マッスルフェスト：アンダーグラウンドシネマがNYCに新しい家を手に入れます

“We love scrappy, misfit films that don’t fit into any particular box,” says Elizabeth Purchell, the indefatigable brain behind new film distribution company Muscle, founded to spotlight works that have unjustly faded into obscurity and champion uncompromising new gems by underground filmmakers. From the archive, that has included Elaine May’s 1976 crime thriller Mikey and Nicky, a grimy nocturnal portrait of male friendship starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk retrospectively hailed by the Safdie brothers and Greta Gerwig; 1988 arthouse horror Re-Wind by king of Japan’s pinku eiga genre Hisayasu Satō; Ken Camp’s 1976 The Secret Life of Patty Hearst, a look at the notorious heiress’s “lost year”; and experimental documentaries from Monika Treut, whose subjects have ranged from “Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe” Eva Norvind to Camille Paglia. For Purchell, the collective experience of watching Muscle’s finds on the big screen is key; enter Musclefest at New York’s Roxy cinema, a four-night celebration of deep-cut restorations and underground trans and queer cinema. Here, Purchell chooses some favourites.

Crocodile Dose (2026, Jason Waters)

“A party movie in the vein of Superbad by real 18-year-old boys with a pristine view of the way they talk and relate to each other. It’s got Zoomer lingo, Hinge profile hijinx, WhatsApp pills, gooning, and a climactic fair-use parody of Bieber’s Baby. Minute for minute, it might be the funniest movie of the decade.” 

Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026, Louise Weard)

“The latest and maybe the best instalment yet of Weard’s series – this one’s a wicked black satire of trans ‘festival movies’– you know, trans misery porn where the actual protagonist is the cis family member or spouse, not the actual trans person themselves. It’s brilliant and hilarious in the best sort of bleak way.” 

Drinking and Driving (2026, Avalon Fast and Jillian Frank)

“A hangout film about what happens when you don’t leave your hometown, Drinking and Driving is not a horror movie, but it’s also not not a horror movie. Though some might be put off by its lo-fi look, the seemingly cheap production values and handycam aesthetic give the film a realism and a specificity that make it compulsive to watch.”

Dildo Heaven (2002, Doris Wishman)

“The last-completed film by legendary ‘Queen of Sexploitation’ Doris Wishman is the most wholesome sex comedy made by an octogenarian that I can think of. Made with a group of young Gen Xer artists while the director was living in exile in Miami (meaning: working at a sex shop), the film is the sort of cross-generational collaboration that I find so inspiring and is so central to what Muscle is trying to do in mixing repertory and new releases.”

Puppygirl (2026, Henry Hanson)

“Possibly the spiritual sequel to Henry Hanson’s Dog Movie – now streaming on the Criterion Channel – Puppygirl is a gonzo documentary following the totally committed and endlessly watchable Milo Talwani as she uses method acting in a cats and dogs-themed porno as an excuse to explore her repressed sexuality. It’s funny and incisive, speaking to the universal struggle to locate yourself in your sexuality. It’s a theme you might’ve seen in some other queer movies this summer, but Puppygirl is a different breed. Henry told me about an early work-in-progress screening with an audience comprised mostly of senior citizens: “They were like ‘Yeah, we get it. You have to figure these things out for yourself. We did too.’”

alterotics

“The Chicago-based filmmaking collective alterotics has been making a name for itself with gonzo, digital effects-laden “moving-image sex art”. Their breakout film Rat Trap, a sci-fi odyssey starring the eponymous Angel Rat, is the starting point for a presentation that will take us through an orgy on a public Chicago beach under the moonlight, an interview with director-stars Anaïs Alias and Avery Jaye, AI camgirls, burnt-out queer couples’ therapists, online gambling addictions and a documentary about a historic gay vacation destination in Saugatuck, Michigan. These films are made to be watched in a packed theatre.”

