Free event: Casablanca

It’s Oscars month at Transistor, the vinyl record store! March films (all free!) have been winners of this prestigious but often contentiously disputed award. First up is an easy one we can all agree on—Casablanca, which I am ashamed to say I have not seen!

Casablanca
Monday, March 5 , 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago

Past seven days

Mixing it up this week!

Being Flynn
Game Change
Guarding Tess
How to Be a Serial Killer
The Queen Family
A Thousand Pieces of Gold
The Waiting City
Warrior

Bluff

This Colombian crime comedy centers around a guy getting revenge on his boss after finding him with his girlfriend. Nicolas (Federico Lorusso) works as a photographer. We find out in a flashback that he has to freelance because he found his girlfriend Margarita (Catalina Aristizabal) and boss Mallinaro (Víctor Mallarino) together, and Mallarino has fired Nicolas as retaliation fro his job as a tabloid photographer. Although Margarita subsequently marries Mallarino, Nicolas still wants her back.

Jackboots on Whitehall

What do you think of the lineup of this movie:

Ewan McGregor
Rosamund Pike
Timothy Spall
Alan Cumming
Dominic West
Tom Wilkinson
Richard E. Grant
Richard Griffiths
Stephen Merchant

Not too bad right? It's a satirical WW2 film with an alternate history where the Nazis have invaded London. Ewan McGregor plays a farmer who is the English equivalent of 4F because his hands are too large.

But wait, this is a stop motion animation film too, with male characters played by GI Joe style dolls and the few girls unfortunately all Barbies or Braatz. The males dolls though are all distinctively human looking and most have a lot of character but the girls are rather bland and undefined beyond the Barbie/Braatz image. (There's a matronly character too and she is more distinguishable from the rest, being an older lady.)  The film's humor is something like a Monty Python movie or what you would find on Comedy Channel's Adult Swim block of shows.

How to be a Serial Killer

This tongue in cheek black comedy is about a serial killer Mike (Dameon Clarke), and begins with a motivational speech he is making on stage, giving tips and outlining steps on how to become a serial killer. The main story starts when he approaches a meek video store clerk Brad (Matthew Gray Gubler) and convinces him to get revenge on rude customers. Brad becomes Mike’s apprentice, learning about weapons and how to dispose of a body. Meanwhile, Mike maintains a normal front with his live in girlfriend Abigail (Laura Regan). From time to time the camera goes back to Mike’s motivational speech, a psychiatrist talking about the psyche of a serial killer (George Wyner), and Brad commenting on what he is learning.

An American Crime

In the 1960s, Gertrude (Catherine Keener) is an overworked single mother of several kids. The youngest is a half brother to the rest, the son of a character played by James Franco, a young man Gertrude had a fling with. He’s not interested in her except to borrow money and have sex. (Gertrude’s definitely a long-term abuse victim.)

Two of her daughters meet some new girls at church, whose parents run a travelling carnival. The new girls' parents and Gertrude do each other a favor: they will pay her to take care of their girls while they continue working on the carnival circuit for a few months. It is one of the new girls, Sylvia (Ellen Page) who serves as a sort of narrator.

The film is told in flashback from a court trial. Gertrude has money troubles and problems managing all her kids, especially a teenaged daughter who is running around with a married man, even though she herself hasn’t made good choices in men either.

Gertrude does something despicable when she doesn’t get any new payments from the parents: she punishes the new girls for their parents’ apparent mistake/neglect. Bit by bit the family falls apart and Gertrude, and, increasingly her kids, begins abusing Sylvia viciously for a variety of reasons, mostly to get out their respective anger at their own situations rather than for anything that Sylvia has done against them.

Clay Pigeons

Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) seems to have an unnamed enemy who's framing him for the deaths of several women. He did know of the first killing, by a spurned lover, where Clay in a panic gets rid of the body.

