Grand Illusion Cinema

05/30/2026

Due to popular demand we added a show of THE HANDMAIDEN on June 17 at the SIFF Film Center.

Tomorrow’s screening will have a limited amount of tickets available on a first come first serve basis. Special intro by Hannah Baek tomorrow only!

Park Chan-wook’s twisty, kinky, divinely decadent period thriller, set in a Japanese-occupied 1930s Korea that’s imagined with baroque flourish by set designer Ryu Seong-hee, follows a hired handmaiden (Kim Tae-ri) as she enters the service of a shut-in heiress (Kim Min-hee) and her elderly, dictatorial uncle, while at the same time pursuing an underhanded agenda unknown to her new master and mistress—until, that is, the women concoct a plan of their own to take care of the men who have been manipulating and controlling them.

An ingeniously structured work whose interlocking narratives and tricky perspectival shifts, handled with apparent ease, make for an acerbic, comic, and often sultry spin on the old-dark-house mystery, taut with thrilling turnabouts and and SM restraints.

In Korean and Japanese with English subtitles.

“The Handmaiden is at once a superlative thriller and a deeply erotic character study, but it’s the intelligence, mordant wit and depth of characterisation that are the real turn-ons.” Andrew Lowry, Empire

“The Handmaiden is a nearly flawless movie. Every frame, every movement of the camera, every performance feels perfectly calibrated for maximum effect.” Emily St. James, Vox

About the guest speaker: Hannah Baek is a film programmer and educator with an academic background in Asian cinema. They currently serve as the Director of Programming at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma, as well as the Festival Director of Sea Slug Animation Festival.

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/the-handmaiden/

05/29/2026

We present a new restoration of Tsui Hark's delirious action comedy PEKING OPERA BLUES June 15th at NW Film Forum!

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the , .

“Rarely has the ability of Hong Kong genre cinema to juggle wildly conflicting moods been more evident than in Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues. The film doesn’t so much alternate between as simultaneously embody a screwball comedy, political thriller, buddy action flick, and a melodramatic tribute to rapidly forged yet unbreakable emotional bonds. That it not only hangs together but flows cogently and provides a stellar showcase for each of its lead actresses marks the film as one of Tsui’s finest achievements.” Jake Cole, Slant Magazine

In the aftermath of China’s first democratic revolution, three high-spirited young women from different backgrounds cross paths on a quest for liberation. Together, their intertwined lives weave an epic tale of love, sacrifice and patriotism, as they embark on a daring journey in the midst of political chaos. Elegantly blending action, comedy and social satire into a bright and colorful production, PEKING OPERA BLUES boasts Tsui Hark’s energetic filmmaking style at the height of his powers, and remains an acclaimed classic of Hong Kong cinema. In Cantonese with English subtitles.

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/peking-opera-blues-new-4k-restoration/

05/29/2026

BLUE HERON plays this Sunday at the SIFF Film Center. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly erratic behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice.

In English and Hungarian with English subtitles.

“There is a pulsating ache at the heart of writer/director Sophy Romvari’s assured feature debut Blue Heron that hits with such precision, it could break you open from the inside.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

“Heartbreaking barely begins to describe it, although the terms masterful and transcendent also apply.” Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“My favorite movie of 2026 so far… an emotionally ferocious but elegant reconstruction of memory…” Sean Fennessey, The Big Picture podcast

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/blue-heron/

05/28/2026

Hundreds of Beavers is back at Central Cinema tomorrow for its 27th encore screening!

“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/hundreds-of-beavers-at-central-cinema/

05/27/2026

Something is wrong in the city of Anywhere. Arnold, an unemployed middle-aged mouse, confides to his wife Maria that he suspects his entire world is nothing more than a set, and his life a scripted performance. When his best friend Ramiro dies under mysterious circumstances, he traces the conspiracy to a monolithic corporation whose influence reaches every corner of their daily lives.

Adapted from the acclaimed 2016 short film by director Alberto Vázquez (BIRDBOY: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN, UNICORN WARS), DECORADO blends biting humor with haunting beauty in a darkly comedic odyssey through our era of social control, manufactured realities, and the quest for authentic human connection.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

“This paranoid and dystopian vision of life under capitalism is grim but funny—surreally cartoonish yet filled with sarcastic adult ennui, like Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space punctuated by a dose of Happy Tree Friends’ goofy gore, eventually approaching something fearful and self-referential enough to evoke the existential absurdity of Charlie Kaufman.” Jacob Oller, AV Club

See it tomorrow 5/27 at the SIFF Film Center presented by us!

