FLiCKS gets groovy with ‘Austin Powers’

It’s not every day you get to watch a hit film alongside its director. 

FLiCKS kicked off its first event of the year on Sunday by welcoming back alumni and filmmaker Jay Roach ’79 for a screening of his hit spy comedy, “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1995). Roach, who once ran Sunday night FLiCKS as an undergraduate, said he had not watched the film in 25 years.

The screening marked a special moment for FLiCKS, which has faced a sharp decline in attendance since the tradition’s revival in 2024. Last year, six of its nine screenings drew fewer than 50 attendees. While Sunday’s event didn’t quite fill all 587 seats in CEMEX Auditorium, attendance was noticeably stronger, nearly packing the venue. 

Students also saw the return of FLiCKS’ signature mid-show antics. A surprise performer in an Austin Powers costume strutted across the stage in the film’s opening scene, and party poppers filled with red confetti burst in sync with on-screen explosions. 

Paper airplanes, a FLiCKS classic, also rained down from the balcony as Roach introduced his film. For the most part, however, the audience seemed fully absorbed in the raunchy spy film.

“I don’t think you can properly watch Austin Powers at home because it’s such a comedy and an older-style comedy,” said Max Kelly ’29. “It was made to be viewed in a theater, and you need the communal response of laughter, which is cathartic in a way.”

“Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” follows Austin Powers, a British playboy and special agent from the 1960s who is thawed from a cryogenic freeze in the 1990s to stop his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil, from taking over the world. A parody of the 1960s spy genre, the film stars Mike Myers in both lead roles and is full of sexual innuendos and improvised moments.

The audience especially erupted in laughter and cheers whenever the not-so-attractive Austin Powers unleashed his over-the-top charm and lust on women.  

“Mike Myers is just ridiculous. And I think, being a ridiculous audience, that’s how you pay it forward,” said Mariam Colborn ’25 M.S. ’26, who attended the event dressed in her full Austin Powers Halloween costume. 

Roach came to Stanford as a pre-law economics major with no intentions of pursuing filmmaking. He started by selling concessions outside FLiCKS before taking on the role as FLiCKS manager —  an unexpected experience he said “totally changed [his] life.” During his time, two screenings ran every Sunday, drawing over 1500 students to Memorial Auditorium.

According to a proposal document for Sunday’s event, Roach responded to the request to attend the event within an hour and even helped waive the film license fee. 

In a Q&A session moderated by FLiCKS director Daniel Rashes ’26 following the film, Roach discussed working with Mike Myers, the challenges of comedy and his experiences in Hollywood. He also reflected on what it felt like to see his film screened at Stanford after all these years.

“There’s so many references to old films and stuff that I was wondering if people got,” Roach said. “A lot of Richard Lester Beatles movies and all the weird pop art European films.”

Upon returning to campus, Roach said he biked to every place he had lived and every campus job he had held as an undergraduate. One summer, he worked seven jobs simultaneously, including running FLiCKS, photographing for The Daily and handling public affairs for Stanford’s student radio station, KZSU. 

Rashes also asked Roach about his 1978 letter to the editor in which Roach criticized The Daily’s film reviewers for their negative take on a FLiCKS-featured film. Roach called out the reviewers for their unfounded “self-confidence” and “psuedo-expertise.”

“You think you can make a difference back to the journalist, but it never works, and they busted me for that pretty hard,” Roach said, reflecting upon the letter.  “How many directors write to reviewers in public and say, ‘You suck as a reviewer. You suck. My film sucks. So, we all suck?’”

Roach shared that liked writing similarly “passionate” and “lawyerly” letters to defend raunchy scenes in his films. He would eventually convince the Motion Pictures Association that “only a person with a dirty mind would think that that [scene] was dirty,” which helped maintain the PG-13 ratings across his Austin Powers films. 

The night ended with a paper airplane-filled auditorium and brookies served by Street Meat. According to FLiCKS organizers, this will likely be the only screening of the quarter. 

Roach, for his part, hopes FLiCKS “becomes a trend again,” with hordes of students setting aside time every Sunday to see films in person. 

“You have to really love comedy to want to expose yourself,” Roach said. “When you guys were laughing about some of this film, I was like, ‘Oh, this feels so good.’ I forgot how good it feels to be in a theater when people are laughing.”

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