Seven Best Places In Perth (If You Love Film)

We’ve teamed up with Heineken to discover the best new, old and must-visit hidden gems that are local favourites in each of Australia’s capital cities. Our in-the-know locals will unlock the secrets of their home town; find out what’s happening right now around you at openyourcity.com.au.

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Perth is a long way from Hollywood. Heck, Perth is a long way from Geelong. But Perth is really far from Hollywood. More than 15,000km away, in fact.

With such distance between Perth and that modern day Sodom (talking about California, though I suppose Geelong qualifies for that burn too), you might think it’d be difficult for burgeoning cineastes to get their filmic fix in W.A. Not so. Isolated from the rest of Australia — where we understand you have actual IMAX-sized IMAX theatres — locals have defiantly erected some of the country’s most endearing and idiosyncratic monuments to cinema.

This is the town and these are the theatres that nurtured me from curious, movie-loving caterpillar to cynical, film criticising butterfly. I was in my mother’s belly as she watched Carrie at the Galaxy Drive-In. My dad and I visited Mt. Lawley’s Astor to catch a Sergio Leone double feature. And it was at the Greater Union in the unfortunately-named suburb of Innaloo that I took my eventual wife on our first date — to see wedding mockumentary Confetti, no less.

But visitors to Western Australia need not just rely on my personal nostalgia to enjoy our movie-houses. Join me as I share with you our most beloved theatres, as well as a few underground oddities.

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Luna Leederville

Location: 155 Oxford Street, Leederville

Luna Leederville has gone by many names, including Star Theatre, Nickelodeon, Olympia, and, back when it opened in 1927, The New Oxford (a name that still adorns its Art Deco facade). Originally intended for vaudevillian performances, and a one-time home for Greek and Italian fare, Luna Leederville is now Perth’s pre-eminent art-house cinema. (It also holds the somewhat dubious distinction of screening The Gods Must Be Crazy for three straight years. We loved that thing, apparently.)

The Luna is a reliable destination for anyone hoping to catch hourly sessions of the latest indie release, National Theatre and New York Met screenings, or the annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival. (Same goes for their sister cinemas Luna on SX, The Windsor, and Cinema Paradiso.) In recent years, the Luna gang have really begun to bring their titles to life. The notoriously-awful accidental comedy The Room is regularly played to enthusiastic, costumed and prop-toting audiences. In 2014, the entire theatre was transformed into The Grand Budapest Hotel (courtesy of an outdoor projector). And just this month, Luna Leederville became the highest grossing site for the opening day of Birdman in Australia, no doubt thanks to the live drummer on the corner of Oxford & Vincent, free NY hotdogs for ticket holders, and the underwear-clad gentleman greeting patrons.

Coming Soon: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ’70s-set stoner comedy Inherent Vice arrives March 12. If this doesn’t inspire some more creative costumes from the Luna team, what will?

Website: Here

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Northbridge Piazza

Location: Cnr James & Lake Street, Northbridge

Once upon a time, you would have never seen the words “Northbridge” and “family fun” in the same article, let alone sentence. The introduction of the Northbridge Piazza and its outdoor cinema screen helped change all that.

Boasting an endless program of gratis movie screenings, public WiFi and complimentary bean bags, the Piazza is indeed the hub for family fun in Northbridge. Every Wednesday evening is Date Night, where couples can go enjoy free flicks like Mood Indigo, Bridesmaids and To The Wonder. Saturdays are for kids, with How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Lego Movie and Fantastic Mr. Fox all getting a run over the next few months.

Sadly, by the time you read this, the Internet Cat Video Festival will have already come and gone. Yes, there was a kitten cuddling area. I’m so sorry.

Coming Soon: For those who only take a date night every nine years, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset plays March 4.

