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Author Archive | Alex Kamody

Laggies: Last Day Thursday, November 20th

Watch Trailer Director: Lynn Shelton
Writer(s): Andrea Seigel
Cast: Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sam Rockwell

Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan (Keira Knightley) is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind – while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart (Mark Webber) proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week – hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Annika’s world-weary single dad Craig (Sam Rockwell). Lynn Shelton, whose unique directorial voice created such astutely observed comedies as YOUR SISTER’S SISTER and HUMPDAY, crafts a sweet, romantic coming-of-age comedy about three people who find their lives intertwined in the most unconventional way as they make through the imperfect realities of modern day life. Keira Knightley shines as Megan, a rare female slacker hero who shows us that while you never stop growing up, you can choose stop lagging, and start living on your terms.

“Superbly written, handsomely made and full of terrific performances, ‘Laggies’ is Shelton’s best film to date.” – James Rocchi, Film.com

“a movie that knows just where it’s going, and finds joy in the journey.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

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Running Time: 99 Minutes99 MIN
R Rated

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Whiplash: Last Day Thursday, December 4th

Watch Trailer Director: Damien Chazelle
Writer(s): Damien Chazelle
Cast: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, and Melissa Benoist

 

Andrew Neyman (The Spectacular Now‘s Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher (The Closer’s J.K. Simmons), an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity.

“one of the year’s best films.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“It’s electrifying.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“‘Whiplash’ will instill not just respect but awe. It also happens to feature a pair of performances that eclipse all else around them.” – John Anderson, Wall Street Journal

“Rarely has a movie shown so viscerally the utter pain that can accompany the bliss of creating good music.” – Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press

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Running Time: 107 Minutes107 MIN
R Rated

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Listen Up Philip: Last day Thursday, November 13th

Watch Trailer Director: Alex Ross Perry
Writer(s): Alex Ross Perry
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce

A complex, intimate, and highly idiosyncratic comedy, Listen Up Philip is a literary look at the triumph of reality over the human spirit. Anger rages in Philip (Jason Schwartzman) as he awaits the publication of his sure-to-succeed second novel. He feels pushed out of his adopted home city by the constant crowds and noise, a deteriorating relationship with his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), and his indifference to promoting his own work. When Philip’s idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) offers his isolated summer home as a refuge, he finally gets the peace and quiet to focus on his favorite subject – himself.

“A very entertaining black comedy for very mysterious reasons.” – John Anderson, Wall Street Journal

“As a rising young novelist in the Philip Roth vein, Schwartzman delivers Perry’s dyspeptic, neurotic, supremely arrogant dialogue even better than Perry himself did in the earlier movie.” J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader

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Running Time: 108 min108 MIN

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Science on Screen®: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

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Exploring the Unknown

Dr. Daniel Hembree and Dr. Patrick O’Connor discussed exploring the unknown, the value of field work in science, and the use of the Earth as a natural laboratory before a screening of the original 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth.

About the film

Based on the 1864 Jules Verne’s novel, James Mason stars as amusingly absent-minded professor Oliver Lindenbrook, whose first step on a fabulous journey is prompted by a lump of lava brought to him by his student Alec McEwen (Pat Boone). Melting down the curiously composed lump, Lindenbrook discovers a hastily scrawled message from long-lost explorer Arne Saknussem, with directions for reaching the earth’s core. Accompanied by Carla (Arlene Dahl), widow of a famed geologist, and Icelandic guide Hans (Peter Ronson), Lindenbrook and Alec head down, down below. They are closely followed by the villainous Count Saknussem (Thayer David), descendant of the lost explorer who wrote the directions; the count hopes to use Lindenbrook’s discoveries for his own personal and political gain. What follows is a festival of superb special effects, fabulous subterranean sets, and gigantized reptiles posing as dinosaurs, all brilliantly accompanied by Bernard Herrmann’s ominous musical score.

About the speakers

Dr. Daniel Hembree is an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Ohio University, where he teaches courses in general geology, ichnology, and paleopedology. He earned a BS in geology from the University of New Orleans in 1999, and a master’s and PhD in the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas.

 

Dr. Patrick O’Connor is a paleontologist in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Ohio University. He combines fossil studies in the lab with field research in Madagascar, Tanzania, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Antarctica. Primarily focused on predatory dinosaurs and birds, his work advanced traditional fossil interpretations by his research examining how different soft-tissue systems influence the size and shape of features preserved on dinosaur skeletons.

 

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Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Science on Screen program pairs films with a short talk with a scientist or technology expert. The free Science on Screen events are fun and engaging, offering dynamic speakers an unexpected jumping point to teach their field of expertise in a way that is accessible to a diverse audience.

 

Free admission to this event is provided by Arts for OHIO.

 

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Running Time: 132 Minutes132 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

It's one of the very best Hollywood adventure movies, with lots of monsters, underground oceans, sinister villains, and touches which would have delighted Jules Verne himself.

Geoff Andrew
Time Out
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ReAct to Film Screening, November 3rd: THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY

Watch Trailer Director: Brian Knappenberger
Writer(s): Brian Knappenberger
Cast: Aaron Swartz, Tim Berners-Lee, and Cindy Cohn

The story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz’s help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Aaron’s story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.

“A moving documentary that will leave you heartsick” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“A devastating meditation on what can happen when a prescient thinker challenges corporate interests and the power of the state.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

This is a FREE one night only screening sponsored by ReAct to Film.

