Category: Newsletters

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer (“Girl with a Pearl Earring”) manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography?

A Penn & Teller Film.

In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop – is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.

Undaunted by his advanced age or emphysema, Huston undertook a darkly comic mafia picture based on the novel by The Manchurian Candidate author Richard Condon. Patiently toying with elements of various famous gangster movies including his own Hustons unusual wandering path through the everyday lives of the Prizzi family is skillfully guided by the strangely endearing performances of Jack Nicholson as Charley Partanna the Prizzis naive hit man and Angelica Huston as his jilted former lover. When Charley falls in love with a beautiful stranger who is also in the business, he instigates a messy wave of double-crosses crossing over and back through absurdly sticky webs of organized deception. As if they operated a standard family business, Huston wryly explores the strength of their various bonds as well as the occupational hazards of their grisly vocations.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Animated Short and more! Program includes: “Feral” (USA), in which a wild boy, found in the woods and brought back to civilization, tries to adapt to a strange new environment; Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Get a Horse!” (USA), a contemporary homage to the first shorts featuring Mickey Mouse, with all-new, black-and-white, hand-drawn animation; “Mr. Hublot” (Luxembourg/France), about a withdrawn, idiosyncratic character made partially of mechanical parts whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of the dog Robot Pet; “Possessions” (Japan), in which an 18th Century man, lost on a stormy night deep in the mountains, enters a small shrine that suddenly turns into a room in a different world; and “Room on the Broom” (UK), based on the children’s picture book by Julia Donaldson, about a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat.

Brutal, sexy and bloody, the Hammer Horror films of the 1950s are legendary for their versions of classic monster stories filled with heaving bosoms and gushing veins. THE HORROR OF DRACULA is the first of many Dracula films in the Hammer oeuvre and it remains one of the best. The impeccably intimidating Christopher Lee stars as the titular Count while Peter Cushing embodies the erudite adventurer in his role as Draculas nemesis, Dr. Van Helsing.