To all our Film Society members and supporters,
If you own a home in Salt Lake City and also frequent the Broadway
Centre Cinemas and the Tower Theatre, know that your membership cards
are good for these theaters! Member benefit slightly change for SLC, so
either check the website or e-mail me questions. Your tax-deductible
membership makes a difference! We thank you for your continued support
and look forward to bringing you independent film for many years to come.
Opening this Week!
The Academy Award winning documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
**** Baltimore Sun
"It is, at once, among the most riveting and hard-to-watch documentaries
of recent years."
The intelligent relationship drama MARRIED LIFE starring Starring Pierce
Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and Rachel McAdams.
Also...SMART PEOPLE
a new comedy starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Ellen Page
of Juno.
"A good deal of the freshness comes from a grand, clownish slob played
by Thomas Haden Church -- he's actually the smartest person of the piece
-- while Dennis Quaid occupies the center with a mastery that's all the
more notable for its humanity." Wall Street Journal.
Ends Thursday:
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
THE RAPE OF EUROPA
THE BAND'S VISIT
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As we're reaching out into the community to let everyone know of our new
theater at Red Cliffs, we need your help! Tell all your friends and
family. We won't be able to do it without the support of you the
community, and we're so thrilled to be here offering what you haven't
had a chance to see in the past!
Xetava Coffee is the best in the state and it's available to you
exclusively at our theater - so, we're the only show in town that offers
a latte or americano with amazing cinema!
Word of Mouth marketing...
Many of the films Salt Lake Film Society brings will not have the
marketing budget for you to be able to see them on television ads or in
the papers, so please feel free to read our "tell me more" section below
that describes each film and lists details of cast with critical review
re-caps. This should hopefully get you enough information to want to
venture out for a night at the cinema!
Memberships are a great way to support our non-profit as well. Ask any
staff member and/or reply to this e-mail for details. Our first member
screening will likely take place in March. All memberships are
tax-deductible - what a way to see movies!
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QUICK LOOK at SHOWTIMES - RED CLIFFS CINEMAS
Behind the RED CLIFFS MALL 1750 E. RED CLIFFS DR.
THIS WEEK:
Thru Thursday April 24
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 01:15, 4:05, 7:05, 09:25
Lars and The Real Girl 04:10, 9:40
Band's Visit 01:05, 7:10
Rape of Europa 01:10, 4:00, 7:00, 09:30
Under The Same Moon 01:10, 4:15, 7:15, 09:45
NEXT WEEK
FRI 4/25 - THU 5/1
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 01:15, 4:05, 7:05, 09:25
Smart People 01:05, 4:10, 7:10, 09:40
Married Life 01:10, 4:00, 7:00, 09:30
Under The Same Moon 01:10, 7:15
Taxi To The Dark Side 04:15, 9:35
===============================================================
TELL ME MORE...PLEASE!
(all star ratings are based on 4 star rating systems)
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
Directed by: Alex Gibney
Taxi to the Darkside, the latest prize-winning documentary from
Oscar-nominee Alex Gibney, confirms his standing as one of the foremost
non-fiction filmmakers working today. A stunning inquiry into the
suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002,
the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched
examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned,
tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth.
Intermingling documents and records of the incident with candid
testimony from eyewitnesses and participants, the film uncovers an
inescapable link between the tragic incidents that unfolded in Bagram
and the policies made at the very highest level of the United States
government in Washington, D.C. Combining the cool detachment of a
forensic expert with the heated indignation of a proud American who
holds his country to a high standard, Gibney’s film reveals how the Bush
administration has systematically betrayed the very ideals it professes
to uphold.
**** Roger Ebert
This movie does not describe the America I learned about in civics
class, or think of when I pledge allegiance to the flag. Yet I know I
will get the usual e-mails accusing me of partisanship, bias, only
telling one side, etc. What is the other side? See this movie, and you
tell me.
**** Entertainment Weekly
Where "No End" is cool and measured, Taxi is hot, anguished, and
sometimes as difficult to watch as pictures of torture ought to be.
MARRIED LIFE
Directed by: Ira Sachs . Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper,
Patricia Clarkson, and Rachel McAdams
A wry blend of dark humor, romantic deception, and stylish
melodrama--with an invigorating dash of suspense--Married Life is an
unconventional fable for grown-ups about the irresistible power and
utter madness of love. After decades of marital contentment, Harry
concludes that he must kill his wife Pat because he loves her too much
to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry has fallen hard for the
young and lovely Kay, but his best friend Richard wants to win Kay for
himself. As Harry implements his maladroit plans for murdering his wife,
the other characters are entangled with their own deceptions. Like
Harry, they race toward their passions but trip over their scruples,
seemingly well-intended toward all, but truthful to none. Married Life
is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations.
