Sunday Night Film Club – Boston

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, April 23rd at 7:00pm for “The Beauty Academy of Kabul” at the Kendall Square Cinema. Look for Sean wearing a nametag and sitting in the little seating area in the lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“Who would ever dream that what war-torn Afghanistan needed was a school for hairdressers? Yet this surprising and humorous film reveals that there is healing power—as well as economic opportunity—in the pursuit of beauty. Six American volunteers, three of them Afghan-Americans returning home for the first time in 20 years, come to Kabul to open the country’s first post-Taliban beauty school. The response is so overwhelming that a lottery must be held to select the lucky students. Features the music of Ahmad Zahir. Directed by Liz Mermin. (Partially subtitled)”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, April 16th at 5:00pm for “Following Sean” 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. Note: This film is showing in the Coolidge’s “Screening Room”, which is quite small, so you might want to show up early or preorder tickets.

“This riveting family saga looks back to San Francisco in the late ‘60s when budding filmmaker Ralph Arlyck made a candid short film about Sean, a precocious 4-year-old hippie child who lived in his apartment building. A natural on camera, Sean is frank about how he smokes pot and hangs out with speedfreaks. The film gained great acclaim (and naturally sounded alarms), but the story doesn’t end there. Three decades later, Arlyck finds Sean again, now a struggling husband and father. New interviews with Sean as well as his freewheeling father, sarcastic communist grandma, and boisterous family are combined with original ’60s footage to paint vivid time-traveling portraits. FOLLOWING SEAN is an epic chronicle of growing up and moving on filled with moments of surprising tenderness and humor.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, April 9th at 5:30pm for Baby Face 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

“Baby Face was one of the most notorious of all the films of the Pre-Code era – the time during the early Depression when the Hollywood studios virtually ignored the censors and offered up one sex-filled film after another. Public morals were so offended that the industry was forced to adopt an even stricter Production Code in 1934. Advertised with the titillating warning, “Parents: do not bring your children,” Baby Face stars Barbara Stanwyck as an abused daughter who turns tricks out of a speakeasy in Erie, Pennsylvania, then heads to Manhattan, where she sleeps her way up the corporate ladder (with a young John Wayne, among many others). A longer (by five minutes), even racier version was recently discovered by the Library of Congress and is making its debut at the Brattle. After the film, we’ll be showing scenes from the censored version for comparison. – adapted from notes from the Film Forum, NYC“

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, April 2nd at 4:45pm for “Awesome: I F@&!%*’ Shot That” at the Kendall Square Cinema. Look for Sean wearing a nametag and sitting in the little seating area in the lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“Before the lights went down at Madison Square Garden, 50 fans were given hand-held Hi-8 cameras and told to record their experience of being at a Beastie Boys concert in the band’s hometown. The man behind many of their innovative music videos, director Nathaniel Hornblower (aka MCA, aka Adam Yauch), then edited the best footage from the night with his signature creative imprint into a musical experience that takes you right into the world of Mike D, Ad Rock and MCA. Also features Money Mark, Doug E. Fresh and Mix Master Mike.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, March 26th at 7:00pm for “Thank You For Smoking” at the Kendall Square Cinema. Look for Sean wearing a nametag and sitting in the little seating area in the lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today’s neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots and an opportunistic senator, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, March 19th at 6:30pm for “V For Vendetta” at the Boston Common Loews. Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the main lobby on the ground floor about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“World War III has come and gone. In its wake, is left chaos. This chaos was quickly reigned-in by small insurgent groups who used fear, force and “faith” to subdue an entire nation, forging a new, “Greater” Britain. It is in this brave new world that V (Weaving), a mysterious, masked, swashbuckling figure, saves the young Evey Hammond (Portman) from unspeakable tortures, and takes her under his wing, into the Shadow Gallery; a world that may prove to be full of tortures of its own. All the while, bodies have been piling up within the ranks of the England’s fairly new but powerful government. All the murders are connected, far deeper than any mere affiliation with any governmental branch. These killings are vastly encompassing, but acutely personal. It is a vendetta: In a totalitarian state, the government has the people convinced that a single “terrorist”, V, would have them under siege. But V would stand to say that he is showing the people that they have been under siege by their government. V is out to avenge individuality, and reclaim freedom for the people, even at the expense of their happiness. We are all in prison, and he is “showing us the bars”. The lines between hero and villain do not blur, but become frighteningly clear and you will become uneasy, at times, when you find yourself cheering for V. That is, anyway, if the film is anything like the graphic novel. Find out for yourself, and read the novel, by Alan Moore, first. “England Prevails”, under one law or under chaos.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, March 12th at 4:35pm for “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party” at the Boston Common Loews. Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the main lobby on the ground floor about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“A genuine crowd-pleaser, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party spotlights comedy superstar Dave Chappelle as he presents a Brooklyn neighborhood with its very own once-in-a-lifetime free block party. The unprecedented combination of comedy and music was shot on location. In addition to Mr. Chappelle performing all-new material, the stellar roster of artists includes Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, Big Daddy Kane, and – reunited for their first performance in over seven years – the Fugees.”

The Boston Sunday Night Film Club will be taking the week off to give members the opportunity to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday Night. See you next week!

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, February 26th at 7:45pm for Kairo (Pulse) 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

Often referred to as one of the scariest films ever made, PULSE (KAIRO) tells the story of a group of young friends rocked by the sudden suicide of one of their own, and his subsequent, ghostly reappearance in grainy computer and video images. Is he trying to contact them from beyond the grave or is there something more sinister afoot? The mysterious floppy disk they find in the dead man’s apartment may provide a clue, but instead launches a program that seems to present odd, ethereal transmissions of people engaged in solitary activities in their apartments. But there is something not quite right in the appearance and behavior of these lonely souls. Soon, there are more strange deaths and disappearances within the group, terrifying rooms sealed in red tape, and the appearance of more ghosts as the city of Tokyo – and the world – is slowly drained of life.

The prolific writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the most remarkable talents working in cinema today. While his efforts tend to be in the realm of genre stories (mostly horror), his films portray a lyricism and grace that rise far above other horror directors. With PULSE (KAIRO), eschewing gore and easy shocks for a harrowing tone unique to his cinema, Kurosawa has made a dense and complex film whose metaphysical and psychological resonance will last long after the chills have subsided.

After last week’s cancellation I figured we’d go for a “Take Two” on “Why We Fight”. :)

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, February 19th at 7:35pm for “Why We Fight” at the Kendall Square Cinema. Look for Sean wearing a nametag and sitting in the little seating area in the lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“He may have been the ultimate icon of 1950s conformity and postwar complacency, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was an iconoclast, visionary, and the Cassandra of the New World Order. Upon departing his presidency, Eisenhower issued a stern, cogent warning about the burgeoning “military industrial complex,” foretelling with ominous clarity the state of the world in 2004 with its incestuous entanglement of political, corporate, and Defense Department interests.”