December Film Club

 Hey everybody! Christmas time is here and for the month of December I've decided to show something of a more traditional Christmas movie than we have watched in the past, but just off-beat enough to satisfy even my grinch-like sensibilities. We will be watching the John Hughes written, Jeremiah Chechik directed, Christmas Vacation.

Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film and the third installment in National Lampoon magazine's "Vacation" film series. Christmas Vacation was directed by Jeremiah Chechik, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Miriam Flynn, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki, and special appearances by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicholas Guest, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Brian Doyle Murray, and Natalia Nogulich. Based on Hughes' short story "Christmas '59", that was published in National Lampoon, it tells the story of the Griswold family spending Christmas vacation at home with their relatives and the ensuing mayhem.

At the time of the film's release, it received mixed to positive reviews; however, over time, many have cited it as a Christmas classic. It currently holds a certified fresh rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes and Variety magazine said of the film, "Solid family fare with plenty of yucks, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is Chevy Chase and brood doing what they do best. Despite the title, which links it to previous pics in the rambling Vacation series, this third entry is firmly rooted at the Griswold family homestead, where Clark Griswold is engaged in a typical over-reaching attempt to give his family a perfect, old-fashioned Christmas."

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

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLVd4ipC5Lc

Hope to see you there! 

November Film Club

Generally, for the month of November, I like to choose a war film in honor of Veteran's day. So, for our next film club, I've decided to show Joe Wright's excellent Darkest Hour.

Darkest Hour is a 2017 war drama film directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten. The film is an account of Winston Churchill's early days as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War and the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis, depicting his refusal to seek a peace treaty with Nazi Germany amid their advance into Western Europe. It stars Gary Oldman as Churchill, alongside Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill, Lily James as Elizabeth Layton, Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax, Ronald Pickup as Neville Chamberlain, and Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI. The title refers to a phrase describing the early days of the war, which has been widely attributed to Churchill.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Godfrey Cheshire, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "I've been trying to think when there was a historical drama I found as electrifying as Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour". The Winston Churchill we see here is no cartoon hero or plaster saint. Wright's film notes the dark stain on the leader's public career that the battle of Gallipoli in World War I represented, but doesn't make it a psychological millstone. "Darkest Hour" likewise frequently shows us its protagonist from the viewpoints of his acerbic though supportive wife, Clemmie, and his young, endlessly put-upon secretary, Elizabeth. Yet the freshness of this film's portrayal begins with the dramatic sharpness and historical intelligence of Anthony McCarten's script, which gives us a Churchill who is drawn into dynamic action by the looming shadow of Hitler's evil."

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

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJ60u7SUSw

Hope to see you there!

October Film Club: 12th Annual Crete Library Horror Fest

 Hey everyone! It's that wonderful time of year again, no, not Christmas, HALLOWEEN! My favorite time of year also happens to bring my favorite Film Club event: Horror Fest. Following Horror Fest tradition, we will be meeting two nights and watching 4 scary movies. Generally there's a theme across the 4 films, but this year it's just going to be 4 of my favorite scary movies. So without further ado, here are our films for this year:

Wednesday, Oct. 25

4pm: The Wicker Man

6pm: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Thursday, Oct. 26

4pm: The Autopsy of Jane Doe

6pm: Pontypool

September Film Club

Happy September! Thank you to everyone who made it out to our Summer Series: Directed by Wes Anderson. We had great turnouts and great discussions!

For the month of September, I decided to just randomly pick a film I've never shown before, but that I personally really love, and that choice is Hero.

Hero is a 2002 wuxia film directed, co-written, and produced by Zhang Yimou, and starring Jet Li, Toney Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen and Chen Doaming. The historical background of the film refers to the Warring States Period in ancient China, when China was divided into 7 states. In 227-221 BC, the Qin state was about to unify the other six states, assassins from the six states were sent to assassinate the king of Qin. One of the most famous incidents was Jing Ke's attempted assassination of the King of Qin. The film was first released in China in 2002. At that time, it was the most expensive project and one of the highest-grossing motion pictures in China. Miramax acquired American market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film for nearly two years. Quentin Tarantino eventually convinced Miramax to open the film in American theatres on Aug 27, 2004.

The film received positive reviews from critics. It became the first Chinese language movie to op the American box-office, where it stayed for two consecutive weeks. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film currently holds a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Zhang Yimou's Hero is beautiful and beguiling, a martial arts extravaganza defining the styles and lives of its fighters within Chinese tradition. It is also, like Rashomon, a mystery told from more than one point of view; we hear several stories which all could be true, or false. A film like Hero demonstrates how the martial arts genre transcends action and violence and moves into poetry, ballet and philosophy. It is violent only incidentally. What matters is not the manner of death, but the manner of dying: In a society that takes a Zen approach to swordplay and death, one might win by losing. Zhang Yimou...once again creates a visual poem of extraordinary beauty."

