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!

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 10th at 7:10p for Hanna at the AMC Harvard Square 5 . 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.

Hanna (Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Ms. Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 3rd at 7pm for Source Code at the AMC Harvard Square 5 . 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.

An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

20260430 Update

This list is now defunct.

Original Post

For several years, film promoters have contacted me with free passes to local screenings of upcoming films.  Often these passes come in paper form, and I bring them to the club meeting on Sunday and distribute them there.  But increasingly the promoters are using email to distribute these passes.  I’ve always been REALLY reluctant to pass this information on to the newsletter list because I know not everyone is interested.

I decided to create a second mailing list called “noise”, to which I will forward these pass opportunities as well as some news about other small film events around Boston (such as the Coolidge’s “Science on Screen” events).  If this is something you are interested in, there are two ways to subscribe:

1) Send an email to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and follow the directions in the auto-response you receive.

2) Visit xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and click “Join this group”.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Mar 27th at 7:30p for Sucker Punch at the Regal Fenway Stadium 13 . 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.

An action fantasy set in the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary. She has been locked away against her will, but Babydoll (Emily Browning) has not lost her will to survive. Determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls – the outspoken Rocket (Jena Malone), the street-smart Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), the fiercely loyal Amber (Jamie Chung) and the reluctant Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) – to band together and try to escape their terrible fate at the hands of their captors, Blue (Oscar Isaac), Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino) and the High Roller (Jon Hamm). Led by Babydoll, the girls engage in fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents, with a virtual arsenal at their disposal. Together, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. But with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn), their unbelievable journey – if they succeed – will set them free

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Mar 20th at 7:30p for Robocop at the Somerville 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: The Somerville is showing Robocop as part of a double-feature with The Terminator. While the 5:30p showing of The Terminator may not be an ‘official’ club film, there may be some of us there.

“Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Mar 13th at 7:10p for Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . 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.

As our country continues to embroil itself in foreign wars and pins its hopes on a new leader’s promise for change, Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune is a timely and relevant tribute to an unlikely American hero.

Over the course of a meteoric music career that spanned two turbulent decades, Phil Ochs sought the bright lights of fame and social justice in equal measure - a contradiction that eventually tore him apart. From youthful idealism to rage to pessimism, the arch of Ochs’ life paralleled that of the times, and the anger, satire and righteous indignation that drove his music also drove him to dark despair. In this brilliantly constructed film, interview and performance footage of Ochs is illuminated by the ruminations of Joan Baez, Tom Hayden, Pete Seeger, Sean Penn, Peter Yarrow, Christopher Hitchens, Ed Sanders, and others.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Mar 6th at 7:30p for The Adjustment Bureau 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.

Just as he is on the brink of winning a senate seat, politician David Norris (Matt Damon) meets a ballerina named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). Though David is smitten, mysterious men conspire to keep him away from the beautiful dancer. David learns he is up against the powerful agents of Fate itself, and, glimpsing the future laid out before him, must either accept a predetermined path that does not include Elise, or defy Fate to be with her.

Since many of us will be watching the Oscars this Sunday, the Boston Sunday Night Film Club will not be meeting this weekend.  We will next meet on March 3rd.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Feb 20th at 7:10p for 2011 Oscar Live Action Shorts 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.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Live Action Short! Program includes: The Confession (UK), the story of a quiet and sincere 9-year-old boy who is worried about making his first confession; The Crush (Ireland), the story of an 8-year-old schoolboy, in love with his Second Class teacher, who challenges her boyfriend to a duel-to the death; God of Love (USA), in which a lounge-singing darts champion finds his prayers are answered-literally-when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts; Wish 143 (UK), the story of a 15-year-old boy with only months to live who asks for one wish from the Dreamscape Charity: an hour alone with a naked woman; and Na Wewe (Belgium), which relates a sadly frequent episode of Burundi’s fratricidal conflict in the 1990s: the attack by rebels of a minivan carrying ordinary citizens. With emotion, suspense and humor it exposes the absurdity of ethnic and racial strife.