September Film Club

Thank you to everyone who made it out for our Summer Series celebrating the work of the Coen Brothers, we have a had great time!

For the month of September we're going to get a little weird (we can't go a whole year without a little something strange). We will be watching Denis Villeneuve's bizarre and mysterious, Enemy.

Enemy is a 2013 surrealist psychological thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and produced by M. A. Faura and Niv Fichman. Written by Javier Gullón, it was loosely adapted from José Saramago's 2002 novel The Double. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role as two men who are physically identical, but different in personality. Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini co-star.

The film has a fresh rating of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and Godfrey Cheshire writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 2.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "As noted, Villeneuve and Gullon leave the meaning of all this an open question—or perhaps several questions at once. Is the French Canadian director’s tale of Anglo Canada an allegory of his culturally divided homeland? Is the cryptic story a symbolic meditation on something central to cinema, the fraught relationship between an actor and the “double” he fashions in creating a character who bears his likeness? Does it contain a whiff of Villeneuve’s feelings about Canada’s greatest art-film auteur prior to his arrival, David Cronenberg, whose “Dead Ringers” is one of cinema’s finest tales of doubles.

Take your pick, or better yet, supply your own reading. What seems certain is that Villeneuve is a very self-conscious artist whose estimable work descends from the European high-modernist tradition of decades past."

We will be meeting Thursday, Sept. 25 at 5:30 pm.

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvgt3jIUsc

Hope to see you there!

August Film Club #2

 Our final film of our Coen Brothers Summer Series is True Grit.

True Grit is a 2010 American Western film produced, written, and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. It is an adaptation of Charles Portis's 1968 novel. Starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld (in her theatrical-film debut), True Grit also stars Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. In the film, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) hires boozy, trigger-happy lawman Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to go after outlaw Tom Chaney (Brolin), who murdered her father, accompanied by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon), who is also hunting Chaney, and who has his own gripes with Cogburn. The Coens intended their film to be a more faithful adaptation of Portis's novel than the 1969 version starring John Wayne; in particular, they wanted to tell the story from Mattie's point of view.

The film currently holds a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "What strikes me is that I’m describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That’s a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It’s a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder. Their casting is always inspired and exact. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western.

But this isn’t a Coen Brothers film in the sense that we usually use those words. It’s not eccentric, quirky, wry or flaky. It’s as if these two men, who have devised some of the most original films of our time, reached a point where they decided to coast on the sheer pleasure of good old straightforward artistry. So let me praise it for what it is, a splendid Western. The Coens having demonstrated their mastery of many notes, including many not heard before, now show they can play in tune."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug 28th at 5:30 pm.

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOHGKCle-aY

Hope to see you there!

August Film Club #1

 Our first Coen Brothers film for the month of August is Burn After Reading.

Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It follows a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), whose misplaced memoirs are found by a pair of dimwitted gym employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt). When they mistake the memoirs for classified government documents, they undergo a series of misadventures in an attempt to profit from their find. The film also stars George Clooney as a womanizing U.S. Marshal; Tilda Swinton as Katie Cox, the wife of Osborne Cox; Richard Jenkins as the gym manager; and J. K. Simmons as a CIA supervisor.

The film has a 78% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "The Coen brothers’ “Burn After Reading” is a screwball comedy that occasionally becomes something more. The characters are zany, the plot coils upon itself with dizzy zeal, and the roles seem like a perfect fit for the actors — yes, even Brad Pitt, as Chad, a gum-chewing, fuzzy-headed physical fitness instructor. I’ve always thought of him as a fine actor, but here he reveals a dimension that, shall I say, we haven’t seen before. This is not a great Coen brothers’ film. Nor is it one of their bewildering excursions off the deep end. It’s funny, sometimes delightful, sometimes a little sad, with dialogue that sounds perfectly logical until you listen a little more carefully and realize all of these people are mad."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug. 21 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

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

Hope to see you there!

July Film #2

 Our second Coen Brothers film for July is The Big Lebowski.

The Big Lebowski is a 1998 crime comedy film written, directed, produced and co-edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. It follows the life of Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken identity then learns that a millionaire, also named Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), was the intended victim. The millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is supposedly kidnapped and millionaire Lebowski commissions the Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release. The plan goes awry when the Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the ransom money for the Dude and himself. Sam Elliott, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, David Thewlis, Peter Stormare, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jon Polito and Ben Gazzara also appear in supporting roles.

