It’s time to pop some popcorn, grab your favorite theater candy, and lean back for the newest film-going experience at Harbor Theater.  

Tanner Grover is launching “The Cinema Clubhouse,” a free monthly movie screening offering a curated selection of audience favorites and offbeat finds. Attendees will get to rate the film and participate in a brief post-screening conversation. The first film premieres Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. Concessions must be purchased.  

The club is open to the public, but Grover hopes young people participate and experience the cinema that impacted Grover as a teenager. 

“In those influential teen years when your personality is shaping, you're trying to figure out what your purpose is, and what you want to do with your life; you're going to identify with characters. They make an imprint on you.” 

Grover’s love of film took him to the University of Southern Maine, where he graduated with a degree in film & media studies in 2010. While attending, Grover also became close with his professors and indie filmmakers Kate Kaminski of Gitgo productions and Dan Chaimowitz and, as the club progresses, Grover would like to invite them and other industry members to pick a film and discuss it. 

His professors also gave Grover a new appreciation for eccentric and darkly comedic cinema, which will make several appearances on his planned roster. 

“I think dark comedies have a way to educate people to be more tolerant of other subsets of life, different diversities,” he explained. 

For example, John Waters’ “Hairspray” is a fun musical about its main character, Tracy Turnblad, joining her local TV station’s dance show, but it also comments on racial division in 1960s Baltimore and body positivity through its plus-sized main character. 

But, most of all, Grover wants people to enjoy the shared event of watching a movie together and see how hearing another person’s reaction can change the way you respond to a scene. “I think that's a really cool thing that only a theater experience can offer.” 

For more information, follow The Cinema Clubhouse on Facebook and Instagram