To all our Film Society members and supporters,
Here at Salt Lake Film Society, nurturing local filmmakers is part of
what we do. We're thrilled this week to be opening TRENT HARRIS' new
film DELIGHTFUL WATER UNIVERSE. At the Tower Theatre RUBIN AND ED is
still one of our most popular selling titles and of course the infamous
BEAVER TRILOGY is well known in local circles. We even hosted the
anniversary for PLAN 10 FROM OUTER SPACE. Drop by and see it opening
weekend and you may even see Trent in a surprise Q&A.
Last Chance Red Carpet Premiere!
As a nonprofit we're always looking for ways to further our mission and
ensure that access to and education of cinema is at the forefront of our
programming. Primarily we do this through the support you give as a
patron and through our popular membership program. Thinking creatively
on expanding awareness and mission, we started our current Red Carpet
Premieres fund drive that will end this month. It is an amazing
opportunity for you to pick your favorite film and have a private red
carpet premiere at our historic Tower Theatre.
This is the last week we'll be signing up honorary "producers" (you!)
for our Red Carpet Premieres program. This program gives access to the
Tower Theatre for a private movie party (or staff party, or
marketing-your-business event, or power point presentation ,or birthday,
or anniversary, etc.) Normally, due to contractual obligations of those
who own the films we present here at SLFS we are unable to offer open
weekend and some evening dates to the general public, so if you've
needed a venue or merely have a favorite movie that you wish to show
everyone on the big screen, then this program is for you.
If you would like to donate through this program and get your movie
party by helping us raise awareness about the Film Society as well as
donors, let us know by replying to me in this email. We're celebrating
with a repertory movie premiere on May 4th, so all honorary producers
will need to raise their film "budget" by that date. Prizes for all
levels of participation. All private Red Carpet Premieres will be
scheduled for summer.
This week!
GIGANTIC <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1176251/>, Paul Dano stars as a
mattress salesman trying to both adopt a baby from China and win over
the heart of the mysterious Zooey Deschanel in this quirkily charming
dark comedy, also starring John Goodman.
THE INFORMERS <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865554/>, Bret Easton Ellis
adapts his own novel for the screen in a wild romp set in 1980's LA and
starring Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, and Winona Ryder.
HUNGER <
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/hunger>, a marvelously
filmed portrayal of the 1981 Irish republican hunger strike led by Bobby
Sands.
Starting at the Tower...
DELIGHTFUL WATER UNIVERSE <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326761/>, local
filmmaker, Trent Harris (Rubin and Ed), debuts his new wacky
adventure/comedy at the Tower. Starring local radio personality, Bill
Allred.
Held over...
SIN NOMBRE <
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/sinnombre>
PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034325/>
**** "It is a great story of love and hope, told tenderly and without
any great striving for effect."--Roger Ebert
SUNSHINE CLEANING <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862846/>, starring Amy
Adams and Alan Arkin
Last chance! Ending Thurs...
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/>
THE WRESTLER <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/>
TWO LOVERS <
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1103275/>
GOMORRAH <
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/gomorrah>, Winner of the
Grand Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN
<
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/secretofthegrain?q=secret%20of%20the%20grain>
EVERLASTING MOMENTS
<
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/everlastingmoments>
Call for Entries!
Have you always been interested in screenwriting, but not known where to
begin? The Salt Lake Film Society is now accepting applications our
third Utah Screenwriters Project, a program that has been helping to
develop new screenwriting talent for the last four years. We're looking
for budding screenwriters with all levels of experience to join our
upcoming 2009-2010 program.The application fee is $15 and all proceeds
go directly to the Utah Screenwriters Project. All applications must be
received by midnight April 30, 2009 - workshops begin in May 2009. If
interested, please contact Jim Faulkner at
jim_faulkner@??? or 801.746.0038 and he will get you
an application form and answer any questions you may have about this
year's program.
==============================
QUICK LOOK at SHOWTIMES -
THIS WEEK
***** only through Thursday 4/23
_Broadway_
Sunshine Cleaning 1:25, 4:15, 7:20, 9:30
The Secret of The Grain 1:15, 4:25, 7:30
Sin Nombre 1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:25, 9:35
Gomorrah 4:00, 9:40
Slumdog Millionaire 1:10, 7:10
Phoebe in Wonderland 1:20, 4:10, 7:15, 9:20
Everlasting Moments 1:00, 4:05, 7:00, 9:45
_Tower Theatre
_Two Lovers 7:00* (*no 7:00 show on Wed 4/22)
The Wrestler 4:30, 9:30
NEXT WEEK
******From Friday 4/24 - Thursday 4/30
_Broadway_
Sunshine Cleaning 1:25, 4:15, 7:20, 9:30
Gigantic 1:15, 4:25, 7:05, 9:15
Sin Nombre 1:05, 4:05, 7:25, 9:35
The Informers 1:10, 4:20, 7:10, 9:25
Phoebe in Wonderland 01:20, 4:10, 7:15, 9:20
Hunger 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:15
_Tower Theatre_
Delightful Water Universe (2:30 Fri thru Sun only), 4:30, 7:00, 9:00
=============================================================
TELL ME MORE...PLEASE!
