January Film Club

Happy New Year everybody!

Sorry for the late update again, I actually had this all done a week ago but forgot to do the blog.  I'll get this back on track next time, haha.  Anyway, thank you to everyone who was able to come out and celebrate Christmas with us, we had fun watching Die Hard.  Thank you to everyone who brought snacks to share, it was a regular smorgasbord as usual.

For the month of January I've decided to show one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time.  This year is actually the 20th anniversary of this film but since it was released in March of 1999, and I usually save March for something Irish themed, I figured we could start off the year with it instead.  This month's selection is none other than The Matrix.

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by The Wachowskis and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano.  It depicts a future in which reality as perceived by humans is not quite what it seems.  Cyber-criminal and computer programmer Neo learns the truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the forces that work against the humans.  The Matrix is known for popularizing a visual effect known as “bullet time”, in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow-motion while the camera moves at normal speed.  The film is an example of the cyberpunk sub-genre and contains numerous reference to philosophical and religious ideas.

The film holds an 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "It's great looking, both in its design and in the kinetic energy that powers it.  It uses flawlessly integrated special effects and animation to visualize regions of cyberspace.  It uses f/x to allow its characters to run horizontally on walls, and hang in the air long enough to deliver karate kicks.  It has leaps through space, thrilling sequences involving fights on rooftops, helicopter rescues and battles over mind control.  And it has performances that find the right notes.  Keanu Reeves goes for the impassive Harrison Ford approach, "acting" as little as possible, and Laurence Fishburne finds a balance between action hero and Zen master.  The Matrix did not bore me.  It interested me so much, indeed, that I wanted to challenged even more."

As I said, this is one of my favorite Sci-Fi films with lots of great ideas and wonderful special effects.  It's just an enjoyable film overall, and I hope you can make it out.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8e-FF8MsqU

December Film Club

Hey everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who came out last month for All Quiet on the Western Front, we had a great conversation afterwards (and as always, great food!)

For December I've decided to continue my trend of non-traditional Christmas movies and show one of my absolute favorite Christmas films, John McTiernan's Die Hard

Die Hard is a 1988 American action thriller film.  It was directed by John McTiernan, and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart.  The film follows off-duty New York City Police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) who is caught in a Los Angeles skyscraper during a heist led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).   It is based on Roderick Throp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever.  Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to shoot the film as a sequel to his 1985 action film Commando, and Fox reluctantly gave the role to Willis, then known as a comedic television actor.  Made for $28 million, Die Hard grossed over $140 million worldwide, with the film turning Willis into an action star, and became a metonym for an action film in which a lone hero fights overwhelming odds.  The Film’s success created the Die Hard franchise, which includes four sequels, a number of video games, and a comic book, and in 2017 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.  Die Hard has been named on of the best action and Christmas-themed films ever made.  It currently holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and David Kehr, writing for the Chicago Tribune the year the film was released, said this in his review, “Though Willis is still a bit pale and TV-tentative, the slack is more than taken up by Alan Rickman, a British stage actor who, in his movie debut as the chief terrorist, creates a classic villain.  Small, slinky and well-spoken, Rickman’s Hans Gruber has the silkiness of Claude Rains and the smiling dementia of “Gilda’s” George Macready.  As directed by John McTiernan, it turns out to be something more-the archetypical action movie of the ‘80s, the perfection of the form.  Sleekly engineered, impeccably staged and shrewdly dosed with humor and sentiment."

We will be meeting next Thursday, the 20th at 6:15pm.  Hope to see you there!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TQ-pOvI6Xo

November Film Club

Hello everyone!

So sorry for the SUPER late update for Film Club, but here goes.  First, thank you to everyone who came out for Horror Fest, once again you've all outdone yourselves, we had a great time and watched some fun scary, alien themed movies.  Thank you for making my job so easy.

On to November.
For the month of November I've decided to show a war film in honor of Veteran's Day (something we've been doing the past couple years now).  But, this year is also the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that led to stopping the hostilities of WWI.  So, for this very special Veteran's Day I've decided to show Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a 1930 American epic pre-code war film based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel of the same name.  Directed by Lewis Milestone, it stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.  It opened to wide acclaim in the United States.  Considered a realistic and harrowing account of warfare in World War I, it made the American Film Institute’s first 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1998.  A decade later, after the same organization polled over 1,500 workers in the creative community, All Quiet on the Western Front was ranked the seventh best American epic film.  In 1990, the film was selected and preserved by the United States Library of Congress’ National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”  All Quiet on the Western Front received tremendous praise in the United States.  The film was the first to win the Academy Award for both Outstanding Production and Best Director.  The film currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Irene Thirer, writing for New York Daily News in the year the film was released, said this in her review, “All Quiet on the Western Front depicts a war which is wild, mad, raging with fight.  Universal’s audible screen production of Erich Maria Remarque’s sensational best seller, is so magnificent, so powerful, that it hardly behooves mere words to tell of its heart-rending appeal, of its dramatic fire, its breath-taking battle shots in which men stab and kill each other, for the glory of war.  It is not only a great motion picture because it has been built firmly and consistently upon the plot of a great book: It smacks of directional genius-nothing short of this; sensitive performances by a marvelous cast and the most remarkable camera work which has been performed on either silent or sound screen, round about the Hollywood studios.”

