James Franco’s hourlong sort-of documentary Interior. Leather Bar. hit 2013’s festival circuit around the same time Oz The Great and Powerful released worldwide. Stew on that for a minute. Franco and co-collaborator Travis Mathews bill the lower-budget project as an examination/recreation of the 40 minutes of gay S&M footage the MPAA notoriously cut from William Friedkin’s 1980 film Cruising. Since that source work never screened, nobody knows exactly what took place. It’s a secret held by Al Pacino, Friedkin and New York’s 1980s Meatpacking District. Here the filmmakers play with that, as much as they toy with concepts of celebrity, discomfort and self-awareness. Interior. Leather Bar. runs a quick 60 minutes, so Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.) will show it with a Franco sidecar, his short film The Feast of Stephen. (Spoiler alert: That one isn’t an “upper.”) The pairing airs at 9:30 p.m. Friday with repeat screenings on Saturday, Sunday and next Thursday, February 13. Tickets cost $10. Visit thetexastheatre.com.
Fri., Feb. 7, 9 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 8; Sun., Feb. 9; Thu., Feb. 13, 2014