Art House Theater Day: CAR WASH

50th Anniversary | FREE for SCC members! Presented in recognition of Art House Theater Day It is Friday at the Dee-Luxe Car Wash in Los Angeles, where the disco and funk tunes flow as freely as the suds. A cast of memorable characters rolls through, including George Carlin as a taxi driver, “Professor” Irwin Corey as the Mad Bomber and Richard Pryor as prosperity gospel preacher Daddy Rich, accompanied by a bevy of singing beauties played by the Pointer Sisters. With a chart-topping soundtrack by funk band Rose Royce, including “Car Wash,” “I Wanna Get Next to You” and “I'm Going Down,” CAR WASH is an infectiously groovy cult comedy. Before becoming a blockbuster director in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Joel Schumacher (BATMAN FOREVER, THE LOST BOYS) wrote the script for CAR WASH, alongside ‘70s cult classics SPARKLE and THE WIZ, making him inexplicably Hollywood’s go-to writer for the Black experience. Loosely modeling the film on Robert Altman’s NASHVILLE and George Lucas’ AMERICAN GRAFITTI, director Michael Schultz (COOLEY HIGH, KRUSH GROOVE, THE LAST DRAGON) crafted a multicultural, socially conscious farce, becoming the first African American filmmaker to have his film shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.