Adaptations Book Club is our monthly book club that meets to answer the age old question: Is the book truly better?

This June, we are reading Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and watching Ulrike Ottinger’s West German comedic take Freak Orlando. Both the novel and this film are celebrated for their unique takes on gender, sexuality, and queerness. Told over the course of five episodes, Freak Orlando provides a one-of-a-kind adaptational experience for the viewer.

Come ready to discuss the book as well as the film! Books purchased through our bookshop.org link directly benefit the store. Check it out!

ANIMONDAYS exists to exhibit great works of animation from all over the world (but mostly Japan). This month we're hitting the road with Kino's Journey!

Kino and the talking motorcycle Hermes travel from country to country in a fairy-tale world, seeking only to learn about each unique place and its people's way of life. Though the pair always try to respect the traditions of their hosts, the locals don't always take too kindly to drifters. It's a good thing Kino always keeps a pistol or two close at hand...

Kino's Journey (2003) is more often than not a gentle, thought-provoking series. Each episode presents a new philosophical dilemma, daring you to pick a side before revealing some perspective-shifting piece of context that complicates the problem even further. The author of the source novels, Keiichi Sigsawa, is not interested in providing easy answers; rather, he wants the reader/viewer to see the incredibly human origins of these conflicts and the 'beauty' of a flawed but compassionate world.

Join us on June 9th, 7:00 PM, for the first four episodes of Kino's Journey - just enough to cover our protagonists' backstory, as well as a city full of telepaths and the shocking story of people who actually want to go to work! Presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Rated PG for occasional violence.

Beat the heat and shred the waves at this month’s Family Matinee screening, SURF’S UP. After March of the Penguins in 2005 and Happy Feet in 2006, Surf’s Up delivers more penguin activities in a much warmer climate.

In this animated mockumentary, we follow young penguin Cody as he leaves Antarctica to compete in an international surf competition. It may seem like a ridiculous premise, but with each stupid joke, this movie delivers genuine heart.

The late, great Wings Hauser wears short shorts and fights angry locals and mutant murder zombies who all have hands that look suspiciously like vaginas in this criminally under-looked small town horror movie from 1984. He's helped by the local sheriff, played by genre stalwart Bo Hopkins and the town doctor (Jennifer Warren) who has maybe the worst string of patients in cinematic history and pours a lot of red stuff into beakers to unravel the town's terrible mystery.

Wings Hauser was a favorite actor of ours, having played some of the most incredible and most charismatic heavies and anti-heros; from VICE SQUAD to TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE, and please don't forget PALE BLOOD... However, after his passing, we very much wanted to screen a film where he plays a hero. Granted, he's not perfect. He's not the best driver. His pants are a little too tight, his kicks a little too high and reckless, but hey, he's fighting mutant zombies in a town gone mad. You kinda can't blame him. We love Wings, and we're gonna miss him.

Please join us for MUTANT. It's gonna be a wild ride!

The gloriously grotesque cult classic STREET TRASH returns with a vengeance in this mind-bending post-apocalyptic sequel premiering exclusively at We Luv Video!

Visionary director Ryan Kruger (Fried Barry) cranks the mayhem to eleven as a totalitarian regime implements their horrifyingly literal "solution" to homelessness through technicolor melting madness. Equal parts social satire, splatter comedy, and surrealist nightmare, this audacious update delivers the perfectly twisted mirror our bizarre times deserve.

Grab your hazmat suit and prepare for the year's most deliriously unhinged cinematic experience – it's a meltdown you won't want to miss!

Presenting the best short films from local student filmmakers. This line up of Little Movies brings you shorts about longing. That’s right! Longing! Longing for love, longing for friendship, longing for home, and maybe also connection.

Join us for at least three (or maybe five), but definitely no longer than sixty minutes of wildly different films that all tackle themes of longing through sometimes humorous, more often heartbreaking, yet always interesting lenses.

These films are hot off the press, so catch them BEFORE they hit the festival circuit and chat with a slate of at least three (or could be five) up and coming filmmakers, so that together we can answer the question “is there an end to human want?”

Screening to be followed by a brief Q+A.

SunGays is getting tender y’all.

In celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month, we proudly present 1995’s Shinjuku Boys. Shinjuku Boys explores the lives of three transmascs who work at the New Marilyn Club (a host club) in Tokyo. Follow these three onabe as they discuss romance, family life, concepts of gender + presentation, and their general outlooks on life. This sweet 53 minute doc will leave your heart full and begging for a Where Are They Now? sequel.

Preceding Shinjuku Boys will be a screening of the short film Dead Youth (1967). Using Mutsuo Takahashi’s poetry as a backdrop, diretor Donald Richie paints a portrait of queer men’s desire.

The Black Auteur Film Festival presents: We Real Cool

A night of short films by local Black filmmakers. Stick around after the screening for a Q&A.

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Genre: Mumblecore, Autofiction

Synopsis: Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, me and my victim is about co-directors and subjects, Maurane and Billy Pedlow, who are not quite friends and not quite lovers and the true, messy, and kind-of-fucked-up story about how they met. a messy, whirlwind, imperfect, orgasmic, meme-inflected, jump into the rabbit hole of their on-again, off-again situationship, their ultra-micro-budget (the film was made for less than $1000 us) confession playfully captures the humanity of love and lust in the 21st century. 

Adaptations Book Club is our monthly book club that meets to answer the age old question: Is the book truly better?

We are changing it up for May by doing an author study rather than a direct adaptation. Read any title by Yukio Mishima before our screening of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. This unique biographical drama weaves in elements from the following books if you need guidance on a book to select to read: Runaway Horses, Temple of the Golden Pavillion, and Kyoko’s House.

Come ready to discuss Yukio Mishima and his life as well as the book you read! Books purchased through our bookshop.org link directly benefit the store. Check it out!

Not familiar with Yukio Mishima? Here is a summary of his life to help inform your reading + watching.

Hey you, yeah you, are you cool? How cool are you? Are you the coolest? Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t but there is no denying that in 1991- one Mr. Vanilla Ice was cooler than the rest. In fact, he was Cool as Ice.

Join us as we celebrate the life of the coolest guy you’ve ever met as he tries to convince his babe to trade her life or horseback riding for a life of yellow motorcycles and wrap around sunglasses! Along the way he battles gangsters, bad fashion, and the sneaking suspicion that maybe he wasn’t meant to be an actor.

As always enjoy free beer and free friendship at this very free and very cool installment of Odd World.

ANIMONDAYS exists to exhibit great works of animation from all over the world (but mostly Japan). This month we take a backwards dive into cyberpunk philosophy with Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell.

In the future, cybernetic enhancements are so common that most human consciousnesses ('ghosts') are connected directly to the internet, while their bodies ('shells') have been augmented beyond normal human capabilities. Major Motoko Kusanagi is tasked with preventing cyber terrorism and tracking down the enigmatic Puppet Master who hijacks people's brains to commit high-profile crimes. As she follows the trail left by the ghost-hacker, she wrestles with questions of identity and humanity in a world where the line between person and machine continues to blur.

Ghost in the Shell holds a colossal presence in cyberpunk and anime history, directly influencing blockbuster Hollywood directors like the Wachowskis (JUST LOOK at The Matrix - it's the closest we'll ever come to a live-action GitS!* ), James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg. Its reflections on the nature of consciousness only grow more pertinent with the current commercial push towards artificial intelligence. Plus, it's packed with some of the best action sequences and head explosions ever put to screen!

Join us on May 12th at 7:00 PM, and ponder your terrifying existence with Ghost in the Shell. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Rated somewhere between PG-13 and R for violence, non-sexual nudity, profanity, and intense action.

*I know what I said.

Free the chickens and avoid the pies with this month’s Family Matinee screening.

British chickens, Scottish chickens, American chickens. All the chickens.

Featuring quite a few chickens, this Aardman Animation classic still reigns supreme as the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.

Join Fangoria and We Luv Video for a fun-filled night of horror trivia and sweet, sweet slashin’!

This May, follow Courtney (survivor of the FIRST) Slumber Party Massacre, as she faces off against a supernatural foe with a power-drill guitar.

The Driller Killer is like if Fred Krueger was really into Elvis. Seriously. You don’t wanna miss this!

Fangoria Trivia is sponsored by Oddwood Brewing.