Website: Here

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Somerville Auditorium

Location: The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley

The grounds of UWA are truly something to behold, but its 1200-seat picture garden might be its most spellbinding feature. Arguably the best outdoor theatre in Perth – a pretty hotly contested title – it runs from November to April, screening the Perth Festival’s slate of international titles for a week at a time. In past years, I’ve seen The White Ribbon, Waltz with Bashir and No all elevated by the Norfolk pine tree-enclosed setting. I’ve also seen many, many elder cinephiles imbibe massive amounts of red wine before screenings of each. It’s kind of the Somerville’s thing.

Still to premiere at Perth Festival in 2015: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep; Love is Strange, starring Alfred Molina and John Lithgow as married, melancholy New Yorkers; Fargo-inspired fable Kumiko the Treasure Hunter; and Xavier Dolan’s astounding Mommy.

Coming Soon: Be sure to check out the devious Force Majeure between January 27 and February 8.

Website: Here

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The Backlot Studios

Location: 21 Simpson St, West Perth

New kid on the block The Backlot Perth only opened at the end of 2014, and yet the 50-seat theatrette has already made quite the splash. Ostensibly intended for corporate functions, its enormous mural of Heath Ledger’s Joker by Archibald Prize-winner Vincent Fantauzzo suggests the team behind it primarily have movies on the mind.

Already host to a number of retrospective screenings of Australian classics (Mad Max, Romper Stomper), it’ll soon begin airing CinemaClassics for the 2015 Fringe Festival, including Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The Terminator and Sunset Boulevard. Hey, those movies are great!

Coming Soon: My tip for the Cinema Classics season: Akira Kurosawa’s peerless Seven Samurai, playing February 1. It’s three hours long and I’d say maybe even a little too short.

Website: Here

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The Jaffa Room

Location: 155 Claisebrook Road, Perth

A personal favourite, The Jaffa Room has long been the critic cinema of choice in Western Australia. Its intimate theatrette – available for rental – has recently been bolstered by an adjoining bar in the back.

Tucked away in Claisebrook, only those in the know have graced its 30-seat screening room. Check it out, sure, but don’t touch the couch in the far right corner. That’s my seat.

Coming Soon: Whatever you like!

Website: Here

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The Court

Location: 50 Beaufort St, Perth

Perth’s most popular gay bar, The Court, happily welcomes all, and that spirit extends to their free Monday Movie Nights. Pop in on the second Monday of every month, bring along a blanket or a pillow, snag a $10 pizza, and settle in for whichever fan favourite they’ve programmed for your viewing enjoyment.

They kicked off 2015 with a screening of The Castle, which you’ve never truly seen until you’ve seen it played, as The Court itself promotes, on “a 3m x 3m screen and amplified through a club sound system.”

Coming Soon: Your next chance to join the fun will be on February 9 for their “Big Time Double” screening of Magic Mike and Brokeback Mountain.

Website: Here

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Rooftop Movies

Location: Level 6, 68 Roe St, Northbridge

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Climb to the top of most multi-storey car park and you will find only terrible things. Except on Roe Street. During the summer, Rooftop Movies sets up shop and plays cult classics (The Neverending Story, Muriel’s Wedding) alongside recent releases (Taken 3, The Hobbit: Whatever The Most Recent One Was Called).

During Fringe World, you can check out Rooftop Movie’s Hot Dub Time Machine, during which “Time Lord LuLu Loud” appears on the screen to guide dancing audiences through a multi-era rave. The Rooftop will also host the Perth Underground Film Festival in February, the centerpiece of which is said to be the “First Ever Film Maker Feud.” Whatever that is, it sounds good.

Coming Soon: PUFF will screen Aus-zombie flick Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead on February 12, and will close on February 21 with a back-to-back screening of Clueless documentary Beyond Clueless and The Craft, where there will be a “slow-mo-walk photobooth” for costumed patrons. This is not a drill, people.

Website: Here

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Simon Miraudo is an AFCA award-winning writer and film critic. He is also co-host of The Podcasting Couch and tweets @simonmiraudo.

Feature image via Luna Leederville.