It’s a weeknight. After a little chit-chat and perhaps some food and drink outside, you and a few dozen other eager patrons drift into one of two disarmingly large theaters. The room hums; old trailers, vintage ads and the occasional “The Simpsons” clip light up the big screen. Eventually, a staffer moseys to the front, introduces the feature and the room answers with loud applause.
That’s a typical free repertory night at Brewvies Cinema Pub, the bar-and-movie house at the corner of 700 S. and 200 West. Beyond serving in its capacity as a place to both drink alcohol and watch movies, a pastime of perhaps billions of people the world over, Brewvies has been fulfilling a very important need in the Salt Lake Valley for decades: accessible repertory programming.
Brewvies is breathing in the old with the new
Alongside new releases, Brewvies runs a steady slate of older films for free. Those weekly and monthly series have only grown, said bartender and programmer Jesse Wroe. “Kung Fu Theater was the first Hump Night, and that’s like, 10-11 years old now?” Wroe said, referring to the first of Brewvies’ many repertory themes. “The second one was called Salt Lake Trash Cinema night, which, after COVID, rebranded to Salt Lake Movie Massacre.”
Running the gamut from Italian exploitation, international arthouse classics, underseen action pictures, cult curios and just about every genre and sensibility in between, Brewvies’ programming calendar is truly diverse. “A lot of it is just going for lesser-known movies, in my opinion,” Wroe continued, describing the gaps Brewvies tries to fill in Salt Lake’s film landscape. Speaking after a Wednesday screening of Lucio Fulci’s “Zombi 2,” Wroe said. “Where another theater might play a classic George Romero zombie movie, we would play a Lucio Fulci movie, or maybe something by Bruno Mattei, or something like ‘Burial Ground‘ … Wherever we think it’s okay to push in a harder direction, we will.”
Making the screenings free allows Brewvies a lot of room to experiment with the choice of titles and presentation. Each of their programmers, past and present, has their own taste and set of interests: some enjoy playing schlock on vintage formats (VHS, LaserDisc, etc.); some opt for cleaner presentation but choose films that really test the limits of an audience. An important part of curation is what it reflects about the sensibility of the curator. As far as Brewvies is concerned, there’s plenty to like.
Continuing community and audience accessibility
That appetite for experimentation and discovery has built a real crowd. Even with a small footprint, Brewvies has turned into a meeting place for film lovers: first-timers and lifers, students and regulars. In a city with limited repertory options, having a venue that treats so-called disreputable cinema with curiosity and care matters.
“As an arts person,” Wroe said, “it’s always about cultivating broader interest in things with other people, showing them that there are more ways to enjoy, more types of movies to enjoy. I find that if you give people the opportunity to enjoy something different, they usually take you up on it!”
That philosophy is also the roadmap. “More countries, older movies … we’ve never played a silent movie! We want to challenge ourselves with the type of movie education we do,” Wroe said.
University of Utah students of age have a crucial role to play in realizing this future, and in the development of film culture in the Salt Lake Valley overall. If you want a low-pressure entry point, start with Film Buff Night on Mondays; you’ll get a mix of older and contemporary staples with a friendly vibe. Prefer something new? After 6 p.m., Brewvies offers a student discount with ID at $7.50 per ticket.
Wherever your taste lands, be it mind-blowing kung-fu stunts, gross-out horror or just some refined comfort, there is probably a night with your name on it.
