Somebody Up There Likes Me is a quirky comedy about the charmed life of one Max Youngman (Keith Poulson), who appears to be blessed with a dry sense of irony, accidental good fortune, and eternal youth. Over a period of three plus decades, Max, his best friend Sal (Nick Offerman) and his second wife Lyla (Jess Weixler) stumble through infidelities, divorce, therapy, and poverty in a breezy series of surreal jumps forward in time.

Featuring an original score from Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio, animated sequences from Bob Sabiston (A Scanner Darkly), produced by Offerman and directed by cult auteur Bob Byington (Harmony & Me), Somebody Up There Likes Me is a charming, droll, and utterly original reflection on the cycle of life.

Somebody Up There Likes Me opens at the Music Box on Friday, March 8th, and runs through at least Thursday, March 14th. These five special screenings with Nick Offerman will be the only screenings with advanced ticket sales.

Max (Keith Poulson), along with his best friend Sal (Nick Offerman, Parks & Recreation) and the woman they both adore, Lyla (Jess Weixler), stumble through thirty-five years of mandatory but seemingly unfulfilling entanglements.

Featuring an original score from Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio, stunning animated sequences from Bob Sabiston (A Scanner Darkly), produced by Offerman and directed by cult auteur Bob Byington (Harmony & Me), the experience of life sneaking up on you while time seemingly stands still has never been more surreal and charmingly entertaining.

Fresh from the Ziegfeld Follies, W.C. Fields made his second screen appearance as Professor Eustace McGargle, a lovably disreputable confidence man who becomes the unlikely guardian of an orphaned circus waif (Carol Dempster). Intending to return Sally to her grandparents, McGargle learns that her wealthy and esteemed grandfather is a stern judge who harbors a deep contempt for shysters and show people. And wouldn’t you know it, McGargle soon finds himself wanted by the police and chased by bootleggers, all the while trying to protect his cherished Sally!

In the not-so-distant future, a worldwide epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GENECO, a biotech company that offers organ transplants… for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by THE REPO MAN.

In The Devil’s Carnival: Episode One, sinners are invited to a theme park where they endure the repetition of their transgressions. What chances do a conniving kleptomaniac, a gullible teenager, and an obsessed father stand when facing their own moral failings? Lucifer and his color full cast of singing carnies invite you to grab a ticket to The Devil’s Carnival to find out!

An uncompromising, intense British noir directed by the blacklisted ex-pat Cy Endfield, this taut tale is a spiritual cousin to The Wages of Fear, starring Welsh-born Stanley Baker as a parolee truck driver hauling heavy loads of literal grit at a breakneck pace for a brutal, corrupt boss. Featuring bit parts from both Patrick McGoohan and Sean Connery! Screening in an imported 35mm print, so don’t miss it!

What could be better than watching a Dario Argento film in a theatre that could double as a set piece for one of his baroque horrors? Featuring a threadbare plot involving a college student helping his sister investigate the mysterious & supernatural history of her building in NYC, Argento’s nightmarish vision is on the loose here, with some of his most outlandish set pieces to date (the underwater ballroom!!). Featuring a killer soundtrack by Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson! Screening in an archive 35mm print.

With commentary written and narrated by Werner Herzog, the camera follows a trapper through all four seasons of a year. Siberia extends from Ural to the Pacific and is one and a half times the size of the USA. 38 million people live in this giant area, the majority of them in the prosperous south.

In the heart of the Siberian wilderness, deep in the taiga and far away from civilization, 300 people inhabit a small village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei. There are only two ways to reach this outpost: one is by helicopter, the other by boat. Here, deep in the wilderness, there is no telephone available, nor running water or medical aid. The people are on their own. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions. If human civilization was destroyed, they would survive, thanks to the knowledge of their forefathers.

Fresh from the triumph of his Tuscany-set Certified Copy (NYFF 2010), master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami travels even further afield from his native Iran for this mysteriously beautiful romantic drama filmed entirely in Japan.

Like Someone in Love revolves around the brief encounter between an elderly professor (the wonderful 81-year-old stage actor Tadashi Okuno, here playing his first leading role in a film) and a sociology student (Rin Takanashi) who moonlights as a high-end escort. Dispatched to the old man by her boss—one of the professor’s former students—the young woman finds her latest client less interested in sex than in cooking her soup, talking, and playing old Ella Fitzgerald records (like the one that gives the film its allusive title).

Eventually, night gives way to day and a tense standoff with the student’s insanely jealous boyfriend (Ryō Kase); but as usual in Kiarostami, nothing is quite as it appears on the surface. Are these characters—who conjure in one another the specters of regret and roads not taken—meeting by chance, or is it fate?

Led by the eldest sibling, 14-year old Lore (striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl), they set out on a journey across a devastated country to reach their grandmother in the north.

After meeting the charismatic Thomas, a mysterious young refugee, Lore soon finds her world shattered by feelings of both hatred and desire as she must learn to trust the one person she has always been taught to hate in order to survive. Lush cinematography and an evocative, haunting mood infuse this unconventional take on the Holocaust legacy with unforgettable impact.

It’s a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can’t.

Based on the novel by author David Wong, John Dies at the End was adapted and directed by horror auteur Don Coscarelli. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim.

After sold-out screenings at major film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, and Seattle, John Dies at the End will be coming soon to a theater near you.