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/decorado/

05/26/2026

MILE END KICKS is tomorrow at NW Film Forum at 7pm!

"So funny and knowing and true, rom-com of the year with a bullet and a killer soundtrack to boot. Wonderful wonderful film.” David Ehrlich on Letterboxd

Based in part on writer/director Chandler Levack’s own young adulthood prior to becoming a professional music critic and filmmaker, MILE END KICKS stars Barbie Ferreira as Grace Pine, a young woman who moves to Montreal, Quebec, with the goal of writing a book about Alanis Morissette’s album, Jagged Little Pill, but instead becomes romantically involved with Archi (Devon Bostick) and Chevy (Stanley Simons), two members of the aspiring indie rock band Bone Patrol, and takes a job as the band’s publicist.

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/mile-end-kicks/

05/25/2026

“There is a pulsating ache at the heart of writer/director Sophy Romvari’s assured feature debut BLUE HERON that hits with such precision, it could break you open from the inside.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

See it Sunday, May 31 at 430pm at the SIFF Film Center.

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly erratic behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

In English and Hungarian with English subtitles.

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/blue-heron/

05/23/2026

DEAD LOVER Stink-O-Vision screenings turn cinema into a full-body experience. Each audience member receives a Stink-O-Vision card created by scent artists, unleashing a carefully choreographed bouquet of aromas—funky, foul, seductive, and downright unholy—that sync with key moments in the film.

Encore screening this Monday at 730pm at NW Film Forum!

A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses (director/co-writer Grace Glowicki) finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love. Shot on dreamy 16mm with music by U.S. Girls.

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/dead-lover-in-stink-o-vision/

05/22/2026

We present a 30th anniversary screening of Cheryl Dunye's q***r cinema landmark THE WATERMELON WOMAN, June 8, 730pm at NW Film Forum.

Cheryl Dunye made cinematic history with THE WATERMELON WOMAN, the first American feature to be directed by a black le***an as well as an incisive, humorous critique of classic Hollywood's racist stereotypes. Dunye plays an eponymous video store employee and burgeoning filmmaker who sets out to make a documentary on the Watermelon Woman (Lisa Marie Bronson), an actress who specialized in "mammy" roles for Hollywood productions of the 30s and 40s. As Cheryl uncovers the Watermelon Woman's identity she not only learns about a secret behind-the-scenes in*******al romance but also begins one of her own with Diana (Guinevere Turner), a white woman who arouses the ire of Cheryl's best friend Tamara (Valerie Walker). A landmark of the New Q***r Cinema, THE WATERMELON WOMAN testifies to the power of excavating legacies of oppression and in the process creates a progressive legacy of its own.

“Funny and smart, full of biting humor and astute observations about identity and history, Cheryl Dunye’s audacious, joyous debut feature captures the process of falling hopelessly in love with the movies.” Serena Donadoni, Village Voice

“They don’t get much more groundbreaking than [this].” Andrea Thompson, Chicago Reader

And be sure to also check out Dunye’s early filmography via Northwest Film Forum’s presentation of She Don’t Fade: The Short Films of Cheryl Dunye, playing June 3 – 10.

Cheryl Dunye made cinematic history with THE WATERMELON WOMAN, the first American feature to be directed by a black le***an as well as an incisive, humorous critique of classic Hollywood's racist stereotypes. Dunye plays an eponymous video store employee and burgeoning filmmaker who sets out to make...

05/22/2026

“Hilarious, slyly self-deprecating and yet deeply compassionate, writer/director Chandler Levack’s delightful gem of a movie MILE END KICKS is one that already feels like it has all the makings of a coming-of-age classic for a new generation.” , TheWrap

Based in part on writer/director Chandler Levack’s own young adulthood prior to becoming a professional music critic and filmmaker, MILE END KICKS stars Barbie Ferreira as Grace Pine, a young woman who moves to Montreal, Quebec, with the goal of writing a book about Alanis Morissette’s album, Jagged Little Pill, but instead becomes romantically involved with Archi (Devon Bostick) and Chevy (Stanley Simons), two members of the aspiring indie rock band Bone Patrol, and takes a job as the band’s publicist.

MILE END KICKS plays this Tuesday at NW Film Forum presented by us!

https://grandillusioncinema.org/film/mile-end-kicks/