Night One: “Happy, Texas” (1999) and “Shattered Glass” (2003)
Saturday, December 6
7 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
“Happy, Texas” 
Starring Steve Zahn as Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr.
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Director: Mark Illsley
Notable co-star: Jeremy Northam
Synopsis: Happy, Texas is a fish-out-of-water comedy about two con men who escape from prison, then pose as gay lovers to hide out in a small Texas town. Mistaken for consultants to the Little Miss Fresh Squeezed Beauty Pageant, Harry (Jeremy Northam) and Wayne (Steve Zahn) go along with the ruse so they can stake out the local bank.
Critical Acclaim: “Anybody with a soft spot for fakers, who either identifies with them or just admires their chutzpah, is going to get a kick out of Happy, Texas” Bob Graham, San Fransisco Chronicle
Trailer
Saturday, December 6
9 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
“Shattered Glass”
Starring Steve Zahn as Adam Penenberg
Runtime: 94 Minutes
Director: Billy Ray
Notable Co-star: Peter Saarsgard
Synopsis: Before Jayson Blair made headlines for his plagiarized New York Times reporting, Stephen Glass defamed the weekly current events magazine The New Republic with a series of eye-catching, entertaining, and completely fabricated stories. Now Glass’ trail of lies gets the big-screen treatment in writer/director Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass. The film chronicles Glass’ time at the magazine in the late ’90s, when his colorful coverage of a hedonistic Young Republican convention, superstar web hackers, and the circus surrounding the Monica Lewinsky scandal made him the toast of the publishing world. Barely out of college, the eager Glass ingratiates himself with the office staff, including his mentor, managing editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria). But when Kelly is unceremoniously fired and replaced with editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), Glass’ pieces come under a greater degree of scrutiny, until one in particular threatens to expose his tall tales to the rest of the world.
Critical Acclaim: “A scarily compelling thriller that puts journalistic ethics on trial.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Trailer
Night Two: Angst Night Double Feature: Reality Bites (1994) and SubUrbia (1997)
Sunday, December 7
7 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
“Reality Bites” (1994)
Starring Steve Zahn as Sammy Gray
Runtime: 99 Minutes
Director: Ben Stiller
Notable Co-Star: Jeanine Garafolo
Synopsis: In the Gen-X mainstay film, Winona Ryder stars as Lelaina, a recent college graduate. Out on her own and independent from her supportive, but out-of-touch parents, Lelaina faces the realities of careers and relationships. She can’t stand her internship under a local television personality, and she’s forced to choose between Michael (Ben Stiller), a well-intentioned music-video network executive, and Troy (Ethan Hawke), a brooding, sensitive slacker.
Critical Acclaim: “Like the generation it presents so appealingly, it doesn’t see any point in getting all bent out of shape and overambitious. But it knows how to hang out and have a great time.” Caryn James, New York Times
Trailer
Sunday, December 7
9 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
“subUrbia” (1997)
Starring Steve Zahn as Buff
Runtime: 121 Minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Notable Co-star: Giovanni Ribisi
Synopsis: Director Richard Linklater and writer/actor Eric Bogosian collaborated on this adaptation of Bogosian’s play about a handful of people edging into their 20’s. SubUrbia’s protagonists have few if any clear goals and hang out not as a means of killing time, but as a way of life. It’s a big night in front of the convenience store; Pony (Jayce Bartok), who used to play guitar at school dances, has become a rock star, and promises to stop by after his show at the local hockey arena (none of his friends have the money to see him play).
Critical Acclaim: “[Linklater] takes the despair of ‘Waiting for Godot” and tops it: His heroes aren’t waiting as a mission, but as a lifestyle.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Trailer
Night Three: That Thing You Do (1996)
Monday, December 8
8 PM
5724 Hollywood Blvd.
Starring Steve Zahn as Lenny Haise
Runtime: 108 Minutes
Director: Tom Hanks
Notable Co-star: Johnathon Schaech
Synopsis: Tom Hanks made his directorial debut in this bright comedy set in the mid-1960’s about a rock group and their brief fling with fame.
Critical Acclaim: “Uma história simples, contada de maneira também simples, que acaba agradando por suas boas intenções.” Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Trailer
Night Four: Freak Talks About Sex (1999)
Tuesday, December 9
8 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
Starring Steve Zahn as Freak
Runtime: 90 Minutes*
Director: Paul Todisco
Notable Co-star: Josh Hamilton
Synopsis: So what do you do when your best friend is a brain-fried stoner named Freak who still lives with his parents — and his life is making more progress than your own? That’s the dilemma facing Dave (Josh Hamilton), who decided several years ago to get out of Syracuse, New York and make a new life for himself in Arizona. However, Arizona didn’t work out well for him, so he ended up back in upstate New York, and things haven’t gotten any easier for him. Then there’s his best friend Freak (Steve Zahn), owner of Syracuse’s busiest bong and fond of philosophical statements like “I can’t think of a single movie that couldn’t be improved by a lesbian sex scene,” who is starting to show disturbing signs of growing up and developing a sense of responsibility.
