Variety + Life in the Cage

Variety (1983)
dir. Bette Gordon.
With Sandy McLeod, Richard M. Davidson, Luis Guzmán
100min; DCP

Both panned and praised by critics for its subject matter, Bette Gordon’s film follows an aspiring author who, desperate for cash, finds work as a ticket taker at a seedy Times Square porn theater. There, she becomes sexually awakened and finds herself irresistibly intrigued by the mysterious life of a wealthy patron. Literary iconoclast Kathy Acker wrote the screenplay for Variety, which LA Weekly likened to “a feminist Vertigo.”

Life in the Cage (2025)
Dir. David Cardoza
4min; Digital

A box-office clerk is forced to deal with a hot-tempered patron in David Cardoza’s comedic short vignette.