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Author Archive | Alex Kamody

BOY ERASED: Last Day Thursday, December 20th

Watch Trailer Director: Joel Edgerton
Cast: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe

“Boy Erased” tells the story of Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes, including:

  • Best Lead Actor

  • Best Original Song

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Running Time: 114 min114 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Proving again that he's one of the best actors of his generation, Lucas Hedges shines alongside Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe in this harrowing real-life tale of a gay teen whose parents send him to conversion therapy

Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
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VOX LUX

Watch Trailer Director: Brady Corbet
Cast: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Raffey Cassidy

VOX LUX, A 20th Century Portrait, begins in 1999 when teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent tragedy. After singing at a memorial service, Celeste transforms into a burgeoning pop star with the help of her songwriter sister (Stacy Martin) and talent manager (Jude Law). Celeste’s meteoric rise to fame dovetails with a personal and national loss of innocence, consequently elevating the young powerhouse to a new kind of celebrity: American icon, secular deity, global superstar. By 2017, adult Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mounting a comeback after a scandalous incident almost derailed her career. Touring in support of her sixth album, a compendium of sci-fi anthems entitled, “Vox Lux,” the indomitable, foul-mouthed pop savior must overcome her personal and familial struggles to navigate motherhood, madness and monolithic fame.

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Running Time: 112 minutes112 MIN
R Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

The ambition of this film impresses enough to warrant seeing it.

Brian Tallerico
RogerEbert.com
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CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?: Last Day Thursday, December 20th

Watch Trailer Director: Marielle Heller
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jane Curtin, Richard E. Grant

In CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling celebrity biographer (and cat lover) who made her living in the 1970’s and 80’s profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estée Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee found herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace, she turned her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant).

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes, including:

  • Best Lead Actress

  • Best Supporting Actor

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R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Believe the Oscar buzz for Melissa McCarthy in this true story of an out-of-work author who took up forgery to pay the bills. McCarthy shows she has what it takes to tackle drama and comedy and all stops in between: the power to amaze.

Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
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WILDLIFE: Last Day Thursday, December 6th

Watch Trailer Director: Paul Dano
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould,

Sensitive 16-year-old Joe is the only child of Jeanette and Jerry–a housewife and golf pro in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job-and his sense of purpose he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves. Suddenly forced into the role of an adult, Joe witnesses his mother embark on her own adventure, as she transgresses into an affair with an older man.

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Running Time: 104 minutes104 MIN
PG-13 Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

The result is a careful, deliberate, slightly distanced treatment of stormy emotions - but it's appropriate, because the characters are often as not driven not to action but to inaction by their circumstances.

Steve Pond
TheWrap
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BEAUTIFUL BOY: Last Day Thursday, December 13th

Watch Trailer Director: Felix Van Groeningen
Cast: Steve Carell, Amy Ryan, Timothée Chalamet

Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.

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Running Time: 112 minutes112 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Parents will feel heard by this movie in a way that few other films have tried. Everyone else should go for the kid, who's a rocket taking off. You want to be able to say you were there when it happened.

Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
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SUSPIRIA: Last Day November 22nd

Watch Trailer Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer(s): David Kajganich
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz

From the director of Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino, comes a nightmarish re-imagining of one of Italian cult horror’s true cinema classics.

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe’s artistic director (Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

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Running Time: 152 minutes152 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

It’s so good, it’s scary.

Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
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Sustainability Series: NIGHT OF SHORTS

Athena Cinema, Environmental Studies, and the Alden Library present the sixth year of the Sustainability Film Series, working in partnership with many sponsors. Our vision and goal are those of years past: to offer attendees the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the current issues related to global environmental and sustainable challenges and solutions. We aim to bring together students, faculty and regional community members. The program recognizes the strength of this integration, coming together and learning from each other. Following each screening, we invite audience members to join us for a panel discussion hosted by faculty members, students, and community members. Please join us for a conversation following these beautiful, thought-provoking and timely films. All admissions free.

Person of the Forest (17 mins)

In the vanishing lowland rainforests of Borneo, research is underway to uncover and understand the unique cultural behaviors of wild orangutans before it’s too late.

