Our movies for 2016
Movie Club List for 2016
Following our Moscars, we had the pleasure of being introduced to our nominated films for 2016 by the nominators – such a great list, and rather hard to choose!
Below are our final selections and the dates proposed for our meetings.
Our 9th film for the year was selected by Andy, who nominated our winning film for 2015. Andy had the hitherto unexperienced luxury of choosing any film from previous unsuccessful nominations. His choice was “The Mist”, directed by Frank Darabont, 2007.
We had some great quotes during the selection too, so here they are:
Quotes
On selecting films for 2016:
Andy: “Those submitting will withhold voting, so that there will be odd numbers and we’ll have a winner…”
Beck: We’ll have a “Weena!”
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On selecting Broadcast News:
Andy: “When I was younger, I had hoped to work in a place like that – I did work in an insurance office, but it wasn’t like a TV station.”
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On selecting Labyrinth in honour of David Bowie’s passing:
Andy: “No one wants Labyrinth! Why you unsentimental people!”
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On The Thing:
Andy: “It’s very visceral.”
Paul: “I love how you say that. Say it again.”
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On Duel:
Renny: “We saw it when my mum was here and she couldn’t stop laughing. It sort of lost the suspense for me but I really liked it. I think CJ and I need to watch it again.”
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On what Mr, Smith goes to Washington is about:
Beck: “Small town man goes to Washington. His name is Mr Smith.”
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On Tom Hardy in Locke
Jodi: I nominated it because it has more than his usual 7 lines.
On her choices for 2016:
Jodi: “I chose these because that way we would have Ryan or Tom in one of our movies.”
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On The Mist:
Andy: “We have to watch ‘The Mist” with ‘The Thing’!”
Beck: “And hold our meeting on Halloween!”
On Andy’s choice of The Mist:
After reading over the synopsis:
Wendy: “Is ‘The Mist’ scary?” (reading) “…’Chiller?!!’…’Steven King?!!!’…” (audible groan).
On Scary Films:
To Wendy, after explaining to that scary films are manageable if you have another light film to watch after it:
CJ: “We might have to make that a triple header …”
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On The Mist:
CJ: “It’s gutting at the end…”
Sylv: “(Worried) Not literally, right?”
CJ: “No.”
***
On the near 3.5 hour length of “Seven Samurai”:
Beck: “Let’s put that one on the 21st of January, 2016 – that way we’ll definitely have enough time to watch it.”
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FILMS FOR 2016
20th of February, CJ and Renny’s place:
- New Release: “The Danish Girl”
- Truly Madly Deeply
30th of April, Sylv and Andy’s place:
- Locke
- Fearless
25th of June, Wendy’s place:
- Sweet Smell of Success
- Broadcast News
27th of August, Paul and Jodi’s place:
- New Release: to be announced
- Ghost in the Shell
29th of October, Beck’s place:
- The Thing
- The Mist
21st of January, 2016, location to be announced closer to the date:
- New Release
- Seven Samurai
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Film Blurbs
Date: 20 Feb
New Release: The Danish Girl
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Plot
Nina, an interpreter, is beside herself with grief at the recent death of her boyfriend, Jamie, a cellist. When she is on the verge of despair, Jamie reappears as a “ghost” and the couple are reconciled. The screenplay never clarifies whether this occurs in reality, or merely in Nina’s imagination. Nina is ecstatic, but Jamie’s behaviour – turning up the central heating to stifling levels, moving furniture around and inviting back “ghost friends” to watch videos – gradually infuriates her, and their relationship deteriorates. She meets Mark, a psychologist, to whom she is attracted, but she is unwilling to become involved with him because of Jamie’s continued presence. Nina continues to love Jamie but is conflicted by his self-centred behaviour and ultimately wonders out loud, “Was it always like this?” Over Nina’s objections, Jamie decides to leave to allow her to move on. At the end of the film, Jamie watches Nina leave with Mark and one of his fellow ghosts asks, “Well?” and Jamie responds, “I think so… Yes.” At this point the central conceit of the movie has become clear: Jamie came back specifically to help Nina get over him by tarnishing her idealised memory of him.[3]
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Date: 30 April
Locke (2013)
Director: Steven Knight
Starring: Tom Hardy
Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.
