February Film Club

 Hey everybody! It's February! It's winter! and there's snow end in sight! (that was bad, I apologize for nothing). I have our next film selected, and just like all the years I've done this, I relied on my research skills and relentless study of all of film history to find the most perfectly perfect pick! I'm kidding, it just popped into my head, as always. Normally, I show a Romance of some sort because of Valentine's day, but this year I've selected a film that honors both Valentine's Day and Black History Month. Our film this month is Jeff Nichols' wonderful film, Loving.

Loving is a 2016 American biographical romantic drama film which tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The film takes inspiration from The Loving Story (2011) by Nancy Buirski, a documentary which follows the Lovings and their landmark case.

The film was directed by Jeff Nichols, who also wrote the screenplay. Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton co-star as Mildred and Richard Loving. Martin Csokas, Nick Kroll and Michael Shannon are all featured in supporting roles. The film received praise for its acting, Nichols' direction and screenplay, and the film's faithfulness to the Lovings' account. It holds a certified fresh rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Jeff Nichols' "Loving" is that rare mainstream film that provokes frustration and rage without resorting to monologues or melodrama.  The two people at the center of this period drama aren't prone to long speeches. They're quiet, conservative, almost shy folk who ended up at the center of one of the most important Supreme Court cases of the '60s by virtue of falling in love, getting married and having children.  Nichols' approach is careful, reserved and deeply considerate of the human story he's trying to tell.  There's no sense of exploitation here. One can sense a director's understandable  trepidation in telling the story of two private people whose life was made very public.  What's most important to Nichols' vision is how much trust he has in his two leads, and what they give back to him in exchange for that trust."

We will be meeting Thursday, Feb. 24th at 5:30. 

Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRXuCY7tRgk

Hope to see you there!

January Film Club

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2022. Can you believe it? Well, the new year is here and with it comes a whole new lineup of films to enjoy (barring any further virus related issues). To begin this new year of Film Club, I've decided to show one of my favorite movies from 2019. Rian Johnson's modern whodunnit, Knives Out.

Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Johnson and Ram Bergman.  It follows a master detective investigating the death of the patriarch of a wealthy, dysfunctional family.  The film features an ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer. 

The film received critical acclaim, particularly for its screenplay, direction and acting. It currently has a fresh rating of 97% on Rottentomatoes.com and Brian Tallerico writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Knives Out is one of the most purely entertaining films in years.  It is the work of a cinematic magician, one who keeps you so focused on what the left hand is doing that you miss the right. And, in this case, it's not just a wildly funny mystery to unravel but a scathing bit of social commentary about where America is in 2019. Directing a wildly charismatic cast who are all-in on what he's doing, Johnson confidently stays a step or two ahead of his audience, leaving them breathless but satisfied in the end."

We will be meeting Thursday, January 27th at 5:30pm. Hope to see you there!

Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-1NchUqMA

February Film Club

Hey everybody!  Thank you to everyone who made it out for Logan Lucky and of course, a big thank you to everyone who brought snacks to share, you are always appreciated!

For the month of February I generally show something along the lines of a romance in honor of Valentine's Day, and this month I've decided to show Terrence Malick's To the Wonder.

To the Wonder is a 2012 American experimental romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, and Javier Bardem.  Filmed in Oklahoma and Paris, the film chronicles a couple who, after falling in love in Paris, struggle to keep their relationship from falling apart after moving to the United States.

The film received mixed reviews from critics.  It holds a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 172 reviews.  To the Wonder was the final film reviewed by Roger Ebert prior to his death on April 4, 2013.  He awarded it 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "A more conventional film would have assigned a plot to these characters and made their motivations more clear.  Malick, who is surely one of the most romantic and spiritual of filmmakers, appears almost naked here before his audience, a man not able to conceal the depth of his vision. 'Well,' I asked myself, "why not?"  Why must a film explain everything?  Why must every motivation be spelled out?  Aren't many films fundamentally the same film, with only the specifics changed?  Aren't many of them telling the same story?  Seeking perfection, we see what our dreams and hopes might look like.  We realize they come as a gift through no power of our own, and if we lose them, isn't that almost worse than never having had them in the first place?  There will be many who find To the Wonder elusive and too effervescent.  They'll be dissatisfied by a film that would rather evoke than supply.  I understand that, and I think Terrence Malick does, too.  But here he has attempted to reach more deeply than that: to reach beneath the surface, and find the soul in need."

I hope you can make it out to this interesting and thought provoking film!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTAzcTZTY1g

January Film Club

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, here we are, the big 2020.  Hopefully it is a wonderful year for everyone.  I will do my best to at least make sure you get to see some great films!

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it for our showing of Krampus last month, we had a nice turnout, some fun conversation and as always, some great treats.

Now, on to our next film.  To kick off the new year, I've decided to show Steven Soderbergh's heist comedy Logan Lucky.

