Juice

Paramount Theatre is bringing Juice to the big screen on Thursday, July 30, as part of its Summer Classic Film Series. It's the 1992 crime drama directed by Ernest Dickerson, and it's playing in DCP—digital cinema package—so you'll get a clean, bright projection rather than a worn-out print. The movie runs 95 minutes in color.

If you've never seen it, Juice follows four friends—Bishop, Q, Raheem, and Steel—navigating life in Harlem in 1992. Q is the one with a dream, wanting to make it as a deejay, while Bishop is the one pushing the group toward a robbery that goes sideways. It's a story about friendship and the different directions people take when they're all starting from the same place.

The cast is a real time capsule of the early '90s. You've got Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L. Jackson, and Queen Latifah. Seeing them all together on a big screen is a good enough reason to go on its own, especially with Tupac and Queen Latifah in their early roles.

As for the venue, the Paramount has been on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin for over a century. Built in 1915, it's the city's oldest surviving theatre and holds a City of Austin Landmark designation, a State Landmark, and a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also one of the few remaining 'hemp houses' in the country, built using ropes and sandbags. These days it serves as a community hub for red carpet premieres, SXSW, the Austin Film Festival, and the Moontower Comedy Festival, operating alongside the State Theatre under The Austin Theatre Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Juice screens there on Thursday, July 30.