The 9th Annual Independent Film Festival of Boston runs from April 27th through May 4th, and tickets and passes are now on sale!  This festival is truly great and anyone who is a fan of movies really should head over to the schedule and learn about what is showing.  Many other cities have their own film festivals, but IFFBoston is really catered to the general moviegoing audience in Boston.  Many of the screenings often have special guests and Q&A sessions, and there are also some panel discussions and parties.  Of course, if you’re like me, you’ll feel like the parties are just distracting you from seeing more movies.

The official club selection for the festival is “Another Earth” at 7:30pm on Sunday, May 1st.  I’ll send out the usual newsletter that week, but I wanted to give those of you who are interested a head start, as tickets often sell out.

Hope to see you at the festival!

I needed to move the Google/iCal calendars around, so if you subscribe to them, you’ll want to update.  You can find the new links on the About page.

Â

The Boston Sunday Night Film Club will be taking this Sunday, December 26th off due to the Christmas holiday.  It is not yet clear if we will be meeting on January 2nd, so stay tuned for updates.

Thanks to one of our mailing list members, I have just been informed that the Kendall Square Cinema is presently closed due to a flooding-related power outage.  They don’t know when they will be able to reopen.

I will make a final decision at 5pm as to whether or not tonight’s club meeting has been cancelled, but things aren’t looking good.  Check our webpage or twitter after 5pm for the final verdict.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 16th at 7:30pm for Please Give at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Please Give is writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s (Friends with Money, Lovely & Amazing) perceptive—and devastatingly funny—take on modern life’s contradictions, good intentions and shaky moral bearings.

Kate (Catherine Keener) has a lot on her mind. There’s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store (and how much markup can she get away with?). There’s the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) to want the expensive things that Kate wants. There’s the marriage problem of sharing a partnership in parenting, business and life with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) but sensing doubt nibbling at the foundations. And there’s Kate’s free-floating 21st century malaise—the problem of how to live well and be a good person when poverty, homelessness, and sadness are always right outside the door.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 9th at 6:15pm for Iron Man 2 (IMAX) at the AMC Boston Common 19 . Look for Dan wearing a multicolored shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances – and confront powerful enemies.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 2nd at 7pm for Exit Through the Gift Shop at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, “It’s basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 25th at 7:30pm for Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields at the Brattle Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

The Magnetic Fields have never made it easy for those who would categorize their music. Originally labeled “art pop” musicians when their first album contained no guitar, they have since continued to befuddle genre watchdogs with a quirky blend of synth, strings, experimental percussion, pop overtones, folk undertones, and, of course, that magical special ingredient: Stephin Merritt’s deep, lulling vocals. Merritt’s tone massages a catalog of richly poignant lyrics that are quite the rare find in the pop-music thicket—often most notable for their delicate simplicity.

On the other hand, Merritt himself has never made it easy for those who would categorize him. His intense demeanor has been the subject of many a sour rumor over his 20-plus-year career. Some of these ill reports he may indeed have earned through antisocial behavior. Some, however, were bitter and undeserved cuts—the price he suspects he must pay for being “a high-profile sitting duck.”

Directors Kerthy Fix and Gail OÂ’Hara provide us with comfortable, homey access to Merritt and the most important, grounding influence in his life: his decades-long friendship with his chipper musical collaborator Claudia Gonson. On his home turf, in the apartment that has doubled as the studio for the lionÂ’s share of his recordings, Merritt is anything but prickly or uncooperative. He is a reflective, passionate, and even playful artist who is producing many of the great songs of his generation.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 18th at 7:30pm for Kick-Ass at the AMC Boston Common 19 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

KICK-ASS tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name – Kick-Ass – assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. ThereÂ’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers. His life is forever changed as he inspires a subculture of copy cats, meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes – including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz) and her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) – and forges a friendship with another fledgling superhero, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). But thanks to the scheming of a local mob boss Frank DÂ’Amico (Mark Strong), that new alliance will be put to the test.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 11th at 7:30pm for The Runaways at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star in this music-fueled story of the ground breaking, all girl, teenage rock band of the 1970’s: The Runaways. The film follows two friends, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands. With it’s tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for iteself.