Search This Blog

Friday, August 26, 2022

September Film Club

 Hello everyone! A big thank you to everyone who came out and made our Summer Sci-Fi series another success! (A bonus thanks to those of you who would not consider themselves necessarily fans of the genre, but attended nevertheless) Now, on to September.

Sometimes, a film just jumps into my head and I really want to show it, and that's what happened this time. I know we just watched Dune and maybe you're all "Duned" out (though, I can't imagine what that's like), if that's the case you may want to miss this next one, but I would recommend against it, because it is a wonderful film.

For the month of September, I've decided to show Jodorowsky's Dune.


Jodorowsky's Dune
 is a 2013 American-French documentary film directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune in the mid-1970s.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "Jodorowsky's Dune is an account of a film that was never made despite all the love that its makers poured into it, yet somehow it's warm and inspirational: a call to arms for dreamers everywhere. Jodorowsky's statements tend toward the grandiose, but you never get the sense that he's a charlatan, or that he's overestimating his power to fill the screen with images no one had seen before. Entering the time machine of nostalgia, the director portrays his younger self as a man who thought he could do anything and could make his collaborators feel invincible, too."

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

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0cJNR8HEw0

Hope to see you there!

Monday, August 8, 2022

August Film Club #2

 For our second film of August and our final film of our Summer Sci-Fi Series, I've decided to show Denis Villeneuve's new adaptation of my favorite book, Dune.


Dune
 is a 2021 American epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screen play by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth. It is a the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, primarily covering the first half of the book. Set in the far future, the film follows Paul Atreides as his family, the noble House Atreides, is thrust into a war for the deadly and inhospitable desert planet Arrakis. The ensemble cast includes Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Glenn Kenny, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Throughout, the filmmaker, working with amazing technicians, manages to walk the thin line between grandeur and pomposity in between such unabashed thrill-generating sequences as the Gom Jabbar test, the spice harvester rescue, the thopter-in-a-storm nail-biter, and various sandworm encounters and attacks. If you're not a "Dune" person these listings sound like gibberish, and you will read other reviews complaining about how hard to follow this is. It's not, if you pay attention. I'll always love David Lynch's 1984 Dune, a severely compromised dream-work that had little use for Herbert's messaging. But Villeneuve's movie is Dune."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug. 25th at 5:00pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g18jFHCLXk

Hope to see you there!

Monday, August 1, 2022

August Film Club #1

 Our first film for the month of August is a personal favorite. We will be watching Steven Spielberg's Minority Report.


Minority Report
 is a 2002 American science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on the 1956 short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. The film is set in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia in the year 2054, where Precrime, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs". The cast stars Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton and Max Von Sydow.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "At a time when movies think they have to choose between action and ideas, Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" is a triumph-a film that works on our minds and our emotions. It is a thriller and a human story, a movie of ideas that's also a whodunit. Here is a master filmmaker at the top of his form, working with a star, Tom Cruise, who generates complex human feelings even while playing an action hero. Some directors place their trust in technology. Spielberg, who is a master of technology, trusts only story and character, and then uses everything else as a workman uses his tools. This film is such a virtuoso high-wire act, daring so much, achieving it with such grace and skill. Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place."

We will be meeting Thursday, Aug. 4th at 5:00pm.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG7DGMgfOb8&t=10s

Hope to see you there!