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgsddFEe9Oc

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

Hope to see you there!

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!

July Film Club #2

 Our second film for the month of July is Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 stop motion animated comedy directed by Wes Anderson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach. The project is based on the 1970 children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson star. The plot follows the titular character Mr. Fox (Clooney), as his spree of thefts result in his family, and later his community, being hunted down by three farmers known as Boggis, Bunce, and Bean.

The film currently holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "The art design is a large part of the film's appeal. It stays fresh all the way through. Think back to the color palettes of "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Life Aquatic". The film is based on the famous children's book by Roald Dahl, which like all of his work, has ominous undertones, as if evil can steal in at any moment. These animals aren't catering to anyone in the audience. We get the feeling they're intensely leading their own lives without slowing down for us. Like the hero of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", also based on one of his books, the creatures of Dahl's valley seem to know more than they're letting on; perhaps even secrets we don't much want to know. Children, especially, will find things they don't understand, and things that scare them. Excellent. A good story for children should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension of course is the lifetime still ahead of them."

We will be meeting Thursday, July 27 at 5:30 pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo

Hope to see you there!

July Film Club #1

Our first film for July is The Darjeeling Limited.

The Darjeeling Limited is a 2007 comedy drama film directed by Wes Anderson, which he co-produced with Scott Rudin, Roman Coppola, and Lydia Dean Pilcher, and co-wrote with Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. The film stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Schwartzman as three estranged brothers who agree to meet in India a year after their father's funeral for a "spiritual journey" aboard a luxury train. The cast also includes Waris Ahluwalia, Amara Karan, Barbet Schroeder, and Anjelica Huston, with Natalie Portman, Camilla Rutherford, Irrfan Khan, and Bill Murray in cameo roles.

The film has a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, " Anderson uses India not in a touristy way, but as a backdrop that is very, very there. The casting of the brothers is also a good fit. Their personalities jostle one another in a family sort of way; they're replaying old tapes. Then they have unplanned adventures as a result of the obscure medications, and end up off the train and in the "real" India with all of that luggage. But Anderson doesn't have them discover one another, which would be cliché; instead, they burrow more deeply inside their essential natures. I said the movie meanders. It will therefore inspire reviews complaining that it doesn't fly straight as an arrow at its target. But it doesn't have a target, either. Why do we have to be the cops and enforce a narrow range of movie requirements? Anderson is like Dave Brubeck, who I'm listening to right now. He knows every note of the original song, but the fun and genius come in the way he noodles around. And in his movie's cast, especially with Owen Wilson, Anderson takes advantage of champion noodlers."

We will be meeting Thurday, Jul 20 at 5:30pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2R7O2IlndM

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #2

 Our second film in our Summer Series is The Royal Tenenbaums.

The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. It stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson. Ostensibly based on a nonexistent novel, and told with a narrative influenced by the writing of J.D. Salinger, it follows the lives of three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure in adulthood. The children's eccentric father, Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman), leaves them in their adolescent years and returns to them after they have grown, falsely claiming he has a terminal illness. He works on reconciling with his children and ex-wife (Huston). With a variety of influences, including Louis Malle's 1963 film The Fire Within and Orson Welles' 1942 The Magnificent Ambersons, the story involves themes of the dysfunctional family, lost greatness, and redemption. An absurdist and ironic sense of humor pervades the film.

The film was received positively, it currently holds a fresh rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "One of the pleasures of the movie is the way it keeps us a little uncertain about how we should be reacting. It's like a guy who seems to be putting you on, and then suddenly reveals himself as sincere, so you're stranded our there with an inappropriate smirk. you can see this quality on screen in a lot of Owen Wilson's roles-in the half-kidding, half-serious way he finds out just how far he can push people. The Royal Tenenbaums is a heart profoundly silly, and loving. It stands in amazement as the Tenebaums and their extended family unveil on strategy after another to get attention, carve out space, and find love.  It doesn't mock their efforts, dysfunctional as they are, because it understands them-and sympathizes."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 29 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DNAI9bhBFU&t=25s

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #1

Our first film of our Wes Anderson Summer Series is Rushmore.

Rushmore is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman in his film debut), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), and their shared affection for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson.

The film had a positive reception among film critics. The film helped launch the careers of Wes Anderson and Schwartzman while establishing a "second career" for Murray as a respected actor in independent cinema. It currently holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Anderson and Wilson are good offbeat filmmakers. They fill the corners of their story with nice touches, like the details of Max's wildly overambitious stage production of "Serpico". But their film seems town between conflicting possibilities: It's structured like a comedy, but there are undertones of darker themes, and I almost wish they'd allowed the plot to lead them into those shadows. The Max Fischer they give us is going to grow up into Benjamin Braddock. But there is an unrealized Max who would have become Charles Foster Kane."

