Monday, January 25 // Sicario // Ben

Not just a movie where a bunch of people get shot, but a critically-acclaimed movie where a bunch of people get shot!  Dawson Leary himself couldn't dream up such a masterful cinematic experience (mostly because Dawson is dumb).

Come join me in our new bloody feminist utopia on Monday, January 25th, at 7:30pm for a movie that critics have overwhelmingly used the word "taut" to describe.

-bg

January 14 // Carol // Rory

We took a field trip to River Oaks (fancy!) to see a movie about lesbians that didn't seem to treat each other very kindly.

- Mr. Trill

December 28 // Alps // Caroline

So you all know that I was a little negligent in posting prior to movie night (too many to choose from!), but I did want to put it on the record that we watched Alps for my showing. This 2011 film was directed by the same person who did Dogtooth (which I absolutely loved and previously showed for TMN), Yorgos Lanthimos. I thought it was interesting on the Wikipedia page that he describes Alps as "the complete opposite of his previous film, Dogtooth, which he says 'is the story of a person who tries to escape a fictitious world. Alps is about a person who tries to enter a fabricated world.'" The Greek vibe is deep, dudes.

– Caroline

November 11 // Mr. Nobody // Springer

When: 7:00 pm on Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Where: Casa de Springer
What: a movie and pizza

The year is 2092 and 118 year old Nemo recounts his life story.

The movie is a little over 2 hours, so we'll try to start pretty close to 7 so we can have time for DC if everyone is up for it.  First one there can park in the garage.

September 30 // Le Bonheur // Bjorn

TMN is back!! Tonight I am showing "Le Bonheur" (not "Le Boner" okay guys? ), a French New Wave film by Agnes Varda. Varda was one of the only female directors associated with the French New Wave, and her films offer a different take on male-female relationships than most of the other directors of the time.

"Le Bonheur" ( French for "Happiness", not for "Boner", remember?) is described by Criterion thusly:

Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse (Claire Drouot), young husband and father François (Jean-Claude Drouot) finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnès Varda’s most provocative films, Le Bonheur examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.

So join me at House Garry at 7:30 for pizza, Dawson's and Boners-- I mean Bonheur!

September 3, 2015 // Rize // Ben

Little known fact: in addition to movies from Japan where the bad guy turns into a giant vagina monster and movies where everyone has a gun in each hand at all times including even when they are eating breakfast, I also LOVE dance movies. Center Stage, Step Up, Street Dance, You Got Served, I love them all.

My love for watching dance even extends to the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance. When Caroline were watching one of the more recent episodes, one of the dancers (Jaja, a krumper from the Czech Republic and my favorite person on the show) talked about how she got into American Style street dance from all the way across the ocean when she saw the film we're watching this week: Rize.




Take it away, Wikipedia: Rize is an American documentary movie starring Lil' C, Tommy Johnson, also known as Tommy the Clown, and Miss Prissy. The documentary exposes the new dance form known as krumping which originated in the early 1990s in Los Angeles. The film was written and directed by David LaChapelle.

See you at 7:30 at House Garry this THURSDAY (sorry about all of the back and forth). Pizza provided, bring your own movement clothes.

bg

August 19, 2015 // The Treasure of the Sierra Madre // Springer

When: 7:30, August 19, 2015

Where: Casa de Springer

What: Pizza, whatever adult beverages you bring, a movie, and perhaps some DC

I first heard of this film while listening to a podcast called "Thinking Sideways" that deals with unsolved mysteries - in this case the mystery of who really was B. Traven. I have not seen the film before, but it won the Academy Awards in 1948 for Directing, Writing Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. It was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Hamlet. It probably won't suck.

From Wikipedia:

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) is an American dramatic adventurous neo-western with elements of Film Noir, written and directed by John Huston. It is a feature film adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, about two financially desperate Americans, Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Bob Curtin (Tim Holt), who in the 1920s join reluctant old-timer Howard (Walter Huston, the director's father) in Mexico to prospect for gold.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the first Hollywood films to be filmed on location outside the U.S. (in the state of Durango and street scenes in Tampico, Mexico), although many scenes were filmed back in the studio and elsewhere in the U.S. The film is quite faithful to the source novel. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

You can read more about B. Traven here.

