Calendar 9.30- 10.7
FILM:
10.2-10.8
Somers Town
@ Real Art Ways
Hartford, Conn.
$6.25 / 7 p.m.
“Endlessly charming…Witty and warmhearted, it’s a feel-good movie that never seems forced.” – Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
“A marvelous, pitch-perfect evocation of teenage friendship in modern London.” – Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter
From Shane Meadows, the director of This Is England, the film follows two teenage newcomers to London. Tomo is a troubled kid who’s run away from home; Marek shares a small flat with his father in a rundown area. When Marek agrees to let Tomo stay with them without the father’s knowledge, the two form a strong bond.
10.5
The Seventh Seal
@ Real Art Ways
Hartford, Conn.
$6.25 / 1:30 p.m., Discussion after
“Essentially intellectual, yet emotionally stimulating too, it is as tough – and rewarding – as the moviegoer has had to face this year.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
“This is an uncompromising film, regarding good and evil with the same simplicity and faith as its hero.” -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
After ten years fighting in the Crusades, a knight returns to his homeland, only to find it ravaged by plague. When Death comes to collect, the Knight challenges him to a game of chess so that he can buy enough time to gain insight into the meaning of life. Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
9.30- 10.3
Up
@ Cinstudio
Hartford, Conn.
$7 / 7:30 p.m.
Somewhat lost under the onslaught of the summer blockbusters, Up gets the screen time it richly deserves at Cinestudio, the home of animation in Hartford. Like Wall-E and Spirited Way, Up uses animation to create an ‘other-world’ with the magic to enchant all ages. Up opens with an unlikely hero: a 78 year-old man who, after a life of disappointments, is finally ready to go for his dream: to fly his balloon-elevated house to the rainforests of South America to meet his childhood hero, an eccentric aviator named Charles Muntz. Of course, he didn’t count on having a nervy boy named Russell along for the ride – “We will be comparing Up with classics like The Wizard of Oz for years to come” Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle.
10.4 – 10.6
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
@ Cinestudio
Hartford, Conn.
$7 / 7:30 p.m.
Voted the second-most admired woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt and the winner of the first Emmy Award for Best Actress, radio and television pioneer Gertrude Berg has been forgotten since her death in 1966. We can thank writer/director Aviva Kemner (The Life and Times of Hank Goldberg) for giving us back the woman who wrote The Goldbergs and starred as a haimish Jewish mother always ready to help her struggling neighbors in the Bronx. In real life, Berg fought TV executives over the 1950s blacklist of her costar Philip Loeb for supposed Communist sympathies. Winner, 2009 Freedom of Expression Award, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. “Essential viewing for those with an interest in Jewish popular culture and the American left. And just about everybody else as well!” Film Journal International.
10.7 – 10.10
The Hurt Locker
@ Cinestudio
Hartford, Conn.
$7 / 7:30 p.m.
The Hurt Locker is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military’s most unrecognized heroes: the technicians of the bomb squad, who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives in one of the world’s most dangerous places. Three members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battle insurgents and each other as they seek out and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad — in order to try and make the city a safer place for Iraqis and Americans alike. Their mission is clear – protect and save – but it’s anything but easy, for the margin of error on a war-zone bomb is zero. A thrilling and heart-thumping look at the effects of combat and danger on the human psyche, The Hurt Locker is based on the first-hand observations of journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq. – RottenTomatoes.com (98% Fresh)