The film is loosely inspired by the work of Raymond Chandler. Joel Coen stated, "We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story – how it moves episodically and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant." The original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a longtime collaborator of the Coen brothers. The Big Lebowski received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Reviews have since become largely positive and the film has become a cult favorite, noted for its eccentric characters, comedic dream sequences, idiosyncratic dialogue and eclectic soundtrack. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

It currently holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars originally, in 1998, and later gave it 4/4 and added it to his list of Great Movies, saying this in his review, "“The Big Lebowski” is about an attitude, not a story. It’s easy to miss that, because the story is so urgently pursued. It involves kidnapping, ransom money, a porno king, a reclusive millionaire, a runaway girl, the Malibu police, a woman who paints while nude and strapped to an overhead harness, and the last act of the disagreement between Vietnam veterans and Flower Power. It has more scenes about bowling than anything else. This is a plot and dialogue that perhaps only the Coen Brothers could have devised. I’m thinking less of their clarity in “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men” than of the almost hallucinatory logic of “Raising Arizona” and “The Hudsucker Proxy.” Only a steady hand in the midst of madness allows them to hold it all together–that, and the delirious richness of their visual approach."

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

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-go0oBF4Y

Hope to see you there!

July Film Club #1

 Our first film for July is Barton Fink.

Barton Fink is a 1991 American black comedy thriller film written, produced and directed by the Coen Brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hired to write scripts for a film studio in Hollywood, and John Goodman as Charlie Meadows, the insurance salesman who lives next door at the run-down Hotel Earle. The Coens wrote the screenplay for Barton Fink in three weeks while experiencing writer's block during the writing of Miller's Crossing. They began filming soon after Miller's Crossing was finished. The film is influenced by works of several earlier directors, particularly Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and The Tenant (1976).

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars, saying this in his review, "Like all of the Coen productions, “Barton Fink” has a deliberate visual style. The Hollywood of the late 1930s and early 1940s is seen here as a world of Art Deco and deep shadows, long hotel corridors and bottomless swimming pools. And there is a horror lurking underneath the affluent surface. Goodman, as the ordinary man in the next room, is revealed to have inhuman secrets, and the movie leads up to an apocalyptic vision of blood, flames and ruin, with Barton Fink unable to influence events with either his art or his strength. “Barton Fink” is above all a black comedy in the tradition of David Lynch, Luis Bunuel and the Coens themselves. Turturro is the right man for the role, making Fink a plodding, introspective, unsure intellectual whose lack of insight is matched only by his lack of talent."

We will be meeting Thursday, July 17 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK0WjWlVO9w&t=7s

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #2

 Our second June film of our Summer Series is Miller's Crossing.

Miller's Crossing is a 1990 American neo-noir gangster film written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman, and Albert Finney. The plot concerns a power struggle between two rival gangs and how the protagonist, Tom Reagan (Byrne), plays both sides against each other.

It currently holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "Miller's Crossing comes from two traditions that sometimes overlap, the gangster movie of the 1930's and the film noir of the 1940's. It finds its characters in the first and its visual style in the second. There's a lot to admire. Albert Finney is especially good as Leo, the crime boss, and Jon Polito is wonderful as Johnny Caspar, his rival, who keeps talking about 'business ethics.' One of the most interesting characters in the movie is Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), a two-timing bookie who pleads for his life in a monologue that he somehow keeps afloat long past any plausible dramatic length. The pleasures of the film are largely technical. It is likely to be most appreciated by movie lovers who will enjoy its resonance with films of the past."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 19th at 5:30 pm.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYQNlJ5zrWA

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #1

To kick off our Summer Series: Directed by The Coen Brothers, we will start with their kooky comedy Raising Arizona.

Raising Arizona is a 1987 American crime comedy film written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Nicolas Cage as H.I. "Hi" McDunnough, an ex-convict, and Holly Hunter as Edwina "Ed" McDunnough, a former police officer and his wife. Other members of the cast include Trey Wilson, William Forsythe, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, Sam McMurray, and Randall "Tex" Cobb.

The Coen brothers set out to work on the film with the intention of making a film as different from their previous film, the dark thriller Blood Simple, as possible, with a lighter sense of humor and a faster pace.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and Josh Larsen gave it 3.5/4 saying this in his review, "The comic hysteria works best during a Huggies heist, in which H.I. tries to steal some diapers but runs afoul of trigger-happy store clerks, rampaging cops, and a relentless pack of dogs. And yet, despite all the mania and exaggerated characterizations, Raising Arizona is ultimately one of the Coens’ kinder (if not gentler) efforts, a raucous cartoon that consistently offers the beleaguered, desert-stricken H.I. little oases of grace."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 12 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AIfVoGUs6c&t=2s

Hope to see you there!