January Films from Arena Theater Film Club: "House of Sand and Fog", "O Brother Where Art Thou", "Reds"
The Arena Theater Film Club returns with three films that bring us a cross-section of Hollywood's A-list on screen performers.
Opening January's list of films is "House of Sand and Fog", Monday, January 3. This film from 2000 features Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) who deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. "The surprise ending will leave you breathless!" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood.)
Reformed drug addict Kathy Nicolo (Connelly) has her California coast house, which she inherited from her father, taken away by the county due to a misunderstanding about back taxes. The place is bought by Iranian immigrant Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), who intends to fix it up and sell it in order to provide a better life for his wife (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and son (Jonathan Ahdout).
The loss of her home tears away Kathy's last hope of a stable life--a life that had been nearly destroyed by addiction--and Kathy decides to fight to recover her home at any cost. Her struggle is joined by deputy sheriff Lester Burdon, who tries to take the law into his own hands to help Kathy. Ultimately the tale, itself, explores what happens when the American Dream goes terribly awry.
"House of Sand and Fog", directed by Vadim Perelman, has a running time of 126 minutes, and is rated "R" for some violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality. The film begins screening at 7:00pm.
One week later on January 10 we go from intense to good fun. "O Brother Where Art Thou" is good, original fun from the quirky Coen Brothers. The story follows Depression-era convicts who escape a Mississippi chain gang and embark on an odyssey to find a hidden treasure.
Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) is having difficulty adjusting to his hard-labor sentence in Mississippi. He scams his way off the chain gang with simple Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and maladjusted Pete (John Turturro), then the trio sets out to pursue freedom and the promise of a fortune in buried treasure. With nothing to lose and still in shackles, their hasty run takes them on an incredible journey of awesome experiences and colorful characters.
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, "O Bother Where Art Thou" is rated PG-13, and has a running time of 106 minutes. The screening begins at 7:00pm.
On Monday, January 24, the big screen lights up with "Reds". Those who were around at the time it was released (1981) may remember some early conclusions that it was a Warren Beatty film, way too long, and, well how good could it be? Enter reality. The film is very, very good.
Roger Ebert, in his review some 40 years ago, wrote this: "What audiences can, and possibly will, care about, however, [is that "Reds"] is a traditional Hollywood romantic epic, a love story written on the canvas of history, as they used to say in the ads. And "Reds" provides that with glorious romanticism, surprising intelligence, and a consistent wit. It is the thinking man's "Doctor Zhivago," told from the other side, of course. The love story stars Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, who might seem just a tad unlikely as casting choices, but who are immediately engaging and then grow into solid, plausible people on the screen."
This is a political drama about the stormy romantic partnership of journalist-revolutionary Jack Reed, author of "Ten Days That Shook the World," and writer-artist Louise Bryant, set against the backdrop of World War I and the Russian Revolution.
The first half of the film chronicles the early life of Reed and Bryant, their often troubling relationship, and their experiences reporting on the Communist revolution in Russia. The second part of the film takes place shortly after the publication of Ten Days. Inspired by the idealism of the Revolution, Reed attempts to bring the spirit of Communism to the United States, because he is disillusioned with the policies imposed upon Communist Russia by Grigory Zinoviev and the Bolsheviks.
Another significant aspect of the film is a documentary enhancement — interviews with a number of venerable "witnesses", who may have known Reed, whose recollections of the period help to set the scene, bridge transitions and preserve a touching human perspective of these times. To gain perspective on the lives of Reed and Bryant, Beatty began filming the "witnesses" as early as 1971.
Beatty directed "Reds" and the final edit came in at 194 minutes—3+ hours. It's rated "PG". Get your popcorn and Coke early, select a good, comfortable seat, settle in and enjoy what has become a classic film. The film starts at 7:00pm. By the way, it received 12 Academy Award nominations.
Admission for all Film Club movies is $7 for Arena Theater Association members, guests welcome at $10. Cash at the door, please, maximum audience 55 people. Face coverings required except when seated while eating or drinking.
The Arena Theater Film Club is a membership-based film society which meets the first, second and fourth Mondays of most months at the Arena Theater to screen and discuss a variety of movies, including recent independent releases, classics and foreign films. Screenings are $7 to current Arena Theater members (memberships are $60 per year); their guests are welcome at $10 each. For a schedule of upcoming films, visit the Arena Theater Film Club’s website, www.arenatheaterfilmclub.org.