He meets puppy dog-friendly truck driver Lester (Vincent Vaughan) and while fishing with him, a body floats up in the lake, terrifying Clay. The body, though, was not killed in the same manner as the first killing, which puzzles him. When another body is found, the FBI are called in (Janeane Garafalo, Phil Morris) to help the obviously bewildered and incapable small town police.

Clay needs to find the real killer, as the police keep finding that he has connections to the women.

Free event: Vanishing of the Bees

I’m sure you’ve heard of this bee colony collapse that is happening around the world. Tonight there is a free screening of the movie Vanishing of the Bees. It is provided at The Centers of Light, a religious and spiritual organization, as part of their Conscious Movie Night.

Vanishing of the Bees
Friday, February 24, 2012
7:00 p.m.
The Centers of Light
3617 W. Belle Plane Avenue, Chicago

Hipsters

Two groups of 50s youths butt heads: the young Communists headed by Katya (Anton Shagin) who has a secret love for her colleague Mels (Anton Shagin), and the hipsters, a group who wants nothing more than to dance, drink and dress in decadent Western ways. During a raid, Mels sees the beautiful Polly (Oksana Akinshina) and it is love at first sight. He secretly becomes a hipster, pursuing her although she is at first coy and cold. He becomes more bold within the hipsters and no longer hides his secret persona among the Communists. Katya's revenge is just as much about Communism versus the West as it is that of a woman scorned.

There are a few songs and dance numbers but I am not sure that is enough to make it a musical. The film is a commentary about young people being individuals, as portrayed in the last scene where it takes us to present day with punk rockers, people in goth clothes, kids of all types.

This conflict continues even today but the film portrayed it in an exciting new way, with humor and music which is kind of unheard of. I liked the visual style and the musicality.

True Grit (2010)

This newer version of True Grit is, as its filmmakers the Coen brothers stated, based on the book, but it is still pretty similar to the earlier version starring John Wayne and Kim Darby.

In the old West, a young girl seeks to avenge her father's death after he is killed by a hired hand. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) tries to hire the former U.S. Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Although Rooster is now a lazy and washed up alcoholic, he once had a stellar reputation that Mattie believes can serve her. It is only the temptation of money that convinces him to join her in her search of her father's killer, Chaney (Josh Brolin).

A Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is also on the trail as Chaney's also killed a Texas senator. Although LaBoeuf tries to join forces with Rooster, Mattie refuses as she wants Chaney to hang for her father's murder, and not on a technicality for the Texas killing.

Through an adventurous and sometimes humorous roadtrip, the three cross paths in their mutual search. Rooster redeems himself and grudgingly comes to accept Mattie's faith in him. Mattie also proves herself worthy with her unrelentless vengeance and physical daring.

The Puffy Chair

The Puffy Chair was written by the Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark. Although much of the story and dialogue is improvised, the set up is a road trip where brothers are delivering a chair to their father.

Josh (Mark Duplass) sees for sale on eBay the same type of armchair their father had when they were kids, and decides to buy and transport it to their dad for his birthday. His brother Rhett (Rhett Wilkins) and girlfried Emily (Katie Aselton) get involved and want to go along. There is already contention at the beginning of the trip, as Josh and Emily bicker about their relationship. You can see that she doesn't want him to take the trip because it encroaches on her time with him, even though she couches it in terms that makes it sound like she is sorry that HE will not enjoy it.

Past seven days

Finally got to catch the Oscar Animated Shorts!  As usual they were hit and miss and although some of them were good, none were a standout for me this year.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Breaking and Entering
Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance
Ginger Snaps 2 Unleashed
Night Watch
Oscar Animated Shorts program
You Were Never Lovelier

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is kind of in the same vein as the rash of ensemble romantic comedies centered around a holiday or those directed by Woody Allen. Each of the actors here get a bit of storyline, some better than others, although none of them are very strongly developed. But they all have something to do with the problems of getting older. The framing story is that a young Indian man (Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire) manages his family's crumbling hotel, and has decided to "outsource old age" by catering to seniors in their golden years. Based on a book.