See you Wednesday.

Bjorn - please bring your laptop and DC.

August 4, 2015 // The Imposter // Caroline

This week I wanted to show a documentary, and had a hard time choosing between a few.

This one, from 2012, is a British-American documentary film about a young Texas boy who went missing at the age of 13 in 1994 – but then in 1997 his family received a phonecall that he was found in 1997, alive, in Spain. This is a really well-styled story (featuring interviews with the family and other participants) and at times I forgot that I was watching a documentary until archived television news footage or headlines were inserted. As to not spoil it, I'll leave it at that.

Tuesday, August 4th, 7:30pm

House Garry, Pizza + BYOB

Trill.

July 23, 2015 // Breathless // Bjorn

I have chosen to show Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 French New Wave film "Breathless" ("A Bout de Souffle") at the next installment of TMN. It is a highly influential movie made at the very beginning of the New Wave, as it was written and filmed in a way that was considered very unconventional and avant-garde at the time. It is noted for its use of jump cuts hand-held camera work, and natural lighting, devices that were not considered proper cinema techniques at the time, but have since been adopted by many different directors.
Let's check it out at Springer's place. Pizza will be provided, as will Dawson's.

7:30PM

Be there.

July 9, 2015 // Picnic at Hanging Rock // Rory

For the Trill among you,

We will be watching the 1975 Australian film Picnic at Hanging Rock, directed by Peter Weir.  I would love to regale you with the compelling tale of an epiphany I had which inspired me to select this film.  But the truth is that I noticed it languishing in my Netflix queue and it:
(A) is neither too long (like Carlos (2010), another film (more of a miniseries, really) I wanted to pick) nor too short (like La Jetée (1962))

(B) seems as though it might meet some of my requirements for quality cinema: namely that it is critically acclaimed and (according to Netflix) "understated, scary, and dark".  Oh, and the cinematography is supposed to be top-notch.

But I haven't seen it before (per my rules) so don't blame me if it sucks.

If Netflix is late then our fallback option is Virunga, a 2014 documentary which I have also been wanting to see for a while.

8:00 PM @ House Garry (Thank you, Ben & Caroline!)
115 minutes
Dawson's Creek will be our desert after the main meal.

June 24, 2015 // Kiss Kiss Bang Bang //Springer

Date: June 24, 2015
Time: 7:30
Where: Casa de Springer
What's Provided: pizza, places to sit, a roof, A/C, bathroom, napkins, plates, a movie selection, FREE PARKING!!!
What You Should Bring: beer, your charming personality, Bjorn's laptop and DC DVDs
Dress Code: east side casual  (pants optional)

The Movie Selection: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) (described as a murder-comedy)

It's been on my list for awhile and I like Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr. It's pretty short, so we'll have plenty of time for a DC!  And I'll be caught up and ready to see what hijinx the gang in Capeside has been up to.

See you Wednesday.

June 10, 2015 // John Wick // Ben

So normally I start off all my movie posts (which are now and will forever be either over the top action movies or weird Japanese over the top action movies) with some description of how awesome all the action will be and end them with apologies to Bjorn.  Unfortunately, I can't do either here.

First, I can't tell you how awesome all the action in John Wick will be because I haven't seen it yet.  I have only heard about how it is a true return to form for the bullets-in-foreheads classic action genre, and how Keanu really nails the only part he knows how to play (sad/confused killer-of-men).  Second, I can't apologize to Bjorn because now we all know that BJORN SAW AND LIKED MAD MAX AN ACTION MOVIE WITH NO REDEEMING CULTURAL OR ARTISTIC VALUE.  So Bjorn will just have to watch and enjoy action movies without being apologized too like the rest of us.

