Hiway Theater

July Programming Notes Julia Mahony — June 5, 2023 Will Tom Cruise pull off the top spot in the box office two summers in a row? Last year, Cruise soared on our screens with Top Gun: Maverick. This year, starting July 12, he will be back on the Hiway's screen with another sure-fire action hit, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. Cruise will reprise his classic role as Ethan Hunt for the first part of what will be the finale of the entire Mission: Impossible series. You can't miss seeing this summer blockbuster as it is made to be seen: on the big screen, with a crowd of fellow movie-goers.

Our $5 Family Matinee for July is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (July 22).In this second film from the TMNT franchise, our sewer-dwelling heroes team up stop Shredder from getting his hands on the last canister of ooze, the toxic slime responsible for their mutant transformation. Featuring tubular battles, killer rhymes by Vanilla Ice, and TONS of pizza, this '90s classic is a must see.

Our Horror at the Hiway screening this month will make you second guess turning off your lights at summer camp. In Sleepaway Camp, Angela Baker, a shy youth, gets shipped off to Camp Arawak for the summer with her cousin Ricky. Shortly after their arrival, a series of bizarre and violent "accidents" begin to claim the lives of various campers. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, this slasher boasts one of the most unforgettable endings in horror film history. Fans of horror can look forward to Terror-Thon, coming to the Hiway in September. Usher in the spookiest season of the year with us from September 22 to 23 with an event that will celebrate a cross section of the horror genre, featuring everything from '80s slashers and iconic monster films to foreign cult classics.

In addition to our Hollywood Summer Nights series, celebrate the hottest new July holiday, Barbenheimer, by going to our sister theater, The Ambler. Mark your calendars on July 21 for the most anticipated double feature of the season, as both Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie open to audiences on our big screens. The real question is, which film will you see first?

June Programming Notes Julia Mahony — June 1, 2023 June at the Hiway promises main runs that range from work by a leading arthouse director to a summer big-budget summer “tentpole” title. Special events include new entries in our Horror at the Hiway and Family Matinee series. For those in search of classic movie titles, check out our Hollywood Summer Nights lineup at our sister theater, The Ambler.

We’re swinging into the month with Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse starting on June 1. This visually imaginative animated superhero flick is a sequel to the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Miles Morales is balancing being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man with family, school, and being a teenager, when he is beckoned back into the multiverse to protect it from an imminent threat.

We’re balancing that blockbuster title by following it up with Asteroid City by Wes Anderson, the tweed-clad darling of indie cinema, starting June 23. Set in an American desert town in the 1950s, the film follows students and parents at a Junior Stargazer and Space Cadet convention, whose stay becomes spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events. Keep an eye out for the upcoming Mission Impossible installment in mid-July.

For the month of June, our $5 family matinee (free for members) is The Wiz (June 17). This Motown reimagination of the Wizard of Oz stars Diana Ross as Dorothy, a teacher from Harlem who is transported to the magical city of Oz. The soundtrack is a standout, and Ross is joined by a legendary supporting cast including Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor. This pairs well with our Deep Focus seminar on The Wizard of Oz on Tuesday, June 20 at 7:30pm. That discussion is a part of our Flaming Classics series which focuses on Queer and Trans cinema. We’re also kicking off a new Deep Focus online seminar series this month focused on Jazz music in movies. Join us on Tuesday June 6 at 7:30pm for our talk on Alfie, and keep an eye out for future titles in the series.

Our upcoming Horror at the Hiway installment will be on the deeply weird and highly entertaining Phantasm (June 23). A teenage boy, his older brother, and a marijuana loving ice cream man attempt to fend off an indestructible grave robber who employs a lethal arsenal of flying spheres, as he looks to plunge their town into unholy darkness. This 70’s horror staple was a mostly DIY production that has become a cult classic.

May Programming Notes Julia Mahony — May 5, 2023 Our first main-run film at the Hiway this May will be an adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic tale Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Eleven-year-old Margaret is uprooted from her life in New York City and transplanted to the suburbs, where she has to deal with puberty, new friends, and a new school. Starring Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Abby Ryder Fortson, this coming-of-age tale brims with humor and a candid exploration of life's biggest questions. Keep an eye out for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in early June!

For Mother’s Day, we’ll be showing the fun, feel-good ABBA jukebox musical Mama Mia! (May 14). Set on a beautiful Mediterranean island, this musical tale tells the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young woman about to get married, who is trying to figure out who her father is. Sophie's mother, a hotel proprietor with a spirited past, is played by none other than Meryl Streep.

