Check out the first half of the original Hunger Games series finale for all the inspiration you need for your counterrevolutionary activities. While Katniss Everdeen fights President Snow’s dictatorial regime in Panem, we, too, fight the establishment – one map labeled the Gulf of Mexico at a time. Whether a member of the revolution, a fan of dystopian science fiction, or complicated love triangles, this movie has it all. – Julianna Plewes
Sunset Boulevard
Monday 2, Paramount Theatre
One of the best-loved Billy Wilder productions, Sunset Boulevard is a timeless tale of the greed and desperation Hollywood wreaks on its young acolytes as they age. It also set off a long practice of – to varying degrees performative and genuine – self-criticism among its elites. Gloria Swanson is glorious and tragic as the washed-up silent star Norma Desmond, atrophying in her mansion with her former director/husband and now faithful butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). Her quasi-exploitative relationship with young writer Joe (William Holden) lays bare the extent of her delusions, as crackling dialogue carries the viewer through the muck with Wilder and longtime collaborator Charles Brackett’s signature lightness. At the Paramount, it’s only fitting to see Norma the way she sees herself: “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” – Lina Fisher
Seed of Chucky
Monday 2, Hyperreal Film Club
Fifth in the Child’s Play series yet the first to be helmed by its creator Don Mancini, this Aughts nightmare makes for fun viewing – if you’re a freak! That’s why Hyperreal’s screening it in their new series, Freaks Only, which focuses on works “by, for, and about freaks.” Fans of this doll-ightfully dark franchise will recall that fourth installment Bride of Chucky ends with a hideous baby birthed from titular bride Tiffany’s rubber downstairs parts. Seed picks up the thread posthaste, with Chuck and Tiff’s progeny escaping their circus cage to find Mom & Dad. But there’s no hope for the kid being normal when their DNA’s laced with New Jersey serial killer blood. Also features Jennifer Tilly playing Jennifer Tilly, which is how you know the gays finally took over this slasher series. – James Scott
Saving Face
Monday 2 & Wednesday 4, AFS Cinema
I’m a sucker for intergenerational stories, particularly if they’re about parents and kids dealing with romance. There’s a real fun chaos to the idea: parents having to commiserate with their kid over dating troubles, forcing a new equality of situation into a historically uneven power dynamic. In director Alice Wu’s debut feature, protag Wil (Michelle Krusiec, Duplex) must take in her pregnant mother (Joan Chen, Twin Peaks), whose unwed status has her on the outs with her father. While Wil’s in the closet with her mom, she becomes enamored with her boss’ daughter (Lynn Chen, a five-episode recurring doctor on Grey’s Anatomy), who butts heads with her own father over choosing modern dance over ballet. Social expectations get broken; love comes from unexpected places; and hearts do change, even if it takes a little while. – James Scott
Brewery Spelling Bee
Monday 2, St. Elmo Brewing Co.
Brewery staff can show off their S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G skills as St. Elmo hosts its annual bee open for all brewers, bartenders, and brewery staff. Food trucks will be serving and drinks will be flowing, since everyone spells better with a little buzz. (Right?) The public can stop in and watch this extravaganza – which may be one of the words they have to spell. Every once in a while we need a reminder that the English language is bonkers. Fuchsia? That makes no sense! – Blake Leschber
Polite Society & The Assassin
Tuesday 3, Paramount Theatre
The Austin Asian American Film Festival presents this double feature of only very tangentially related films about, well, ladies kicking ass. They’re both recommended, if a study in tonal contrasts: We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor helmed 2023 action-comedy Polite Society, about a British-Pakistani teen and wannabe movie stunt performer who must save her sister from an extremely bad marriage match, while Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s 2015 wuxia epic – wherein the titular assassin’s resolve is tested when she’s sent to kill her childhood sweetheart – is deadly serious, and a stunning piece of artistry. – Kimberley Jones
Bay of Angels
Tuesday 3 & Saturday 7, AFS Cinema
Close your eyes to conjure a Jacques Demy film and you probably see color, like the Technicolor wows of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. But the French film legend started out in black & white – first Lola in 1961, then 1963’s Bay of Angels, starring Jeanne Moreau as a peroxide-blond gambling addict working the casinos in Nice. The screening kicks off a new AFS Essential Cinema summer series dubbed Club Med; other Mediterranean-set features include Taylor & Burton curiosity Boom!, Lina Wertmüller’s original Swept Away, and Godard’s Contempt. Bonnes vacances! – Kimberley Jones
Streets of Fire
Wednesday 4 – Thursday 5 & Saturday 7 – Sunday 8, AFS Cinema
Willem Dafoe is perhaps the best role-picker in Hollywood, with countless iconic characters from Robert Pattinson’s deranged mentor in The Lighthouse, to Emma Stone’s kooky mad scientist dad in Poor Things. But back in his younger days the roles skewed a little sexier – albeit with his singular brand of toothy sleaze. None fit the brand more so perhaps than in this 1984 camped-out neo-noir rock opera, wherein he plays Raven, an evil biker gang leader who kidnaps rock star Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). Her former soldier beau Cody (Michael Paré) is hired to rescue her and an urban chase ensues. Dafoe’s widow’s peak goes hard in this glam rock West Side Story that’s worth a watch on the big screen. – Lina Fisher
M3GAN
Thursday 5, Hyperreal Film Club
Every week there’s another negative story about AI, like the widely distributed bogus summer reading list that featured fake books invented by ChatGPT. Why are people even still messing with this stuff – haven’t they seen M3GAN? If this delightfully campy sci-fi horror served as a cautionary tale for when artificial intelligence finally becomes self-aware, we’d be logging out of all the AI stuff posthaste. But we just can’t help ourselves! Prep for the upcoming battles by studying closely what happens when a roboticist (Allison Williams) creates a companion doll for her niece (Violet McGraw) and things go haywire. Plus, you’ll be ready for M3GAN 2.0, out in late June. – Kat McNevins
Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what’s happening now or in the coming week.
This article appears in May 30 • 2025.
