Film asks big questions

Vashon Film Society presents the Academy Award-nominated film “Anomalisa,” a quirky animated tale from the imagination of writer-director Charlie Kaufman, at 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Vashon Theatre.

Kaufman, the inventive screenwriter of “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” has teamed up with co-director Duke Johnson to bring a tender and strange stop-animated story about a lonely man’s existential crisis to the big screen — all executed in animation.

Hot Press columnist Roe McDermott wrote, “In Anomalisa, a few puppets and a minuscule budget somehow create an entire universe reverberating with life’s biggest questions.” The film is rated R for adult content.

The Society’s First Friday Art Film Series showcases independent, foreign and documentary films once a month on Gallery Cruise Fridays. Admission to the screening is by donation.

Kick up your dancing heels

Rippin’ Chicken returns to the Red Bike for another evening of funky, bugaloo and soul jazz at 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Vashon Events co-founder Pete Welchsaid, “These guys are building a regular crowd that keeps getting bigger with every show.  The dancers are coming out of the woodwork for this band.”

The free event is open to all ages until 11 p.m., then only 21 and older.

Enjoy fortepiano and flute

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival returns to Bethel Church at 7 p.m. Monday, April 4, with a Baroque concert for fortepiano and flute.

Jeffrey Cohan will play replicas of both a one-keyed flute from 1755 and an eight-keyed flute from 1807. Henry Lebedinsky will play an original fortepiano made in 1799. The program will include works by François Devienne, Mozart’s publisher Anton Hoffmeister, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and J.S. Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.

Suggested donation: $15, $20 or $25. Those 18 and under are free.