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Monday, May 7, 2018

May Film Club

Hey everybody!

I hope everyone is enjoying this (FINALLY) nice weather we're having, I know I am.  Thank you to everyone who made it out to see Dark City last month and for your patience with the date change.  And as always, thank you to everyone who brought food to share!

For the month of May, I've decided to go with something of an easy pick because summer is coming up and we'll be having a whole series of films that I'm still kind of working on so, for the sake of convenience we will be watching Rian Johnson's addition to the Star Wars universe, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.  Also, since Star Wars day was just last Friday (May the 4th), and just about all Star Wars films (except the new ones) have been released in May, that's what we're going with.

I hate to do this to you all, but we will be meeting at 6:00pm instead of 6:15.  The movie is 152 minutes so we'll need that extra time.
We will be meeting Thursday, May 17th at 6:00pm.


Star Wars: Episode VIII-The Last Jedi is a 2017 American space opera film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  It is the second installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the eighth main installment of the Star Wars franchise, following Star Wars: Episode VII-The Force Awakens.  The ensemble cast includes Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels and Gwendoline Christie in returning roles, with Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro joining the cast.  The film features the final film performance by Fisher, who died in December 2016, and it is dedicated to her memory.  The plot follows Rey as she receives Jedi training from Luke Skywalker, in hope of turning the tide for the Resistance in the fight against Kylo Ren and the First Order, while Gerneral Leia, Finn, and Poe Dameron attempt to escape a First Order attack on the dwindling Resistance Fleet.  It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its ensemble cast, visual effects, musical score, action sequences and emotional weight; some considered it the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back.
The film currently holds a 91% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 374 critical reviews.  Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "Writer/director Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a sprawling, incident-and character-packed extravaganza that picks up at the end of The Force Awakens and guides the series into unfamiliar territory.  It's everything a fan could want from a Star Wars film and then some.  Even the sorts of viewers who spend the entire running time of movies anticipating every plot twist and crowing "called it!" when they get one right are likely to come up short here.  But the surprises usually don't violate the (admittedly loose) internal logic of the universe George Lucas invented, and when they seem to, it's because the movie has expanded the mythology in a small but significant way.  Jedi does a better job than most sequels of giving the audience both what it wants and what it didn't know it wanted.  The movie leans hard into sentiment, most of it planted in the previous installment.  But whenever it allows a character to cry (or invites us to) the catharsis feels earned.  It happens rather often-this being a film preoccupied with grieving for the past and transcending it, populated by hounded and broken people who are afraid hope will be snuffed out."

I hope you guys are able to make it out to this excellent film!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CbN8sfihY