Movie

Friday, February 28   Pariah*      2011 / 86 min. / R

This was African American screenwriter and director Dee Rees’s debut film. It depicts the coming out of Alike, a smart Brooklyn high school student whose family is not quite in the dark about her sexuality. It is felt but not acknowledged. It took Rees 5 years to raise enough to produce the film, acknowledged as semi-autobiographical, though Spike Lee mentored her. The film has received many, many awards and nominations. Rees later wrote and directed Mudbound and HBO’s Bessie.  Her star is rising.

Friday, February 21   A Room with a View    1985 / 117 min. / NR

Friday, February 14   Killer of Sheep *     1978 / 80 min. / NR

Friday, February 7    Mean Streets     1973 / 112 min. / R

Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a young Italian American man in New York City. He feels unduly responsible for his friend Johnny (Robert DeNiro), who’s into small-time gambling and runs up debts to loan sharks. He’s just reckless. Martin Scorsese’s first masterpiece, Mean Streets received universal acclaim. Roger Ebert said, “Mean Streets is one of the source points of modern movies.” Budget: $500,000.

Celebrate Black History Month with a free viewing of Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.

This 2019 documentary is "an artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the acclaimed novelist". The film explores her youth growing up in Ohio to " '70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali, from the front lines with Angela Davis to her own riverfront writing room, Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history and the human condition as seen through the prism of her own literature". 

January films at Claremont

Wed.,  January 8,  5:30pm   Blackfish   2013/PG/134 min.
The story of Tilikum, a captive killer whale that has taken the lives of several people, underscores problems within the sea-park industry, man's relationship to nature, and how little has been learned about these highly intelligent mammals. This intense, emotional documentary led to orcas no longer being bred in captivity.

Friday, January 31   Good Will Hunting   1997 / 126 min. / R

Friday, January 24   Lost in Translation   2003 / 102 min. / R
Aging American actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is bored in Tokyo as an English-challenged Japanese director tries to shoot a whiskey ad featuring him. Meanwhile, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), the young American wife of a famous photographer, looks for relief from her own ennui. Their communications dance around differences: male / female, American / Japanese culture, young versus old, English / Japanese language. Directed by Sofia Coppola.

Friday, January 17   Philadelphia    1993 / 125 min. / PG-13
A Philadelphia law firm fires associate Andy Beckett (Tom Hanks), claiming incompetence and that he has concealed his AIDS diagnosis. Beckett decides to sue but can’t find an attorney willing to represent him. Then Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) comes along. Tom Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Andy Beckett.