Into The Wild
(Rated R, 140 Min., USA, Drama/Bio)
February 24 & 25 at 7:00

Into The Wild is based on a true story and the bestselling book by Jon Krakauer. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

Sequences are gorgeously filmed by cinematographer Eric Gautier, and they’re heady with the joy of discovery — they make you want to hit the road into the magnificent landscape we forget is out there. – Ty Burr, Boston Globe

It is we who are made a little more complete for wrestling with, and watching, Penn’s film. – Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

This is one of those movies I can imagine deciding is a masterpiece in a month’s time. And by any measure, “Into the Wild” is a big leap forward for Penn as a director and deserves to be one of the most talked about films of the season. – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

L’Iceberg
(Unrated, 84 Min., Belgium, in French with English Subtitles, Comedy/Drama)
Feb. 17 & 18 at 7:00

Synopsis:
Fiona is the manager of a fast-food restaurant. She lives with her family in the suburbs. In a few words, Fiona is happy. Until one day…Fiona gets accidentally locked into a walk-in fridge while closing up. She gets out in the morning, half frozen and barely alive, only to realize that her husband and two children didn’t even notice she was missing. Little by little, Fiona develops an obsession for everything cold and icy: snow, polar bears, fridges, icebergs… and one day she drops everything, climbs into a frozen goods delivery truck and leaves home. She wants to see a real iceberg.

Who has never dreamt of dropping everything and starting over, of making a wish come true or of just going somewhere else to see what it’s like from there? Fiona takes the plunge, unsettling the lives of those around her as she goes. The three main characters of the film aren’t born adventurers. They are anti-heroes who get inadvertently involved in an adventure. Tripping over their clumsy mistakes, they never give up, always ready to renew the search for happiness and success.

THE ICEBERG is about our day-to-day heroism, our naivety, our fundamental desire for love and accomplishment. It’s about all the obstacles and minor failures that dent our optimism, but never destroy it all together.

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Praise for L’ICEBERG: Continue reading →

This is merely a reminder that we’ll be starting our eclectic series of films this coming Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 7:00.

For those of you who are interested, we’ll be selling memberships at the theater before, during and after the show.

Memberships for the year are $50.00 and tickets for non-members are $5.50.

Our first film will be:
L’Iceberg
(Unrated, 84 Min., Belgium, in French with English Subtitles, Comedy/Drama)
February 17 & 18 at 7:00
Presented at the Buffalo Theater

In our last installment we made a call for Memberships and the response has been inspiring! A few of you have asked for more info about the series itself (The “Other Shoe” dropping, so to speak). We have the info just hammered out and the last title confirmed – the flyers are printing, it’ll be a day or two before they arrive in your mailboxes ready for the fridge door.

Until then, you can see the info on our website (including links and whatnot).

If you’d like to get a jump on us, you could try downloading and printing the (large-ish) pdf of our flyer.

Some of the titles you’ve likely heard of, most are probably not that well known. But I am *very* excited about them. They are all critically acclaimed and we have a wide variety of interesting places and stories in front of us. Looking them over, yet again, I see now that a theme has emerged among several of the titles! Anyone else see it?

One notable difference between this year and years past is the howtimes. We’ll be using Sunday and Monday evenings instead of Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. We’ll be starting the shows at 7:00 both days instead of 1:30 and 6:30, respectively.

I’ll be posting more information about each title as we go along.

We have been quiet. We have made very little noise. Now we are ready to whoop it up! (Until the lights go down and movie starts, of course.)

Once again Bennett Street Films and the Buffalo Theater have been working together to bring you a series of fantastic films that will open windows to parts of our world that we just might not have otherwise seen. This series is truly a world cinema series as it will take us to France, Alaska, Spain, Macedonia, Romania, India, Kurdistan and Australia among other places. We’re ready to start this series on February 17th. That’s in just a couple weeks! Oh my gosh!

This is where we ask you to join our story. Do you have your 2008 Membership yet?

Membership costs the same as it did last year: $50.00. We’ll be sending out a flyer about our Spring Series in the next couple days (and look for them around town) so we’ll put a little form in there you can send in to buy a membership that way. Or you can buy them online at our website. Or you can post a note (and a check) anytime. We receive mail at 157 E. Bennett, Buffalo, WY 82834.

It is Members that make it possible to get this all started. Please come join us on this film journey around the world!

In December we sent out a Holiday Card to our members that had in it a little “Name The Films On The Gift” game to play.We know those of you who received the card have been waiting for the results of that contest, so here they are!We didn’t get any entrants and maybe you are all still trying to figure it out, but we don’t want to cause you too much stress, so here are the films represented on the gift (clockwise from upper left):

1. Born Into Brothels
2. Nosey Parker
3. Ballet Russes
4. Step Into Liquid
5. Hukkle
6. Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Your Bennett Street Films Board is now working hard to get a Spring line-up ready to spring on you. We still have a few things to workout in the venue and available films department. We will fill you in as soon as we can. In the mean time stay warm and go see a movie.

Yesterday was momentous. After weeks of thinking, discussing and planning, the Bennett Street Films holiday card made it into the USPS (and here in pdf).We made up a picture using several posters from movies we’ve shown in the past. Members who correctly guess the titles of all the posters will be entered in a drawing to win a DVD. We have two DVDs to give away. We’re keeping their titles a surprise, enjoy the diversion of the puzzle for its own sake.Our plan is to have folks return their guesses to us by New Year’s Day and we’ll have some kind of public drawing in the few days after that. We’ll exclude our family members from winning and all that. We’ll announce the winner here and in our email newsletter and make arrangements to have the DVD delivered (or picked up?) at that time. Happy Holidays from Bennett Street Films!

I was going through some old videos on my hard drive and cleaning up a little. Came accross this video and thought I’d share it here. I think I made this in 2004 and ran it in front of a title that year. I never did much else with it. Cute though, eh?

Starts on Sunday, Sept. 16th at 1:30 pm
Then plays Monday thru Wednesday at 6:30 pm Daily

I wanted to give this update the subject: “Wake Up, Goddammit!”, but I didn’t want to offend anyone on such a lovely Saturday.

Because this is such late notice we’re running this title (as well as next week’s) Sunday through Wednesday. This means there’s two extra shows. If you’re in town, we hope you’ll be able to catch it.

Please remember to bring your Bennett Street Films 2007 membership card. I might be selling tickets and concessions alone. Having your card will help prevent anyone from having to wait too long on line.

TALK TO ME (R, 118 Min., Biography/Drama)
The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph “Petey” Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.

IMDB.com – 7.8 out of 10 stars.

Rotten Tomatoes – 80% Fresh

Google – 4.2 out of 5 stars

“Talk to Me offers uplift without phoniness, history without undue didacticism and a fair number of funny, dirty jokes.”
-A.O. Scott, New York Times

Super-Ultra-Sekrit-Don’t-Tell-No-One Side Note:
Although I am loath to compare myself to a popularly admired entertainer such as Petey Green, you might find some clues in this story about why the Theater is looking for another Manager. (Hint: It ain’t substance abuse!)