July Film Club: Documentary #2

Hey folks, thanks for those who were able to make it out to our film last Thursday.  For this coming Thursday, July 25th we will be watching the very moving, intense documentary entitled: Restrepo.

Restrepo is a 2010 documentary about the Afghanistan war, directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger and the late British/American photojournalist Tim Hetherington.  The film explores the year that Junger and Hetherington spent in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, embedded with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army in the Korengal Valley.  The 2nd Platoon is depicted defending the Observation Post (OP) named after a platoon medic who was killed earlier in the campaign, PFC Juan Sebastian Restrepo, a Colombian-born naturalized U.S. citizen.  The film follows the 2nd Platoon of Battle Company on a 15-month deployment in the Korengal Valley of northeast Afghanistan in the Nuristan area.  The Korengal flows north to the Pech, which then flows east to the Kunar River valley on the border with Pakistan.  the film chronicles the lives of the men from their deployment to the time of their return home.  The Korengal Valley was at the time regarded as "the deadliest place on Earth" (as stated in the documentary itself, trailers, and television commercials on the National Geographic Channel).

The film received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.  It received a certified fresh rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.  The late Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars.

This is one of the most intense films I've ever seen, and probably the truest portrayal of modern combat and military service you will ever experience outside of actually serving.  You won't want to miss this harrowing, wonderfully made documentary.

Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYR4EQiFas

July Film Club: Documentary #1

Alright everybody, this month we're going to move into some different territory for our documentaries.  The first one will be Al Reinert's wonderful film, For All Mankind.

For All Mankind is a 1989 documentary film documenting the Apollo missions of NASA.  It was directed by Al Reinert with music by Brian Eno.  The film provides 80 minutes of real NASA footage, taken on the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.  The focus of the documentary is on the human view of the space flights, and the original mission footage is provided along with the voice of the astronauts, from interviews and form the actual mission recordings.  Among those providing narration are Jim Lovell, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad, Jack Swigert, and Ken Mattingly.  The film concentrates on the beauty of the earth as seen from space.  For All Mankind was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1990.
In the DVD commentary, Reinert explains that he made the film after learning that huge amounts of footage shot by astronauts had been archived by NASA without ever being seen by the public.  Al Reinert and editor Susan Korda sifted through six million feet of film footage, and 80 hours of NASA interviews to create the documentary.

This film holds a 93% certified fresh rating on the aggregate review site Rottentomatoes.com out of 15 critical reviews.

This film must be seen to truly appreciate its beauty and splendor.  The marriage of the images on screen and the soundscapes created by the gifted Brian Eno are oftentimes overwhelming in their majesty.  This is a film that every person on earth should experience.

We will meet Thursday, July 18th at 6:15pm, hope to see you all there!

Here's the trailer:

http://www.criterion.com/films/599-for-all-mankind

June Film Club: Documentary # 2

Our second documentary film for the month of June (which will be showing June 27th at 6:15pm) is the film:  Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a film by the street artist Banksy that tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art.  The film charts Guetta's constant documenting of his every waking moment on film, from a chance encounter with his cousin, the artist Invader, to his introduction to a host of street artists with a focus on Shepard Fairey and Banksy, whose anonymity is preserved by obscuring his face and altering his voice, to Guetta's eventual fame as a street artist himself.  The film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival on January 24th, 2010.  It is narrated by Rhys Ifans.  The film was nominated fore the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards.  There has been debate over whether the documentary is genuine or a mockumentary, although Banksy answers "yes" when asked if the film is real.

This film holds a 96% certified fresh rating on the aggregate review site Rottentomatoes.com out of 107 critical reviews.
This film is a great little piece of satire on celebrity, consumerism, and the world of art.  I found it hugely entertaining and I hope you will as well.  I look forward to seeing you all there!

Here's the trailer:

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

June Film Club: Documentary #1

The first film we will be watching for the month of June is Seth Gordon's delightful documentary, The King of Kong: A fistful of Quarters.

