Category Archives: Love and Life

The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A fitting farewell to MovieNight.

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

This week, I popped my Rocky Horror Picture Show cherry. To me, it had always been one of those “things”; a late night, dressing-up camp-fest that, frankly, didn’t appeal to me. Thanks to Ellen (our defacto curator of musicals) for suggesting this one. This suggestion was met with a similar skepticism to the one she made for last year’s season finale, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but given the success of that one, it seemed that we should just trust her once again. Good decision. Great MovieNight. Thank you, Ellen!

A couple of days before our finale, I found out that it would no longer be possible to stay in this gorgeous space, which has been home to MovieNight for sixteen seasons. This was inevitable… I’ve been pinching myself for a couple of years already (just to check that I wasn’t dreaming about being here), and trying to put up a good fight. But… you know what? I’m ready for the next chapter… change will be good.

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Get Out. Get out!

Love and Life, Movies

getout

Apparently director Jordan Peele’s inspiration for naming Get Out came from the experience of sitting in a theater, watching a horror movie, and hearing the audience screaming “Get out!” at the screen, as if to impart some sage advice upon a soon-to-be victim. Get Out is lots of fun, surprisingly sparse on the jokes, given the director’s television background. The casting and performances were top notch. Moreover, if one peels (pun intended, of course!) back the skin (also intended), this impressive debut has a lot to say about racism in America. Clever stuff, well presented.

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Graduation. High marks.

Love and Life, Movies

graduation

In a corrupt society, where some people “help” other people, and expect “help” in return, it seems quite plausible that a doctor might arrange for an escalation in the kidney transplant waiting list in exchange for a guarantee of good grades in his daughter’s exam results. Director Cristian Mingiu’s Graduation paints a pretty bleak portrait of the Romanian system, but somehow manages to leave us with a glimmer of hope… a hope that the next generation might be able to do a bit better job at being human. This was a stunning movie, and a great MovieNight presentation.

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Aquarius. A quiet fight against the system.

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

A mere forty-eight years into her acting career, Sonia Braga was remarkable in the role of Clara, a stoic cancer survivor struggling to keep developers from removing her from her family home.  Aquarius should have been Brazil’s official submission to the 2017 Oscars Best Foreign Film category, but the core of it’s story touched a nerve at the Ministry of Culture. Director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s political views were fiercely attacked in social media by a critic (Marcos Petrucelli) on the selection committee, leading to the resignation of several other members of the committee, and the withdrawl of films by other directors in protest of local government interference in the selection process in this and the previous two years’ competitions. Que escandalo! Read more

I had been wanting to show this for some time, and this week the stars aligned perfectly. We had Brazilians in the house, and Professor Moleski got to excercise his Portuguese!

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The [L]Edge of Seventeen.

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

seventeen

I love coming-of-age movies. Why, though? And why have my two recent favorites been about teenage girls (the other one is Diary of a Teenage Girl from 2015)? The Edge of Seventeen provided a fresh take on the genre. Woody Harrelson turned in a star performance.

The big surprise, though, was the turnout on the day of the “big storm”. Apparently, some people agree that MovieNight is a cosy place to be on a wintry Thursday night.

 

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