Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Frida’s monthlong Stanley Kubrick tribute comes to an end with a weeklong run of his 1964 political satire black comedy that is loosely based on Peter George’s thriller novel Red Alert. An unhinged U.S. Air Force general (George C. Scott) orders the first nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The President of the United States (Peter Sellers), his advisers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Royal Air Force officer (also Sellers) try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. Great comic performances are also turned in by Slim Pickens, as the leader of a B-52 bomber trying to deliver its payload, and Sellers (again!) as the title character. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress included Strangelove in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, and it was No. 3 on AFI’s “100 Years . . . 100 Laughs” list. The Frida Cinema, 305 E. Fourth St., Santa Ana; thefridacinema.org. Thurs., Dec. 28, 5, 7 & 9 p.m.; Sun., 1:30 p.m. $7-$10.
Scrooged. In this 1988 rewiring of the Dickens classic, Bill Murray plays TV executive Frank Cross, who is planning a live and largely inappropriate adaptation of A Christmas Carol. That’s because Frankie is all about the ratings. The Christmas spirit? Not so much. And so he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, the latter of whom fails to show him footage of the off-key singing in A Very Murray Christmas. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Thurs., Dec. 28, 5:30 & 9:30 p.m. $7-$10.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time. Simulcast in theaters is the epic finale to the Peter Capaldi era. As the 12th doctor, he comes face to face with . . . himself, embarking on an adventure with the first doctor (David Bradley, who plays Filch in the Harry Potter movies). Also returning is Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) as the Captain and Pearl Mackie (Doctors) as Bill Potts. The cinema event includes bonus content on behind-the-scenes filming and celebrations of Capaldi and showrunner Steven Moffat’s tenures. AMC Orange 30 at the Outlets, 20 City Blvd. W., Orange, (714) 769-4288; Edwards Aliso Viejo Stadium 20, 26701 Aliso Creek Rd., Aliso Viejo, (844) 462-7342; Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21, 65 Fortune Dr., Irvine, (844) 462-7342; Edwards Long Beach Stadium 26, 7501 E. Carson, Long Beach, (844) 462-7342; www.fathomevents.com. Thurs., Dec. 28, 7 p.m. $10.50-$12.50.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Everyone’s favorite family, the Griswolds, is encouraged by patriarch Clark (Chevy Chase) to bask in the holiday spirit just as he is. However, that offer must be extended to cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and other family members who unexpectedly show up at the home of Clark and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo). The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Thurs., Dec. 28, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 4:30 p.m. $7-$10.
The Wizard of Oz. A treat of my childhood was the yearly screenings of Victor Fleming’s family classic about Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto winding up in the wonderful world of Oz after a large tornado picks up her aunt and uncle’s house from a Kansas farm. But I dare say I never saw this on a big screen, as you can without a commercial cutting short the scene in which the Cowardly Lion dives out of a window in the Great and Powerful Oz’s Emerald City fortress. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 11:30 a.m. & 2 p.m. $7-$10.
Eraserhead. Anyone else watch YouTube videos of Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson or Martin Scorsese talking about their movie-director idols? Among my favorites had David Lynch retelling a story from when he was filming The Elephant Man in England. Others working nearby on Star Wars told Lynch they had the day before met Stanley Kubrick, who asked them to come to his house and watch his favorite film. When they got there, Kubrick screened Eraserhead. This 40th-anniversary screening of Lynch’s head scratcher of a debut is about a couple (John Nance and Charlotte Stewart) whose new baby proves to be . . . unique. That description also applies to the chipmunk-cheeked little lady who lives in the radiator inside the couple’s dumpy apartment. Small wonder this is OC Weekly‘s latest Friday Night Freakouts entry. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Fri., 11 p.m. $7-$10.
Love Actually. From 2003 comes the directorial debut of Richard Curtis, who wrote Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Here, love-struck characters played by Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson try to make their romantic dreams come true during the holiday season. But the scene stealer is Bill Nighy as cynical aging rocker Billy Mack. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Sat., 1:30 p.m. $7-$10.
Humpback Whales, To the Arctic and National Parks Adventure. The city of Laguna Beach and the town’s own MacGillivray Freeman Films, the award-winning producer of large-format films that routinely play in IMAX theaters, close their screenings of films outdoors in the new downtown Park Plaza pedestrian space. Bring low-backed beach chairs and blankets to see Humpback Whales, in which director Greg MacGillivray follows scientists researching how the giant mammals communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young while migrating 10,000 miles every year from Alaska to Hawaii and the remote islands of Tonga. Ewan McGregor narrates. Meryl Streep narrates To the Arctic, which has MacGillivray’s cameras chronicling the fight for survival of a polar bear and her two cubs as ice melts in their Arctic environment. MacGillivray’s National Parks Adventure, which is narrated by Robert Redford, makes a case for preserving America’s endangered national parks. Park Plaza, 200 block of Park Avenue, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-3311. Sat., 6 p.m. Free.
Saturday Night Fever. It’s a 40th-anniversary screening of the 1977 disco touchpoint that made Sweathog John Travolta an international star, the soundtrack an international smash hit and card-carrying Disco Sucks members of the day (like me) quite perturbed. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Sat., 8 p.m. $7-$10.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Midnight Insanity shadow casts the movie that has the car of sweethearts Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) breaking down near the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a transvestite scientist whose home also hosts a rocking biker (Meat Loaf), a creepy butler (Richard O’Brien) and assorted freaks, including a hunk of beefcake named “Rocky.” Art Theatre, 2025 E. Fourth St., Long Beach, (562) 438-5435. Sat., 11:55 p.m. $8.50-$11.50.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. First movie from the franchise follows Harry from life with his neglectful aunt and uncle to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Regency South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 557-5701. Wed. Call for show time. $9.
10 Things I Hate About You. Did you know this 1999 teen comedy is based on Willie Shakes (a.k.a. William Shakespeare, author of the source material The Taming of the Shrew)? On the first day at his new school, Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for popular teen Bianca (Larisa Oleynik). But under house rules, she can’t go on a date until her ill-tempered older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) goes out on one first. A plan is hatched to set Kat up for romance just as a handsome hunk (Heath Ledger) arrives on campus. Fullerton Main Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton, (714) 738-6327. Thurs., Jan. 4, 1 p.m. Free.
Shakespeare In Love. Frida and South Coast Repertory partner for this screening of the 1998 Academy Awards Best Picture winner in anticipation of the stage-play adaptation at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa scheduled for Jan. 13 through Feb. 10, 2018. Writer Tom Stoppard and director John Madden have young William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) struck by the love bug after he discovers ardent theater-lover Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow, in her Oscar-winning performance) has dressed up as a man to get cast as the male lead in Romeo and Juliet. The Frida Cinema; thefridacinema.org. Thurs., Jan. 4, 7:30 p.m. $10.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.