• This Wednesday (NOT Thursday)
• House Garry
• 7:30
• Pizza

Love,
bg

Moved to June 24th

Date: May 21, 2015
Time: 7:30
Where: Casa de Springer
What's Provided: pizza, places to sit, a roof, A/C, bathroom, napkins, plates, a movie selection, FREE PARKING!!!
What You Should Bring: beer, your charming personality, Bjorn's laptop and DC DVDs
Dress Code: east side casual  (pants optional)

The Movie Selection: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) (described as a murder-comedy)

It's been on my list for awhile and I like Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr. It's pretty short, so we'll have plenty of time for a DC!

See you Thursday.

May 7, 2015 // Vera Drake // Caroline

I pulled Vera Drake from a list of films I earmarked to watch. To be completely honest, I don't know much about it other than the fact that it caught my eye because of its pro-choice storyline (you know me and women's rights; it tends to be a bit of a theme in my picks). It's set in working-class England. Vera Drake seems like a badass (we'll soon see).

See you all this Thursday (May 7th)
House Garry, 7:30pm
Pizza as usual – BYOB

April 23, 2015 // Alphaville // Bjorn

On Thursday April 23, 2015 we watched Alphaville by Jean Luc Godard. It was very New Wave and very black & white and very cryptic and very trill.

April 2, 2015 // Force Majeure // Rory

Springer hosted TMN at his place for our screening of this 2014 Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund.

March 5, 2015 // R-100 // Ben

The tag line this film is: "A mild-mannered family man with a secret taste for S&M finds himself pursued by a gang of ruthless dominatrices"

So...yeah.  Like I'm not going to pick that.

Afterward, maybe a gang of ruthless dominatrices will pursue Dawson.  Although, I think if we're being honest with ourselves, that seems much more like a situation Pacy would find himself in (especially now that Andy's gone).

House Garry @ 7:30. Pizza provided.
BYOW&C (bring your own whips and chains).

Yours in trillness,
bg

February 19, 2015 // Following // Springer

Casa de Springer - 7:30 - Thursday, February 19, 2015 - Pizza, Movie, DC

Please bring: yourselves and beer (and Bjorn, can you bring your laptop, cable and DC)

I have selected Following. It's written and directed by Christopher Nolan. According to IMDB, it was the first movie he directed. I haven't seen it.  It's only 68 minutes so (1) if it sucks, we haven't wasted much time, and (2) there should be plenty of time for a DC.

February 12, 2015 // The Virgin Spring // Caroline

The Virgin Spring was mentioned recently by our friends/neighbors, “Dental” and “Mental.” We were explaining to them about movie night, then we got to exchanging different film titles — and this one came up as a must-see-sometime-in-life. It’s a 1960 Swedish film (translation is Jungfrukällan) directed by Ingmar Bergman (who also did classics like The Seventh Seal, etc.). It’s set in medieval Sweden and has lots of undertones of religious/moral scrupulosity.

When I read that, it was interesting to me having seen The Seventh Seal (lots of religion there, too). Curious, I went on to read about how Bergman’s father was a Lutheran pastor, so while Bergman himself was not a man of the church, he picked up a ton of iconography and information naturally due to his father’s work. Religion, faith and questioning of faith are very common threads in his works as a result. Anyway, The Virgin Spring is said to be a story of revenge. It was controversial in its release due to explicit content in one particular scene (I have a feeling we’ll know it when we see it).

I’m going into this blind, once again, so we can always turn to Dawson’s if things go south.

See you all this Thursday (February 12)
House Garry, 7:30pm
Pizza as usual – BYOB

January 29, 2015 // Knife in the Water // Bjorn

Get ready for some psychological warfare and rivalry aboard a yacht in Roman Polanski's first feature film , 1962's ''Nóż w wodzie'' ("Knife in the Water"). 

Using a relatively simple plot and a camera that hardly ever takes its eye off the three characters, Polanski manages to create "a disturbing study of fear, humiliation, sexuality, and aggression". Sort of like Dawson's Creek! 

So join me and Roman at Casa de Springer at 7pm for a little Polish sexual tension. And pizza!