March Release of Club Moofie

Hello All,

Thanks to Beck for  hosting our most recent Club Moofie night, and the first for this year. I don’t think we could have picked 2 more different moofies for viewing! What a way to start the year! Woohoo!

“Up in the Air” and “A Clockwork Orange” featured for our March viewing, and also produced some of the most varied scores in Club Moofie history.

“UP IN THE AIR”

An Oscar contender, this moofie failed to impress many of the Club’s members. Quite a few were of the opinion that they could not disassociate the character from George Clooney himself, and also found that Mr. Clooney’s charms were failing him somewhat -  comments along the lines of “long in the tooth”and “irritating – actually, offensive smile” where (some would say unkindly!) bandied about.  Has George Clooney lost his charisma??? This topic almost overshadowed discussion of the films content.

There were also unfavourable comparisons made to “Juno”, the earlier, much-loved effort from director Jason Reitman, suggesting that the older film’s direction, strong storyline and excellent cast were far above “Up in the Air”s end results. (I personally thought that they were quite different films, making it a difficult task to compare the two).

Scores reflected the general feeling of the “it was kind of ok, but not memorable” vibe from the Club’s members.

Andy – 2

Beck – 2

Wendy – 2.5

Clint  – 2

Sylvia -  3.5

Barbara – 3.5

John – 2.5 (absent guest member)

Quotes on “Up in the Air”

“Well, that should have taken it straight to DVD, that bit – ‘you’re going to have to talk the groom into it’.” – Andy

“I was a bit bored. I kept looking at my watch and thinking ‘hmmm- this is a loooong film.” – Wendy

“It started out with potential for a ‘Lost in Translation’ -type thing – you know, profound relationships, etc – but by the second half it deteriorated into midday movie, B-grade trash.” – Clint

“It started well. It led me in one direction – then it went somewhere else. It went to Midday Matinee.” – Clint

An exchange between Beck and Andy:

“He’s convinced to tell the girl that he likes her, then like a little puppy, he is slapped down!” – Andy, on George Clooney’s charater

“That will set him back another 20 years. ” – Beck

On asked if anyone had an opinion on  the lead female character (played by Vera Farmiga):

“No, I couldn’t get past her big top lip.”- Beck

“A CLOCKWORK ORANGE”

This film, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, really provoked some interesting discussion and diverging opinions. Many considered this to be not only one of Kubrick’s better films, but possibly his masterpiece. Decribed in turn as absurd, funny, disturbing, clever, imaginative, extraordinary, a classic-  it certainly provided challenging viewing.

Most agreed on it’s originality -with cinematography, set, and overall production design also being exceptional, as well as the soundtrack, which was used to masterful effect.

Comparisons were made to the novels ” We Have to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver for the violent nature of the central character, and “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, for the concepts of both crime and punishment (funnily enough) explored in the film. The notion of behavioural therapy induced by chemical means was dicussed, as well as the voilence  (stongly present, nearly another character in the film), which  some felt  took a step too far, particularly the scenes of violence against women.

What do you think?

Here are the scores:

Andy – 2

Beck – 2

Wendy – 4

Clint – 5

Sylvia – 1

Barbara – 4.5

John – 2

Quotes on “A Clockwork Orange”:

“The film enjoyed it’s own sadism and subversion. There was joy in this! I loved it! It was liberating!” – Clint

“It certainly made me sit up.” – Wendy

“I was just slumped down waiting for him to die.” – Andy

“It seems that in films made in the 70′s, the future still looks like the 70′s! ” – Beck

And lastly, not sure what film generated this quote:

“Ooh! That was a bit of a David and Margaret moment! Fight, fight, fight!” – Beck on a Moofie disagreement between Andy and Sylvia.

Thanks again to all the members for a great night. Our next two films will be:

“Fargo” and“Let the Right One In”.

Happy viewing and see you on May 1st!

S and A

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