(all star ratings are based on 4 star rating systems)
GIGANTIC
Written and directed by: Matt Aselton . Starring: Paul Dano, Zooey
Deschanel, Edward Asner, Jane Alexander, John Goodman, Ian Roberts, and
Robert Stanton
Brian Weathersby is a 28 year-old salesman at a high-end Swedish
mattress company. The afterthought child to elderly parents, and the
youngest son in a trio of successful brothers, a shady oil man , a
surgeon, Brian is searching for his place in the world. Unfulfilled by
his work he spends a good portion of his day pursuing his goal of
someday adopting a baby from China. He gets swept up in a romance with
the lovely but misguided Harriet Lolly when she comes in to his store
one day and falls asleep on one of the beds. To win her over, he must
compete with her bear of a father, Al Lolly, an art-collecting loudmouth
with a bad back and deep pockets. Gigantic is a funny, surreal love
story about the anxiety that comes when two people with crazy families
collide unexpectedly and fall for each other.
***1/2 Los Angeles Times
First-time feature director Matt Aselton, who co-wrote the darkly funny,
well-observed script with Adam Nagata, has crafted a disarming tale
that's one of the better independent films in recent memory.
***1/2 New York Post
The slacker comedy-drama-romance-whatever Gigantic will fulfill all your
alterna-movie weirdness requirements.
THE INFORMERS
Directed by: Gregor Jordan . Written by: Bret Easton Ellis . Starring:
Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder
In such works as Less Than Zero and American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis
brilliantly dissects contemporary American society, a culture in which
too much is never enough. Now, adapting his own... In such works as Less
Than Zero and American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis brilliantly dissects
contemporary American society, a culture in which too much is never
enough. Now, adapting his own... In such works as Less Than Zero and
American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis brilliantly dissects contemporary
American society, a culture in which too much is never enough. Now,
adapting his own acclaimed novel for the screen, he returns to the Los
Angeles of the early 1980's with a multi-strand narrative that deftly
balances a vast array of characters who represent both the top of the
heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging
newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con).
Connecting all his intertwining strands are the quintessential Ellis
protagonists -- a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who
sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs -- and one another --
with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of a
volcano. Filmed with uncommon glamour and grit by acclaimed Australian
director Gregor Jordan (Ned Kelly, Buffalo Soldiers), The Informers is
an alternately blistering and chilling portrait of hedonism run amuck.
HUNGER
Written and directed by: Steve McQueen . Starring: Michael Fassbender,
Stuart Graham, Helena Bereen, Larry Cowan, Liam Cunningham, Dennis
McCambridge, Liam McMahon, and Laine Megaw
Hunger follows life in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, with an
interpretation of the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA
Hunger Strike led by Bobby Sands. With an epic eye for detail, the film
provides a timely exploration of what happens when body and mind are
pushed to the uttermost limit.
**** Washington Post
McQueen has taken the raw materials of filmmaking and committed an act
of great art.
**** San Francisco Chronicle
Artful, beautiful in parts and unbelievably brutal in others, and no
less honest for its stagecraft.
***1/2 Rolling Stone
An artistic triumph.
DELIGHTFUL WATER UNIVERSE
Written and directed by: Trent Harris . Starring: Bill Allred, Sina
Amedson, Dan Morely, Stefene Russell, and Liberty Valentine
In the not too distant future nincompoops are in charge, free thinkers
are locked up, and some believe Bigfoot controls the major TV networks
with a hat he constructed from windshield wiper blades. Intrepid woman
chaser, Scott Vicious, and revolutionary madman, Franklin Musclewhite,
may be America's last hope.
SIN NOMBRE
Written and directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga . Starring: Paulina Gaitan,
Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Diana Garcia, Luis
Fernando Pena, and Hector Jimenez
Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young Honduran woman, Sayra,
joins her father and uncle on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the
Latin American countryside en route to the United States. Along the way
she crosses paths with a teenage Mexican gang member, El Casper, who is
maneuvering to outrun his violent past and elude his unforgiving former
associates. Together they must rely on faith, trust and street smarts if
they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey towards the hope
of new lives.