Although it plays with mystery, comedy, and intrigue, its ultimate
concern is: "What is married life?" In its sly way, Married Life poses
perceptive questions about the seasonal discontents and unforeseen joys
of all long-term relationships.
***1/2 New York Magazine
In Married Life, Ira Sachs aims a bit lower than Green but obliterates
his target: The funny, the scary, the campy, the sad--they’re all
splendidly of a piece.
*** Entertainment Weekly
Married Life congratulates its audience on a sophisticated, humorous
complicity in the obvious immorality of Harry's murder plans, as well as
in Richard's own ungentlemanly designs on his pal's gorgeous girl. Every
adult, the movie suggests, has got a secret.
SMART PEOPLE
Directed by: Noam Murro . Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Ellen Page, and Thomas Haden Church
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, but when
it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright
flummoxed as the next guy. His teenage daughter is an acid-tongued
overachiever who follows all too closely in dad's misery-loving
footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne'er-do-well brother has
perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can't seem to find
passion in anything anymore, not even the Victorian literature in which
he's an expert, Lawrence seems to be sleepwalking through a very stunted
middle age. When his brother shows up unexpectedly for an extended stay
just as he accidentally encounters a former student, Janet, the
circumstances stir him from his deep freeze, with often comical,
sometimes heartbreaking consequences for himself and everyone around him.
***1/2 TV Guide
A sharp, superbly acted character-driven comedic drama.
*** New York Times
The great virtue of Smart People, attributable to Noam Murro's easygoing
direction as well as to Mr. Poirier's wandering screenplay, lies in its
general preference for small insights over grand revelations.
UNDER THE SAME MOON (LA MISMA LUNA)
Directed by: Patricia Riggen . Written by: Ligiah Villalobos . Starring:
Kate Del Castillo, Adrian Alonso, Jesse Garcia, Kate del Castillo
When the death of his grandmother leaves young Carlitos alone, he takes
his fate into his own hands and heads north across the border to find
his mother. As he journeys from his rural Mexican village to the L.A.
barrio, Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely
determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect
and affection of a reluctant protector, a middle-aged migrant worker
named Enrique. The unlikely pair finds their way from Tucson to East
L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his mother's whereabouts is her
description of the street corner from which she has called him each
Sunday for the last four years. Unaware that Rosario is just hours away
from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique
desperately comb the vast, unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only
in his imagination.
**** Entertainment Weekly
The film says that the U.S. immigrant situation is untenable, but then
it forces US to ask: What should be done?
***1/2 TV Guide
It's an unexpectedly powerful little film that manages to say a lot of
what, despite all the talk on the subject, isn't being said in the
national debate on immigration.
THE RAPE OF EUROPA
Directed by: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newnham . Written
by: Richard Berge,Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham, and Lynn Nicholas (book)
The Rape of Europa is an epic journey through seven countries that
follows the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare, which
threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For 12 long
years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on an unprecedented scale in
history. But heroic young art historians and curators from America, as
well as across Europe, fought back. They did so in a miraculous campaign
to rescue then return the millions of lost, hidden, and stolen treasures.
(Menemsha)
**** Chicago Reader
Filmmakers Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newhman do a superb
job of telling this neglected story in vivid detail.
***1/2 Baltimore Sun
With Joan Allen bringing a crisp intelligence to the sharp,
unsentimental narration, it's both awful and fascinating to follow
Hitler's warped growth from frustrated painter to self-appointed arbiter
of Germanic art.
THE BAND'S VISIT
Directed by: Eran Kolirin . Written by: Eran Kolirin . Starring: Ronit
Elkabetz Sasson Gabai Uri Gavriel Imad Jabarin Ahuva Keren Rubi
Moskovitz Khalifa Natour Hilla Sarjon.
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel to play at
the opening of an Arab Cultural Center. Dressed in full regalia and
observing all military police protocol, the members of the orchestra are
at a pivotal time in their careers. It’s not just the political nature
of an Arab military police band playing traditional Arab music in Israel
that makes this event so important; budget cuts and many reorganizations
have threatened the continued existence of the Orchestra. Faced with the
heavy burden of this assignment, the stoic conductor Tewfiq is
determined not to foul their excursion. Despite all Tewfiqs
efforts, it’s not long before problems arise. The band arrives at the
airport with no one there to greet them. Stranded and unable able to
contact their Israeli hosts or the Egyptian consulate for help, Tewfiq
decides that the Orchestra will persevere with its assignment and
orders, and designates Khaled, a sauve young ladies man, to ask for
directions. Khaled and the station agent struggle in English, Arabic and
Hebrew to communicate, but despite their best efforts, the Orchestra is
sent to the outskirts of a small forgotten Israeli town in the desert.
