Feb. 3 – Feb. 9

with beer & wine in mezzanine on Feb 3

Carnage

Screenings: Fri. 2/3 9:00 w/ beer/wine; Sun. 2/5 2:30 & 7:30; Mon. 2/6 9:00; Tue. 2/7 6:30; Wed. 2/8 9:00; Thur. 2/9 6:30

Dir: Roman Polanski / 2011 / France/Germany/Poland/Spain / 79 min / 35mm film

Acclaimed director Roman Polanski’s latest film is a darkly hilarious farce that devolves into chaos in one ill-conceived night. Adapted from an award-winning Broadway play, this black comedy of manners transports us to the confined quarters of an upscale New York apartment. The Longstreets (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) and the Cowans (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) are successful, content, and living life as upstanding citizens lodged in the upper crust of society. When the two couples meet to discuss an altercation between their children, what should be a cursory meeting of the minds devolves into something more sinister as each finds the other repellent. As the night drags on, masks gradually wear away, revealing the ugly truth hidden behind the false civility worn by all involved. Daring in its forebodingly accurate sendup of societal hypocrisy, Carnage features bitterly funny, spot-on performances by a brilliant, multi-award winning cast. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times says, “Carnage is effective and hilarious.”

Feb. 3-Feb. 9

with beer & wine in mezzanine on Feb 3

Sunset Boulevard

Screenings: Fri. 2/3 6:30 w/ beer /wine; Sun. 2/5 5:00; Mon. 2/6 6:30; Tue. 2/7 9:00; Wed. 2/8 6:30; Thur. 2/9 4:00 & 9:00

Dir: Billy Wilder/ 1950/ US/ 110 minutes / 35mm film

Celebrated director Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard is a bizarre tale of shattered dreams reflected through the harsh mirror of Hollywood. Set years after the silent era, faded film ingénue Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is still a big star—in her head. Aged and resentful of the onslaught of scripted roles, the once popular actress stays holed up in her crumbling mansion while she waits to make her long-planned comeback. Meanwhile, Joe Gillis (William Holden), a down-on-his-luck writer, stumbles upon the scene and sees ample opportunity and money in the bank as he volunteers to create the role of Norma’s dreams for a plentiful fee. Escape may be futile when Joe enters the faded star’s world and becomes trapped in madness and decay. Considered one of the most sharply-written satires ever filmed, Sunset Boulevard is a timeless classic full of scathing humor and bitter wit.

February 10 – 16

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Screenings: Fri. 2/10 6:30; Sun. 2/12 2:30; Mon. 2/13 6:30; Tue. 1/14 9:00; Wed. 2/15 6:30; Thur. 2/16 4:00 & 9:00

Dir: Tomas Alfredson / 2011 / France/UK/Germany / 127 min / 35mm film

Director Tomas Alfredson may seem an odd choice for the daunting task of adapting a John le Carre spy novel—has any novelist ever been served so well by the filmmaking industry?—because Alfredson’s chief credit until now has been 2008’s Let the Right One In, a vampire movie. In fact, someone who made his bones getting under a viewer’s skin, and making it crawl, couldn’t be a better choice. Gary Oldman (who has been known to play a few creepy characters himself, including Sid Vicious and Count Dracula himself) takes on the well-known le Carre role of master spy George Smiley, here responsible for uncovering a Soviet mole operating in the upper echelons of the British secret service. Ultimately, perhaps nothing works better for an effective depiction of the spy business than vampires. “We are miles away from Bond glamour,” writes Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian. “This is an arena of shabby compromises enacted by anxious middle-aged men…. It is a tatty, nasty, shabby and stiflingly male world of beige and grey, seen through a dreary particulate haze…. [It’s] more gripping and involving than any crash-bang action picture.”