The film is a 2007 American documentary film that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the world high score for the arcade game Donkey Kong from whom the film presents as reigning champion, Billy Mitchell.  In Ottumwa, Iowa, Walter Day founded Twin Galaxies, an organization formed to keep track of high score achieved on arcade games in the Unite States.  Billy Mitchell, having achieved the highest ever recorded scores on Donkey Kong and Centipede in the 1980s, remains a video game legend in 2005.  On the other side of the country, in Redmond, Washington, Boeing employee Steve Wiebe has been laid off as a Boeing engineer, and now spends his time as a science teacher.  His friends and his wife, Nicole, describe him as an unfortunate figure who always comes up short, despite being proficient at music, sports, art, and mathematics.  Preparing to get back into the workforce, Wiebe begins going to night school to get a master degree and obtains a Donkey Kong machine to play in his garage as a pastime.  After reading about Mitchell's world record of 874,300 on the internet, Wiebe focuses on mastering Donkey Kong and successfully achieves a score of 1,006,600 points.  Wiebe submits the tape to Twin Galaxies, which propels him to becoming a local celebrity and news topic as the new world record holder for a few weeks.  However, Mitchell sends his self-styled protege, retired banker turned pro-gamer Brian Kuh, to investigate Wiebe's machine.  Kuh find that the machine's circuit board was provided by Roy Schildt, who claims to hold the high score for Missile Command.  Unbeknownst to Wiebe, Shcildt and Mitchell have been nemeses for years ever since Mitchell caused Schildt's high score to be brought under scrutiny, preventing him from receiving official recognition from Twin Galaxies.  They believe Wiebe's board may have been tampered with in order to get revenge on Mitchell.  In order to prove his gaming skills, Wiebe travels to Funspot Arcade in Laconia, New Hampshire, to perform a high score live for Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day and other high-ranking members of Twin Galaxies, hoping to confront Mitchell and play head-to-head.

This film holds a 96% certified fresh rating on the aggregate review site Rottentomatoes.com out of 98 critical reviews.

I really loved this film, and I hope you will too.  We will be meeting Thursday, June 20th at 6:15pm.  Hope to see you there.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zet7g8AifJs

Summer of the Documentary Film

Hey everybody!

This summer, I'd like to do something a little different with Film Club.  In theory, I think it's an awesome idea and one that will work well, in practice, well, let's hope I'm right.  The theme for the summer is going to be Documentary Film.  What I'd like to do is show two films a month, both will be on a Thursday night.  I'm thinking, one film will be on the regular third Thursday and maybe the second one will be on the fourth Thursday, we'll see how it works out.  This way, we don't have to stay after hours on a Friday or something, and hopefully everyone will be able to make it to at least one film or the other (or ideally, both!)  Each month will have a different theme of sorts.  One month is going to be light-hearted films for pure entertainment's sake, another month might be more informative, dealing with such subject matter as the military and the space race.  The last month will be two films from the same director, both incredibly emotional films dealing with humans, their motivations and the consequences of their life choices. 

Hopefully by this time, the remodeling will be done and we will be able to enjoy these films on a brand new projector, blu ray player and sound system.  In the meantime, feel free to come to library and check out our Documentary section.  Like the rest of the DVD collection, it is growing at a healthy rate and we have some very great films in there.

Here's a look at the lineup I have planned (click the title for the trailer):

June 20th- The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

June 27th- Exit Through the Giftshop

July 18th- For All Mankind

July 25th- Restrepo

August 15th- Into the Abyss

August 22nd- Grizzly Man

I'll keep you updated!

May Film Club

Hey everybody!
Thank you to everyone who made it out to see Samsara, we had a good turnout and good discussion following the screening.

Our film for the month of May will be Terry Gilliams' wonderful film Brazil.

Brazil is a 1985 science fiction fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam.  It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard.  The film stars Jonathan Pryce and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins and Ian Holm.  It has been described as a "dystopian satire".  The film centers on Sam Lowry, a man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living a life in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines.  Brazil's bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the government depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that is has a buffoonish, slapstick quality and lacks a Big Brother figure.  Jack Matthews, film critic and author of The Battle of Brazil (1987), described the film as "satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world that had been driving Gilliam crazy all his life".
The film has a 98% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, with 39 out of 40 reviewers giving it positive reviews.  it has received a score of 88 on Metacritic, based on 12 reviews.  Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan described the film as "the most potent piece of satiric political cinema since Dr. Strangelove".  Janet Maslin of The New York Times was very positive towards the film upon its release, stating "Terry Gilliam's Brazil, a jaunty, wittily observed vision of an extremely bleak future, is a superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones."  The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Original Screenplay and Best Art Direction (Norman Garwood, Maggie Gray).  Other films that drew inspiration from Brazil's cinematography, art design, and/or overall atmosphere include Jean-Pierre Jeunet's and Marc Caro's films Delicatessen (1991) and The City of Lost Children (1995), the Coen brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and Alex Proyas' Dark City (1998)

