To all our Film Society members and supporters,
Opening this Week!
The prolific director/playwright David Mamet returns with his new film
REDBELT, the story of a mixed-martial arts instructor forced into the
ring and out of his comfort zone.
"Mamet is on his game, and that is a sight to see." -- Rolling Stone
Also opening- SNOW ANGELS, a powerful new drama from independent auteur
David Gordon Green starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale.
Ends Thursday:
MISS PETTIGREW- last chance to see the feel-good movie of the year
MARRIED LIFE- starring Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams
UNDER THE SAME MOON- don't miss this Sundance favorite
Held over!
THE COUNTERFEITERS- Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film
Our community supporters The Space Between Theatre Company proudly
presents Carol Lynn Pearson's Facing East! June 5-24 (Thursdays through
Saturdays) with Sunday matinée June 25th.
For more information visit
www.tsbtc.org
Two?
If you're continuing to receive two e-mails, please reply to this e-mail
with the word "two" in the subject line and we'll take you off the
duplicate list. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
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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 5/8...
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 01:15, 4:05, 7:05, 09:25
Smart People 01:05, 4:10, 7:10, 09:40
Counterfeiters 01:10, 4:00, 7:00, 09:30
Under The Same Moon 01:10, 7:15
Married Life 04:15, 9:35
NEXT WEEK
FRI 5/9 - THU 5/15
RED BELT 01:15, 4:05, 7:05, 09:25
SNOW ANGELS 01:10, 4:15, 7:15, 09:35
SMART PEOPLE 01:05*, 4:10, 7:10, 09:40 *no 1:05 show Sat 5/10 due to a
special screening
THE COUNTERFEITERS 01:10, 4:00, 7:00, 09:30
===============================================================
TELL ME MORE...PLEASE!
(all star ratings are based on 4 star rating systems)
REDBELT
Written and directed by: David Mamet . Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice
Braga, Tim Allen, Emily Mortimer, Rodrigo Santoro, Rebecca Pidgeon, and
Randy Couture
Set on the west side of the Los Angeles fight world, a world inhabited
by bouncers, cage fighters, cops, and special forces types, Redbelt is
the story of Mike Terry, a jujitsu teacher who has avoided the
prize-fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by
operating a self-defense studio with a samurai's code. Terry and his
wife, Sondra, struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet.
On a dark, rainy night, an accident at the academy between an off-duty
officer and a distraught lawyer puts in motion a series of events that
will change Terry's life dramatically and introduce him to a world of
promoters and to movie star Chet Frank. Faced with this, in order to pay
off his debts and regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for
the first time in his life.
***1/2 New York Times
A satisfying, unexpectedly involving B-movie that owes as much to old
Hollywood as to Greek tragedy.
***1/2 Los Angeles Times
Ejiofor brings a calm magnetism and a beautific serenity to his roles
that have the effect of knocking you flat -- there's something about
this guy that's messianic.
SNOW ANGELS
Written and Directed by: David Gordon Green . Starring: Sam Rockwell,
Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, and
Olivia Thirlby
A story of love lost and found in a small town, Snow Angels is a
heartrending portrayal of three couples in various stages of life
orbiting around each other in search of connection and meaning. An
unexpected act of violence disrupts the lives of these intertwined
couples and reveals the profound moments in which they each realize how
precarious and remarkable life can be. High-school student Arthur plays
trombone in the marching band, busses tables at the local Chinese
restaurant, and avoids his squabbling parents. At work, he flirts with
Annie, who used to be his babysitter. Annie is trying to build a new
life for herself and her daughter after splitting with high-school
sweetheart Glenn. A man with a troubled past, Glenn hopes to make a new
start by getting a job and reconnecting with his family. At school,
Arthur meets a pretty girl, Lila, who is just as nerdy as he is, and
they quickly develop a crush on one another. Though Lila makes her
feelings for Arthur painfully obvious, Arthur is reluctant to accept her
advances as he watches his father move out of the family home while his
mother struggles to keep things together. Determined to find happiness,
Arthur begins to fall for the irresistible Lila, even as he witnesses
Annie and Glenn tear one another apart in a series of distressing
encounters that occur at the same time as his parents begin separate
lives. Then, on a cold winter morning, Glenn and Annie's past catches up
with their future. In one shocking moment, all of the pain and struggle
comes to a screeching halt. For them, and for everyone who knows them,
nothing will ever be the same.
**** Chicago Tribune
Green is a rare bird in American filmmaking: a humanist who knows how to
tell a story.
***1/2 Philadelphia Inquirer
Disturbingly good. The writing and the performances are such that as
things go from bad (sad motel-room affairs) to worse (a 4-year-old gone
missing), the film's characters get inside your skin, your soul. It's
enough to make you want to cry.
THE COUNTERFEITERS
Written and Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky . Starring: Karl Markovics,
August Diehl, and Devid Striesow
The true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, counterfeiter extraordinaire and
bohemian who was in captured by the Nazis in 1944. He agrees to help the
Nazis in an organized counterfeiting operation set up to finance the war
effort. It was the biggest counterfeit-money scam of all time. Over 130
million pounds sterling were printed under conditions that couldn't have
been more tragic or spectacular. During the last years of the war, as
the German Reich saw that the end was near, the authorities decided to
produce their own banknotes in the currencies of their major war
enemies. They hoped to use the duds to flood the enemy economy and fill
the empty war coffers. At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, two
barracks were separated from the rest of the camp and the outside world,
and transformed into a fully equipped counterfeiters workshop.
"Operation Bernhard" was born. Prisoners were brought to Sachsenhausen
from other camps to implement the plan, and professional printers,
fastidious bank officials, and simple craftsmen all became members of
the top-secret counterfeiter crew. They had a choice: If they cooperated
with the enemy, they had a chance to survive as first-class prisoners in
a "golden cage" with enough to eat and a bed to sleep in. If they
sabotaged the operation, a sure death awaited them. For the
counterfeiters, it was not only a question of saving their own lives,
but also about saving their conscience as well...
**** Chicago Reader
The Counterfeiters poses some tricky moral questions, and its troubling
ambiguities rank a cut above the dubious uplift of "Schindler's List."
**** Entertainment Weekly
Without doing anything so divisive as taking sides, The Counterfeiters
pays sympathetic attention to those who play their cards to win even
when the rules are terrible, not least because the remarkable Markovics,
an Austrian TV actor with a pugnacious anvil of a head, is so riveting
as an unsaintly survivor.
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.
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
YOUNG AT HEART
SON OF RAMBOW
FLAWLESS
CARAMEL
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!
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Salt Lake Film Society thanks Xmission for their donation of services.
--
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society
tori_baker@???
(801) 364-1088
