I love Netflix as much as the next cinema-addicted shut-in, but some films demand to be seen on the big screen in a dark room full of entranced strangers. SIFF Cinema has gathered a whole bunch of this kind of film for its Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films festival, now running at SIFF’s new digs in Seattle Center. Tonight brings La Strada, Fellini’s 1954 neorealistic fairy tale starring Anthony Quinn and the incomparable Giulietta Masina, and if you’ve never seen it, go. (SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, www.seattlefilm.org. 9:30 pm, $7.50/$9.)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...