February 10 – 16

Shame

Screenings: Fri. 2/10 9:00; Sun. 2/12 7:30; Mon. 2/13 9:00; Tue. 2/14 6:30; Wed. 2/15 9:00; Thur. 2/16 6:30

Dir: Steve McQueen / 2011 / US / 101 min / 35mm film

Shame is a provocative film that reveals an unflinching portrait of one man’s addiction in engrossing detail. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a damaged man. He is handsome and successful, and lives a life of intense desperation, based entirely on his addiction to sex. Day and night he seeks out partners to satisfy the insatiable need that seems to define his life, engulfing everything else in its path, as he sacrifices any normalcy or happiness to feed his carnal desire. He is reckless and lonely, trapped in a world of sensation that contains no tenderness, only a driving desire to satisfy his lust. With the surprise arrival of his younger sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon is forced to confront his demons. But Sissy may be just as messed up as her older brother, if in a profoundly different way. Audacious in its undaunted portrayal of a taboo subject, Shame features a remarkably daring performance by Fassbender. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times says, “Shame is an example of great filmmaking and acting, which is so effective you can’t look away.”   

Screening: Sun. 2/12  5:00

Edie and Thea : A Very Long Engagement

Separate admission, No Passes

Dir: Susan Muska, Gréta Olafsdottir / 2010 / US / 61 min / High Definition digital

High Definition digital

After 42 years, feisty and delightful lesbian couple Edie and Thea are finally getting married. From the early ‘60s to the present day, the tireless community activists persevered through many battles, both personal and political. As Edie says, “We just went on with this talent we have for wrestling joy from the shit.” Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir (The Brandon Teena Story) return with a love story of two remarkable women whose commitment to each other is an inspiration to us all. Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer are not famous faces normally associated with the documentary treatment. Instead, they are lovers who’ve experienced a near-lifelong commitment that’s revealed an emotional purity throughout the years, viewed through the prism of gay and lesbian history. Edie and Thea might be complete strangers at the outset of the picture, but their story is a gripping, endearing tale of romance and perseverance. Previous to their meeting and eventual bond, Edie and Thea led very different lives. Edie was a lesbian conforming to the demands of Eisenhower-era domesticity, carrying on affairs (even a marriage) with men, following through on what was expected of her. Thea was more of a defiant woman, seizing her sexuality at a young age, aided well by her brawn and her considerable intelligence. When the two finally connected in the 1960s, it was a perfect fit, setting off a relationship that would grow in love and pride as the years carried on.

Fri. 2/17 midnight & Sat. 2/25 midnight  w/ Beer & Wine in Mezzanine

This is Spinal Tap

Dir: Rob Reiner / 1984 / US / 82 min / High Definition digital

“The children born at Woodstock are preparing for the junior prom, and rock n’ roll is still here to stay. Rock musicians never die, they just fade away. This Is Spinal Tap is a movie about a fictitious British rock group that is rocketing to the bottom of the charts. It also is one of the funniest, most intelligent, most original films. The movie looks like a documentary filmed during the death throes of a British rock band named Spinal Tap. It is, in fact, a satire. The rock group does not really exist, but the best thing about this film is that it could. The music, the staging, the special effects, the backstage feuding, and the pseudo-profound philosophizing are right out of a hundred other rock groups and a dozen other documentaries about rock.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

February 17 – 23

Pariah

Screenings: Fri. 2/17 6:30 w/ beer/wine; Sun. 2/19 2:30 & 7:30; Mon. 2/20 6:30; Tue. 2/21 9:00; Wed. 2/22 6:30; Thur. 2/23 6:30