This film is a little bit longer than most of the films we've watched, so I'd like it if everyone could be here as close to 6:00pm as possible, that'll give us a little extra time.  We will be meeting Thursday, May 16th.  I hope to see you all there for this excellent film!

Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wh2b1eZFUM

Remembering Roger

If you've watched the news, read the newspaper, or looked something up online in the past week chances are you've heard that our very own Chicago movie critic, Roger Ebert, has passed away.  Initiate sadness.  I did not know Roger Ebert personally so I can't really write up a memorial for him, what I can do is remember the times I've spent with him through his work.  I began watching Siskel and Ebert way back in the day when I was a child, it was very nearly my favorite show and I've continued to watch it throughout its various iterations (At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert and the Movies, At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper, etc.).  I sat down every weekend with such a joyous anticipation, ready to hear all about the new movies and whether they received the iconic "Thumbs up" or "Thumbs down", and even though I more often sided with Gene Siskel (who was my favorite then), after his tragic death, I slowly became attached to Ebert with his vast film knowledge and enjoyable writing style.  With the advent of social media, Ebert was able to take his writing to the next level.  He wouldn't just review films, he would Tweet about something that was interesting to him, or something that made him angry, or what was going on at a particular film festival he happened to be attending.  Rogerebert.com allowed him to post his reviews to an even wider audience and also offered him the ability to post blog entries that may or may not have had anything to do with films.  Sometimes he would blog about current events, or science, or his personal life as a recovering alcoholic, really he would just blog about literally ANYTHING that interested him (as is the purpose of a blog).  I would read everything he posted with a voracious appetite.  Sometimes what I read made me mad, sometimes it made me happy, or sad, or excited, this was the appeal of Roger Ebert.  Even when I whole-heartedly disagreed with him, I still very much enjoyed reading what he had to say, I enjoyed his unique voice, even long after his cancer took his literal voice from him.  Roger Ebert was (pretty much) the only person I actually trusted with film reviews (regardless of whether or not I agreed).  I respected his authority on film in general and even though there is the ever present issue of "taste,"which varies from person to person, Ebert knew his stuff, and I came to know when he was reviewing completely objectively and when he was letting a little subjectivity get in the way (he was notoriously hard on horror and some sci-fi, but understandably so).  The film community has benefitted greatly from this man's existence and his loss has produced a giant hole, one too big to fill currently, but Ebert had "students" or rather, people that he trusted and admired as reviewers.  These people worked together to post reviews on his website over the past few months while he was dealing with his illness.  It isn't the same as reading Ebert, and it never will be, but hopefully one day I'll be able to extend that same level of trust to them.

The passing of Roger Ebert is one of the few celebrity losses that has actually affected me.  Much of my early love of film and the continued growth of that love (into what now could pass as an obsession), I owe to that man.  I watch films differently as a result of reading and learning from him, I am more observant, picking up on the things that work and don't work, learning to recognize patterns and devices that many directors use (and overuse), what can be said without words but merely moving the camera in a certain direction.  He has been an inspiration when it comes to writing as well, and I've even dabbled (amateurishly) at reviewing films, a profession I could see myself enjoying.

I'm not ready to move on to another reviewer yet, mainly because no one can match Ebert as it currently stands, but I know I will eventually.  My love of film will push me forward towards the others who share this same, deep affection for the moving image, it is a community, and there will always be someone willing to comment.

You were one of the best, Ebert.  You'll always have a "Thumbs up" in my book.
"And so, until next week, the balcony is closed."

Check out Rogerebert.com for more remembrances of Roger, and read his last movie review: Terrence Malick's To the Wonder.