We will be showing the Steven Spielberg live action adaptation of Peter Pan, Hook, as our $5 Family Matinee on May 20. Featuring an all-star ensemble of Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, and Maggie Smith, this tale picks up with and adult Peter having to return to Neverland, crossing paths with an old foe, and looking for his youthful spirit. This screening is free for members.

Stay out past your bedtime for Fright Night (May 26), our Horror at the Hiway offering this month. This 80’s vampire flick blends humor with suspense, telling the story of high-schooler Charley Brewster, whose homework and girlfriend problems pale in comparison to the fact that his suave new neighbor is a bloodthirsty vampire.

We will have two different online discussions as part of our Deep Focus Program this month. The first online seminar will be on May 16 on Sweet Smell of Success led by TCM writer and Doylestown native Hannah Jack. For our Queer and Trans Cinema Series, we will have a discussion on John Waters’ Polyester on May 23. This film is a satirical take on Douglas Sirk melodramas starring Waters's muse Divine. Christine Holmlund, professor Emerita of Cinema Studies, as well as Gender/Sexuality/Women’s Studies, at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will be leading the seminar Zoom. Ahead of these discussions, both films will be shown on screen ahead at our sister theater, The Ambler.

April Programming Notes Julia Mahony — Apr 7, 2023 Spring has sprung at the Princeton Garden Theatre and we’re kicking off April with a strong run of special Spring has sprung here at the Hiway Theater! We are very excited this month to continue to offer our patrons a mix of big-name commercial films, indie titles, family shows, and special events like our Horror at the Hiway series.

The Hiway will be kicking off April with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, starting April 5th. The voice cast will transport viewers of all ages and video gamers from all eras to the Mushroom Kingdom. Chris Pratt, playing the titular plumber, is joined by the ethereal Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Keegan-Michael Key as an anthropomorphic toadstool on the search to find his brother Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day. In the process, they will all band together to save the world from the fire-breathing Bowser, voiced by Jack Black.

Horror at the Hiway continues to bring you the best and most frighteningly fun films in the genre. We’re howling back in April with John Landis’s horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London (Apr 21).

Our Family Matinee title for this month is the 80’s animated fantasy The Last Unicorn (Apr 22). This mythical tale reaches beyond the tired binary of good versus evil towards a more complex story with layered characters.

Patrons willing to travel may also be interested in checking out an exciting lineup of offerings with more of an arthouse bent hosted by our partners at the Ambler Theater. Check the Ambler website for their listings of main run and special event films.

We have a variety of online seminars as a part of our Deep Focus program this month. Join us for a discussion of Baby Face on Tuesday Apr 11, led by TCM writer Hannah Jack. A seminar on Cinema’s First Nasty Women: Queens of Destruction, a collection of shorts featuring silent comediennes,will meet on Tues, Apr 18, at 7:30pm, and will be led by Professor Maggie Hennefeld, who co-curated the collection. Paris is Burning, the next entry in our Queer Cinema series, Flaming Classics, will be held on Tues, Apr 25, at 7:30pm, and will be led by Professor Lucas Hildebrand, who wrote a book on the celebrated documentary.

March Programming Notes Brendan Joyce — Feb 28, 2023 Starting in March The Hiway Theater will be showing Creed III This third entry in this popular sports series (an offshoot of the “Rocky” films) is notable for several reasons. This is the first “Rocky'' related project sans Sylvester Stallone, but Creed more than makes up for it with the magnificent supporting performance from rising star Jonathan Majors. Also, this is star Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut -- and early reviews have praised Creed's intense choreography, spectacular cinematography, and more nuanced characterizations.

Also this month, we're holding our inaugural science fiction festival – the Sci-Phi Film Fest. Join us for this three-day event that celebrates what makes the science fiction genre both unique and exciting. We will showcase a wide array of titles — from cult classics to Hollywood staples — and explore strange new worlds on the big screen! Weekend festival passes are available at $65 General and $50 Member. Individual tickets for each screening are now available to purchase as well. We;re also working on t-shirts, posters, and other commemorative items, so stay tuned for announcements.

Our goal with programming this inaugural festival was to highlight both the standard bearers of the Sci-Fi genre but also the deeper cuts that hardcore fans of the genre rarely ever get to see on the big screen. That’s why we’re kicking off the fest with The Fifth Element (Mar 24), which is a late ‘90s piece of futurist pop cinema featuring a career-defining performance from Milla Jovovich and a stellar action hero turn from Bruce Willis.