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

Here's a trailer:

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

Hope to see you there!

Film Club Summer Series: Directed by Wes Anderson

 Hey everyone! Summertime is here and in keeping with Film Club tradition, we have a new summer series. This summer we will be doing another Director Spotlight (it's been a few years since we've done that), and our highlighted director is Wes Anderson.

Like our previous Summer Series we will have 2 films a month for the months of June, July, and August. I will be out of town for one of the weeks of June, so, we'll have to flex the schedule a bit, but we'll make it work.

(This post will have a list of all the films we will be watching, but I'll have individual posts for each month as well as booklets here in the building.)

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by some critics as a modern day example of the work of an auteur, three of Anderson's films have appeared in BBC Culture's 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000.

He gained acclaim for his early work Bottle Rocket (1996), and Rushmore (1998). During this time, he often collaborated with Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson and founded his production company American Empirical Pictures, which he currently runs. He then received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). His next films included The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and his first stop motion film, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) for which he received an Academy award for Best Animated Feature nomination, and then Moonrise Kingdom (2012) earning his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination.

With Anderson's film The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), he received his first Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture, and won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. The next films included his second stop motion film Isle of Dogs (2018), and The French Dispatch (2021). His next film, Asteroid City, is slated for release in June, 2023.

Anderson's cinematic influences include Pedro Almodóvar, Satyajit Ray, Hal Ashby, and Roman Polanski.

Anderson has chosen to direct mostly fast paced comedies marked by more serious or melancholic elements, with themes often centered on grief, loss of innocence, dysfunctional families, parental abandonment, adultery, sibling rivalry and unlikely friendships. The plots of his movies often feature thefts and unexpected disappearances, with a tendency to borrow liberally from the caper genre.

Anderson has been noted for extensive use of flat space camera moves, symmetrical compositions, knolling, snap-zooms, slow motion walking shots, a deliberately limited color palette, and handmade art direction often utilizing miniatures. These stylistic choices give his movies a highly distinctive quality that has provoked much discussion, critical study, supercuts, mash ups, and parody. Many writers, critics, and even Anderson himself, have commented that this gives his movies the feel of being "self-contained worlds," or a "scale model household". According to Jess Fox Mayshark, his films have a "baroque pop bent that is not realist, surrealist or magic realist," but rather might be described as "fabulist".

Film Schedule

(click title to view trailer)

June

6/22-Rushmore

6/29-The Royal Tenenbaums

July

7/20-The Darjeeling Limited

7/27-The Fantastic Mr. Fox

August

8/24-Moonrise Kingdom

8/31-The Grand Budapest Hotel

May Film Club

Hello everyone! For the month of May I've decided to show a film by the incomparable Coen Brothers. I thought I'd show one that doesn't get as much attention as some of their others. So, we will be watching The Man Who Wasn't There by Joel and Ethan Coen.

 The Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 American epic satirical crime film written, directed, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub, and James Gandolfini. The film is set in 1949 and tells the story of Ed Crane, a withdrawn barber who leads an ordinary life in a small California town with his wife, who he suspects is having an affair with her boss. Crane's situation changes when a stranger comes to the barbershop and offers him the opportunity to join him as a partner in a promising new business, in exchange for an investment of ten thousand dollars. Drawn to the idea, Crane plans to blackmail his wife's lover for the money. The film is in black and white and employs voiceover narration, honoring classic film noir.

The film received positive critical review. It holds a certified fresh rating of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "The Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There is shot in black and white so elegantly, it reminds us of a 1940s station wagon, chrome, wood, leather and steel all burnished to a contented glow. Its star performance by Billy Bob Thornton is a study in sad-eyed, mournful chain-smoking, the portrait of a man so trapped by life he wants to scream. The Man Who Wasn't There is so assured and perceptive in its style, so loving, so intensely right, that if you can receive it on that frequency, the film is like a voluptuous feast. Yes, it might easily have been shorter, but then it would not have been this film, or necessarily a better one. If the Coens have taken two hours to do what hardly anyone else could do at all, isn't it churlish to ask why they didn't take less time to do what everyone can do?"

We will be meeting Thursday, May 25th at 5:30 pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjO8u_9CqXI

Hope to see you there!

April Film Club

 Hey everyone, April is my birthday month so I generally just show one of my favorite movies, and for this time around we're going to watch James Gray's spectacular Ad Astra.

