March Film Club

 For the month of March, we will be watching The General.

The General is a crime film written and directed by John Boorman about Dublin crime boss Martin Cahill, who undertook several daring heists in the early 1980s and attracted the attention of the Garda Síochána, Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) .The film was shot in 1997 and released in 1998. Brendan Gleeson plays Cahill, Adrian Dunbar plays his friend Noel Curley, and Jon Voight plays Inspector Ned Kenny.

The film currently holds a 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "There is a certain honor in sticking to your guns, even if they are the wrong guns. Martin Cahill, the subject of John Boorman’s “The General,” was for many years the most famous professional criminal in Ireland, a man who copied Robin Hood, up to a point: He stole from the rich and gave to himself. Cahill is played in “The General” by Brendan Gleeson, an expert Irish actor who succeeds in doing two things not easy for an actor: He creates the illusion that we are looking at Cahill himself, and he makes us admit we like him, despite his vicious streak. Gleeson and Boorman, who wrote his own screenplay, look unblinkingly at horrors, and then find the other side of the coin. Part of Cahill’s charm comes in the way he insists that crime is not his vice, but his occupation. After his neighborhood is torn down by city planners (over his stubborn protests), he demands to be relocated to “a nice neighborhood.” A public official sneers: “Wouldn’t you sooner live closer to your own kind?” Cahill replies, “No, I’d sooner live closer to my work.” 

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

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR6P6KMDUD0

Hope to see you there!

February Film Club

 For the month of February, we will be watching Spike Jonze's Her.

Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic comedy drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze. Her follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt. Her was dedicated to James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sendak and Adam Yauch, who all died before the film's release. The film received numerous awards and nominations, primarily for Jonze's screenplay. At the 86th Academy Awards, Her received five nominations, including Best Picture, and won for Best Original Screenplay.

The film currently holds a fresh rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and Glenn Kenny writing for Rogerebert.com gave it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Spike Jonze’s “Her” plays like a kind of miracle the first time around. Watching its opening shots of Joaquin Phoenix making an unabashed declaration of eternal love to an unseen soul mate is immediately disarming. The actor is so unaffected, so sincere, so drained of the tortured eccentricity that’s a hallmark of most of the roles that he plays. The futuristic premise sets the stage for an unusual love story: one in which Theo, still highly damaged and sensitive over the breakup of his marriage falls in love with the artificially intelligent operating system of his computer. It’s in Theo and Samantha’s initial interaction that “Her” finds its most interesting, and troubling depths. This is all laid out with superb craft and imagination. “Her” remains one of the most engaging and genuinely provocative movies you’re likely to see this year, and definitely a challenging but not inapt date movie."

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

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU0X1_KTDgc

Hope to see you there!

January Film Club

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to 2025 everyone, I hope all your new years have started off as best as possible.

I have a whole year's worth of movies coming your way, so let's get right into it. To kick off the new year, we will be watching Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest.

The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced among the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the "Zone of Interest" next to the concentration camp.  Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss alongside Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss. Development of the film began in 2014 around the publication of the Amis novel, which is itself based partially on real events. Glazer opted to tell the story of the Hösses rather than the characters they inspired and conducted extensive research into the family, as he sought to make a film that demystifies the perpetrators of the Holocaust as "mythologically evil"

The Zone of Interest premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023 and was theatrically released in the United States on 15 December 2023. The film received critical acclaim. Among its accolades, The Zone of Interest received five nominations (including Best Picture) at the 96th Academy Awards, winning two: Best International Feature (the first for a non-English British film) and Best Sound.

It currently holds a fresh rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and Robert Daniels, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "When I first watched writer-director Jonathan Glazer’s radical take on the Holocaust back in May, I couldn’t quite pinpoint what was so startling about it. There have been many films on this horrific chapter in history—from “Night and Fog” to “Schindler's List” to “The Pianist,” and as recently as “Occupied City”—all asking the viewer to bear witness to unfathomable suffering under a genocidal regime’s brutality. It would be a mistake, however, to interpret Glazer’s adaptation of Martin Amis’ same-titled novel as him asking viewers to simply witness. It’s a disturbing work, guided by a discomforting sense of immaculateness that chills the viewer. It is the sanitation the film performs, which speaks to the now, in a way few Holocaust films have done before. "

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

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vfg3KkV54

Hope to see you there!