We follow that up with one of the goofiest pieces of horror cinema in Jason X (Mar 24) – which will be projected on 35MM film courtesy of a print from Exhumed Films. Some have asked us – why would we feature this horror/sci-fi mashup over such cinematic classics as Alien or Predator? The answer to that question is that both those films are now owned by Disney after they acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. Since the Hiway Theater shows main-run Disney films, the House of Mouse will not allow us to show any classic repertory films from either the Disney or Fox catalog. We're hoping to rectify this in the future and acquire those titles, but for now, you will just have to bask in the campiness of Jason Voorhees in space.

Then that Saturday, we’re excited to kick off the day with a $5 Family Matinee showing of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (Mar 25) with English dubbing, followed by the ‘50 sci-fi classic – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Mar 25). Then later in the day, we screen the rarely seen but marvelous Afrofuturistic Sci-Fi Punk Musical – Neptune Frost (Mar 25). Then we conclude our Saturday with a Schwarzenegger double-feature as we screen The Terminator (Mar 25) and Total Recall (Mar 25).

We conclude the first annual Sci-Phi Film Fest on Sunday with a double billing of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (Mar 26), which includes a special ‘Trek-centric’ surprise before the movie gets underway. Which is followed by our closing night screening of one of the most groundbreaking science fiction films ever made -- Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (Mar 26).

Finally, be sure to grab your tickets to our annual Hollywood Awards Party on Sunday, March 12. Join us in celebrating the best films of the past year. Tickets to the Hollywood Awards Watch Party will not only support the Hiway Theater but will include popcorn and fountain drink.

Februrary Programming Notes Brendan Joyce — Feb 1, 2023 Welcome to a new monthly feature, in which a member of our programming team highlights some of the upcoming films and special events we have on deck for the upcoming month.

Starting in February we will be looking to bring back Oscar nominated films ahead of the Academy Awards and our theater’s Hollywood Awards Party on Sunday, March 12. Starting the week of February 3 we will be bringing back Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has a staggering 11 nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for frontrunner Ke Huy Quan, whose Hollywood comeback has been one of the best stories of the year. In celebration of his most recent success, we wanted to look back at his first role as a child star in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Feb 16).

Also, on February 3 we’ll be bringing in The Whale, which has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Brendan Fraser for Best Actor. Then on February 17 don’t miss our annual showcase of the Oscar Nominated Short Films in the Live-Action, Documentary, and Animation categories.

Romance is in the air this February at The Hiway Theater as we highlight several films that celebrate love on the big screen. We kick the month off with the steamy big screen adaptation of The Notebook (Feb 8) starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. In celebration of Galentine’s Day, a day intended to honor the connection you have with your lady friends, we will be offering a screening of the ever popular ‘90s cult classic Clueless (Feb 9). Then don’t forget to stay up late for our monthly Horror at the Hiway offering! This month’s film will be Bride of Chucky (Feb 10) — featuring everyone's favorite killer doll finding true love!

We conclude our romantic slate of films on Valentine’s Day with a screening of When Harry Met Sally (Feb 14), which is one of the most quintessential romantic comedies ever made. If you plan to attend our screening of When Harry Met Sally, be sure to put a special message for your Valentine on screen before the movie starts.

Finally, join us for two family $5 Family Matinees this month with the beloved ‘80s comedy Troop Beverly Hills (Feb 10) and the film adaptation of Matilda (Feb 25), which is based on the popular Roald Dahl children's novel. Also, don’t forget about our 90th anniversary screening of the iconic Marx Brothers film – Duck Soup (Feb 15), which is fun for the whole family!

Stay tuned as next month we will be holding our very first science fiction festival – the Sci-Phi Film Fest. Join us for this three-day event that celebrates what makes the science fiction genre both unique and exciting. We will showcase a wide array of titles — from cult classics to Hollywood staples — and explore strange new worlds on the big screen! Check our website in the coming days for more information on the films, tickets, and how to secure a festival pass for this weekend event running from March 24 - 26.

Our programming team has also noted the many requests for straight to streaming films such as 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' — and why we haven’t played it yet. This is due to the decisions made by streaming service distributors such as Netflix that chose to show a film such as Glass Onion for one week at select big box theaters before its stream exclusively on their platform. When it comes to streaming services and their distribution methods, sometimes their decision making will differ from film to film and even year to year. Last year Netflix allowed us and many other arthouse theaters to show The Power of the Dog. But Glass Onion is a film and a property they are very protective of and are much more selective of how they like to showcase this specific film.