A Film With Me In It

In this Irish black comedy, we see Mark (Mark Doherty), an unsuccessful actor, have the worst day of his life.

He and his girlfriend live in an apartment with his quadraplegic brother, that is falling apart. The window keeps sliding down, the kitchen light keeps going out, but he can't really bug the landlord as they owe three months rent, unbeknownst to his girlfriend. Their upstairs neighbor Pierce (Dylan Moran) can't help much because he is an unemployable writer/waiter, and he too owes.

So begins Mark's very bad day, where, in one accident after another, several people are killed in freak accidents in his apartment, complicated by a visit from a policewoman. Pierce tries to convince him that no one is going to believe they were all accidents so the guys have to find a way out of this.

Ship of Fools

A shipload of travellers going from Vera Cruz, Spain to Germany near the start of WW2 have various personal and political problems. Based on a novel by Katherine Anne Porter and directed by Stanley Kramer. Much of the film focuses on the problems of the "haves."

I Hate Valentine's Day!: We Don't Live Here Anymore

Two married couples (Mark Ruffalo/Laura Dern, Naomi Watts/Peter Krause), who are friends, face a crisis when they have affairs with each other.

Jack (Ruffalo) and Edith (Watts) are deep into their sexual affair. Neither of their spouses seem, on the surface, to know about it. As the film unfolds, Jack's behavior practically goads his wife Terry (Dern) into admitting she too had a fling with Hank (Krause). Jack is unable to end either the affair or the marriage, and he won't even openly admit to his wife his infidelity.

Edith on the other hand doesn't seem emotionally connected to her husband or her lover. For her it is more playing with danger, she expects she will be found out eventually.

Terry is the most openly outraged, and in desperation pleads and pleads with Jack to see the value in her.

Hank appears the least aware of what is going on around him until it is too late.

I Hate Valentine's Day!: 500 Days of Summer

This film is charming and gives you a false sense of a cute romance.  But even from the start you can tell that things are not hearts and roses for the protagonist, Tom.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works in an industry where revealing your emotions is de riguer--he is a greeting card copywriter--and is convinced that new employee Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is the girl for him. The film asks what could happen if love at first sight is one-sided and recounts their relationship over 500 days through Tom's point of view.

I Hate Valentine's Day!: Sita Sings the Blues

The director Nina Paley made this film as a sort of coping mechanism/response for her failed relationship. She compares it to that of the folktale of the Ramayan, whose wife Sita was abandoned by him and had to prove her purity time and again.

It's an animated film, and the story begins in modern day America, where a man gets an offer of a job in India, segueing to the folktale. Sita's blue-skinned husband Rama (aka Vishnu), instead of becoming king, is banished to the forest. He goes to fight off creatures that put her life in danger, and Sita waits patiently. After she becomes pregnant (supposedly while he is away), he leaves her. Some Indian voices discuss the folk tale, as if they are recalling all the versions they were told as children.

Every now again Sita will break out in a bluesy jazz song that reflects her sadness and predicament, while characters play out the lyrics of the song in a sort of animated music video. Different styles of animation portray Sita and Rama, some less polished and more obviously handdrawn, others that are more CGI and repetitive, some that are in papercuts.

I Hate Valentine's Day!: Married Life

In the 1950s, Richard (Pierce Brosnan) a supposedly confirmed bachelor, narrates (after the events) the plans of his friend, Harry (Chris Cooper), to kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) after he starts an affair with Kay (Rachel McAdams).

Pat can't seem to give Harry emotional involvement, although she says she loves him. This pushes him toward young beautiful Kay, who is more open in showing her feelings--she thinks she is the one that can heal his emotional wounds (caused by his wife's emotional distance as well as the early deaths of his parents).

