Never Mind the Happy: An Evening with Marc Shaiman and Bette Midler

Added to the National Film Registry in 2023, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s directorial debut feature, Love & Basketball, has reached cult-classic status since its 2000 release. Her nuanced depiction of balancing success and romance is beloved by many audiences, including a loyal following of millennials who believe in the power of love and of basketball.  

Set in Los Angeles, the film follows two young people, Monica and Quincy, from childhood to adulthood as they fight to achieve their basketball dreams without losing each other. Furnished with a celebrated soundtrack including tunes by Al Green and Chaka Khan, the story pays homage to the renowned history of LA basketball and its dynamic culture—complete with shoutouts to the Lakers, Clippers, and Crenshaw High and USC teams.

One of the most popular and long-running science-fiction franchises is also oft-cited by scientists, from JPL astrophysicists to NASA astronauts, as an inspiration for their chosen fields. This fourth installment in the Star Trek filmic universe finds key players from the original series—William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and George Takei—reprising their iconic roles. On planet Earth in the year 1986, the crew recruits a humpback whale to communicate with a malevolent alien probe. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, who was given even more creative input than on his previous The Search for Spock, the film received Oscar nominations for Donald Peterman’s cinematography, as well as for its sound, sound effects editing, and Leonard Rosenman’s unconventional score.

I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. —David Lynch

Writer-director Lynch confronts the concept of suburban Americana through the wholesome Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) and his unwitting descent into the nocturnal underworld of nightclubs, unspeakable violence, and seedy criminals. Dennis Hopper reignited his career with his turn as psychopath Frank Booth, whose twisted relationship with lounge singer Dorothy Vallens—a captivating Isabella Rossellini, playing against type—becomes an obsession for Jeffrey, to the distress of his chaste girlfriend, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern). A profound and disturbing opus—Lynch’s fourth feature, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Director—reveals society's seamy side, a topic that fascinated Lynch throughout his career.