BY JACK CAMERON for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 7/3/2026
The Blue Mouse ends its run of Toy Story 5, but if you’re looking for a movie to take the kids to, you’re still in luck because the latest in the Minions series, Minions and Monsters, is taking over Blue Mouse Theatre beginning Friday, July 3.
This is the first Minions movie not to feature Steve Carell, but they’re not lacking for star power, with voices from Allison Janney, Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz, and George Lucas’s first cameo since Revenge of the Sith.
Minions and Monsters is playing July 3 to 5 at 4:15 and 7 p.m., with one more showing at 7 p.m. Monday, July 6.
On Tuesday, July 7, those with a sweet tooth should prepare to celebrate World Chocolate Day with Bittersweet, a special private screening of a dynamic youth video project featuring four short documentaries about chocolate production around the world in Tacoma’s sister cities. The audience will get to judge the best of the four documentaries. Tickets are $10. Festivities go from 5 to 9 p.m.
Across town, just past the Stadium District heading toward downtown, you’ll find Tacoma’s other independent movie theater, The Grand Cinema. It may have only four screens, but I think you’ll see it makes incredible use of them.
Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s latest blockbuster, is also one of his most divisive films. Some couldn’t get on board this alien-conspiracy follow-up to his classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Personally, I enjoyed it and was glad to have seen the action set pieces on the big screen. It’s very Spielberg, with definite good guys and bad guys, but these days, that kind of thing is refreshing to me.
On Saturday, July 4, you have one more chance to see the science-fiction epic Project Hail Mary at 2 p.m.
Blue Heron is an intimate tale about a family of six as they adjust to life on Vancouver Island. Told largely through the perspective of the youngest child, Blue Heron has a reality rarely seen on film.
Time and Water is a stark and frightening reminder of our changing planet. Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason chronicles the disappearing glaciers of his homeland, the very same glaciers his family members were among the first to explore. This documentary about the very real impacts of climate change in Iceland and beyond is a time capsule.
Leviticus and Obsession are two midbudget horror films that continue to be very popular. Leviticus follows two young men who fight an entity that takes the form of what they desire most: each other. Obsession also plays with desire, with a young man wishing a woman loved him more than anything in the world and learning the hard way that one should be careful what they wish for.
She’s the He Unrated is a film created almost entirely by trans and nonbinary individuals. It’s a comedy about Ethan, played by Misha Osherovich, and Alex, played by Nico Carney, who pose as trans women in an attempt to quell gay rumors about them. But things don’t quite go as planned.
The Grand’s Weird Elephant Series continues with Lizzie Borden’s underground classic Born in Flames (1983). Trust me when I say you’ve never seen something quite like this. Filmed guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, this is exactly the sort of cult film that makes Weird Elephant so fun. You’ve got two chances to see it at 10 p.m. July 3 and 4.
Perhaps a future Weird Elephant film, Silent Friend is a strange, haunting, and beautiful film about three people in three different epochs all trying to communicate to and with a majestic ginkgo tree in a medieval university town in Germany. This Tuesday Movie Series film screens at 1:45 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 7.
And then there is the screening of Fcktoys*, a lush 16 mm fever dream reimagining of The Fool’s Journey of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. This showing includes a special appearance by director, writer, and star Annapurna Sriram, who will be selling merch and doing a Q&A. The screening is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 8. I’m writing this on Monday, and right now, there are only five tickets left. Here’s hoping you got yours.
With only five screens total, Tacoma’s independent theaters offer a wide variety of films to choose from. And if nothing strikes your fancy this week, just know that Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey is coming.
