Film Review - Just go with it By Director Dennis Dugan

Starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston this romantic comedy is full of laughs. To cover up a lie involving a wedding ring pick up line, Danny Maccabee decides to pretend that his assistant Katherine is his soon to be ex-wife to impress the new love of his life.

In Just go with it when the lies get deeper everyone ends up being involved. The kids end up tricking him into taking everyone on a fabulous holiday to Hawaii only for the situation to get more complicated. Filled with laughs, who will Danny end up with? Anne

Film Review - Still Alice - By Richard Glatzer

In Still Alice a linguistics professor is deeply challenged when she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease.

Her family comes to terms with it in their own way. The diagnosis proved to be even more challenging for some members due to genetic consequences. Alice decides to make the most of her remaining time to enjoy the simple things in life with the ones she loves. A heartbreaking but amazing story of strength, love and bravery. Anne

Film Review - The Longest Ride By Director George Tillman

The Longest Ride focuses on two amazing love stories- one - Luke a champion bull rider and Sophia an Art student. As their lives are worlds apart the strength of their love is tested. Second - They are inspired by Ira, an old man they meet in fateful circumstances. They are deeply moved by his captivating love story and also the devotion he had to his late wife. A very enjoyable and sweet movie. Anne

Movie Club—Casablanca

This month the Movie Club will be screening Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid, and directed by Michael Curtiz. Based on the play Everybody Comes to Rick's, a thinly veiled cry for America to become involved in World War II in opposition to the isolationist policies prevelant at the time. The film was green-lighted shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbour and released the following year, with many rewrites to the original script.

Casablanca, in 'Unoccupied' Morocco, has become a haven for many trying to flee the ever encroaching terror of Nazism in Europe. The centre of night life is Rick's Cafe Americain, run by Rick Baline, a American expatriate with a tumultuous past. Despite the suffering and longing surrounding him, Rick prefers to avoid entanglements and proudly claims that he sticks his "neck out for nobody". All this changes one night when Ilse, the woman he loved in Paris years before, comes to town with her husband, the Resistance leader Victor Laszlo. Rick must choose whether to place his emotional turmoil aside and help Ilse and Victor escape the clutches of the local Nazi officer, Major Strasser, or to turn his back on the woman he loves.

The film was just another movie when it was made, as "no one making 'Casablanca' thought they were making a great movie." (Ebert, R. [September 15, 1996] “Casablanca [Review]”) But as time has passed the film has gathered new generations of viewers, with its quotable dialogue (some of the most quoted and certainly the most misquoted line in film), but also for its great use of lighting, cinematography, and the pitch-perfect casting. 

The film will be screened on Wednesday 13 April at 6pm at Narellan Library, Corner of Queen and Elyard Street, Narellan. Tea, coffee, and biscuits provided, but BYO snacks are more than welcome. Stay after the screening to share your thoughts about the film and join in a discussion about the films many classic and affecting scenes. 

Film Review—Slow West

Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a young Scottish man, has come to the American West to search for his love Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius). Along the way he meets bounty hunter Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender) who agrees to accompany him along the way to Rose in exchange for a nominal fee. What Jay doesn’t know is that Silas is also looking for Rose, hoping to collect the $2,000 bounty on her and her father’s heads.

The genre of the Western gives the film a set of conventions to play with, both to utilize and subvert. This is done mainly with its setting in Colorado although being filmed in New Zealand. This gives it some hallmarks that resemble the cinematic iconography of the western genre but gives it a distinct flavour that clearly demarcates it.  It lacks the extreme harshness expected of the setting, but is by no means less striking. It allows for rapid shifts in the environment, both by changes in landscape itself but also by cinematic shifts in lighting, that directly affects the story. The west is not a bland setting, but can be both a place of violence and suffering or of dreams and toil. “Love is universal, like death”, young Jay is told, and these two extremes, perfectly twined in the western setting, are in full force in Slow West.

A land of beauty and bleakness, Slow West treks this manifold landscape with masterful skill.

Andreas

Film Review - Lola Versus By Director Daryl Wein

Seeming to have the ideal relationship Lola is shocked when dumped by her boyfriend 3 weeks before the wedding.

 

In Lola Versus she decides to throw herself back into life with the help of her close friends and goes through a series of adventures filled with love, loss and human heartache. Lola's chaotic journey towards the big 3-0 gives her a renewed faith in herself and she learns lessons that will last a lifetime. An enjoyable movie, lighthearted and entertaining. Anne

Film Review - I give it a year By Director Dan Mazer

In this movie, I give it a year follows the life of a mismatched couple in their first year of marriage. Deeply in love and happy to overlook their differences, they wed even though their friends have doubts. Will they live happily ever after when there are old flames and new temptations around?

Rated MA15+- Strong sexual references, course languages and nudity.

This is a hilarious romantic comedy from the producers of Love Actually, Bridget Jones Diary and Notting Hill. A very enjoyable movie, it doesn’t disappoint.
Anne

Film Review - Mud by Jeff Nichols

It’s a drama about 2 young boys who encounter Mud, a fugitive whom they decide to help.

A murderer, Mud has bounty hunters after him. He sets up a plan to run away with the girl of his dreams with the help of the young boys.
The movie Mud contains a number of different love stories some gritty and obsessive. It is also a coming of age movie. Superb acting by Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon.

Rated  M- Violence and Sexual references.

I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was very original. Anne