August Pick: Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant and directed by Stephen Frears, is that rare film opportunity for which the Movie Club postpones its monthly outing from the first Tuesday of the month to later. We'll be seeing FFJ on August 16, but the venues and times hadn't been announced when I wrote this blog post. So watch for an email by the end of this week with the where and when details.. 

SYNOPSIS: The true story of Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep), the legendary New York heiress and socialite who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great opera singer. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her "husband" and manager, St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) an aristocratic English actor, was determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence decided to give a public concert at Carnegie Hall in 1944, St Clair knew he faced his greatest challenge.

TRAILER: http://www.cinemaclock.com/ont/toronto/movies/florence-foster-jenkins-2016/videos/204553 

REVIEWS:    

Variety: http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/florence-foster-jenkins-review-meryl-streep-1201750112/

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/13/florence-foster-jenkins-review-meryl-streep-hugh-grant-stephen-frears

July Pick: Our Kind of Traitor

In the mood for a moody plot from John LeCarre? Hope so because for our July outing, we'll be seeing Our Kind of Traitor at the Varsity Cinema (ManuLife Centre, Bay & Bloor) on Tuesday, July 5. Screen time is 1:30, so let's meet near the box office about 20 minutes earlier. As always, if you don't see Movie Club members when you arrive, just go in and watch the film. Afterward, if you've signed up for a nosh & natter downstairs at Scaccia, look for us near the escalator or just go to the restaurant. Below are the deets about the movie.

SYNOPSIS:  

While on holiday in Marrakech, an ordinary English couple, Perry (Ewan McGregor) and Gail (Naomie Harris), befriend a flamboyant and charismatic Russian, Dima (Stellan Skarsgard), who unbeknownst to them is a kingpin money launderer for the Russian mafia. 

When Dima asks for their help to deliver classified information to the British Secret Services, Perry and Gail get caught in a dangerous world of international espionage and dirty politics. The couple is propelled on a perilous journey through Paris and Bern, a safe house in the French Alps, to the murky corners of the City of London and to an alliance with the British Government via a ruthless and determined MI6 agent (Damian Lewis). 

TRAILER: http://www.cinemaclock.com/ont/toronto/movies/our-kind-of-traitor-2016/videos/204641 
REVIEW in The Guardian: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/our-kind-of-traitor-film-review-an-entertaining-but-lightweight-espionage-thriller-a7022931.html

June Pick: Love & Friendship

Love & Friendship, the movie version of an unfinished Jane Austen novel titled Lady Susan, is getting rave reviews and sounds like something many Movie Club members would enjoy. So that's our pick for our June outing.

We'll be seeing it at the Varsity Cinema (ManuLife Centre, Bloor & Bay) on Tuesday, June 7. Screen time is 2:40, so let's meet near the box office about 20 minutes earlier.


SYNOPSIS:  
Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious, and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica -- and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny), but two particularly handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her orchestrations.


TRAILER:  http://www.cinemaclock.com/ont/toronto/movies/love-friendship-2016/videos/204639


REVIEW: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/love-friendship-20160512


 

Our May Pick: Hello, My Name is Doris

Again this month, I’ve chosen something that’s quite different from our usual fare of serious, issue-oriented films. It is: Hello, My Name is Doris, starring Sally Field.

Actually, you could say that it is issue-oriented because it’s a coming-of-age story for seniors. Watch the trailer (below) and you’ll see what this means. But the chief reason I chose Doris is that Sally Field decided to accept the starring role and I always trust her choices of roles and films. Plus, she brought along someone I’ve been missing from small and large screens: terrific Tyne Daly, whose best work, in my opinion, was on Cagney & Lacey, a TV breakthrough series about the partnership of a pair of female NYC police detectives.

Movie Club members will see Doris at the Varsity Cinema (ManuLife Centre, Bay & Bloor) on Tuesday, May 3, for the 1:40 screening. As always, let’s try to meet near the box office about 20 minutes earlier. If you don’t see me there, just go in and watch the film. Those of us who wish to nosh and natter afterwards will gather by the escalators and then descend to Scaccia. If you don’t see me/us there, just go down two escalator levels to the restaurant.

