Marking a significant departure from his boy-next-door reputation, Ron Howard’s second feature as a director is a hip risque comedy starring his Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler. Inspired by a real-life news headline spotted by producer Brian Grazer about a sex-work business operating out of a morgue in New York City, the film sets up an unlikely partnership between Chuck (Winkler), a timid financial planner and part time morgue worker, and Bill, (Michael Keaton) a persuasive, fast-talking hustler. As their business grows larger and attracts the attention of both the law and NYC’s criminal underworld – and as Chuck falls for one of his employees, Belinda (Shelley Long) – the duo find themselves treading in hot water.
Night Shift
Night Shift
Q&A with Ron Howard on July 9
Tickets: $11 (members), $16 (nonmembers)
"Winkler is perfect as the redeemed nerd, and Keaton is a super find, bristling with raw energy."
"The largest shares of credit for this pleasant surprise evidently belong to director Ron Howard—whose assurance behind the camera may come as a revelation to people still associating him with the roles of little Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and clean-cut Richie on Happy Days."
SPECIAL EVENTS
Q&A with Filmmaker and JBFC Board Member Ron Howard
Tuesday, Jul. 7 2026, 5:30
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Ron Howard is one of this generation’s most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas Cinderella Man and Apollo 13 to the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash, he has created some of Hollywood’s most memorable films. Howard directed and produced A Beautiful Mind starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe, which earned Howard an Oscar for Best Director and also won awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. He received his first Best Director of the Year award from the DGA for Apollo 13. The true-life drama also garnered nine Academy Award nominations, winning Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Howard’s more recent films include Rush, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Pavarotti, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rebuilding Paradise, Hillbilly Elegy, We Feed People, Thirteen Lives, and Eden.
Tickets: $30 (members), $35 (nonmembers)
This film is part of the Ron Howard Retrospective series.
Coming Soon
Rose of Nevada
Opens 6/26—Q&A with director Mark Jenkin on June 22
Maddie's Secret
Opens 6/26
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
Opens 6/26
Romería
Opens 7/3
Tuner: Preview Club Wrap-Up
Get the inside scoop on this NYT Critic's Pick!
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Steven Spielberg's Sci-Fi
Now Showing through June 21