Category Archives: Movies

The Cranes [will be] Flying [back to MovieNight soon].

MovieNight stuff, Movies

Wow! Who knew that this many folks would turn out to see an old, black and white, Soviet wartime melodrama? You people impress the heck out of me sometimes! You love a beautiful movie!

Also surprising? There were only two Ruskies in the crowd… maybe this is a time they would rather not think about (clearly not something that any of our MovieNight guests would remember… we don’t get many octogenarians here on a Thursday night!). Our apologies to the folks who couldn’t find a place to sit, and ended up leaving. : (

The Cranes are Flying moved Bob one notch higher up in the Successful Suggesters ratings. Her lead seems unassailable at this time! I could watch this beautiful film over and over. As a matter of fact, since we had to turn so many away last night (!), Cranes will be flying back to MovieNight again soon! Hopefully those of you who were here this time will skip the next screening so that everyone else can see it. Jeez… I never thought I’d be asking people to stay away!  Looks like 2013 is gonna be a good year. Yay!

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Beasts of the Southern Wild. Nice one, Benh.

Movies

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a remarkable first feature from Benh (what the h?) Zeitlin whom, I recently discovered, is “fiancéd” to an old friend of mine (actually not so old for goodness sake… Benh is barely 30 years old himself!) and , hands-down, our favorite movie of 2012.  Moonrise Kingdom came a close second.

This season of MovieNight has been somewhat erratic, what with Thursday-night conflicts, elections, super-storms, etc., but when I look back at what we’ve screened so far, I can’t help but feel proud. What does 2013 have in store for us? By the way, it looks like the Mayans just figured enough was enough. : )

Best wishes for the New Year to you all!

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Body Double – Not too subtle.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

As the first few scenes of Body Double roll by, one finds oneself feeling duped into watching something so obviously “B”, and yet there is something fascinating,  some nice visual treats (not talking about her… she doesn’t make her entrance until over twenty minutes have elapsed!), and enough quirkiness to keep you watching. Now that you’re watching, Body Double gets louder and more preposterous with every turn (“What?” you find yourself crying). Everything does get tied up in the end, even if you are a bit exhausted. Those of you who know Acacia (AKA The Loud One) may be aware of her enthusiasm for this kind of thing, but her blurting out “This is the best film I’ve ever seen!” seemed pretty heartfelt.

Maybe not “the best”, but certainly well worth the price of admission. Oh yeah…

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Three Days of the Condor – Almost Ten Years in Coming.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

The Condor finally landed at MovieNight this week! Since we began almost ten years ago, (how much longer can this go on?) our friend Andy, the conceiver and enabler of MovieNight , has been, like, “Dude! Three Days of the Condor! What are you waiting for?” I don’t know, frankly. I guess I thought it might be too complicated for a room full of tipsy moviegoers. Sorry about that, people! The upside of this foot-dragging: a beautiful Blu-ray transfer.

Andy had given up on this “project” years ago,  but a prompt from Norris (a MovieNight regular and noted movie critic, who admitted to never having seen Condor on a big screen!) caused us to consider it again. They will each receive a point on the Successful Suggesters page. Thanks, guys.

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I’ve Loved You So Long – Really.

Movies

Well… I must admit that we have had better-attended aprez-turkeyday MovieNights, but (and it is a “big but”, as I am fond of saying) it was a fine evening, a fine fine film. If you haven’t seen I’ve Loved You So Long, please do.

We welcomed our youngest ever MovieNight guest this week. At the unripe young age of two and a bit months, Calder seemed happy to see any movie, but we’re pretty sure that he’ll grow up with an unexplainable fascination with Kristin Scott Thomas, in spite of the fact that she (or perhaps, because of the fact that she)… nevermind. See the movie.

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Moonrise Kingdom. Thank you, Wes.

Movies

Wes Anderson is always quirky, and often funny, but his stylized vision can sometimes be difficult to empathize with. Moonrise Kingdom shone though. Of course it was painstakingly stylish, but the endearing tale of two awkward teenagers drawn together by familial dysfunction made it all work. The closing titles (you know… the bit where most of the people in the theater get up and wander out) are worth watching all on their own.

We had a great turnout for Moonrise Kingdom this week; especially great because Bernd and Nina, A.K.A. “The Newly-weds”, flew in from Berlin for a few days and included MovieNight in their list of must-go-to’s. From Bernd we learned that thousands of genetically-modified research mice died during Super Storm Sandy; not the sort of loss we tend to think about straight away. I’m sure there are many many other extraordinary consequences we will learn about, probably for years to come.

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