Here are the deets about Doris:

SYNOPSIS: 

After a lifetime of being overlooked and ignored, a woman of a certain age finds her world turned upside down by a handsome new co-worker and a self-help seminar that inspires her to take a chance on love in a witty and compassionate late-life coming-of-age-story.

TRAILER:

http://www.hellomynameisdorismovie.com/#trailer

REVIEW:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/hello-my-name-is-doris-20160311

INTERVIEW WITH SALLY FIELD:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/sally-field-on-her-new-dramedy-doris-and-finding-good-roles-for-women-over-50/article29717092/

April Pick: Eye in the Sky

Dame Helen Mirren in a camo suit in command of a war room? I'm in! On a less frivolous note, our April pick - Eye in the Sky - is an action film (a rarity for the Movie Club), but what it really is is a serious debate about the moral issues involved in the relatively recent arrival of drones as weapons of war. A very timely topic.

Our Helen is joined by another of our favourites: Alan Rickman, who died in January. This was his final movie performance and his powerful presence and inimitable speaking style will be sorely missed on our screens.

DETAILS

Synopsis: London-based military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is remotely commanding a top secret drone operation to capture a group of dangerous terrorists at their safe-house in Nairobi, Kenya. The mission suddenly escalates from a capture to a kill operation when Powell realizes the terrorists are about to embark on a deadly suicide mission. American drone pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is poised to destroy the safe-house when a nine-year-old-girl enters the kill zone just outside the walls of the house. With unforeseen collateral damage now entering the equation, the impossible decision of when to strike gets passed up the kill chain of politicians and lawyers as the seconds tick down.

Trailer: http://www.cinemaclock.com/ont/toronto/movies/eye-in-the-sky-2015/videos/203609

Interview with Helen Mirren:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/movies/review-eye-in-the-sky-drone-precision-vs-human-failings.html?emc=edit_fm_20160311&nl=movies&nlid=58112100&_r=0

March Pick: Where to Invade Next

 

Fans of Michael Moore's unique point of view as expressed in his documentaries, including Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 911, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story won't want to miss his latest: Where to Invade Next.

Movie Club members will be seeing the film at the Varsity Cinema (Manulife Centre, Bloor & Bay) on Tuesday, March 1. Screen time is 1:20.

SYNOPSIS: To study what can be learned from other countries about more equitable social and commercial policies and practices, compared with prevailing conditions in the United States, Michael Moore playfully "invades" Italy, France, Norway, Germany, Tunisia and elsewhere. He comes away with a startling conclusion - which will NOT be revealed here. In his trademark style, which combines humour with gut-wrenching realities, what Moore reveals is both inspirational and envy-inducing.

TRAILER:  http://www.tribute.ca/trailers/where-to-invade-next/20744/


TORONTO STAR REVIEW: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2016/02/25/where-to-invade-next-is-an-invasion-of-great-ideas-review.html

February Pick: The Lady in the Van

Maggie Smith. Those two words suffice as a green light to most of our members. If she's starring in a movie, we want to see it. Right? 

Well, we're in luck because The Lady in the Van arrived in time for this month's outing, which will be on Tuesday, February 9, at the Varsity Cinema (ManuLife Centre, Bloor & Bay). Screen time is 2:25, so let's try to meet near the box office about 20 minutes earlier. As always, if you don't see me or other club members, just go in and we'll meet up near the escalators after the film. Then those who wish to have a bite and a natter will go down to our usual spot, Scaccia.

The Lady in the Van is based on the true-life relationship of an eccentric woman down on her luck and prolific writer/playwright Alan Bennett, who rescued her from homelessness by allowing her to park her van the driveway of his London home. The arrangement was meant to be temporary, but stretched to 15 years and gave Bennett a book, a play and now a movie.

Those are the bare bones of the story, but NOW Magazine's Susan G. Cole, who gave the movie a good review, made these intriguing remarks: "This is a piece as much about a writer's ethics as it is about a high-born woman reduced to living in a van... Along the way, the film looks at ambivalence, timidity and a writer so intent on avoiding an emotional life that he has only his alter ego as a partner." 

TRAILER: http://www.cinemaclock.com/ont/toronto/movies/the-lady-in-the-van-2015/videos/200817