The American Cinematheque celebrates five years at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica with a free screening of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. The 1924 silent film throws a daydreaming film projectionist into the action onscreen, and hilarity, as they say, ensues. Keaton is a wannabe detective, framed for theft by a mustachioed baddie who has eyes for Keaton's paramour. All it takes is a quick nap in the projection booth to transform our hapless hero into a super sleuth, who solves the case as the world collapses around him, narrowly escaping dismemberment at every turn. It's a film within a film, a mystery within a mystery, an illusion within a paradox wrapped in a mystery within an illusion — kind of like the Internet, where you can also watch this film for free.

Wed., Jan. 6, 7:30 p.m., 2010

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