Critical Acclaim: “Ceaselessly hilarious verbiage from rising star Steve Zahn as the trash-talking title dude and the best work yet from Josh Hamilton, in sensitive-loser mode, make “Freak Talks About Sex” a can’t-miss item for disaffected twentysomethings.” Ken Eisner, Variety
Trailer
*A “short” will be shown before the film of Steve Zahn’s 1995 guest appearance on Friends as Pheobe’s gay ice caspading husband, Duncan.
Night Five: Out of Sight (1998)
Wednesday, December 10
8 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
Starring Steve Zahn as Glenn Michaels
Runtime: 123 Minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Notable Co-Star: George Clooney
Synopsis: Ex-con Jack Foley (George Clooney) robs a bank, his car goes dead, and Foley lands in a Florida prison. His escape from prison doesn’t go as planned, since it’s witnessed by deputy federal marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). Foley’s pal Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames) intervenes with the result that Sisco winds up in the trunk of the getaway car with Foley. The two realize they’re attracted to each other, despite being on opposite sides of the law, and the real fun begins. However, that doesn’t stop Sisco from her mission to capture Foley, who has spent much of his life in prison.
Critical Acclaim: “Crackles and snaps on the screen as the kind of exhilarating entertainment that makes it all look easy.” Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Trailer
Night Six: Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
Friday, December 12
(Note: No Thursday Screening!)
8 PM
5724 Hollywood Blvd.
Starring Steve Zahn as Ray Hasek
Runtime: 132 Minutes
Director: Penny Marshall
Notable Co-star: Drew Barrymore
Synopsis: A single mother, with dreams of becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 in 1965, and goes through a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father.
Critical Acclaim: “A funny, poignant adaptation of Beverly D’Onofrio’s autobiography, and a chick flick that’s refreshingly sap-free.” Kevin Maynard, Mr. Showbiz
Trailer
Night Seven: Heist Night Double Feature: Chain of Fools (2000) and Safe Men (1998)
Sunday, December 14th
(Note: No Saturday Screening!)
7:30 PM
5724 Hollywood Blvd.
“Chain of Fools” (2000)
Starring Steve Zahn as Thomas Kresk The Barber
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Director: Patrick von Krusenstjerna
Notable Co-star: David Cross
Synopsis: In this independent comedy, a man who finds stolen treasure still cannot change his bad luck. A luckless barber (Steve Zahn), despondent over his life’s downhill slide, is considering suicide when he comes across a stash of rare and valuable coins. But the coins turn out to be stolen, and before long, an increasing number of strange people are after him, the coins, and each other, including hired thief Avnet (Jeff Goldblum).
Critical Acclaim: “The plot is pretty good, not brilliant but allows for some very funny twists, and some unbelievably funny, but fairly unlikely, very complicated, situations that will make you laugh for several minutes without stopping for a breath, provided that you like black humor.” Some Guy, IMDB
Trailer
Sunday, December 14th
9:30 PM
5724 Hollywood Blvd.
“Safe Men” (1998)
Starring Steve Zahn as Eddie
Runtime: 88 Minutes
Director: John Hamburg
Notable Co-star: Sam Rockwell
Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity forces a pair of lounge singers to pose as safecrackers in this farce. Sam (Sam Rockwell) and Eddie (Steve Zahn) are hapless musicians; Frank (Mark Ruffalo) and Mitchell (Josh Pais) are expert safecrackers. But when local Jewish gangster Big Fat Bernie Gayle (Michael Lerner) dispatches his henchman, Veal Chop (Paul Giamatti), to trick the safecrackers into service, the hapless Veal Chop can’t tell the difference.
Critical Acclaim: “The second funniest film of the summer.” Ron Wells, FilmThreat
Trailer
Night Eight: Saving Silverman (2001)
Monday, December 15
8 PM
4312 Franklin Ave.
Starring Steve Zahn as Wayne
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Director: Dennis Dugan
Notable Co-Star: Jack Black
Synopsis: Darren Silverman (Jason Biggs) is a loser at love, so his best friends J.D. (Jack Black) and Wayne (Steve Zahn) set him up on a date with his dream girl, Judith (Amanda Peet). A serious relationship develops and threatens to become a marriage, but J.D. and Wayne come to the conclusion that Judith is totally wrong for Darren. In an effort to reunite their pal with Sandy (Amanda Detmer), his long-lost love from school, they kidnap Judith. However, the wily bride to be is at least one step ahead of her captors in the wits department.
Critical Acclaim: “Someone ought to call the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Actors.” Lou Lemenick, New York Post
Trailer