Logan Lucky is a 2017 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on the debut screenplay of Rebecca Blunt.  Soderbergh came out of retirement to direct the film, and to distribute it independently through his own company.  The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston and Sebastian Stan, and follows the Logan family, who plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway and must avoid getting caught by the FBI.  The film holds a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "Soderbergh is one of the reigning masters of the heist picture: he did the Ocean's Eleven remake and its two sequels, plus Out of Sight and The Underneath.  This one's about a bunch of good ol' boys trying to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.  The movie is put together with the no-fuss confidence of Soderbergh's best entertainments, staging comedic banter and suspense sequences with equal assurance, even playing sly perception games with the audience by making you wonder how smart or dumb the character (and the movie) actually are.  Soderbergh directs the script with his characteristic smoothness, moving through the story so deftly that you don't realize you've already gone from point A to point B until you're already en route to point C.  There's no wasted motion.  Everything happens as it does for a reason.  A lot of times you have no idea what you're looking at or why it's important until Soderbergh moves a bit to the left or shifts focus to make you go "Aha!"  There are few working directors who still know how to make a film this way.  Soderbergh is one of them."

We will be meeting Thursday, Jan. 16th at 6:15pm.  

I hope you are able to make it out to this wonderfully fun film!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPzvKH8AVf0

December Film Club

Hey everybody!

Thanks to everyone who made it out for Dunkirk, we had a small group, but some really great discussion following the film.

As always, I apologize for the this late update, but it's been so busy that time just got away from me.  For the month of December, and following my theme of the past few years of unconventional Christmas movies, I've decided to show Michael Dougherty's wonderful horror/comedy/Christmas film, Krampus.

Krampus is a 2015 American dark fantasy comedy horror film based on the eponymous character from Austro-Bavarian folklore, written and directed by Michael Dougherty and co-written by Todd Casey and Zach Shields.  The film stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, and Krista Stadler.  Three days before Christmas, the prosperous but dysfunctional Engel family gathers for Christmas.  Max Engel remains a firm believer in Santa Claus and intends to send him a letter.  Max wants to continue family traditions, but tension among his relatives saps their Christmas spirit.  When his cousins read out his letter to Santa and mock him for still believing, he fights with them and yells out that he hates his family and even Christmas.  In a fit of anger, Max tears up the letter and throws it to the wind outside and it's swept up into the sky.  A severe blizzard engulfs the town and Max's actions and his family's lack of Christmas cheer, seemingly summon an evil Christmas entity.
The film currently holds a 67% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Peter Sobczynski, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "Krampus was co-written and directed by Michael Dougherty, whose previous effort, Trick 'r Treat, paid homage to such classics as Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow, this film constantly bows to the altar of Gremlins, the Joe Dante classic that managed to find the perfect blend of creepiness, subversive humor and genuinely earned sentiment, to make it a seasonal favorite for viewers who prefer their Christmas entertainment to have a little more bite to it.  Despite the occasional rough patches...Krampus
feels as if it is maybe one or two rewrites away from being the alternative classic that it clearly wants to be.  It still has its charms, and just enough things going for it to warrant a mild recommendation.  Besides, do you think I want to get on the bad side of Krampus by panning his movie?  I may be naughty but I am not stupid."

We will be meeting Thursday, Dec. 19th at 6:15pm.  I hope you can make it out to this spooky, funny Christmas flick!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6cVyoMH4QE

November Film Club

Hello everyone!

Hope you're all managing to stay warm with this increasingly colder weather!

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it out to Horror Fest last month.  The weather did its best to make it horrible, but we had a small group and enjoyed some spooky films.

For the month of November we will be following the trend of the last few years of watching a war film in honor of Veteran's Day.  We will be meeting Thursday, Nov. 21st at 6:15pm and the film I've picked is Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.

Dunkirk is a 2017 war film written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan.  It depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II.  Its ensemble cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Anuerin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. Dunkirk portrays the evacuation from three perspectives: land, sea, and air.  It has little dialogue, as Nolan sought instead to create suspense from cinematography and music.  The film has extensive practical effects, and employed thousands of extras as well as historic boats from the evacuation, and period airplanes.  At the 90th Academy Awards, it received eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Nolan's first Oscar nomination for directing); it went on to win for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.  Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "It has often been said that trauma wreaks havoc with one's perception of time.  This is one of the few works I can think of that considers that idea over the course of a whole feature, not just in self-contained sequences. (The backbone of Zimmer's score, appropriately, is a ticking clock.)  I admired the film throughout, and have been thinking about it constantly since I saw it.  This is a movie of vision and integrity made on an epic scale, a series of propositions dramatized with machines, bodies, seawater and fire.  It deserves to be seen and argued about.  They don't make them like this anymore.  Never did, really."

I hope you are able to make it out to this fantastic film.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cmgiys2n1o

Crete Library Film Club 9th Annual Horror Fest

Hey everybody!