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Running Time: 105 Minutes105 MIN
R Rated

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Shield and Spear: ONE NIGHT ONLY – Friday, October 31st

Watch Trailer Director: Petter Ringbom
Writer(s): Petter Ringbom
Cast: Francois van Coke, Charl Blignaut, and Zanele Muholi

An artist paints a caricature of South African president Jacob Zuma that provokes a lawsuit, death threats and a massive street protest. Around this incident, “Shield and Spear” explores a constellation of stories about identity, art, race, and freedom of expression in South Africa, twenty years into democracy.

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Running Time: 89 Minutes89 MIN

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Eraserhead: Let’s Do Lynch

Watch Trailer Director: David Lynch
Writer(s): David Lynch
Cast: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph

This surreal nightmare examines male paranoia. Our hero and title character, Henry, faces a number of horrifying obstacles in meeting someone of the opposite sex, meeting her parents, and procreating. Produced during a one-and-a-half-year period while director David Lynch was a student at the American Film Institute, the film launched him as a major new talent admired by cinephiles and filmmakers all over the world. It stands today as a milestone in personal, independent filmmaking.

The Athena Cinema presents “Let’s Do Lynch”, eight weeks of feature films by David Lynch. All shows start at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $6.50.

9/7 &8: Elephant Man
9/14 & 15: Dune
9/21 & 22: Blue Velvet
9/28 & 29: Wild At Heart
10/5&6: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
10/12 & 13: Lost Highway
10/19 & 20: Mulholland Drive
10/26 & 27: Eraserhead

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Running Time: 89 min89 MIN
Rating: UR

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Tusk: Last Night Thursday, November 6th

Watch Trailer Director: Kevin Smith
Writer(s): Kevin Smith
Cast: Justin Long, Michael Parks, and Haley Joel Osment

An irreverent American podcaster interviews a Canadian adventurer whose wild tale of survival at sea masks sinister intentions in this twisted horror comedy from writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Red State).

When podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) goes missing in the backwoods of Manitoba while interviewing a mysterious seafarer named Howard Howe (Michael Parks), his best friend Teddy (The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment) and girlfriend Allison team with an ex-cop to look for him.

“Smith has delivered a left-field surprise that ranks among his very best work” – Scott Foundas, Variety

“has a genuinely haunting quality” – Clark Collins, Entertainment Weekly

“If Kevin Smith was stoned when he thought up his excellent walrusian nightmare, then marijuana is the best creative medicine.” – Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail

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Running Time: 102 Minutes102 MIN
R Rated

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Dear White People: Last Day Thursday, December 4th

Watch Trailer Director: Justin Simien
Writer(s): Justin Simien
Cast: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner

Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent, Dear White People is a sly, provocative satire of race relations in the age of Obama. Writer/director Justin Simien follows a group of African American students as they navigate campus life and racial politics at a predominantly white college in a sharp and funny feature film debut that earned him a spot on Variety’s annual “10 Directors to Watch.” When Dear White People screened at MOMA’s prestigious New Directors/New Films, the New York Times’ A.O. Scott wrote, “Seeming to draw equal measures of inspiration from Whit Stillman and Spike Lee, but with his own tart, elegant sensibility very much in control, Mr. Simien evokes familiar campus stereotypes only to smash them and rearrange the pieces.”

The unexpected election of activist Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) as head of a traditionally black residence hall sets up a college campus culture war that challenges conventional notions of what it means to be black. While Sam leverages her notoriety as host of the provocative and polarizing radio show “Dear White People” to try to prevent the college from diversifying Armstrong Parker House, outgoing head-of-house Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), son of the university’s dean (Dennis Haysbert), defies his father’s lofty expectations by applying to join the staff of Pastiche, the college’s influential humor magazine. Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), an Afro-sporting sci-fi geek, is recruited by the otherwise all-white student newspaper to go undercover and write about black culture—a subject he knows little about—while the aggressively assimilated Coco Conners (Teyonah Parris) tries to use the controversy on campus to carve out a career in reality TV.

But no one at Winchester University is prepared for Pastiche’s outrageous, ill-conceived annual Halloween party, with its “unleash your inner Negro” theme throwing oil on an already smoldering fire of resentment and misunderstanding. When the party descends into riotous mayhem, everyone must choose a side.

“A BUTTON-PUSHING WORD-OF-MOUTH DYNAMO.”-The Wall Street Journal

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Running Time: 100 Minutes100 MIN
R Rated

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Rich Hill: Three Nights ONLY!

Watch Trailer Director: Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos
Awards: Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary - Sundance Film Festival 2014

Rich Hill, Missouri. Seventy miles south of Kansas City, fifteen miles east of the Kansas border. Once a thriving mining town, shortly after World War II, the coal was gone – mined out. Stores closed, people moved away, farms were sold. It’s a story that could be told in hundreds of towns across America.

But people still live here: 1,393 of them at last count. Deep potholes line the gravel roads, and property tax is almost nonexistent. The town center is littered with piles of bricks, and crumbling buildings are all that remain of the original bank, the corner pharmacy, a cafe. Yet there is still the dream of transformation on the horizon: if only the citizens could attract more business or Rich Hill could be home to an industry once again.

Every year on the 4th of July, like many communities across America, the town puts on a grand celebration, with a carnival and a parade. Rich Hill has a record-setting pie auction to raise the funds for the fireworks. It is a once-a-year time to be part of something larger and grander – the way things used to be – for even a few days. And then the carnival pulls out.

Rich Hill intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in an impoverished Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.

“Rich Hill doesn’t just make you feel like you know these boys; it makes you care about them.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

“Inside these average American lives are futures far too often passed over or, worse, written off. This terrific film gives the teenagers their due.” – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

“A truly moving and edifying film, Rich Hill is the type of media object that could and should be put in a time capsule for future generations.” – Katie Walsh, The Playlist

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Running Time: 91 min91 MIN

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