**** Wall Street Journal
Mr. Fukanaga's purpose is to evoke the immigrants' experience, which he
does with such eloquence and power as to inspire awe.
**** Roger Ebert
It contains risk, violence, a little romance, even fleeting moments of
humor, but most of all, it sees what danger and heartbreak are involved.
It is riveting from start to finish.
**** Washington Post
An elegant, heartbreaking fable, equal parts Shakespearean tragedy,
neo-Western and mob movie but without the pretension of those genres.
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (LA GRAIN ET LE MULET)
Written and directed by: Abdel Kechiche . Starring: Habib Boufares,
Hafsia Herzi, and Farida Benkhetache
The Secret of the Grain is a touching and resoundingly humanistic story
set in the rustic port of Sete in southeastern France. Slimane has
worked in the same shipyard job for over 35 years, when his growing
dissatisfaction prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream
seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work
their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four
children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and
her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym. A grand film about ordinary people,
The Secret of the Grain is a deliciously slow-burning drama about fate,
food and family.
**** The New York Times
An entire family chronicle, along with four decades of French social and
economic history, is recapitulated as a lavish, hectic dinner, complete
with music and belly dancing. It will leave you stunned and sated,
having savored an intimate and sumptuous epic of elation and defeat,
jealousy and tenderness, life and death, grain and fish.
**** Entertainment Weekly
The title embraces the richness of Kechiche's beautiful film, which
captures the rhythms of displacement and hardship, the bond of family
meals, and even the daily routines of the magnificent women who are part
of Slimane's life.
**** Boston Globe
Takes one man, his children, their spouses and babies, his ex-wife, his
girlfriend, her daughter, and his friends and turns it all into a
masterpiece about the strange power of food - to heal, unite, exasperate.
PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND
Written and directed by: Daniel Barnz . Starring: Elle Fanning, Felicity
Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Campbell Scott, and Bill Pullman
Phoebe in Wonderland, which recently had its world premiere at Sundance
2008 and is based on Daniel Barnz's original screenplay, concerns a
young girl who longs to be in her school's production of "Alice in
Wonderland." After being cast in the lead role of Alice by her eccentric
drama teacher, Phoebe reveals a unique talent but, much like Alice
herself, is increasingly at odds with the world around her and begins to
retreat into a world of her imagination. Though her parents initially
see their daughter's unusual behavior as signs of creativity, they
gradually realize that Phoebe is at risk of falling "through the looking
glass."
***1/2 The Hollywood Reporter
The mesmerizing performance of Fanning as the gifted and troubled young
Phoebe sparks the picture.
*** San Francisco Chronicle
It's a delicate, intelligent movie about modern parenthood and the
pressures that children face, and it features a cast of talented actors
who were clearly committed to the movie's message.
EVERLASTING MOMENTS
Written and directed by: Jan Troell . Starring: Mikael Persbrandt, Maria
Heiskanen, Jesper Christensen, Callin Ohrvall, Ghita Norby, Amanda Ooms,
and Emil Jensen
Sweden, early 1900s. In a time of social change and unrest, war and
poverty, a young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery.
The decision to keep it alters her whole life. The camera grants Maria
new eyes with which to see the world, and brings the charming
photographer "Piff Paff Puff" into her life. Trouble ensues when Maria's
alcoholic, womanizing husband, feels threatened by the young man and his
wife's newfound outlook on life.
**** Roger Ebert
It is a great story of love and hope, told tenderly and without any
great striving for effect.
**** Baltimore Sun
As magical as it is realistic
**** Wall Street Journal
This exquisite film by the Swedish master Jan Troell is about seeing
clearly, and fearlessly. It's also about subdued passion, the birth of
an artist and a woman's struggle to live her own life.
GOMORRAH
Directed by: Matteo Garrone . Written by: Maurizio Braucci . Starring:
Salvatore Abruzzese, Vincenzo Fabricino, Simone Sacchettino, Salvatore
Ruocco, Vincenzo Altamura, Italo Renda, Gianfelice Imparato, and Maria
Nazionale
Power, money and blood: these are the values that the residents of the
province of Naples and Caserta confront every day. They have practically
no choice, and are forced to obey the rules of the "System," the
Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life. Five
stories are woven together in this violent scenario, set in a cruel and
ostensibly invented world, but one that is deeply rooted in reality.
**** Roger Ebert
Gomorrah looks grimy and sullen, and has no heroes, only victims. That
is its power.
**** Washington Post
This vibrantly disorienting cinematic import reinvents the vocabulary of
the crime drama with a painterly eye and a feverish documentary style.