Harry seems kind of a meek character to plot a killing, but seems more determined once he makes up his mind to do it. There are signs though that he is often doubtful and on the brink of changing his mind.

Behind his back, Richard makes a play for Kay. She says she loves Harry, but Richard can't understand what she sees in him, and to boost his argument Kay seems to have no compunction to go out with richard on several occasons. She's portrayed as neither innocent or witchy.

I Hate Valentine's Day!: The Pompatus of Love

For you love-haters, here's another one to commiserate with.

Four 30-something friends (Jon Cryer, Adrian Pasdar, Tim Guinee, Adam Oliensis) try to understand women.

Mark (Cryer, who co-wrote) is just about to move in with his girlfriend Natasha (Kristen Wilson), although it's a commitment he is not too hot on.

Runyon (Guinee) keeps trying to get up the nerve to get Kathryn (Dana Wheeler Nicholson) back, who's since moved away; he tries to get some advice from his idol (Roscoe Lee Brown), a respected playwright.

Phil (Oliensis, another co-writer) is looking at client Caroline (Kristin Scott Thomas) although he is married to Lori (Arabella Field).

Josh (Pasdar) can't decide among several women, whether it's a one night stand (Lianna Pai), Phil's abused sister (Paige Turco), or a woman he meets in the street (Mia Sara).

Past seven days

Wow, I can't believe it's been 15 years since the movie Titanic came out!  This year is also the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  The movie is being re-released in 3D.  There are some 3D shots in the beginning of the film but since 3D works better with items in the foreground, and most of the spectacular shipwreck sequence is seen in long shots, the 3D enhancement really doesn't do anything for the movie.

Blow Out
A Feast at Midnight
Joy Ride
Rampart
the Secret World of Arrietty
Somersault
Titantic 3D
Toast
The Vow

I Hate Valentine's Day!: Hollow Reed

Now that Valentine's day is over, here are a few where love doesn't always go right.

This story shows how a gay man can be a loving father, and how a more "traditional" couple doesn't always have a child's best interest at heart. Martin Donovan plays Martyn, a gay man whose ex wife (Joely Richardson) has custody of their son Oliver. Oliver escapes to his dad's one day with a severe injury to his face that he says was caused by some bullies. Martyn discovers Oliver was home alone with the mom's boyfriend (Jason Flemyng, whom I think is too young for the role). Martyn feels something is odd with the whole situation. When Oliver is injured again, and his story doesn't match his injury, Martyn starts proceedings to get Oliver back into his custody, accusing the boyfriend of abuse, which the ex claims is not true.

I Love Valentine's Day!: Near Dark

Vampire stories nowadays are romanticized and doesn't take much of the real life angst of vampires.  Vampire "families" seem to easily work with each other without acknowledging conflicting personalities or differences in maturity.  In this low budget feature, Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young cowboy, one night picks up a pretty girl, Mae (Jenny Wright), whom he thinks he can charm into having sex. When she panics as the sun comes up, he promises to take her home, but only after a kiss. She obliges, but in addition bites his neck. Later as he begins to get sick, he is abducted by Mae's "family," some rogue vampires (Bill Paxton as the wild card Severen, Lance Henrickson as the leader Jesse) who are not too happy to find he is a new member and not just a meal.
Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) tries to find him, thinking he's out joyriding. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who directed The Hurt Locker.

I Love Valentine's Day!: Hello! How Are You?

Here is a foreign love story.  This unconventional romantic story ends with a believable yet still not quite happy ending.  A married couple unbeknownst to each other chat online and fall in love again. This takes place in Romania and I guess the internet is not as pervasive there/not everyone has a computer. The couple, both named Gaby (Gabriel and Gabriela) seem happy and committed, but uninspired in their marriage. They have a teen son who seems to only think about sex, and has been bugging them for a computer, "for school" he says (but we know it is for other reasons!) Neither of his parents are knowledgeable on the computer.

