We have lots of extra events happening over the next couple of weeks. And, for better or worse, we may be officially done with superheroes for this season. Enjoy the plentiful offerings!
-Lisa & Chris
Special Events:
This coming weekend is the ACADIA DARK SKY FESTIVAL Over Sept 27 - 29 (Fri - Sat - Sun) we are participating in three film events.
-Friday night starting at 6:30 Chris will screen an outdoor movie, MONSTERS VS ALIENS (PG), on the Village Green. Come for a picnic dinner (get takeout pizza here?) and bring a couple of blankets and perhaps your winter jacket! Right now the weather looks perfect.
On both weekend days we will have special matinees. Adult admission is $3.
-Saturday afternoon 9/28 at 2pm we will screen SOLARMAX (NR), a truly spectacular, historic film about mankind's relationship with our dangerous and beautiful life-giving star that is a breathtaking exploration into the awesome vastness and mysterious power of our closest star. Every 11 years, the sun's poles reverse with unimaginable violence, and the peak of the storm is called a solarmax. We are on the verge of solar maximum. Take a unique journey through time and space to experience the sun's force and beauty. Witness a total eclipse and the magnificence of the Aurora Borealis, viewed from both Earth and space. Real images captured by NASA's SOHO satellite provide spectacular footage of the sun as never seen before.
-On Sunday afternoon 9/29 the 2pm matinee will be EAT THE SUN (NR) . This film follows Mason, a modern ‘sungazer’ on an unbelievable and often hilarious cross-country tour into the little known world of sungazing – an ancient practice of looking directly at the sun for a range of physical and spiritual benefits. Throughout his journey, Mason is riddled with uncertainty. Will he damage his eyes? Is the man who inspires thousands lying? Will Mason succeed in his quest to uncover the truth? This captivating, suspenseful and award-winning documentary will challenge your deepest held beliefs.
FILM FORWARD
In association with MDI High School and other places in Downeast Maine we will be screening two films as part of Film Forward, an international touring program presented by the Sundance Institute designed to enhance greater cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of films, workshops and conversations with filmmakers. FILM FORWARD promotes cultural dialogue through independent documentary and narrative film, using film’s unique ability to tell stories that explore universal themes to ignite meaningful conversations. cultivating engaged dialogue, fostering appreciation of other viewpoints, and developing new audiences for independent film. These screenings are free to the public. Also there will be another Film Forward screening coming on our next schedule on Sat 10/19 of TOWN OF RUNNERS.
Saturday 10/5 THE LIGHT IN HER EYES (87min) at 2pm
Los Angeles based filmmakers Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix offer an extraordinary portrait of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according to Islam, without giving up their dreams. Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, in the women’s side of Al-Zahra mosque, preacher Houda al-Habash teaches the Qur’an, educating women and girls about their religion, and their rights, within their faith. Inside this community was uncovered a lively debate about women’s roles as mothers, teachers, wives, workers, sisters and daughters. trailer
Sunday 10/6 VALLEY OF SAINTS (82min) at 2pm
Musa Syeed’s debut feature film won the Audience Award for World Cinema: Dramatic and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. In the crown jewel of Kashmir, Gulzar, a young, working-class boatman takes a job assisting a pretty scientist collecting water samples for an environmental study. When research reveals harmful pollutants they realize that the ecology of the lake and an entire way of life face an alarming threat. This is a vibrant, lyrical film about finding one's path home in a changing world. trailer
Fri Sept 27 - Thurs Oct 3
BLUE JASMINE (PG-13) 98min 5:30 and 7:45
Woody Allen’s latest feature (#43) returns him to the US from recent pictures made in Europe (Midnight in Paris, To Rome with Love) but to San Francisco, not New York with this inspired social satire, an homage to Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Cate Blanchett gives an amazing, complex performance finding the heart of a neurotic fragile woman who finds herself suddenly and utterly broke, after her husband is convicted of fraud. With nowhere else to go, she moves in with her estranged but gracious working class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) but remains in total denial about her entitlement to a certain social strata. When she meets Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard) she thinks she may have found her meal ticket back to her previous financial status. trailer
Fri Sept 27 - Mon Sept 30
THE SPECTACULAR NOW (R) 95min 6:00 and 8:15
A vivid, convincing and complex portrait of two young adults confronting love and life is the new film from director James Ponsoldt (Smashed), based on Tim Tharpe’s novel adapted by Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter ((500) Days of Summer). Sutter (Miles Teller, Rabbit Hole) is a charming and sweet high school senior who drinks to cover his insecurities, and on the rebound from being dumped by his former girlfriend since she sees him as a dead end. Aimee (Shailene Woodley, The Descendants) is the bookish and quiet classmate headed for college, with whom he makes an unlikely hookup after she finds him face down in her yard at dawn. Their unlikely romance becomes a sharp, funny, affecting, and thrilling tale of modern love. This is one of the year’s best reviewed films. trailer
Tues Oct 1 - Thurs Oct 3
THE HUNT (R) 111min [in Danish with subtitles] 6:00 and 8:30
Actor Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair, Casino Royale) earned his Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his penetrating portrayal of a recently divorced man and devoted kindergarten teacher who is trying to get custody of his son and is starting to get his life back on track when an idle lie told by a young child shatters his world. The recriminations that reverberate through his small town in the aftermath of this single untruth force him to fight alone for his dignity and life. Directed by Danish Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration) and co-written with the director by Tobias Lindholm (A Hijacking) this courageous film where only the audience knows the truth is as riveting as a thriller. trailer