October is already flying by and Halloween will be upon us soon enough and with it, my favorite Film Club event: Horror Fest.  This year we will be meeting Wed. and Thurs. the 30th and 31st.  We will be following the same format we have for the past 9 years.  Both nights we will be watching double features.  The first movie starts at 5pm each night, and the second, some time around 6:45pm.  Some of them are bit a longer this year and time will be a little tighter than usual, so the earlier we can start the second film the better, but we will make it work.

For this year's theme, I've chosen four films put out by the production company A24.  I haven't been disappointed by one of their releases yet, so I always get excited when I see their logo pop up before a film.  Their horror offerings are great examples of how a movie can be a horror movie but still be as compelling a drama, comedy, or otherwise.  So, without further ado, your 2019 Horror Fest lineup:
(click the titles for trailers)

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 30th

It Comes at Night-5:00pm
The Killing of a Sacred Deer-6:45pm

THURSDAY, Oct. 31st

The Blackcoat's Daughter-5:00pm
Hereditary-6:45pm

I hope you can make it out for this spooky Film Club tradition.  Below are more in-depth looks at each film.  Hope to see you there!

It Comes at Night is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults.  It stars Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abott, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Riley Keough.  A highly contagious outbreak has ravaged the world.  Paul, his wife Sarah, and their teenage son Travis have secluded themselves in their home deep in the woods in an undisclosed location.  Their peace is disturbed when a stranger arrives.  The film has an 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, “It’s important that Shults’ vision of the end of the world opens not with an attack but with the kind of event that forever twists the trajectory of a young man’s life: the death of a loved one.  It is a movie in which the villains are loss, grief, pain, fear, and distrust-very human emotions and it has no traditional undead brain eaters.  There are no zombies in the streets, boogeymen in the basement or witches in the woods-and yet it is one of the most terrifying films in years.  Most of all, It Comes at Night is a film in which the true elements of fear come from within, not from outside.  Sure, it’s not exactly a new concept-George A Romero, John Carpenter and Stanley Kubrick have created the cinematic templates for such a thing but it’s remarkable to consider how much horror mileage that Shults gets out of a film with no traditional villains.  In a sense, it’s a reverse horror films, one that tells us, “Sure, the outside world is scary, but it’s distrust and paranoia that will truly be your undoing.  The real enemy is already inside.  Now try and get some sleep.” Good luck with that last part.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a 2017 psychological thriller film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, from a screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filipou.  It stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, and Bill Camp.  The film follows a cardiac surgeon who secretly befriends a teenage boy with a connection to his past.  He introduces the boy to his family, who begin to fall mysteriously ill.  The film currently holds an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 3.5/4 stars, saying this in his review, “Farrell is phenomenal here, finding the shades of a man whose greatest sin may be his refusal to admit he’s only human.  In the end, that may be the message of the film-when you play God, you must deal with the consequences.  The Lanthimos-Farrell dynamic is one of those relationships in which the creator and actor are so clearly on the same page it invigorating.  That’s a good word for The Killing of a Sacred Deer.  It’s a film that challenges viewers in such fascinating ways and feels so refined in its filmmaking that it’s invigorating to watch.  It’s a rare movie indeed that can be this alternately terrifying, hysterical, strange, and heartbreaking, often in the same scene.  Like the Greek myth that inspired the film, it feels powerful enough to be timeless.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a 2015 Canadian-American supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins.  The film stars Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, Lauren Holly, and James Remar.  Over their winter break, two Catholic schoolgirls get left behind at their boarding school at which the nuns are rumored to be Satanists.  The film has a 73% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Scott Tobias, writing for NPR said this in his review, “For a first time director, Perkins shows remarkable confidence in building his unsettling premise on enigmas and ellipses, essentially deferring the answers to all questions until the final act.  When the twists finally arrive, they’re not surprising in and of themselves-the signs are not hidden well enough in plain sight-but the shocks sting hard, like a coiled snake that’s been waiting patiently in the underbrush.”

Hereditary is a 2018 American supernatural psychological horror drama film written and directed by Ari Aster, in his feature directorial debut.  It stars Toni Collette, Alex Wolf, Milly Shapiro and Gabriel Byrne as a family haunted after the death of their secretive grandmother.  It premiered on Jan. 21, 2018 in the Midnight Section at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.  It was acclaimed by critics, with Collette’s performance receiving particular praise, and was a commercial success, making over $79 mil on a $10 mil budget to become A24’s highest-grossing film worldwide.  It holds an 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Matt Zoeller Seitz, writing for Rogerebert.com gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, “Creepy beyond belief, Hereditary is one of those movies you shouldn’t describe in detail because if you do, it will not only ruin surprises but make the listener wonder if you saw the film or dreamed it.  The movie sustains a throb of dread throughout its first 90 minutes, and it’s final 30 are off-the-rails in the best way.  At times, Aster’s film seems to be attacking rationality itself, scraping and scratching and tearing at the thought structures and language we’ve developed over the millennia in order to live in the world with the ultimate goal of plunging us backwards in time so that we reconnect with the superstitious cave-mind that looked up at the sky when it started to rain and wondered what the tribe had done to anger the gods.”