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Friday: Anderson & Anderson

Wes and P.T.

All films in this series will have matinee screenings the following Sunday at 1pm.


Friday, January 6 • 7, 9, 11 • 91m
Bottle Rocket
Wes Anderson, 1996 • Dignan (script co-writer Owen C. Wilson) has a 75-year plan for achieving gangster greatness but first he must break his friend Anthony (Luke Wilson) out of the mental hospital where Anthony is recovering from exhaustion. Joined by Bob (Robert Musgrave), the trio embarks on their life of crime by robbing the local bookstore and going on the lam in a seedy motel. One wonders which is worse: a statewide manhunt or the deep suspicion that no one is looking for you. Eventually, mobster/gardener Mr. Henry (James Caan, truly enjoying himself) helps the young men plan a real heist. 35mm
Friday, January 13 • 7, 10 • 155m
Boogie Nights
Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997 • Boogie Nights is the story of an extended family immersed in the porn industry of the late 1970’s. Burt Reynolds plays Jack Horner, a pornographer with an eye for the talent lurking within tight jeans. Mark(y Mark) Wahlberg aka Dirk Diggler may have the biggest, ahem... part in the film but the ensemble cast of William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman, Julianne Moore and Heather Graham (as Rollergirl) make this an epic tale of the pursuit of a particular type of American dream. “I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a star. I’m a big bright shining star -- [karate kick]” 35mm

The 7 pm screening of Boogie Nights will be introduced by Jacob Smith, Assistant Professor of Radio, Television & Film at Northwestern University. His presentation is entitled, "My Awesome Mix Tape #6: Boogie Nights and the Sound of Media History."

Friday, January 20 • 7, 9, 11 • 93m
Rushmore
Wes Anderson, 1998 • “Dear Max, I am sorry to say that I have secretly found out that Mr. Blume is having an affair with Miss Cross. My first suspicions came when I saw them frenching in front of our house. And then I knew for sure when they went skinny dipping in Mr. Blume’s pool, giving each other handjobs while you were taking a nap on the front porch. - Dirk” Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), Rushmore Academy’s star student playwright, imagines himself in a bitter love triangle with his industrialist friend Henry Blume (Bill Murray) and teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). 35mm
Friday, January 27 • 7, 9, 11 • 102m
Hard Eight
Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996 • “If I were to give you $50, what would you do with it?” So begins P.T. Anderson’s film debut, his take on film-noir. Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), a mysterious older gentleman, stops outside a diner and wakes John (John C. Reilly), a down-on-his luck younger man who has just lost all of his money gambling in an attempt to pay for his mother’s funeral. Flashing ahead to a Reno casino two years later, we see that Sydney has taken John under his wing. Gwyneth Paltrow is John’s girlfriend Clementine, a hooker with a heart of -- well, not gold. Samuel L. Jackson is terrifying as Jimmy, a friend Sydney distrusts. 35mm
Friday, February 3 • 7, 9:15, 11:30 • 110m
The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson, 2001 • Maybe it’s Margot’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) amazing striped Lacoste tennis dress and fur coat. Maybe it’s the red track suit financial whiz Chas (Ben Stiller) and his fire-drill-running sons wear. Or maybe it’s tennis prodigy Richie’s (Luke Wilson) Bjorn Borg-esque headband and Fila polo. But one look at the family photo of Royal (Gene Hackman) and Etheline (Angelica Huston) and their magnificently brilliant children in their dreamy Manhattan home and you’ll exclaim, just like Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), “I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum.” 35mm
Friday, February 10 • 7 • 188m
Magnolia
Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999 • Incredibly ambitious, certainly self-indulgent, loaded with talent, and deeply personal, Magnolia is a film that rewards multiple viewings. Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall and Jason Robards all give intense performances. Tom Cruise rounds out the cast and offers some memorable advice as motivational speaker Frank TJ Mackey, author of Seduce and Destroy. Anderson uses the Aimee Mann soundtrack to drive his operatic tale of dysfunctional families and the damage that they do. Buried beneath it all lies love, hope and redemption. 35mm
Friday, February 17 • 7, 9:15, 11:30 • 119m
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson, 2004 • "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go on an overnight drunk, and in 10 days I'm going to set out to find the shark that ate my friend and destroy it." With that, and some dynamite, Captain Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) begins his quest to exact revenge on the "Jaguar shark" that killed his partner Esteban. Tagging along on the undersea voyage are Cate Blanchett, Willem Defoe, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, and Seu Jorge, playing a Brazilian musician/saftey expert with a talent for Bowie in Portugese. "Ou, ou, ou, você é um rock roll suicide!" 35mm
Friday, February 24 • 7, 9, 11 • 95m
Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002 • In Punch-Drunk Love, P.T. Anderson gives Adam Sandler the opportunity to freely display the rage, hostility and violence that one always suspected lay just beneath the surface of Mr. Sandler’s usual characters. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a novelty toiletries salesman with seven domineering sisters, a scheme to turn pudding into airline miles, and a penchant for phone sex. But Egan is about to discover an abandoned harmonium and, perhaps, true love. There are laughs but no irony. This is Anderson’s love letter to the lush romantic musicals of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It is also his tribute to grace. 35mm

Jason Sperb, a Visiting Professor in Film Studies at Michigan State University will be introducing Friday's 7 PM screening of Punch-Drunk Love. His introduction (10 minutes), entitled "The Art House Adam Sandler Movie" is taken from his forthcoming book Blossoms & Blood: The Films of Paul Thomas Anderson (University of Texas Press, 2013).

Friday, March 2 • 7, 9, 11 • 91m
The Darjeeling Limited
Wes Anderson, 2007 • Inspired by Jean Renoir’s The River and the films of Satyajit Ray, The Darjeeling Limited is a spiritual journey through India, albeit with the musical accompaniment of The Kinks. Three estranged brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) embark on train ride through Rajasthan a year after their father’s death. Only Francis knows the true purpose of the trip. The men have drug, women, and mental health issues, along with quite a bit of literal baggage. Jack asks the question all siblings wonder: if the three “would've been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people.” 35mm
Friday, March 9 • 7, 9:45 • 158m
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007 • Daniel Day Lewis won an Academy Award for his complete embodiment of monomaniacal oil speculator Daniel Planview, a man whose driving question through life is, “Why don’t I own this?” Paul Dano is up to the task of playing opposite Lewis but Dano’s preacher, Eli Sunday, can’t offer a theology which can compete with Plainview’s gospel of greed. The earth rumbles and shoots forth flames, the sky blackens with smoke, and oil floods the parched desert in the ushering in of the new American Century and the welcoming of its new God. 35mm

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