(Sony Classics)
****Roger Ebert
The Band’s Visit has not provided any of the narrative payoffs we might
have expected, but has provided something more valuable: An interlude
involving two “enemies,” Arabs and Israelis, that shows them both as
only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives and disappointments. It
has also shown us two souls with rare beauty.
****Entertainment Weekly
Something marvelous happens as the filmmaker, in his first feature,
expertly metes out small scenes of communication between people taught,
for generations, to be wary of one another: This Band swings with the
rhythms of hope.
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Directed by: Craig Gillespie . Written by: Nancy Oliver . Starring: Ryan
Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Kelli Garner, and Paul
Schneider Lars and the Real Girl is the touching, amusing, and humorous
story about a man whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully
embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, Lars invites
Bianca, a friend he met on the Internet, to visit him. He introduces
Bianca to his brother Gus and his wife Karen and they are stunned. They
don't know what to say to Lars or Bianca--because she is a life-size
doll, not a real person, and he is treating her as if she is alive. They
consult the family doctor, who explains that this is a delusion he's
created--for what reason, she doesn't yet know, but they should all go
along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the
people around him. (Kimmel International)
****Wall Street Journal
It's nothing less than a miracle that the director, Craig Gillespie, and
the writer, Nancy Oliver, have been able to make such an endearing,
intelligent and tender comedy from a premise that, in other hands, might
sustain a five-minute sketch on TV.
****Kenneth Turan LA Times
The creators of this film were fiercely determined not to go so much as
a millimeter over the line into sentiment, tawdriness or mockery. It's
the rare film that is the best possible version of itself, but "Lars"
fits that bill.
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY
Directed by: Bharat Nalluri . Written by: David Magee Simon Beaufoy.
Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson,
and Lee Pace In 1939 London, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew is a middle-aged
governess who finds herself once again unfairly dismissed from her job.
Without so much as severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes that she
must--for the first time in two decades--seize the day. This she does,
by intercepting an employment assignment outside of her comfort
level--as "social secretary." Arriving at a penthouse apartment for the
interview, Miss Pettigrew is catapulted into the glamorous world and
dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia
Lafosse. Within minutes, Miss Pettigrew finds herself swept into a heady
high-society milieu--and, within hours, living it up. Taking the "social
secretary" designation to heart, she tries to help her new friend
Delysia navigate a love life and career, both of which are complicated
by the three men in Delysia's orbit: devoted pianist Michael,
intimidating nightclub owner Nick, and impressionable junior impresario
Phil. Miss Pettigrew herself is blushingly drawn to the gallant Joe, a
successful designer who is tenuously engaged to haughty fashion maven
Edythe, the one person who senses that the new "social secretary" may be
out of her element and schemes to undermine her. During the next 24
hours, Guinevere and Delysia will empower one another to discover their
romantic destinies. (Focus Features)
****Reelviews
Adams shines brightly, reinforcing the image she projected in Junebug
and enhanced in Enchanted and Charlie Wilson's War. At this time of the
year, it's tough to find a more diverting way to spend 90 minutes in a
multiplex.
***Chicago Tribune
Style is a tricky, elusive thing, and this film doesn’t so much have it
as strive for it, constantly. But something in Watson’s story endures:
The wish-fulfillment truly satisfies. And with the war clouds gathering
by story’s end, the fairy tale acquires a bittersweet edge, nicely
cutting all that whipped cream.
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FILMS TO COME
In no particular release order
BONNEVILLE
COUNTERFEITERS
SNOW ANGELS
SON OF RAMBOW
And many more....
Our staff here at the Salt Lake Film Society thanks all our supporters.
SLFS takes great care in hiring a staff that has a film history or
knowledge, so feel free to talk with any staff member about up coming
releases. They are a wealth of knowledge and I'm happy to take all
e-mail correspondence.
If you would like to volunteer for the Film Society events and earn
passes, please contact Amy Beth Leber at 801-746-0037
We thank you for your continuing support.
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society...film festival all year long!
We do not sell any personal lists or information to any third party... ever!
If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply to this
e-mail. If you could also let us know why we lost you, we can better
serve our community.
Salt Lake Film Society thanks Xmission for their donation of services.
--
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society
tori_baker@???
(801) 364-1088