I hope you will be able to come out and join us for this wonderful, harrowing film!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grapXipP3fM

Crete Library 8th Annual Horror Fest

Hey everybody!

October is here and with it, as you know, comes my favorite holiday and Film Club event: Halloween and Horror Fest.  As in previous years, we will be watching 4 films over the course of two days.  This year's theme is going to be "Alien Invaders".  We will be watching two classic films and then two newer films. (Click the titles below for the trailer)

Wednesday, Oct. 24th

5:00pm: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

7:00pm: The Thing (1982)

Thursday, Oct. 25th

5:00pm: Annihilation (2018)

7:00pm: A Quiet Place (2018)

Stop by the library and pick up a booklet that has a blurb about each film. I hope you can make it out to celebrate this spooky tradition with us.   Hope to see you there!

September Film Club

Hey everyone!

Sorry this is so last minute, but between planning the summer and planning next month's Horror Fest, September kind of got away from me.  First let me thank everyone who made it out to our Shakespeare series, it was far and away our best attended series, and we had some great discussions!  Also, to everyone who brought food, again, no amount of praise is enough, you guys rock.  For the month of September, I'm just going to go with a quick pick I've wanted to show for a while.  We will be watching the indie sci-fi film Coherence.

Coherence is an American science fiction thriller directed by James Ward Byrkit in his directorial debut.  The film involves eight people at a dinner party who must deal with strange occurrences following a comet sighting.  Byrkit came up with the idea for the film after deciding he wanted to test the idea of shooting a film "without a crew and without a script".  While he did have a specific idea for how the film would unfold, he selected improvisational actors and gave them the basic outline of their characters, motivations, and major plot points.  He said, "instead of having a script, each actor was given a page of notes each day with their back story or sort of motivation for the night.  But they wouldn't know what the other actors had received so it had a very natural, very spontaneous collision of motivations that ended up being what you see on film."  Critical reception for Coherence has been predominantly positive and the film currently holds a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "Coherence is proof that inventive filmmakers can do a lot with a little.  Written and directed by James Ward Byrkit, the movie starts out looking and feeling like half the no-budget indies you've seen:  a bunch of seemingly well-off people attend a dinner party at a nice suburban house somewhere in Northern California on the night that a comet is scheduled to pass near the earth.  They introduce themselves to each other, hang out, drink, eat and deliver expository banter.  Then things get weird, and weirder.  Amazingly, none of the movie's technical or artistic shortcomings prove to be deal breakers.  Once Coherence delves into its premise, the viewer is bound to come down with a bad case of the creeps.  This is less-is-more science fiction, indebted to the original "The Twilight Zone" as well as Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel...this is a confident movie that feels like the first entry in a career worth following."

We will be meeting next Thursday, Sept. 20th at 6:15pm.  Again, sorry for the short notice, but I hope you will join us for this mind-bender of a movie.  Hope to see you there!

Here's the trailer: 

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

Film Club Shakespeare Series: August

Hello again everyone!

Can you believe it's already August?  Winter is right around the corner!  I'm sorry, I won't say the "w" word again.  We still have a few months in between then and now so let's just enjoy the weather we have while we have it. With the new month comes our final two Shakespeare films.  We've had Comedies, we've had Histories and now we get to my favorite (and possibly what the Bard was best known for), Tragedies.  Our last two films are Coriolanus and Macbeth.

Thursday, August 16th at 6:15pm- Coriolanus

Coriolanus is a 2011 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, written by John Logan and directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes who plays the titular character.  This is Fiennes' directorial debut.  It also stars Gerard Butler, Lubna Azabal, and Ashraf Barhom, with Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, James Nesbit and Vanessa Redgrave.  Although the film is not explicit about its contemporary Eastern European setting, a title card states the film is set in "A Place Calling Itself Rome".  It was filmed in Serbia, Montenegro and the UK.  The film currently holds a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "The point with Shakespeare is the language.  Modern dress productions of his plays are common and can inspire intriguing viewpoints.  Who is to say that "Coriolanus" might not as well be set in the Middle East as in Rome-neither a place Shakespeare had ever seen?  Finnes, an actor who can remake himself, is here lean and muscular, his head shaven, his neck a muscular trunk displaying a dragon tattoo.  He carries an M4-16  Is this Shakespeare's hero?  Did Shakespeare envision Coriolanus in Greco-Roman draperies?  I imagine him alone in a room, writing by candlelight, intoxicated by language.  For him, Coriolanus was the name of the speaker of his words.  One of the pleasures of Finnes' film is that the screenplay by John Logan makes room for as much of Shakespeare's language as possible.  I would have enjoyed even more, because such actor as Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox let the words roll trippingly off the tongue.  I admired the movie even though I found it neither fish nor fowl.  As Shakespeare, it has too much action footage, and as action, it has too much Shakespeare.  I suppose the action is the price Fiennes had to pay to do the Shakespeare, because a film this expensive must appeal to the masses.  What's the question Shakespeare has Coriolanus ask about public opinion?  "What's the matter, you dissentious rogues/That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion/Make yourselves scabs?"