Gabriel (Ionel Mihailescu) works as a page turner for a small orchestra and is often on tours away from home. We find out later that he was an accomplished musician but a hand accident forced him to give up his performance career. During one tour a musician asks him to accompany him to a tryst so that the friend can break up with his mistress, but as they end up having sex Gabriel spends time at an internet cafe and online in a chat room, which he has never done before.

Gabriela (Dana Voicu) works in a dry cleaner’s shop, where they have a new computer system she must learn. Her younger and more sexy coworker shows her a chat room where, without realizing who each other is, Gabriela and Gabriel connect and eventually fall in love. They both feel guilty but also in that blush of love, feeling as if the other really understands them. Although neither is truly unfaithful, either with their internet personas or other people in their physical lives, they spy on each other in innocent meetings with others and assume the worst.

Meanwhile, their son has his own sexual misadventures, where he THINKS he wants any one of the randy girls who pursue him, but instead falls for the nerdy girl instead.

free event: The Palm Beach Story

Guest curator Gene Booth continues his selection of free screenings at Transistor, the vinyl record store. His second selection is another Preston Sturges movie, The Palm Beach Story. Be sure to check out Transistor’s website to read Gene’s comments about why he likes and chose this film to screen.

The Palm Beach Story
Monday, February 13 , 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
Presented by guest curator Gene Booth

I Love Valentine's Day!: Latter Days

Another film to celebrate Valentine's Day! In L.A., a young actor/waiter Christian (Wes Ramsey) meets a group of hot young Mormons at his apartment complex. His work friends bet whether or not he can bed one of them, Aaron (Steve Sandvoss). Co-stars include Jacqueline Bisset as the restaurant boss, Mary Kay Place as Aaron's mother, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as one of the Mormons.

Coincidentally, Aaron bumps into the restaurant boss when she is going through a health crisis and offers her some counseling, but admits he is just spouting rhetoric he has memorized. Both sides of the romantic relationship give a little in their viewpoints but as in most rom coms, Christian makes a grand gesture and Aaron capitulates at the right time. Later they both have to deal with consequences from Aaron's family and community.

Rampart

Woody Harrelson leads this gritty film, playing David Brown, a Los Angeles uniform cop in 1999. It was a period when L.A. was really experiencing a lot of negative police sentiment/dirty cops. David believes he is in the right to rough up gang members or threaten or extort to get what he wants, as long as they are all bad guys. His personally perceived superiority is established for us very early in the film when he browbeats a subordinate cop into finishing all the food she bought for lunch.

David has several moral issues complicating his life right now. He has the unfortunate nickname of “Date Rape” due to his alleged deliberate killing of a date raper (not for self defense or to protect a particular victim) of which he has continually claimed to be legally in the right. An internal affairs investigation is hanging over him (investigators and politicians include Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi and Ice Cube). He also has two daughters by two women (Cynthia Nixon, Ann Heche), and although the five of them currently have a loose family household, David’s problems will soon compel the mothers to ask him to leave their lives. The elder daughter, teenager Helen (Brie Larson), is old enough to question who exactly her father is and see for herself who he is. At one point she names all the things she thinks he is (misogynist, misanthropist, racist, chauvinist, etc.) and these are all borne out by the film, and yet I think there is some small part of David that is still morally good that he is fighting to reach.

David also meets a lawyer in a bar (Robin Wright) whom he suspects is involved with the investigation against him. They have a sexual, love/hate affair but she won’t fully admit to her involvement in his case. There is also a homeless man (Ben Foster) who witnesses new wrongdoing by David, and a friend of David’s (Ned Beatty) who becomes an enemy. The story ends with lots of unanswered questions, even after David has already given up to some extent.

Toast

Toast is based on the autobiography by Nigel Slater, a noted British chef. It recounts the formative period in his childhood when he discovered his love of food and cooking.

