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!

Summer Series: Directed by The Coen Brothers

 

Once again, our Film Club Summer Series will be a director spotlight. For the months of June, July and August, we will be watching films directed by the Coen Brothers.

I will have individual posts for each month but for the time being here is what the lineup looks like:

(click the title for a trailer)

June 12- Raising Arizona

June 19- Miller's Crossing

July 17- Barton Fink

July 24- The Big Lebowski

August 21- Burn After Reading

August 28- True Grit

We have watched quite a few Coen Brothers film over the years, but I thought it criminal I've never done a director spotlight on them. I hope you will join us for a summer of masterful, irreverent and fun films like only the Coens can deliver.

May Film Club

 For the month of May we will be watching Michael Mann's Collateral.

Collateral is a 2004 American neo-noir action thriller film directed and produced by Michael Mann, written by Stuart Beattie, and starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. The supporting cast includes Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Javier Bardem, and Bruce McGill. The film follows Max Durocher (Foxx), a Los Angeles cab driver, and his customer, Vincent (Cruise). When offered a high fare for driving to several locations, Max agrees but soon finds himself taken hostage by Vincent who turns out to be a hitman on a contract killing spree.

The film received critical acclaim in particular for the performances of Cruise and Foxx, Mann's direction, and the editing. It currently holds a fresh rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Collateral is essentially a long conversation between a killer and a man who fears for his life. Mann punctuates the conversation with what happens at each of the five stops, where he uses detailed character roles and convincing dialogue by writer Stuart Beattie to create, essentially, more short films that could be free-standing. These scenes are so much more interesting than the standard approach...Mann allows dialogue into the kind of movie that many directors now approach as wall-to-wall action. Action gains a lot when it happens to convincing individuals, instead of to off-the-shelf action figures."

We will be meeting Thursday, May 22 at 5:30 pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlcX_GXtf40

Hope to see you there!

April Film Club

April is my birth month so as usual I like to choose a film that is a personal favorite of mine. This year's pick happens to be a newer movie but it was one of the best movies I saw last year. We will be watching Godzilla Minus One.

Godzilla Minus One  is a 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film written, directed, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. It is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, Toho's 33rd Godzilla film, and the fifth installment of the Reiwa era. Set in postwar Japan, the film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as a former kamikaze pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after encountering a giant monster known as "Godzilla". The supporting cast includes Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

The film received positive reviews and currently holds a fresh rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Steve Biodrowski writing for Hollywood Gothique gave it 5/5 stars saying this in his review, "Godzilla Minus One is a monumental example of a film that succeeds beyond the boundaries of its genre. Amazingly, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki achieves this goal not by fashioning a revisionist take that eschews the well-mined veins of the 70-year-old franchise. Instead, he follows those veins to their mother lode, digging deeper to extract their full potential – for both monster mayhem and human pathos. Forged into an alloy, these elements create a deeply moving domestic drama about post-war Japan recovering from its wounds, merged with a brutal horror movie featuring the monster as the living embodiment of the characters’ – and the nation’s – traumatized psyche.

The result is not merely a good Godzilla movie, a good monster movie, or a good blockbuster. It is, quite simply, an extraordinary movie by any measure."

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

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSrHIX5a-0

Hope to see you there!