Musclefest runs from 3–6 September at the Roxy Cinema in New York.

“We love scrappy, misfit films that don’t fit into any particular box,” says Elizabeth Purchell, the indefatigable brain behind new film distribution company Muscle, founded to spotlight works that have unjustly faded into obscurity and champion uncompromising new gems by underground filmmakers. From the archive, that has included Elaine May’s 1976 crime thriller Mikey and Nicky, a grimy nocturnal portrait of male friendship starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk retrospectively hailed by the Safdie brothers and Greta Gerwig; 1988 arthouse horror Re-Wind by king of Japan’s pinku eiga genre Hisayasu Satō; Ken Camp’s 1976 The Secret Life of Patty Hearst, a look at the notorious heiress’s “lost year”; and experimental documentaries from Monika Treut, whose subjects have ranged from “Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe” Eva Norvind to Camille Paglia. For Purchell, the collective experience of watching Muscle’s finds on the big screen is key; enter Musclefest at New York’s Roxy cinema, a four-night celebration of deep-cut restorations and underground trans and queer cinema. Here, Purchell chooses some favourites.

Crocodile Dose (2026, Jason Waters)

“A party movie in the vein of Superbad by real 18-year-old boys with a pristine view of the way they talk and relate to each other. It’s got Zoomer lingo, Hinge profile hijinx, WhatsApp pills, gooning, and a climactic fair-use parody of Bieber’s Baby. Minute for minute, it might be the funniest movie of the decade.” 

Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026, Louise Weard)

“The latest and maybe the best instalment yet of Weard’s series – this one’s a wicked black satire of trans ‘festival movies’– you know, trans misery porn where the actual protagonist is the cis family member or spouse, not the actual trans person themselves. It’s brilliant and hilarious in the best sort of bleak way.” 

Drinking and Driving (2026, Avalon Fast and Jillian Frank)

“A hangout film about what happens when you don’t leave your hometown, Drinking and Driving is not a horror movie, but it’s also not not a horror movie. Though some might be put off by its lo-fi look, the seemingly cheap production values and handycam aesthetic give the film a realism and a specificity that make it compulsive to watch.”

Dildo Heaven (2002, Doris Wishman)

“The last-completed film by legendary ‘Queen of Sexploitation’ Doris Wishman is the most wholesome sex comedy made by an octogenarian that I can think of. Made with a group of young Gen Xer artists while the director was living in exile in Miami (meaning: working at a sex shop), the film is the sort of cross-generational collaboration that I find so inspiring and is so central to what Muscle is trying to do in mixing repertory and new releases.”

Puppygirl (2026, Henry Hanson)

“Possibly the spiritual sequel to Henry Hanson’s Dog Movie – now streaming on the Criterion Channel – Puppygirl is a gonzo documentary following the totally committed and endlessly watchable Milo Talwani as she uses method acting in a cats and dogs-themed porno as an excuse to explore her repressed sexuality. It’s funny and incisive, speaking to the universal struggle to locate yourself in your sexuality. It’s a theme you might’ve seen in some other queer movies this summer, but Puppygirl is a different breed. Henry told me about an early work-in-progress screening with an audience comprised mostly of senior citizens: “They were like ‘Yeah, we get it. You have to figure these things out for yourself. We did too.’”

alterotics

“The Chicago-based filmmaking collective alterotics has been making a name for itself with gonzo, digital effects-laden “moving-image sex art”. Their breakout film Rat Trap, a sci-fi odyssey starring the eponymous Angel Rat, is the starting point for a presentation that will take us through an orgy on a public Chicago beach under the moonlight, an interview with director-stars Anaïs Alias and Avery Jaye, AI camgirls, burnt-out queer couples’ therapists, online gambling addictions and a documentary about a historic gay vacation destination in Saugatuck, Michigan. These films are made to be watched in a packed theatre.”

Musclefest runs from 3–6 September at the Roxy Cinema in New York.