Sunday Night Film Club – DC

In 1994, scientist Victor DeNoble became the first whistleblower to reveal the tobacco industry’s efforts to manufacture “a maximally addictive” product. Tasked in the 1980s by a major tobacco company to invent a safer form of nicotine-one that would decrease the danger of heart failure while remaining just as addictive (so smokers could live, and smoke, longer)-DeNoble succeeded. But, in doing so, he inadvertently created something the tobacco companies had been avoiding for years-indisputable scientific evidence that nicotine was addictive. Their reaction was swift: his position was terminated, his lab was closed, and both his research and the “safer cigarette” were buried in the vaults and kept from the public…until he broke his confidentiality agreement and became the ultimate whistleblower. If you think you know everything there is to know about cigarettes and nicotine, Addiction Incorporated will startle you with its vital, previously undisclosed information. Straight from the mouths of the key players behind the scenes (including Steven C. Parrish, the former Senior VP and General Counsel for External Affairs at Philip Morris, and Jeffrey Wigand, the subject of the Academy Award-nominated film The Insider), this film reveals exactly how the tobacco industry achieved behemoth power through scientific secrecy…and what their next move may be.

Winner of four awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, including the Golden Bear for Best Film, A Separation is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage in contemporary Iran. Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave Iran to provide better opportunities for her daughter. When her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi) refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father, Simin sues for divorce. But her request fails, so she returns to her parents’ home with her daughter. Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife’s absence, hoping that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that there is more on the line than just his marriage.

Advance tickets may be purchased at https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?TheatreID=261&MovieID=12675&ShowDate=1/22/2012&ScheduleID=101936

Hollywood 1927. Silent movie matinee idol George Valentin (Jean Dujardin, the charismatic star of OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies) is enjoying the good life, although he seems fonder of his faithful dog than of his trophy wife (Penelope Ann Miller). He meets funny, sexy young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), a dancer set for a big break, and sparks fly. With the advent of the talkies George’s career nosedives, while Peppy’s takes off. The Artist is the charming and poignant story of their interlinked destinies-a delightful valentine to the love of cinema, with a tip of the hat to Singin’ in the Rain and A Star Is Born. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius (who also directed the OSS 117 films) daringly shot the film completely in the style of a silent feature, in black and white and without sound (with a few striking exceptions), filmed on location in Hollywood, set to a wonderful original score by Ludovic Bource. Winner of the Best Actor Award (Dujardin) at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Co-starring John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell, and James Cromwell.

This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), as he investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch’s niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a successful writer of teen literature who returns to her hometown with a dual mission: to relive her glory days and steal away her now-married high-school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). However, her mission does not go exactly to plan, and she finds her homecoming more problematic than she expected. Instead, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate (Patton Oswalt), who has also found it difficult to move past high school.

Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up In the Air) and written by Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara).

Advance tickets may be purchased here: https://www.fandango.com/transaction/ticketing/redvines/ticketboxoffice.aspx?row_count=1591287060&mid=146953&tid=AATAR

In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6′s echelons.

Given that this is opening weekend for the film, we recommend that you purchase your tickets in advance at https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?TheatreID=264&MovieID=12584&ShowDate=12/18/2011&ScheduleID=95042

In this warm-hearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (newcomer Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoe-shiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. Made in French by acclaimed Finnish writer/director Aki Kaurismaki (Lights in the Dusk, The Man Without a Past, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America), who was inspired by the continuing financial, political and moral crisis that has resulted from the irregular, often substandard treatment of refugees trying to find their way into the European Union from abroad. Finland’s official entry to the 2012 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film consideration. Winner of the International Film Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best International Film Award at the Munich Film Festival. (Fully subtitled)

One week only – consider pre-purchasing tickets.

Twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy.

(Note: we are going to see the 2D version of the film.)

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary and Mary from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.