[Reel Pizza] schedule

As promised,  the Reel Pizza Schedule for July 25 through August 14th. 

But first, please read about some alternative programming that we will be presenting in the next few weeks.
See you soon,  Lisa and Chris.

SPECIAL AFTERNOON PROGRAM of film and discussion presented in association with St Saviour's Episcopal Church.
Sunday August 10th
TRACES OF THE TRADE  (NR)    2:00 pm
Released in 2008 on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Abolition of the Slave Trade (January 1, 1808), this documentary film examines one of the most shameful legacies of America's past. Director Katrina Browne and nine relatives trace their roots as the largest slave trading family in American history, offering powerful new perspectives on the black/white divide.  Following the screening, a member of this family, Dain Perry, who participated in the film, and his wife Constance Perry, will share the difficult and creative effort that produced this film, consider its impact on their lives and invite all to reflect on our own experience.  www.tracesofthetrade.org

Don't forget FRIDAY LATE NIGHTS!  (I did, in the last email update...). Every week on Friday at 11pm we will present some movie expanding experience to distract and entertain you. 

This Friday 7/18 (tomorrow), we have ROCK & REEL, in which local bands provide contemporary accompaniment to classic, unique silent films. This week's pairing features The Shakes – Caleb Davis, Carl Davis, James Pike and special guest David Palazola – performing with the 1929 Russian feature Man with a Movie Camera. This fast-paced, kaleidoscopic film is an attempt to capture the full beauty and chaos of life, and uses a stunning variety of trick photography to position its heroic cameraman in every possible place necessary to achieve this (including inside a glass of beer!). 

Next Friday 7/25, it will be PROGRAM-O-RAMA, where you get to help choose the films.  Submit your own short film, or something you've seen on-line that you must share with the world (no copyrighted material unless it is yours) in digital format and we will show them all on our big screen.  Zany, bizarre, thought-provoking...any style or topic is welcome. 

Last week's IMPROVISION collaboration with the ImprovAcadia crew was great fun.  We welcome them back on Aug 1st as they provide dialogue, music and sound effects to THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS, featuring Rosie Greer, and again on Aug 8th, for ROBOT MONSTER (Chris's description here) the cheesiest monster movie ever made (and he has seen them all!).   Again, they have not seen the movie, or know what it is about; who knows what turns the plot will make?

And now back to "regular" films...

Fri July 25 - Thurs July31
X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE  (PG-13)  104min   6:00 and 8:30
In grand "X-Files" manner, the storyline of this BRAND NEW film, based on the popular TV series, is being kept under wraps. This much can be revealed: it is a stand-alone story (as in you don't need to be a die-hard fan to keep up) in the tradition of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder's pursuits.
 
Fri July 25 - Mon July 28
KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL  (G)  104min   5:30 and 7:45
Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Nim's Island) stars in this delightful, family-friendly film based on the historically accurate American Girl Doll series.  Kit, the girl of 1934, is a budding young reporter in Depression-era Cincinnati.  When Dad loses his job and must leave home to find work, Mom (Julie Ormand) takes in boarders to make ends meet, including Joan Cusack's wacky librarian, Jane Krakowski's beautiful nurse, and Stanley Tucci's travelling magician.  When a young hobo Kit meets is unfairly blamed for a local crime wave, she and her friends become sleuths to clear the boy's name and solve the mystery; they are surprised when their trail of clues lead to her own house.  Mixing comedy, tragedy and suspense, director Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park) has made a wonderful, engaging film, full of period details, which resonates with the similar challenges of today's economic climate.
 
Tues July 29 - Thurs July 31
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (NR)  113min [in French with subtitles]   5:30 and 8:00
This charming, unconventional slice-of-life story celebrating and inspired by Albert Lamourisse's 1956 classic short, The Red Balloon, is the first western film from acclaimed naturalistic Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Puppetmaster, Flowers of Shanghai).  Juliette Binoche is a frazzled single mom struggling to get through her daily life while she operates a puppet theater.   Her school-aged son Simon is just meeting a new nanny, Song a Chinese film student studying in Paris who herself is working on her own homage to the Lamourisse film.  An elusive red balloon hovering over all, and the city of Paris are captivating, supporting characters.  The improvisational storyline gives the film authenticity; the reflective visual impressionism is hypnotic.  Taken together, this film is touching, beautiful and a wonderful cinematic experience.

