NOMADLAND (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
January 28 & 29, 2022
Winner best picture of 2020 at the Academy Awards. Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Francis McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. Nomadland is a work of exploration, and not just across the sprawling American West. Fern is exorcising her darkest demons, which spring from the systemic neglect that has been visited on so many Americans in recent years. The odyssey makes Nomadland a transfixing mix of reckoning and catharsis. (The Atlantic) (In English)(1 hour 47 minutes).
SOUND OF METAL (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
February 25 & 26, 2022
Received six Academy Award nominations including best picture and best actor. Riz Ahmed is brilliant in his role as a rock drummer rapidly losing his hearing. Don’t come in expecting a no-holds-barred- assault on the senses. Nor is this a metal music extravaganza. The bulk of the film is silent, deliberate. We are thrust inside the drummer’s mind to hear what he hears, a pulsating, muted noting, which is then jarringly contrasted with everyday sounds when we’re yanked back out of his head. (Film Review). Most importantly, Sound of Metal gives the audience one of the most illuminating glimpses into deaf culture of any movie to date. (In English)(2 hours)
DRIVEWAYS (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
April 1 & 2,2022
Kathy, a single mother, travels with her shy eight-year son Cody to her deceased sister’s home, which she plans to clean and sell. While there, Cody develops an unlikely friendship with Del (the late Brian Dennehy), the Korean War vet and widower who lives next door. The filmmakers never underline the emotions they want to evoke, and yet by the end, audiences may be moved to tears by this tale of fractured lives that find the right measure of repair. (In English)(83 minutes).
THE DIG (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
April 29 & 30, 2022
The Dig — et in Suffolk, England, in 1939 and based on a true story of buried treasure—is a restorative escape, a small, gentle picture whose transportive qualities should not be underestimated. Star Carey Mulligan’s range is a thing of wonder. Here she portrays with unimpeachable credibility, Edith, an upper-class English widow and mother in the late 1930s who is fulfilling a dream too long deferred. The dream is to dig up her backyard. It’s a big one, mind you, on her estate, dotted by what appears to be ancient burial mounds. To this end, Edith, whose youthful interest in archaeology was squelched on account of her sex, hires Basil Brown, a determined freelance archaeologist played with stoic mien and working-class-tinged accent by Ralph Fiennes. (NY Times). Sometimes you just don’t want a movie to end. The characters are so vivid and multidimensional, the milieu so inviting, the circumstances so compelling, you don’t want to let go. (In English)(1 hour 52 minutes).
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
May 20 & 21, 2022
Received six Academy Award nominations including best picture. FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Judas and the Black Messiah is an electrifying dramatization of historical events, a forceful condemnation of racial injustice, and a major triumph for its director and stars. (In English)(2 hours six minutes)
THE CAKEMAKER (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer) — (rescheduled)
May 27 & 28, 2022
The Cakemaker is a beautiful film that explores love, loss, and religion. Thomas, a young and talented German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who dies in a car crash. Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking answers regarding Oren’s death. Keeping his secret to himself, Thomas starts working for Anat, his lover’s widow, who owns a small cafe. The New York Times calls The Cakemaker “sad and sweet, and with a rare lyricism” that “believes in a love that neither nationality, sexual orientation nor religion belief can deter.” (In Hebrew/German) (1 hour 43 minutes).
MINARI (Metacritic Reviews & Trailer)
June 10 & 11, 2022
A tender and sweeping story about what roots us. Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks. Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home. Sensitively written and acted, beautifully shot, and with a charming sparingly used score. Minari is so engaging that it’s easy to forget how radical it is. The film earned six nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. (In English and Korean)(1 hour 55 minutes).