Join us for a fun filled night of horror trivia with Fangoria and Righteous Retro!
This April we are showing Lamberto Bava’s Demons!

A group of random people are invited to a screening of a mysterious movie, only to find themselves trapped in the theater with ravenous demons….hmmm we promise this won’t happen during your screening….

hopefully.

This event will have free beer courtesy of Celis Brewery!

This 4/20 (and Easter) SunGays at We Luv Video brings you the silliest stoner comedy of all time from New Queer Cinema legend Gregg Araki.

Just like Jesus emerging from the tomb, we follow the equally resilient (and super stoned) Jane through a series of misadventures after she eats cannabis laced cupcakes. Seriously, this is like the Uncut Gems of stoner comedies.

With an all-star cast including Anna Faris, John Krasinski, and stoner comedy legend John Cho, there is no better way to spend your holy & gay 4/20.

A Cat III masterwork of murder, Dismemberment and Pork Buns starring Anthony Wong as a man you never want to cook for you, unless you have very peculiar tastes.

Based on a true case that happened in Macau. Yummy.

It’s time that Odd World celebrates one of the dumbest movies of the 90’s- a movie so silly it could only be known by one name: The Stupids!

Join us as we watch Tom Arnold pretend to be a tree in order to catch a mail thief and inadvertently uncover a massive arms smuggling ring in the film critics called “screamingly unfunny” AND “Tom Arnold’s finest hour.”

This is a joyful celebration of idiocy, so come hang and enjoy some free beer and good friends, and prepare to be stupified.

ANIMONDAYS exists to exhibit great works of animation from all over the world (but mostly Japan). This month we're delving into a wild fairy tale with Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie!

On paper, Utena shouldn't work. The film compresses an entire season of magical girl high school television into 90 minutes, discarding context and racing through character motivations at a break-neck pace. Despite this, the filmmakers pulled off something miraculous - what's left after distilling the plot is wave after wave of fairytale images and violent implications rolling over one another, mixing into a micro-dosed cocktail of rose petals and winding stairways. You don't understand the plot, but you damn well FEEL it.

If you have any love for the off-beat, the artistic, the grossly flamboyant, or just a good coming-of-age-story, you owe it to yourself to experience this fever dream of a film. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Rated PG-13 (our best approximation) for sexual themes, partial nudity, implied abuse, and sword violence.

As you wish…

A fairy tale adventure filled with fiery swamps, epic sword fights, and a quest for true love, join Westley and Princess Buttercup as you(emphasized pls) fall back in love with this timeless classic.

We Luv Video’s Family Matinee Screenings cover everything from the 90’s classics to your modern twists.

All ages welcome - no kids required!

A long-lost, unheralded sci-fi treasure from the early ‘80s, Wavelength offers a unique, documentary-style take on alien contact. Written and directed by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mike Gray (The China Syndrome), the film blends stark realism with a pulsing, synth-driven score by Tangerine Dream.

Starring Robert Carradine and Cherie Currie of The Runaways, Wavelength follows a struggling musician and a telepathic woman who uncover a government facility holding extraterrestrial captives. As they embark on a daring rescue, the film eschews spectacle for a grounded, intimate approach—making for a haunting, thought-provoking experience unlike any other in the genre.

Understated yet compelling, Wavelength remains a hidden gem, waiting to be rediscovered by sci-fi aficionados and fans of atmospheric, cerebral storytelling

Do you LOVE video rental stores? Of course you do!

Come celebrate the magic of video rentals with a screening of Be Kind Rewind, a movie that hits even harder now than when it came out in 2008. The movie, which playfully and imaginatively envisions a community coming together to defeat Blockbuster and save their neighborhood video store, would feel melancholic to stream at home, but we get to watch it IN our neighborhood video store!

Plus, enjoy a special pre-show compilation of archival clips and oral history excerpts related to Texas video stores from special mystery experts presented by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.

Entry is free with RSVP!

Adaptations Book Club is We Luv Video’s monthly book club. We meet to answer the age old question, is the book better?
This April we dive into classic children’s fiction with Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Oft adapted, but never better (editorializing here!) than in 1996 when Kermit the Frog took a pen to paper and made the swashbuckling adventure film starring Tim Curry!

You can purchase your book through our bookshop.org page in order to directly support the store here.

