August Film Club #2

Hello, our second film for August, and final film of our Wes Anderson Director Series will be The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H. famed concierge of a twentieth century mountainside resort in the fiction Eastern European country of Zubrowka. When Gustave is framed for the murder of a wealthy dowarger (Tilda Swinton), he and his recently befriended protégé Zero (Tony Revolori) embark on a quest for fortune and a priceless Renaissance painting amidst the backdrop of an encroaching fascist regime.

The film currently holds a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Glenn Kenny writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "As much as The Grand Budapest Hotel takes on the aspect of a cinematic confection, it does so to grapple with the very raw and, yes, real stuff of humanity from an unusual but highly illuminating angle. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a movie about the masks we conjure to suit our aspirations, and the cost of keeping up appearances. "He certainly maintained the illusion with remarkable grace" once character remakrs admiringly of another near the end of the movie. The Grand Budapest Hotel suggests that sometimes, as a species, that's the best we can do. Anderson the illusion maker is more than graceful, he's dazzling, and with this movie he's created an art-refuge that consoles and commiserates. It's an illusion, but it's not a lie."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug. 31 at 5:30pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fg5iWmQjwk

Hope to see you there!

August Film Club #1

Hey everyone, our first film for August is Moonrise Kingdom.

Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 American coming of age comedy drama film directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and introducing Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Largely set on the fictional island of New Penzance somewhere off the coast of New England, it tells the story of an orphan boy (Gilman) who escapes from a scouting camp to unite with his pen pal and love interest, a girl with aggressive tendencies (Harward). Feeling alienated from their guardians and shunned by their peers, the lovers abscond to an isolated beach. Meanwhile, the island's police captain (Willis) organizes a search party of scouts and family members to locate the runaways.

The film has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "In Anderson's films, there is a sort of resignation to the underlying melancholy of the world; he is the only American director I can think of whose work reflects the Japanese concept 'mono no aware', which describes a wistfulness about the transience of things. Even Sam and Suzy, sharing the experience of a lifetime, seem aware that this will be their last summer for such and adventure. Next year they will be too old for such irresponsibility. The success of Moonrise Kingdom depends on its understated gravity. None of the actors ever play for laughs or put sardonic spins on the material. We don't feel they're kidding. Yes, we know these events are less than likely, and the film's entire world is fantastical. But what happens in a fantasy can be more involving than what happens in life, and thank goodness for that."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug. 24 at 5:30pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N8wkVA4_8s

Hope to see you there!