Fri Oct 4 - Mon Oct 7
PRINCE AVALANCHE (R) 94min
In this refreshingly eccentric offbeat comedy and character study, Paul Rudd (This is 40) and Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Milk) give colorful performances as mismatched co-workers who are spending the summer painting lines on a desolate country highway that has been recently ravaged by wildfire. Set in pre-electronic era 1988, Alvin (Rudd) spends his free time learning German from his cassettes and writing letters to his fiancée, who is the older sister of Lance (Hirsch); Lance boasts about his prowess with the ladies and can’t wait to get into town for the weekend. Funny, meditative and at times surreal, this is the new feature from director David Gordon Green, which merges the two styles of his previous films, including the nuanced George Washington and Snow Angels, and the buddy comedy Pineapple Express. trailer
Tues Oct 8 - Thurs Oct 10
AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS (R) 105min
In the vein of Terence Malick’s Badlands and Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs Miller, this timeless, romantic crime ballad is from young director and film editor David Lowery. Stunningly beautiful and Sundance winning cinematography (by Bradford Young) in the Texas Hill country sets this story of a robbery gone bad. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as a poor young couple with a baby on the way; he takes the rap for her shooting a sheriff’s deputy (Ben Foster) and she goes home to raise her daughter and wait for him to return from jail under the watchful eye of a mysterious neighbor (Keith Carradine). Each faces challenges, choices and second chances in this vibrant, captivatingly detailed film. trailer
Fri Oct 11 - Mon Oct 14
PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (PG) 110min
This spectacular action adventure directed by Thor Freudenthal (Diary of A Wimpy Kid) is based on the second book in Rick Riordan’s best-selling Greek mythology-inspired young adult series. The protective magical tree shielding Camp Half-Blood, training ground for Greek demi-gods, has been poisoned and prophecy declares that only the Golden Fleece will heal it; earnest son of Poseidan, Percy (Logan Lerman, Perks of Being a Wallflower), accepts the challenge, even though others, including competitive daughter of Athena, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), and archrival Luke (Jake Abel) are also seeking the fleece, albeit for different motives. Percy heads off with his best pal Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), a skittish satyr, and his newly discovered half-brother Tyson (Douglas Smith), a kind Cyclops, on a treacherous odyssey via Washington DC and Florida then out into the ocean where they must battle monsters enroute to their goal. trailer
Tues Oct 15 - Thurs Oct 17
CUTIE AND THE BOXER (R) 82min
This surprising, intimate and funny portrait of an artistic couple won first-time filmmaker Zachary Heinzerling the top directing award at Sundance. Filmed over several years, this immersive and revelatory documentary tells the story of the 40-year relationship between avant-garde boxing painter Ushio Shinohara who in the 1970’s hung out with Basquiat and Warhol, and his long-suffering wife Noriko, 20 years his junior, who has assisted him and cleaned up after him over the years and is now finding success with her whimsical autobiographical drawings illustrating their chaotic life together. It is a candid, beautifully made film that is a touching meditation on the eternal themes of love and sacrifice. trailer
Coming on our Second Screen?
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER (PG-13) 126min
Based on a real individual’s experiences, but not a biographical film, this powerful and compelling drama explores 90 years of African American history, from the Jim Crow era to Obama’s election, through the life of one man. Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) is Cecil, born a poor southerner who became a discreet, deferential White House butler and served eight presidents over three decades. This butler’s inner strength as a passive servant belied his concealed turmoil at the changes he sees during his lifetime. Oprah Winfrey returns to the screen after a fifteen year absence playing his troubled wife. Director Lee Daniels (Precious) uses both real and replicated footage providing both an emotional and historical truth in this inspiring summation of a century of black history. trailer
THE WORLD’S END (R) 109min
Director Edgar Wright with co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost complete their self-described “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy” that began with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This antic, inspired, irreverent ensemble comedy follows a group of now middle-aged high school friends who are trying to complete a 12 pub crawl that they attempted without success twenty years ago. Insistently led by arrested adolescent Gary (Pegg), the other four, played by Paddy Consadine, Martin Freeman, Eddy Marsen and Frost, are reluctant participants (one has been sober for years). But once started, they realize that all is not quite right in their hometown and things get totally silly and nutty, while also remaining touching and wise. But what does it matter, it’s the beer drinking that’s important! trailer
WE’RE THE MILLERS (R) 109min
Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses) and Jason Sudeikis (SNL) play off each other quite nicely in this raunchy, outlandish and LOL funny stoner comedy from Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall and Wedding Crashers screenwriters Steve Faber and Dan Fybel. He is a small time dealer who is robbed of cash and product; since now he can’t pay his supplier, it is suggested that he bring the next load in from Mexico. Deciding it would be a safer border crossing if he were a family man, he twists the arms of his neighbors to join him as his family: a cynical stripper (Aniston) a neglected nerd (Will Poulter, Son of Rambow) and a streetwise runaway (Emma Roberts, Nancy Drew). After a quick change into some new clothes, they head off to Mexico in a shiny new RV. What could go wrong? trailer
COMING NEXT SCHEDULE?
GRAVITY
THE ACT OF KILLING
YOU WILL BE MY SON
ENOUGH SAID
MONEY FOR NOTHING
SHORT TERM 12
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