December Movie Club Notes

Hello to all our Movie Club members and friends. (Warning: if you have not seen these movies, there may be spoiler information below.)

This is late, late, late I know and I apologize. I had a bit of writer's block. Actually I didn't take very good notes at this month's meeting so it was difficult to remember what went on. (It must have been those appletinis Carl made.)

As always we had a spirited Movie Club meeting and we reviewed two very good movies; Tsotsi and Gone Baby Gone. We also welcomed a new member, Nero, who we hope we didn't discourage her with all the shouting and talking over one another. Of course we know she'll be back next month because she has selected one of our movies for January. (See sidebar)

As we've noted so many times before, it is surprising how often movies selected completely at random, have very similar themes, and this was certainly the case this month.

The first movie discussed was Tsotsi, http://www.tsotsi.com/english/index.php the winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a fact I don't think most of us were aware of during our review. Everyone enjoyed this film, evident by the ratings it was given:

David - A, Carl - A, Greg - B+, Harold - B+, Yvonne - B+, Zanetta - A+, Zorah - A+, Lori - A, Hope - B+, Ramona - A-, Nero - A-.

Zorah chose the movie because she felt it was a "better character study" of a gangster than American Gangster, one of last month's movie picks, and was really well done. It also gave us a look at the townships in South Africa and how people are really living.

The title character didn't have a lot of dialogue but who he was came through anyway. Zanetta gave the movie an A+ rating despite the fact that she was annoyed that the film tried to justify what Tsotsi,(the slang word for thug in South Africa's ghettos), did by pulling at your heartstrings. Of course, this comment led the group to a sidebar conversation about what creates a predator like Tsotsi and while no one excused what Tsotsi did, robbing and shooting people , participating in a murder and finally the focus of the movie, the life-changing accidental kidnapping of a baby, there was an understanding of what the factors were that made him who he was. All in all we all felt that this was a great movie. I guess the Oscar voters knew what they were talking about.
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Our other movie for the month was Gone, Baby Gone, http://www.gonebabygone-themovie.com/ Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his brother Casey and a wonderful cast of professional and first-time actors. This film also dealt with a missing child and while many of us were certain at first if the movie would work, most of us enjoyed it. Here are the group's ratings:

Ramona - A, Lori - A, Zorah - B, Rylona* - A, Carl - B+, Zanetta - B, Harold - B+, Ron - A-,

Rita - B+, David - A(for acting) D(for the film)

David gave the film its lowest rating and felt that fantastic acting performances were wasted. The movie "just didn't hang together" for him. Lori however like the storyline but thought at first that Casey Affleck was a bad casting decision. But she felt that he transformed himself during the film becoming "more believable" as it progressed. As with Tsotsi, this movie gave us a realistic portrayal of some of the less affluent Boston communities and caused a discussion about the moral issues explored here. Should the child have been returned to her mother? Was he right to kill the child molester and murderer?

As another year closes, we get ready to celebrate the 5th year of movie club. As you can see from the list on the side, we've seen a whole lot of movies. Some really good ones, some really bad but they've taught us to look at film in a whole different way and most importantly, they've brought us closer together as a group.

Have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and a Peaceful and Blessed New Year. See you in 2008!