Next movie club is coming soon. Are we all OK with the 3rd saturday of the month? That would mean our next club is on Oct. 18th.
James Love has picked our movie combo, and will be hosting at the Barber Haus.
After careful deliberation, we’ve settled on a road movies with young men theme. You know how James loves his young men movies. =)
Homework:
Smoke Signals
Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family (and his tough son Victor), and Victor hasn’t seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold’s remains, but only if Thomas will also go with him. Thomas and Victor hit the road.
Movie Club:
Everything is Illuminated
A young Jewish American man endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately razed by the Nazis, with the help of a local who speaks weirdly funny broken English.
Well we have all had a wonderful sabbatical this summer but it is time to bring back the movie club. What better what to do that then to view a feature film and a short film. The theme will be Isolation and Human relationships and we will be comparing Lars and the Real Girl to Weathered. Because Weathered is a short film we will be watching both films together, no homework.
Date: September 20th, 7:00 PM
Location: Casa de Love
Lars and the Real Girl (d. Gillespie, 2007) - The search for true love begins outside the box
In this comedy, Lars Lindstrom is an awkwardly shy young man in a small northern town who finally brings home the girl of his dreams to his brother and sister-in-law’s home. The only problem is that she’s not real - she’s a sex doll Lars ordered off the Internet. But sex is not what Lars has in mind, but rather a deep, meaningful relationship. His sister-in-law is worried for him, his brother thinks he’s nuts, but eventually the entire town goes along with his delusion in support of this sweet natured boy that they’ve always loved.
Weathered (d. Barber & Webb, 2008)
Weathered is the intimate portrait of Weather Wellington, who is caged in time by the loss of her fiancé. Retreating inside herself, Weather longs for human connection and reaches out the only way she knows how… by making doctors appointments.
Well things have been a little busy outside of movie club land but with the new Batman movie coming out now is the perfect time to get back together.
The original ‘89 version featuring the dramatic skills of Michael Keaton will be our homework and then we will catch the new version in the theaters together. The tentative plan for the movie time will be Friday night opening at Paseo Colorado in Pasadena. Feel free to make another suggestion if there is a theater which is closer/better for you.
Batman (d. Burton, 1989)
The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker.
The Dark Knight (d. Nolan, 2008)
Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham’s new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker’s crimes grow more and more deadly.
May 10. 6:30pm. Barber Haus. Raiders of The Lost Ark.
TBD. Temple of Doom.
TBD. The Last Crusade.
May 22?. 7:00pm. Theater TBD. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Raiders of the Lost Ark. (d. Spielberg, 1981).
Renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, Dr. Indiana Jones, is hired by the U.S. Government to find the Ark of the Covenant, which is believed to still hold the ten commandments. Unfortunately, agents of Hitler are also after the Ark. Indy, and his ex-flame Marion, escape from various close scrapes in a quest that takes them from Nepal to Cairo.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. (d. Spielberg, 1984).
Renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, Dr. Indiana Jones, is back in action in the 2nd Indy film. He teams up with a night club singer and a 12 year old named Short Round. They end up in an Indian village, where the people believe evil spirits have taken their children away after a sacred stone was stolen. Indiana agrees to try and retrieve the stone for the villagers.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (d. Spielberg, 1989).
Renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, Dr. Indiana Jones, returns for the 3rd and final Indy film. Teaming up with his father, Indiana sets out to try and find the Holy Grail. Once again, the Nazis are after the same prize, and try to foil Indianas plans.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (d. Spielberg, 2008).
Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls
April 12th. 6:30pm.
Location 250 N. Madison Building, 2nd Floor Conference Room. You will need a key to get in so if the door is locked you can call me at (626) 379-7415.
No Country For Old Men is our homework movie.
No Country For Old Men (d. Coens, 2007).
In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.
Miller’s Crossing (d. Coens, 1990).
A highly styled ‘genre’ film which can perhaps be seen as a pastiche of all gangster movies. Tom Reagan is the laconic anti-hero of this amoral tale which is also, paradoxically, a look at morals within the criminal underworld of the 1930s. Two rival gangs vie for control of a city where the police are pawns, and the periodic busts of illicit drinking establishments are no more than a way for one gang to get back at the other. Black humour and shocking violence compete for screen time as we question whether or not Tom, right-hand man of the Irish mob leader, really has a heart
Feb 8th. 6:30pm. House of Watson. The Searchers is our homework movie.
The Searchers (d. Ford, 1956). John Wayne stars.
Ethan Edwards, an ex-Confederate soldier from the Indian Wars, finds that his family has been massacred and his niece captured by the Comanches and vows to bring her back and kill everyone of the Indians who did this to him. He travels for five years in order to find her and when he does realizes even though she has been found she has become one of them.
High Noon (d. Zinnemann, 1952). Gary Cooper stars.
A retiring lawman about to leave town with his new bride seeks allies among the fearful townspeople when an outlaw he put in prison returns with his gang to take revenge.
Feb 9th. 6:30pm. House of Schuh.
There is no homework movie. We’ll continue our style from January, and simply watch and discuss one movie.
Look forward to seeing all of you.
Across The Universe
Musical based on The Beatles songbook and set in the 60s England, America, and Vietnam. The love story of Lucy and Jude is intertwined with the anti-war movement and social protests of the 60s. Over 30 Beatles’ songs are woven into the plot together with visual allusions to films Help! (1965), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Magical Mystery Tour (1967) (TV), Yellow Submarine (1968) and Let It Be (1970).
Please sign up to host a month. I figure Feb-April could be Oscar films-
Feb 9th: @ Aaron Schuh’s: Across The Universe
March 8th: @ Tyler’s: Movies TBD
April 12th: Hosted by Chris-
- Location: TBD
- Movies: No Country for Old Men for homework and Blood Simple or Miller’s Crossing together. I personally have not seen either. It sounds like Blood Simple would be a closer comparison in terms of story and style but Tyler says it has already been viewed as a part of Movie Club so I am open to watching Miller’s crossing together, please vote in the comments field if you have strong feelings either way.
- I would like to see the progression in the Coen brothers. Two similar films made roughly 20 years apart, from what I hear they have perfected their craft in No Country.
May 9th/May 22nd: Matt Barber : I’d like to watch all three Indiana Jones movies and then head to the theater opening night for kingdom of the crystal skull.
June 14th:
Hosted by Matt Barber on Dec. 8th. Heart of Darkness is our homework movie book.
Note: Heart of Darkeness is a very short story.
Heart Of Darkness
Loosely based on Conrad’s firsthand experience of rescuing a company agent from a remote station in the heart of the Congo, the novel is considered a literary bridge between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With its modern literary approach to questions such as the ambiguous nature of good and evil, the novel foreshadows many of the themes and techniques that define modern literature.
Apocalypse Now
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, this classic and compelling Vietnam War epic stars Martin Sheen as Captain Willard, who is sent on a dangerous and mesmerizing odyssey into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade American Colonel named Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has succumbed to the horrors of war and barricaded himself in a remote outpost. Also stars Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper and Harrison Ford.
Carey and I just saw 3:10 to Yuma last night and we both enjoyed it. Aaron, you worked on a very nice piece of art. One thing in the film that didn’t work for me, or rather confused me — I’m not sure if it worked or not — was when Ben stops choking Dan as Dan tries to get Ben to the train. Why do you guys think Ben stopped and agreed to go along with Dan? It seemed to be a strange move for Ben’s character.
Also, the film reminded me of The Departed in how it seemed to say that justice was not brought about through right structures, but through just people.
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