“Beautifully captured… this is the closest any document has yet come to capturing how it all happened, which is to say how the media event that was Nirvana unfolded before the public:” -Patrick Dahl, Screen Slate (Screen Slate’s Best Movies of 2023)

“An almost authorless yet sincere tribute to the late ‘90s band.” -Jeremy Polacek, Hyperallergic

The biographical story of Nirvana told through the media detritus left in Kurt Cobain’s wake, I Hate Myself and I Want to Die tracks the bemused trio as they grapple with the blitzkrieg of global superstardom.

Collating ephemera to tell a linear narrative through the outside gaze of home video, lost practice footage, local news broadcasts, stoned TV interviews, insensitive true-crime shows, crushing live performances and more, the collected lenses reflect the lovers and leechers circling the bizarre and spectacular voyage of the unlikeliest band in the world.

Following early 2010s screenings at Spectacle Theater and The Museum of Arts and Design, IHMAIWTD was refined over the ensuing years as freshly exhumed archival materials became available. In November 2023, a new version premiered at Spectacle Theater to sold out audiences and has since been stealthy making its way across the country.

In this childhood classic, Matilda stands up against her evil principal, Miss Trunchbull, and her rude parents to protect herself, her friends, and her teacher Miss Honey.

Directed by and starring Danny DeVito, this Roald Dahl adaptation is filled with books, bravery, and the magical powers of kindness.

It’s a double feature! Austin Animation Showcase kicks it off at 7pm with a compilation of weird animation the way that only Austin artists can deliver. It's Liquid Television and Adult Swim style with a lonestar kick. Afterward, Righteous Retro and Schlock Therapy team up to bring you a compilation of hand picked schlocky retro action clips from the 70s, 80s and 90s!

Tickets for this event are free.

Come for the Jungle Adventure, Stay for the Rubber Monsters! Strap in and prepare for a movie that dares to ask, what if Romancing the Stone had way less romance, way more fog machines, and an unlimited budget for rubbery reptile creatures? Starring the always-effortless Peter Fonda as a jaded helicopter pilot and Deborah Raffin as an anthropologist on a mission to find a legendary lizard-thing, this movie delivers everything you never knew you needed: steamy jungle locales, droning synth scores, and creatures that look like they escaped from a high school theater department’s fever dream. And just when you think it couldn’t get any weirder—John Amos pops in for a cameo that defies all logic and reason.

Directed by the genre-hopping Gus Trikonis—who danced his way out of West Side Story and into a career of offbeat classics like The Evil and Take This Job and Shove It—this film is the perfect mix of adventure, horror, and unintentional comedy. Whether you know it as Dance of the Dwarfs, Jungle Heat, or Easy Flyer (because, you know, Peter Fonda), this is one expedition you won’t forget—no matter how hard you try.

So, grab your best khakis, practice your terrified jungle screams, and join us for a screening that will leave you questioning everything—especially how this movie exists in the first place.

This movie truly has everything: gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, wrath. You name it, it’s here and it’s NASTY. David Fincher knocks it out of the park with this crime thriller starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and some creep named Kevin. If you haven’t seen this, you’re in for a real treat and if you have, don’t spoil what’s in the box!

This is the final installment of the Seven Deadly Sins series, hope y’all had fun along the way and stay tuned for what’s next.

Odd World is back and ready to blow you away with THUNDERPANTS- the tale of a young man, his incredible gift (it’s super strong farts), a friend who can’t smell (it’s Ron from Harry Potter), and a mission to space. This is a real movie. Please come and see. Please don’t fart.

As always- free movie, free beer, and free friendships!

An indie queer erotic thriller that can only be described as “Videodrome meets Shocker meets Crash (1996)” and that’s only scratching the surface.

After being struck by lightning, Dr. Bill Matthews recovers in the hospital where he also works. An intern named Craig Murphy slips him a card inviting him to a meeting of "people just like us." In this "group," Bill finds other survivors who have been electrocuted in various ways. But he soon discovers that the members are addicted to the electric current. And not only does Bill become hooked, his relationship with sexy Dr. Craig Murphy deepens, setting a chain of events into shocking motion.

Filming for Socket took place over only nine days. This thing is a beaut.