Letter to Congress (3 mins)

The film was created as an homage to Wallace Stegner and the words he wrote in his famous ‘Wilderness Letter’ to Congress in 1960. In this current political climate, his words began to take on new meaning. His plea for what wilderness can do for us is now more relevant than ever.

Other shorts playing this night are TBA.

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One Night Only: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

Watch Trailer Director: Lars Von Trier
Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman

Lars von Trier’s THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT has its North American premiere Wednesday, November 28, with a special one-night-only show of the director’s cut—the same version that was shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and prompted both a 10-minute standing ovation and more than a few disturbed walkouts.

USA in the 1970s. We follow the highly intelligent Jack (Matt Dillon) through 5 incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer.

We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction gives him problems in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever near (which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack) he is – contrary to all logic – set on taking greater and greater chances. The goal is the ultimate artwork: A collection of all his killings manifested in a House that he builds.

Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult maneuvers.

This special one night only screening of the director’s cut features an intro by Lars Von Trier & Matt Dillon.

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Running Time: 155 minutes155 MIN
R Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Dillon might have trouble putting this one at the top of his resume if he wants to do a Disney film, but there’s no question he delivers an impactful movie monster, with darting eyes and a toothy smile that makes Jack at once seem empathetic and bonkers.

Eric Kohn
indieWire
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MID90s: Last Day November 22nd

Watch Trailer Director: Jonah Hill
Cast: Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges, Na-kel Smith

Mid90s follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old in 90s-era LA who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.

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Running Time: 84 minutes84 MIN
Not Rated
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The first feature from writer-director Jonah Hill shows some of the best qualities of veteran actors who step behind the camera, with nuanced performances so real the characters practically fall off the screen.

Eric Kohn
IndieWire
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SADIE with Director Megan Griffiths

Watch Trailer Director: Megan Griffiths
Writer(s): Megan Griffiths
Cast: Sophia Mitri Schloss, Melanie Lynskey, John Gallagher Jr.

Join us for a special, one night only screening of Megan Griffiths’ latest feature, Sadie, with writer/director and OU alum Megan Griffiths in-house for an introduction and a Q&A after the show!

 

Sadie, written and directed by Griffiths, is the story of a girl who will stop at nothing to preserve her father’s place on the home front.

Sadie (Sophia Mitri Schloss) is the daughter of a soldier and models herself after his military example. When her mom (Melanie Lynskey) begins dating a new man (John Gallagher, Jr.), Sadie vows to drive him out by whatever means necessary. He is the enemy, and if she’s learned anything from the world she inhabits, it’s that the enemy deserves no mercy. The film also stars Tony Hale, Danielle Brooks, Tee Dennard and Keith L. Williams.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Megan Griffiths, born in Athens, Ohio, is a writer/director working in film and television. She recently directed two episodes of the Duplass Brothers’ HBO anthology series Room 104 and an episode of the Epix comedy Graves, starring Nick Nolte. Prior to this, she wrote and directed the thriller The Night Stalker, starring Lou Diamond Phillips as serial killer Richard Ramirez. Her film Lucky Them starring Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church and Johnny Depp premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films. Megan’s film Eden, based on the true story of a young woman captured into the world of human trafficking, was a breakout at SXSW 2012, winning the Emergent Narrative Director Award, the Audience Award for Narrative Feature as well as a Special Jury Prize for lead actress Jamie Chung. Megan’s feature The Off Hours, distributed by Film Movement, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She is the vice president of the board of the Northwest Film Forum and is an active advocate for sustainable production.

Megan’s sixth feature film, entitled Sadie, which stars Melanie Lynskey, John Gallagher Jr, Danielle Brooks and Tony Hale, and features breakout performances from its young stars Sophia Mitri Schloss and Keith L. Williams, premiered at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival.

This screening event is brought to you by the Ohio University Film Division with sponsorship from Jan McMannis & Tony Buba.

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Running Time: 96 min96 MIN
R Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Equal parts coming-of-age story and slow-burn thriller, writer-director Megan Griffiths’ quietly absorbing and methodically disquieting drama is a genuine rarity.

Joe Leydon
Variety
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