When I first started The New Cult Canon column two years ago, it was under the hope that cult movie fans would follow along in their living rooms with me, revisiting the movies they cared about and perhaps discovering a few new along the way. It never occurred to me that this disparate group of folks would have a chance to convene in one place, much less the most majestic and beloved movie house in Chicago.
But it’s happening. On Wednesday, July 28th at 7:30 p.m., The New Cult Canon presents David Lynch’s 1997 mindbender Lost Highway at the Music Box Theatre. Yours truly will be in attendance to introduce the film—briefly; nothing worse than long-winded introductions—and lead a discussion afterwards. (It’ll be like live-commenting! In real time! Using our actual voices!) As for the movie itself, I’m excited about showing it for two reasons: 1. It’s a sprawling, lurid, gorgeous production, shot in CinemaScope, that not enough people have seen on a big screen. 2. It was underrated terribly—not least by me—at the time, and now looks like a proto-Mulholland Dr., with two very different sides that cohere brilliantly as a manifestation of one man’s psychosis. The years have been very kind to this movie.
So please mark your calendars. If the evening is a success, more New Cult Canon events may be possible in the future. That’s how capitalism works.