**** The New York Times
Part of what's bracing about Gomorrah, and makes it feel different from
so many American crime movies, is both its deadly serious take on
violence and its global understanding of how far and wide the mob's
tentacles reach, from high fashion to the very dirt.
**** San Francisco Chronicle
This is a vision of hell conveyed in a simple, documentary style, far
removed from the sumptuous American Mafia fables.
SUNSHINE CLEANING
Directed by: Christine Jeffs . Written by: Megan Holley . Starring: Amy
Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton
Collins Jr., and Jason Spevack
Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback,
Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) now finds herself a thirty something single
mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, (Emily Blunt), is still
living at home with their dad Joe (Alan Arkin), a salesman with a
lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes. Desperate to get
her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime
scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time,
the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other...
specialized situations. As they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, the
sisters find a true respect for one another and the closeness they have
always craved finally blossoms.
***1/2 Los Angeles Times
A smartly done morality tale that couldn't be more in sync with these
troubled times.
*** San Francisco Chronicle
That Sunshine Cleaning was made by women is best revealed in the
filmmakers' willingness to let the story breathe on its own terms,
without bringing in anything extraneous, unwelcome and exciting.
*** Chicago Tribune
The director, New Zealander Christine Jeffs ("Sylvia"), loosens the
plotting as best she can, letting the interactions breathe. Her work,
and the film, is strictly about the performers.
TWO LOVERS
Directed by: James Gray . Written by: James Gray and Richard Menello .
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella
Rossellini, Elias Koteas, and Moni Moshonov
Leonard is a charismatic but troubled young man who moves back into his
childhood home following a recent heartbreak. While recovering under the
watchful eye of his parents, Leonard meets two women in quick
succession: Michelle, a mysterious and beautiful neighbor who is exotic
and out-of-place in Leonard's staid world, and Sandra, the lovely and
caring daughter of a businessman who is buying out his family's
dry-cleaning business. Leonard becomes deeply infatuated by Michelle,
who seems poised to fall for him, but is having a self-destructive
affair with a married man. At the same time, mounting pressure from his
family pushes him towards committing to Sandra. Leonard is forced to
make an impossible decision - between the impetuousness of desire and
the comfort of love - or risk falling back into the darkness that nearly
killed him.
**** Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Joaquin Phoenix is as good as he has ever been in James Gray's Two
Lovers, a discomfortingly honest drama about the frustrations of love
and desire.
**** Wall Street Journal
For a filmmaker who has made his reputation with such crime thrillers as
"Little Odessa" and "The Yards," James Gray reveals an unexpected gift
for the mysteries of romance.
***1/2 Roger Ebert
The whole movie is so well-cast and performed that we watch it unfolding
without any particular awareness of "acting."
THE WRESTLER
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky . Written by: Robert D. Siegel . Starring:
Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood
Back in the late '80s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson was a headlining
professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living
performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms
and community centers around New Jersey.
**** Roger Ebert
This is Rourke doing astonishing physical acting.
**** The New York Times
Like its hero, the movie has a blunt, exuberant honesty, pulling off
even its false moves with conviction and flair.
**** Variety
Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that
instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances.
An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky's
fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle.
**** Entertainment Weekly
The Wrestler is like "Rocky" made by the Scorsese of "Mean Streets."
It's the rare movie fairy tale that's also a bravura work of art.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Directed by: Danny Boyle . Written by: Simon Beaufoy . Starring: Dev
Patel, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, and Irrfan Khan
Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan
from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of
his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away
from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire?"But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him
on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate
to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum
where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the
road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he
loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer
to one of the game show's questions. Intrigued by Jamal's story, the
jaded Police Inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no
apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show? When the
new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the
Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out...
**** New York Post
Four stars simply aren't enough for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire,
which just may be the most entertaining movie I've ever labeled a
masterpiece in these pages.
**** Roger Ebert
This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at
the same time.
**** Wall Street Journal
Slumdog Millionaire is the film world's first globalized masterpiece.
**** Boston Globe
You may even feel like dancing in the aisles yourself. Sure, the real
world doesn't always work this way. Have you forgotten that this is one
of the reasons why we go to movies in the first place?
=============================================================
FILMS TO COME
In no particular release order
12
SUGAR
PARIS 36
IS ANYBODY THERE?
TOKYO!
DEPARTURES
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 and our video collection at the Tower Theatre. 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.
Salt Lake Film Society thanks Zoo Arts and Parks and SL County.
Salt Lake Film Society thanks George Q. Morris Foundation for sponsorship.
--
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society
tori_baker@???
(801) 364-1088
