Sunday Night Film Club – Boston

This double-barreled, action-packed documentary follows two un-sung Hollywood heros: Jeannie Epper and Zoë Bell, who have been set on fire, thrown off buildings, dragged by wild horses and hit by cars. As stuntwomen, Epper doubled for Wonder Woman in the 70’s, and New Zealand native Bell landed the coveted job doubling Xena at the age of 18. Academy Award winning director (and Boston native) Amanda Micheli fills DOUBLE DARE with star-studded interviews and rollicking live-action stunt sequences, to create a candid look at these two strong, dedicated women.

George Stevens’ classic Western, adaptated from the Jack Schaefer novel, stars Alan Ladd in the title role. Riding the ranges of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, Shane stops at the farm of homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) just before Ryker (Emile Meyer), a powerful and predatory cattleman, arrives with his hired muscle to make the farmer a threatening offer for land that he intends to get by any means necessary. When Shane lets the cattle baron know that his gun will back Starrett if there’s any trouble, the grateful homesteader offers the stranger a job as a hired hand, which he accepts. Joe’s young son Joey (Brandon de Wilde) is drawn to the quiet stranger, whose difference from the men he knows is confirmed by the accidental revelation of a gunfighter’s lightning reflexes. Shane becomes a valuable asset to the farm, but is slowly drawn into the continuing hostilities between the two opposing groups. To complicate matters, Shane feels an unspoken, and unwanted, attraction to Starrett’s wife Marian (Jean Arthur). This creates a sense of ambivalence in Joe, whose son already idolizes the gunslinger. Stevens’ meticulous artistry imbues the simple Western with the mythic aura of an Arthurian legend, as Loyal Griggs’ beautifully composed images provide the canvas for career performances by Ladd, Heflin, Arthur, and de Wilde, in what many regard as the finest western ever made.

“Based on the book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, director Alex Gibney (writer and co-producer of The Trials of Henry Kissinger) presents the inside story of one of the greatest business scandals in history, when top executives of Enron, America’s seventh largest company, walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything. Inside accounts and controversial tapes show the unimaginable personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy – and how their actions may shape our economy for years to come.”

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers.

The introduction begins like this:

“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. Listen …” and so on.

(After a while the style settles down a bit and it begins to tell you things you really need to know, like the fact that the fabulously beautiful planet Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete whilst on the planet is surgically removed from your bodyweight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory it is vitally important to get a receipt.)

“Escalating events begin when African-born U.N. translator Silvia Broome alleges that she has overheard a death threat against an African head of state, spoken in a rare dialect few people other than Silvia can understand. With the words “The Teacher will never leave this room alive,” in an instant, Silvia’s life is turned upside down as she becomes a hunted target of the killers. Placed under the protection of federal agent Tobin Keller, Silvia’s world only grows more nightmarish. As Keller digs deeper into his eyewitnesses’ past and her secretive world of global connections, the more suspicious he becomes that she herself might be involved in the conspiracy. With every step of the way, he finds more reasons to mistrust her. Is Sylvia a victim? A suspect? Or something else entirely? And can Tobin, coping with his own personal heartache, keep her safe? Though they must depend on one another, Silvia and Tobin couldn’t be more different. Silvia’s strengths are words, diplomacy and the subtleties of meaning, while Tobin is all about instinct, action and reading into the most primal human behaviors. Now, as the danger of a major assassination on U.S. soil grows and Silvia’s life hangs in the balance, Silvia and Tobin play out a gripping dance of evasion and revelation that keeps them both guessing as they race to stop a terrifying international crisis before it’s too late.”

Don’t let the films of Danny Boyle fool you. The director of edgy hits like SHALLOW GRAVE, TRAINSPOTTING and 28 DAYS LATER isn’t really a cynic, and this enchanting and supremely charming family (yes – family!) fantasy proves it. Starting anew after the death of their mother, 9-year-old Anthony and 7-year-old Damian move to suburban Manchester with their dad. It is a time of readjustment, and while Anthony is ever practical, Damian uses his imagination to create an array of companions – the Catholic Saints, whom only he can see and hear. When one day a sack of stolen cash falls to him from the sky (or so it seems), Damian decides to donate the money to the poor and help his mother gain her sainthood in the afterlife. His actions lead to high comedy, with the right touch of genuine sincerity, in Danny Boyle’s first family classic.