The film takes place mostly in the 1960s and 70s. In the earlier period, when Nigel was a child (played by Oscar Kennedy), we can see how his diet has been misshapen by his mother’s lack of culinary skills. Perhaps formed by years of not wasting food and the lack of fresh foods during the war years (this is my speculation), coupled by her declining health (she has an asthmatic condition), Nigel’s mother (Victoria Hamilton) has neither the inclination nor the talent to whip up a decent or tasty meal. She consistently boils up things in a can and little more. The title of the film (and the book it is based on) comes from the last ditch effort she makes when a meal turns out wrong—toast is easy to make and hard to mess up. During this period young Nigel is also befriended by a handsome young gardener (Matthew McNulty) who expounds on the wonderful taste of garden-fresh vegetables. But his mother’s bad cooking has not turned Nigel off food, instead he has some battles with his father about refusing to eat badly cooked meals and insists there is a better way.

I Love Valentine's Day!: The Vow

The story is about a young married couple--creative types--who suffer marriage stress when the wife loses her short term memory in a car accident, basically all her memories with her husband. Paige (Rachel McAdams) reverts back to her personality before they married--she's amorous with her ex fiancé (Scott Speedman), loves her parents (Sam Neill, Jessica Lange), and has no desire to sculpt even though she is very talented, instead going back to law school which was a wish of her father’s. Understandably this upsets her dedicated husband Leo (Channing Tatum), who tries to rekindle her memories of him.

Past seven days

Looks like I am going down the alphabet, A, B, C, D, E...

Albert Nobbs
Bluff
Chronicle
The Dresser
Menage (Evening Dress)
Plague Dogs
Serenity
Texas Killing Fields
The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black

Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe stars in this period horror film. He plays a young widower and father, working in an attorney’s office. While his employer sympathizes with his grief of his wife’s death in childbirth(several years now since his son is four years old), he gives Arthur one last chance to buckle down. Arthur is to go through the papers of a client who has died, to make sure there is not another will in existence. When Arthur gets to the client's town, the innkeeper claims he has no room for him and puts him up in the attic, where we see in a prologue his three daughters jumped out the window and killed themselves. Several other children have killed themselves or died in similar creepy and mysterious accidents, which Arthur finds out in time. He is befriended by a wealthy couple (Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer) who have also lost a child, whom the wife claims possesses her and speaks through her.

Chronicle

Chronicle is one of those “found footage” type of movies where the main character is filming a video for some reason. In this case it is the teen Andrew, who seems to have a lot of problems. The main reason he seems to be filming is to document the abuse by his father, a former firefighter who lost his job after an injury and taking care of his wife ailing from cancer. So they don’t have a lot of money despite Andrew buying this new camera.

Andrew is also a sullen and outsider teenager who is picked on at school and thought a creep by girls. His Matt cousin seems to be his only friend and one day, Matt’s friend Steve gets him to document with his camera a mysterious hole in the grounds that he and Matt found. It goes deep and they find some crystalline object that gives out vibrations and noises and the next shot is of the guys suddenly having telekinetic powers and moving things with their minds.

For the most part the trio start hanging out together more, advancing in their powers but still pretty much just using it for small time parlor tricks. Matt and Steve tries to get Andrew to socialize more, but of course Andrew still feels left out. Andrew strengthens his power until he can crush cars and buildings and fly in the air, while Steve and Matt think they are going too far. Eventually Andrew flies into rages against the world while Matt tries to defuse the situation and calm him down, but it is too late.

I was thinking this was the atypical teen-gets-superpowers type of movie, where often they become heroes but still remian outsiders; Andrew becomes a supervillain instead and it made me wonder that there seems to be a fine line separating the creation of a superhero and a supervillain.

