February

12 - The Band's Visit (2/3) - An Israeli film that won their equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar but was rejected by AMPAS when submitted for Best Foreign Language film because over half of it was in English. (Some of the English stuff was subtitled anyway due to the heavy accents.) Silly, and especially frustrating for the filmmakers because without those nominations a lot of Americans won't bother to see something with even 50% subtitles. Another interesting tidbit: Although the movie's about an Egyptian band visiting Israel, no Egyptian actors were in it, since they'd be blacklisted in their own country if they acted in an Israeli film. I'd describe this as an Israeli The Full Monty - not a film with epic breadth & scope, but a really enjoyable one.

13 - Rambo (2/5) - I'm not sure why there's no "IV" in the title for this, because it's a continuation of the existing Rambo story, as opposed to a franchise reboot like Batman Begins. But it's not Rambo IV and if you call it that, Stallone will come to your house and kick your teeth in. So don't call it that. I don't remember anything about the plot except it took place in Asia and a lot of stuff got shot up.

14 - Diary of the Dead (2/15) - I love zombie stuff and this was George Romero even, but I wasn't that crazy about this one. I didn't feel the first person camera style worked as well here as it did in Cloverfield.

15 - Bonneville (2/17) - I don't want to bother with synopses for everything I've seen because most of the titles people will recognize. But this one came & went so fast I'd be shocked if someone actually remembered it. Bonneville is the story of three women who take a road trip in order to deliver the ashes of one of their dead husbands to his resentful daughter. It had well-known actresses in it (Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, Kathy Bates) but were it not for Cinema Club I probably never would have seen this. It was entirely unexciting and one of the lowest-rated Cinema Club movies ever, according to Matthew (the Cinema Club moderator). No one in the club liked it very much, and the majority of Cinema Club attendees are in the target demographic. One of the producers was there for Q&A afterwards (which is probably why they screened this particular movie in the first place), but no one let on how much they hated it. It's a very polite crowd. Unless your cell phone rings during the movie; if that happens they'll skin you alive.


16 - The Signal (2/22) - Normally I don't like reading reviews or any other press about a movie before I see it, but for this one I wish I'd known a bit more about it going in, because I found it utterly baffling while I was watching it. It's one story, told in three parts, and each part was written & directed by a different person. So while the overall plot (a signal goes out over tv/radio/cell phones and makes everyone psychotic) and two main characters remain consistent, the three parts vary wildly in style and tone. Which would be fine, if you knew it was coming. But it was off-putting when I saw it cold. One really nice moment, though, during the initial everyone's-going-batshit-crazy scene: the heroine is about to be attacked by one of the crazies, but he's distracted by someone offscreen, so he points to her and puts up one finger like "Wait right there, I'll be back to kill you in a moment" but with exactly the same demeanor as if he were asking her to wait while he finished a call or something. Very nicely executed creepy moment. So the first part I really liked, the others not quite so much, but now that I'm writing this I feel like I should see it again since I know what I'm in for. I might actually like it more.

17 - In Bruges (2/27) - "If I'd grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so...it doesn't." Loved it.