Howdy, Film Lovers!
This Monday, in order to make sure some people get to see another eligible 2004 film, we’ll be sucking up our principles and heading to the Loew’s Theatres Boston Common for the 7:15 p.m. show of THE WOODSMAN. This controversial film by Nicole Kassell stars Kevin Bacon as a pedophile who returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life. Peg Aloi says it’s the role of Bacon’s career, and we’re certainly willing to give this talented actor a try.
After twelve years in prison, Walter (Kevin Bacon) moves into an apartment, gets a job, and mostly keeps to himself. Though he finds unexpected solace with Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick), Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious police detective (Mos Def). After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons. Co-starring Benjamin Bratt and David Alan Grier. Feature debut for director/co-writer Nicole Kassell.
Director: Nicole Kassell
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Mos Def, Benjamin Bratt, David Alan Grier, Eve, Kevin Rice, Michael Shannon, Hannah Pilkes, Carlos Leon, Gina Philips
There are two other 2004-eligible releases opening on Friday that you may want to check out before Nomination Day. The Coolidge Corner Theatre, The Kendall Square Theatre, and the West Newton Cinema are opening HOTEL RWANDA, starring Don Cheadle. This film won the Toronto International Film Festival’s Audience Award, so you know there’s got to be something there. And isn’t it about time Don Cheadle got a starring role? For the people who can’t get enough documentaries, the Kendall Square Theatre is opening GUERILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST, which I saw at the Provincetown International Film Festival earlier this year. Check them out!
Chlotrudis members looking to pick up some films that they missed under nomination contention, make sure you park yourself at the Brattle Theatre all week! Beginning Friday, The Brattle will be running “Some of the Best of 2004.” And they really are some of the best! Three of these films are sure to end up in my personal Top 5 films of the year, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, GOOD BYE DRAGON INN and HERO (sadly not eligible.) If you missed it at the Sunday Eye Opener and during its brief run at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, you definitely want to make the time to catch SCREAMING MEN, certainly in contention for the Best Documentary of the year. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Check out their awesome schedule below.
As you are all aware, it’s Nomination time! Anyone taking part in the nomination process must see 25 films on the eligible film list found here. There will be an online form for the nomination process available on the website soon. I will let you know when it is available. There are only two weeks to see films, and many excellent films are available on DVD, or through the Chlotrudis Screener Program, and several are still playing at second run theatres in the area. To see what screeners are available, log in to the members only section of the website. Contact me at colford@chlotrudis.org for the username and password if you don’t have it. The Nominating Committee meeting will take place on Saturday, January 22, 3:00 p.m. at the home of Ned Hinkle and Ivy Moylan in Cambridge. Nominations will be due by Thursday, January 20.
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, January 7 – 13.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Some of the Best of 2004! Chlotrudis Members Take Note! Catch up on your Nominations!
Before Sunset (Fri.)
Last Life in the Universe (Fri.)
Hero (Sat.)
Zatoichi: the Blind Swordsman (Sat.)
Tarnation (Sun.)
Noi (Sun.)
Kill Bill, vol. 1 (Mon.)
Kill Bill, vol. 2 (Mon.)
Good Bye Dragon Inn (Tue.)
Vera Drake (Wed.)
The Five Obstructions (Thu.)
Screaming Men
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Bad Education
Hotel Rwanda
Paper Clips
Moog
Tarnation
The Iron Giant (Sun.)
Premeire Screening
Holy Water-Gate
Midnite Madness
Fight Club (Fri. & Sat.)
Hey, is Dee Dee Home? Featuring Dee Dee Ramone (Fri. & Sat.)
FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Beyond the Sea
Vera Drake
Gloomy Sunday
What the Bleep Do We Know
I Heart Huckabees
FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Garden State (Sat. – Thu.)
I Heart Huckabees
Being Julia
Bombay Cinema Presents
Swades (Fri. – Sun.) Special Benefit for India Development & Relief Fund Saturday at 3 p.m.
Shwaas (Sun.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Pacific Street Program 1 Directors Present on Friday! (Fri. & Sat.)
Red Squad
Anarchism in America
Pacific Street Program 2 Directors Present on Saturday! (Sat. & Sun.)
From Swastika to Jim Crow
Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists
Pacific Street Program 3 (Sun.)
The Other Half Revisited
Frame Up
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
Nobody Knows
Directors in Short Program 1 (Tue. & Wed.)
Blood of the Beasts dir. Georges Franju
New Domestic Animal dir. Dusan Makevejev
Bespoke Ovecoat dir. Jack Clayton
Anticipation dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Directors in Short Program 2 (Tue. & Wed.)
Land without Bread dir. Luis Bu’
Borom Sarret dir. Ousmane Sembene
Toby Dammit dir. Federico Fellini
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Kinsey
Finding Neverland
Sideways
Birth
Being Julia
Napoleon Dynamite
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Guerilla: the Taking of Patty Hearst
Hotel Rwanda
Bad Education
House of Flying Daggers
Sideways
Kinsey
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
A Very Long Engagement
Bad Education
Sideways
House of Flying Daggers
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)
Closer (ineligible)
Loews Theatres Copley Place, Boston
A Very Long Engagement
Beyond the Sea
Birth
Kinsey
Finding Neverland
Harvard Square, Cambridge
The Woodsman
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
French Cinema
Our Music (Fri., Wed., Sun., and Thu.)
Discussion of Our Music
Brazillian Cinema
Mango Yellow
Italian Cinema
Incantato (Fri. – Sun., & Wed.)
Susan Sontag’s Favorite Japanese Films II
High and Low (Sat.)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Sun. & Thu.)
Himatsuri (Thu.)
Indian Cinema
MASS
One Man’s Journey: A Trilogy by Robert Perkins
Into the Great Solitude
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Lightning in a Bottle
West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
Beyond the Sea
Finding Neverland
Gloomy Sunday
Kinsey
Being Julia
Paper Clips
Motorcycle Diaries
UPCOMING EVENTS!
– Jean-Luc Godard’s NOTRE MUSIQUE (OUR MUSIC) continues through January
16 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with a special free discussion this Sunday, January 9
– BJFF co-presents FROM SWASTIKA TO JIM CROW and FREE VOICE OF LABOR: THE JEWISH ANARCHISTS in the Harvard Film Archive’s Tribute to Pacific Street Films – January 8, 7pm (Directors in person) and January 9, 9pm
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Boston Public Library
Silence is Silver Film Series
Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Rabb Lecture Hall – FREE!
Within Our Gates (Jan. 10)
The Patchwork Girl (Jan. 24)
Alias Jimmy Valentine (Jan. 31)
Goethe-Institut Boston
Werner Herzog: Film has to be physical – Photo exhibition
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President