While we can feel sympathetic to Andrew’s myriad of problems, I feel he doesn’t do very much on his own to become more of an insider and continues to blame other people for his problems. For instance he doesn’t seem to help around the house very much although we can see he loves his mother. (Films seem to think a hacking cough signifies a terminal illness.) The character of Andrew’s father needed to be more humanized instead of a monster. Overall I felt the video filming aspect was unnecessary and that we would feel more connected to the characters without it, and with some background music. There is also another video filming some of these events, a teen girl who films for her blog, which was a conceit that I didn’t think worked either.

Menage (Evening Dress)

I don't know what to make of the characters in this film. Gerard Depardieu is a gay house robber Bob (most reviews and such say he is bisexual but I think he can only get off with a woman if he is thinking about a man or if a man is watching). He hears a couple, Monique and Antoine, arguing (Miou Miou, Michel Blanc). She is tired of being poor, so Bob invites them into robbing homes with him. Monique takes to this readily, finding it exciting and dangerous. Antoine is nervous and is scared of the passes Bob is making to him.

The Trojan Horse

3 hour miniseries satire from Canada. There is a previous installment called H2O, but that's not available anywhere here that I could find.

Canadian citizens have voted to become part of the United States (this is what happened in the previous installment), dismaying politicians on that side of the fence, who feel they've lost control. Tom McLaughlin (Paul Gross), a previous Prime Minister, has designs to take over the U.S., by running for the Presidency himself, now that he is a U.S. citizen. (Who knew the Canadians were so cutthroat!)

Tom Skerritt is the sitting President, with Saul Rubinek as a top aide who is willing to go beyond the law. Greta Scacchi is a savvy investigative British reporter Helen Madigan who eventually digs up what's going on.

I Love Valentine's Day!: December Bride

A story about a threesome for Valentine's Day? Well, maybe.

In early 1900s Ireland, an old widower is in need of female help, so hires on a young woman Sarah (Saskia Reeves) and her mother. Immediately his two sons has eyes for her (Donald McCann as Hamilton Jr. and Ciaran Hinds as Frank). The widower dies, and Sarah and the sons start doing things like not attending church. Sarah's mother eventually quits in protest of her daughter's disobedient behavior. Sarah stays on.

Hamilton is more serious and practical. Frank is a bit broody and a little more carnal. Although Sarah welcomes attentions of other men, suprisingly, she takes to both of the sons. Sarah becomes pregnant but refuses to marry or name the father.

Patrick Malahide plays the local preacher.

Boynton Beach Club

Several mature characters grieve after the death of their partner. Marilyn (Brenda Vaccaro) is invited by a neighbor Lois (Dyan Cannon) to join a bereavement support group. She does so reluctantly and tries to come to terms with the driver who killed her husband in an auto accident.

Meanwhile Lois is attracted to a guy she meets in a restaurant Donald (Michael Nouri).

New widower Jack (Len Cariou) is pursued a little too aggressively by Sandi (Sally Kellerman) but he's not ready to move on.

Harry (Joseph Bologna) though trolls the dating websites and lies about his age. He befriends Jack, being one of the few widowers in the community.

free event: Sullivan's Travels

February is guest curator month at Transistor, the vinyl record store. Gene Booth, editor of The Molten Rectangle, a theme-based film magazine, has chosen “Madhouse Mince” (human comedies) for February. Gene, a talented guy in more ways than one, also directs short films that are made in collaboration with high school students he has taught. The first February film is Sullivan’s Travels, a film I am not very enamored of; although I find it funny in parts and like some of the romantic comedy aspects, the satire seems less hard hitting than modern satirical movies I have seen, so I am not quite sure why this film is so beloved and a must-see for some. Be sure to check out Transistor’s website to read Gene’s comments about why he likes and chose this film to screen.

Sullivan’s Travels
Monday, February 6 , 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
Presented by guest curator Gene Booth

I Love Valentine's Day!: Feast of Love

Here's another film to whet your appetite for Valentine's Day. In Feast of Love, a circle of several connected couples deal with love and loss of love.

Past seven days

A bit of a light schedule this week:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
The Least Among You
Man on a Ledge