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Saturday, February 3, 2018

February Film Club

Hello again everyone!

I hope you're surviving this wonderful weather we've been having.  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for it to be over.

I'd like to start by saying thank you to everyone who made it out last month for our showing of Super 8.  We had a good turnout and, as always, a lot of good food, because you guys are the best!

For the month of February I've decided to go off-track a bit.  Where I would normally show some kind of film that incorporates a romantic element to some degree (because of Valentine's Day), I'm instead going to show Meek's Cutoff, directed by Kelly Reichardt.

Meek's Cutoff is a 2010 American western film directed by Kelly Reichardt.  The film was shown in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.  It stars Bruce Greenwood, Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano.  The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through the Oregon desert along the route later known as the Meek Cutoff in the western United States.

The film currently holds a certified fresh rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 108 critical reviews and Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "To set aside its many other accomplishments, Meek's Cutoff is the first film I've seen that evokes what must have been the reality of wagon trains to the West.  The distinctive thing here is the subservience of the characters to the landscape.  These pioneers do not stand astride the land, they wander it in misery and exhaustion.  The wheels of their wagons are little match for the terrain.  Meek's Cutoff is more an experience than a story.  It has personality conflicts, but isn't about them.  The suspicions and angers of the group are essentially irrelevant to their overwhelming reality.  Reichardt has the courage to establish that.  She doesn't just make it easy for us with simplistic character conflict.  She's genuinely curious about the hardly educated pioneers who were brave, curious or hopeful enough to set out on such a dangerous journey."

We will be meeting Thursday, Feb. 15th at 6:15pm.  I hope you will be able to join us for this great and harrowing film!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rhNrz2hX_o