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Fearless (1993)
Director: Peter Weir
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez
After a terrible air disaster, survivor Max Klein emerges a changed person. Unable to connect to his former life or to wife Laura, he feels godlike and invulnerable. When psychologist Bill Perlman is unable to help Max, he has Max meet another survivor, Carla Rodrigo, who is racked with grief and guilt since her baby died in the crash which she and Max survived.
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Date: 25 June
The Sweet Smell of Success – Drama, 1957, director: Alexander Mackendrick.
“New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can’t control is his younger sister, Susan (Susan Harrison), who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas (Marty Milner). Hunsecker strongly disproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.” – Wikipedia summary.
“The two men in “The Sweet Smell of Success” relate to each other like junkyard dogs. One is dominant, and the other is a whipped cur, circling hungrily, his tail between his legs, hoping for a scrap after the big dog has dined. The dynamic between a powerful gossip columnist and a hungry press agent, is seen starkly and without pity. The rest of the plot simply supplies events to illustrate the love-hate relationship.” – Roger Ebert
I saw this film a long time ago, but it really stayed with me for the power of the acting and the story – easily Tony Curtis’ best role – a guy taking every opportunity to get ahead in a cut throat world. Ebert’s description is accurate, and the film presents a tense, gritty and memorable performances from both central players.
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“Broadcast News” is a 1987 romantic comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks. The film concerns a virtuoso television news producer (Holly Hunter), who has daily emotional breakdowns, a brilliant yet prickly reporter (Albert Brooks) and his charismatic but far less seasoned rival (William Hurt). It also stars Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, and Jack Nicholson (billed only in the end credits) as the evening news anchor. (Wikipedia)
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Date: 27 August
New Release
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Ghost in the Shell (1995)
To preface the soon to be released real-life film version in 2017 starring Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusangi….
Ghost in the Shell, is a 1995 anime science fiction film based on manga of the same title by Masamune Shirow.
Ghost in the Shell follows the hunt of the public-security agency ‘Section 9’ for a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master. With the assistance of her team, Motoko Kusanagi tracks and finds their suspect, only to be drawn into a complex sequence of political intrigue and a cover-up as to the identity and goals of the Puppet Master.
The overarching philosophical themes of the film include self-identity in a technologically-advanced world. The music, composed by Kenji Kawai, included an ancient Japanese language in a wedding song that serves as a key piece of music leading up to the climax of the movie. Widely considered one of the greatest anime films of all time, Ghost in the Shell received universal acclaim from critics, who praised its visuals, which at the time were the most effective synthesis of traditional cel animation and CG animation.
Wikipedia
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Date: 29 Oct
“The Thing (1982)”
The Thing (also known as John Carpenter’s The Thing) is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter,
written by Bill Lancaster, and starring Kurt Russell. The film’s title refers to its primary antagonist: a parasitic extraterrestrial lifeform that assimilates other organisms and in turn imitates them. The Thing infiltrates an Antarctic research station, taking the appearance of the researchers that it absorbs, and paranoia develops within the group.
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The Mist (2007)
Written/Directed by Frank Darabont
… Smart, modestly budgeted chiller based on a 1980 Stephen King novella. Set largely in a besieged convenience store in Maine, the story is all about a creepy, impenetrable mist that descends on a small community after a storm … The process of mass hysterical freakout gets underway, stoked by a malicious, preachy woman played by Marcia Gay Harden. She starts telling everyone that it’s the end of the world and the will of God, and they should perhaps start sacrificing the smirking liberal unbelievers to the monsters lurking in the mist – a strategy that seems increasingly attractive to the terrified populace. Britain’s Toby Jones does a nice job with his small role as the easy-going store cashier whose unexpected usefulness with a handgun turns him into an hombre. The look and style of the picture is that of a B-movie, but drum-tight in execution, with a bold use of its single location, and not needing to insist on its satirical dimension. The ending is awe-inspiringly horrible with an uncompromising grimness from which most directors would flinch.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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Date: 21 Jan
New Release
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Seven Samurai (1954)
Unrated | 207 min | Drama
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Club Moofie 