Thursday, August 23rd at 6:15pm- Macbeth

Macbeth is a 2015 British-French film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name.  The film was directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay adapted by Jacob Koskoff, Todd Louiso, and Michael Lesslie.  It stars Michael Fassbender in the title role and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth.  It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and received generally positive reviews from film critics who praised Fassbender's performance, as well as those of the res of the cast, the visual style, the script, the direction and the war sequences.  It currently holds an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Christy Lemire, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave it 3/4 stars saying this in her review, "Australian director Justin Kurzel tackles "Macbeth" with a few narrative tweaks and a whole lot of visceral violence.  His film is just devastatingly gorgeous to look at-with a climax soaked in a fiery red that suggest "Macbeth" on Mars.  And although he's maintained the crucial supernatural elements of "The Scottish Play", as it's known superstitiously, Kurzel also wallows in the grit and muck, which gives his film a texture and an immediacy.  This "Macbeth" also grabs you with the charismatic presence of its two stars, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.  Fassbender has made a career out of playing complicated, tormented figures and the murder and madness of Macbeth are his bread and butter.  Still, the danger that lurks beneath his lean, cool good looks gives his Macbeth an especially unsettling air.  Cotillard, meanwhile, has an otherworldly quality that makes her menacing-a quiet intensity in those enormous eyes and a standoffishness that makes her seem unpredictable, even though we're all too aware of the devious plot her Lady Macbeth has in store."

I hope you all can make it out to two more wonderful films!

Film Club Shakespeare Series: July

Hey everybody!

Thank you to everyone who made it out for our first two films: Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.  We had a fantastic turnout for both films (probably some of our biggest crowds yet!).  Thank you also to everyone who brought food to share, we all appreciate it immensely.
Ok, moving on to July business.  For this month of the series we will be focusing on two the Bard's histories.  We will be watching Richard III and Henry V.

Thursday, July 19th at 6:15pm-Richard III

Richard III is a 1995 British drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's play of the same name, starring Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood, and Dominic West.  The film sets the play in 1930s Britain with Richard as a fascist sympathizer plotting to usurp the throne.  Richard III received universal acclaim from critics.  It currently holds a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars later adding it to his list of Great Movies.  He said this in his review, "Harold Bloom thought Sir Ian McKellen was the greatest Richard III he had ever seen, and Richard Loncraine's 1995 film is based on McKellen's famous 1990 National Theater performance.  It sets the play in an England of an alternate timeline, which clearly evokes 1930's fascism.  In recent London, Shakespeare's language remains the same; I imagine the playwright himself would have cared little about the sets and costumes of a staging so long as his words were respected.  This is a film with a dread fascination.  McKellen occupies it like a poisonous spider in its nest.  Lurching sideways though his life, smoking as if it's as necessary to him as breathing, seductive when he wants to be, when angered Richard reveals the predator within."

Thursday, July 26th at 6:15pm-Henry V

Henry V is a 1989 British historical drama film adapted for the screen and directed by Kenneth Branagh, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name about King Henry V of England.  The film stars Branagh in the title role with Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Ian Holm, Emma Thompson, Alec McCowen, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Brian Blessed, and Christian Bale in supporting roles.  The film received worldwide critical acclaim and has been widely considered one of the best Shakespeare film adaptations ever made.  It won an Oscar for best Costume Design and Branagh, in his directorial debut, received nominations for Best Actor and Best Director.  It currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "There is no more stirring summons to arms in all of literature than Henry's speech to his troops on St. Crispan's Day, ending with the lyrical "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."  To deliver this speech successfully is to pass the acid test for anyone daring to perform the role of Henry V in public, and as Kenneth Branagh, as Henry, stood up on the dawn of the Battle of Agincourt and delivered the famous words, I was emotionally stirred even though I had heard them many times before.  That is one test of a great Shakespearean actor: to take the familiar and make it new.  What works best in the film is the over-all vision.  Branagh is able to see himself as a king, and so we can see him as one.  He schemes, he jests and he deceives his soldiers during his famous tour of the field on the night before the battle.  In victory he is humble, and in romance, uncertain.  Olivier, who was 37 when he played Henry in 1944, wrote that Henry V was the kind of role he couldn't have played when he was younger:  "When you are young, you are too bashful to play a hero; you debunk it."  For Branagh, 29 is old enough."

I hope you are able to make it out to these wonderful films.  See you there!