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Friday Aug 1 - Thurs Aug 7
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH  (PG)  89min  
Directed by Academy Award-winning visual effects veteran Eric Brevig, this exciting and funny family adventure takes the classic 1864 Jules Verne novel as fact and spins a wild ride.  Brendan Fraser (Crash, The Mummy) stars as a science professor whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the academic community. But while looking for clues of his late brother's work and into his death during an expedition in remote Iceland, he, his cynical nephew and a beautiful guide stumble upon a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling journey deep beneath the Earth's surface, where they travel through never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures.  

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Fri Aug 8 - Mon Aug 11
back by popular demand!
WALL-E (G)  97 min
In this wonderful new Pixar film, director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) moves into space: the final frontier.  On an Earth abandoned by humans centuries ago, where trash has taken over, Wall-E is a lonely robot who spends his days collecting trinkets and compacting the garbage, one cube at a time.  Eve is a sleek robot probe on a mission who realizes Wall-E has inadvertently discovered something important about the planet's future and takes off into space to return to her base and report her discovery.  Wall-E, smitten with his new friend, follows her across the universe, and his fantastic journey is an exciting, hilariously comic adventure.

Tues Aug 12 - Thurs Aug 14
CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI  (R)*  125min
Based on true events and real people, this gripping, engaging and beautiful melodrama centers on a young English journalist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Match Point), a straight-forward American nurse (Radha Mitchell, Melinda and Melinda) and a Chinese communist guerilla (Chow Yun Fat) who meet in desperate and unexpected circumstances during the Japanese invasion of China in 1938.  Together they rescue sixty orphaned children, leading them on an extraordinary journey through snow-covered mountains and unforgiving desert to refuge far from the soldier's brutality; along the way they discover the true meaning of love, responsibility and courage. 
"The R rating is earned by some very mild, non-explicit lovemaking, some violence and some drug content...Nothing so strong it would bother a teenager." –Roger Ebert

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COMING ON OUR SECOND SCREEN?

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS 2 (PG-13)  110min
Based on Ann Brashares' best-selling series of novels, this sequel to the popular film catches up with four lifelong friends who share a bond through a special pair of jeans.  Now in college and embarking on separate paths for the first time, these young women (Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel all reprise their original roles) will feel the freedom, separation, love, and challenging life lessons that mark their individual journeys toward adulthood. Though miles and worlds apart, they strive to stay in touch and share their new experiences and triumphs with heart and humor and, now more than ever, come to value the immeasurable power of their friendship.

MAMMA MIA!  (PG-13) 103min
Meryl Streep stars as Donna who has spent the past 20 years running a picturesquely decaying hotel. Now she's preparing for the marriage of her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) to her fiancé, Sky (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys). But there is something Donna hasn't been told. Sophie has invited three of her mother's ex-boyfriends (Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth) to the wedding in the hope that one of them will turn out to be the father she's never known.  The same team behind the hit stage show, including director Phyllida Lloyd, writer Catherine Johnson and producer Judy Cramer, has brought this infectiously sunny musical, featuring ABBA tunes, to the big screen. 

HANCOCK  (PG-13)  93min
In this new action comedy, Will Smith stars as a well-intentioned superhero who saves countless lives, but feels misunderstood.  He is definitely becoming increasingly underappreciated by the public as he leaves a phenomenal trail of damage and destruction in his wake.  But, this sarcastic, bitter superhero doesn't really care about what the citizens of his city think about him, until he saves a Public Relations executive (Jason Bateman), who thinks he can improve the guy's image, …and maybe Hancock does have a vulnerable side after all.  But the PR exec's wife (Charlize Theron) insists he is a lost cause.

COMING NEXT SCHEDULE?
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Tropic Thunder
Hellboy 2
Jellyfish
Reprise
Alexandra
Encounters at the End of the World
When Did You Last See Your Father?

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