Ad Astra (Latin for "To the Stars") is a 2019 American psychological science fiction adventure drama film co-produced, co-written, and directed by James Gray. Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland, it follows an astronaut who ventures into space in search of his lost father, whose obsessive quest to discover intelligent life at all costs threatens the Solar System and all life on Earth.

The film received positive reviews and holds a certified fresh rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave it 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "There have been numerous sci-fi films about people who had to go to the reaches of space to find truths within themselves but none quite like James Gray's masterful 'Ad Astra.' Thematically dense and visually sumptuous, 'Ad Astra' may not work for those seeking an action/adventure thrill ride, but it works wonders below the surface, serving as an examination of masculinity, a commentary on how we become our fathers, and can even be read as a search for an absent God. This is rare, nuanced storytelling, anchored by one of Brad Pitt's career best performances and remarkable technical elements on every level. It's a special film."

We will be meeting Thursday, April 27th at 5:30pm.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6AaSMfXHbA

Hope to see you there!

March Film Club

 For the month of March I generally try to show something that has some sort of tie to Ireland: Irish actors, director, setting, story, etc. This year, I've decided to show Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin.

The Banshees of Inisherin is a 2022 black tragicomedy film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. The film follows lifelong friends (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship; Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan also star. It reunites Farrell and Gleeson, who previously worked together on McDonagh's directorial debut In Bruges (2008).

The film received critical praise with a certified fresh rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Glenn Kenny, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "One thing I didn't have on my lifetime cinematic bingo card was Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson become the 21st century's answer to Laurel and Hardy. And yet. With 2008's In Bruges and now The Banshees of Inisherin, the Irish actors, under the writing and directing aegis of frequently pleasantly perverse Martin McDonagh, display a chemistry and virtuosic interplay that recalls nothing so much as the maestros of the early 20th century Comedy of Exasperation. As a director, McDonagh orchestrates the give-and-take between Farrell and Gleeson with the mastery of someone who appreciates these performers as much as discerning audiences do. They let it fly; Farrell does some of his best acting with his furrowed eyebrows; Gleeson has a glare that's both a death-ray and an enigma. The pauses these guys enact are at times even funnier than the verbal comebacks McDonagh has come up with for them. And as it happens, Barry Keoghan as Dominic almost steals the movie out from under the leads, his very funny vulgar brashness never quite camouflaging his character's poignant vulnerability. Very good show all around."

We will be meeting Thursday, March 23 at 5:30pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRu3zLOJN2c

Hope to see you there!

February Film Club

 For the month of February we will be watching Edgar Wright's masterful Baby Driver.

Baby Driver is a 2017 action crime film written and directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Elgort as a getaway driver seeking freedom from a life of crime with his girlfriend Debora (Lily James). Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Foxx and Jon Bernthal appear in supporting roles.

The film was well received by the media for its craftmanship and style. It has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "As CGI robots clang into each other and superheroes take to the sky, here's Wright to ask if you remember how movies used to thrill us with a turn of phrase, a squeal of a wheel, a diving plot twist, or a romantic kiss. Baby Driver feels both influenced by the modern era of self-aware, pop-culture filmmaking and charmingly old-fashioned at the same time, which is only one of its minor miracles. It's fluid and jaw-dropping-the kind of thing you want to see immediately again after it's over to catch all the things you missed."

We will be meeting Thursday, Feb. 23rd at 5:30pm

Here's the trailer:

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

Hope to see you there!

January Film Club

 Well well well, Happy New Year! 2023, wow. Here we are. With a new year comes a whole new lineup of (hopefully) wonderful films (you know I do my best). So, without any further ado or preamble, here is your film for January!

For the month of January, we will be watching Taika Waititi's wonderful Jojo Rabbit. 

Jojo Rabbit is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Taika Waititi, adapted from Christine Leunen's 2008 book "Caging Skies". Roman Griffin Davis portrays the title character, Johannes "Jojo" Betzler, a ten year old Hitler Youth member who finds out that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin mcKenzie) in their attic. He must then question his beliefs while dealing with the intervention of his imaginary friend (Waititi), a fanciful version of Adolf Hitler with a comedic stance on the politics of war. The film also stars Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant and Alfie Allen.

The film received mostly critical acclaim, among its numerous accolades, the film won Best Adapted Screenplay, while also being nominated for five other awards, including Best Picture, at the 92nd Academy Awards. It currently holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Waititi brings intimacy and indelible passion to each step in this boy's journey to empathy. The film, which grows less comic and more delicate as it moves towards its foregone conclusion, may fall short of greatness, but it never sinks to the maudlin. With expert help from cinematographer Mihai Malaimare and composer Michael Giacchino, the auteur walks a tightrope with uncommon skill."

We will be meeting Thursday, Jan. 26th at 5:30pm

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL4McUzXfFI

Hope to see you there!