Dir: Dee Rees / 2011 / US / 86 min / 35mm film

The first feature film from director Dee Rees (with Spike Lee as an executive producer) tells a sensitive yet harrowing coming-of-age story about Alike (played by Adepero Oduye), who is grappling with her sexuality and other facts of life. Her father is a policeman and Kim Wayans (of In Living Color), who plays her mother, is desperate to put Alike on the straight and narrow—not surprisingly, she finds a hundred ways to go about that exactly the wrong way. Rees attacks her gritty, naturalistic material with a high sense of style, pouring on allusive camera angles and movements and strange overlays of color—Ed Gonzales of Slant magazine compared the result to those of the estimable Dardenne brothers (The Kid with a Bike, Lorna’s Silence, The Son). But Rees’s greatest strength here may be her penetrating understanding of unruly family dynamics and all its interplay as Alike comes to an understanding of herself. “Rees gets how a child’s closeted life can lead to contentiousness in the home, wrecking relations between children and their parents, husbands and their wives,” writes Gonzalez.

February 17 – 23

Young Adult

Screenings: Fri. 2/17 9:00 w/ beer/wine; Sun. 2/19 5:00; Mon. 2/20 9:00; Tue. 2/21 6:30; Wed. 2/22 9:00; Thur. 2/23 4:00 & 9:00

Dir: Jason Reitman / 2011 / US / 94 min / 35mm film

From the writing/directing team that created Juno comes Young Adult, a smart and bitter black comedy that explores the fate of that super popular girl in high school when she’s confronted with real life. Charlize Theron (Monster) plays Mavis, a one-time prom queen, now 37 year-old author of cranked-out serial novels for teenagers. Mavis was once the shining hope of her class, especially when she left her hometown for the bright lights of Minneapolis. But her less than successful quest to follow her dreams, and nagging insecurity, has made the once bright star into a vindictive, immature monster. Jobless and searching for purpose, Mavis returns to her hometown to pursue her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and starting a family. This is crazy, but a determined Mavis will not be stopped. Only Matt (Patton Oswalt), an unpopular classmate she runs into by chance, understands her world, and tries to sway her from her deranged motives. A.O. Scott of The New York Times says, “In Young Adult, the established codes of modern movie comedy are scrambled and subverted in ways that are puzzling, amusing, horrifying and ultimately astonishing.”

February 25 – March 1

A Dangerous Method

Screenings: Sat. 2/25 4:00 & 9:00 w/ beer/wine; Mon. 2/27 9:00; Tue. 2/28  6:30; Wed. 2/29 9:00; Thur. 3/1 6:30

Dir: David Cronenberg / 2011 / UK/Germany/Canada/Switzerland / 99 min / 35mm film

The names Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are universally linked to the early creation of the practice of psychoanalysis. In director David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, the complicated relationship between these two stalwart figures in the study of the inner mind is explored in intricate detail. Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Jung (Michael Fassbender) are colleagues with differing viewpoints, but similar goals. When confronted with Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a demented woman in need of care, both doctors see an opportunity to treat this frenzied new patient with their experimental treatments. But the caustic presence of this frantic entity may be the key factor that drives a wedge between the two colleagues and their important contributions to the medical world. Provocative and fascinating, A Dangerous Method features acclaimed performances by Mortensen, Fassbender, and most notably Keira Knightly. A.O. Scott of The New York Times calls A Dangerous Method “A subtle and intellectually thrilling true story.”

February 25 – March 1

Kids / Family Film

The Adventures of Tintin

Screenings: Sat. 2/25 6:30; Mon. 2/27 6:30; Tue. 2/28 9:00; Wed. 2/29 6:30; Thur. 3/1 4:00 & 9:00

Dir: Steven Spielberg / 2011 / US & New Zealand / 107 min / 35mm film

The Adventures of Tintin series was created in 1929 by a Belgian artist who called himself Hergé. Clever and ever-curious, Tintin is a reporter-turned-detective whose pursuit of villains, criminals, treasure, and the occasional artifact takes him all over the world, along with a colorful cast of friends. Hergé based his stories on real-world events and cultures that had caught the Belgian national attention — from space exploration to Arab oil wars — and brought them to life for his readers in inspiring and exciting ways.  “The Adventures of Tintin comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano full of creative ideas in full eruption… It hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone