Elegy - Friday November 20th, 7.30pm

Film buffs can continue to enjoy Friday nights at the Port Fairy cinema this week with 'Elegy', a Phillip Roth adaptation starring Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz.

David Kepesh (Kingsley) is a middle-aged academic whose charisma and inability to commit to women are chief among his traits. When he falls passionately in love with a Cuban student Consuela Castillo (Cruz) he becomes lost in a new emotional landscape. "My whole life was dedicated to independence", he muses.

David's friend George (Dennis Hopper) and longtime liaison Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson) are both anchors to his past and supports in his present. "You've got to stop worrying about growing old," says George. "Worry about growing up."

As David becomes increasingly obsessive and confused in his love for the equally independent Consuela, the path to true happiness seems rockier than ever.

Director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me) focuses on the emotional arc of David's character and makes use of the strong ensemble cast, which also includes Deborah Harry and Peter Sarsgaard.

With a rating of 74% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, Elegy was generally well received critically.

"Director Isabel Coixet has adeptly woven this intelligent tale of ageing, beauty, love and loss," wrote Jenni Dawes of Filmink.

"Intelligently translates Roth's meditation on lust and mortality without soft-pedaling its narrator's brutally honest, unabashedly sexist views," said Leslie Felperin of Variety.

Elegy screens this Friday 20th November at 7.30pm at Reardon Theatre in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.

'Milk' - Relay for Life fundraiser, Friday 1st May 7.30pm

Hollywood icon Sean Penn's most celebrated performance is a film fundraiser for Relay for Life this Friday night in Port Fairy.

Milk chronicles the true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. San Fransisco in the 1970s is a gay civil rights flashpoint, and Milk, who runs a camera shop, becomes an unlikely poster boy for progress.

Director Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Elephant) uses a mix of archival footage with intensely dramatic sequences to build a film worthy of both the subject and the gifted actor at the centre.

Josh Brolin plays his second misunderstood villain of the year - depending on where George W. Bush sits in your esteem - and has been lauded for his portrayal as Milk's disaffected colleague.

"I think it’s one of Sean Penn’s great performances," said David Stratton of ABC1's At the Movies. "I think in this he really lives - inhabits the role of Harvey Milk, who was such an interesting character anyway. Five stars."

"Quite simply, Milk is an unmissable film about a man who energised a movement," said Colin Fraser of FilmInk.

"The film is dedicated to Milk's memory, but it's Penn that most of us will remember," wrote Evan Williams in The Australian.

Milk screens this Friday 1st May at 7.30pm at Port Fairy Cinema in Bank Street. Tickets available at the door or phone 55628961.

Click below for preview:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Friday April 17th at 7.30pm

Woody Allen continues to fascinate audiences despite widespread scepticism - completely valid given his mediocre recent fare. A switch from New York to Europe has revitalised his later career, helped also by the enduring loyalty of A-List stars who seem to relish his oddball comic creations.

Welcome to wherever you are, Woody - in this case, stunning Barcelona. Scarlett Johansson, a regular Allen muse these days, is joined by Penelope Cruz in a four-way love triangle (would that be a quadrangle?) with Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall. A Spanish summer is spent searching for love, creative passion and meaning.

Artist Juan Antonio (Bardem) has invited tourists Cristina (Johansson) and Vicky (Hall) to his hometown to see a favourite sculpture. Full of Spanish charm, sparks begin to fly. When his crazy ex-wife Maria Elena (Cruz), who has just tried to kill him and herself, turns up, the dynamics become even more complicated.

Steady, without the often rapid-fire wisecracking style usually associated with Woody Allen films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an enjoyable summer holiday. It is a delight to see Cruz (who won the Oscar for this) and Bardem, in particular, as the quintessential passionate Spanish artists. Johansson delves back to her Lost in Translation turn as the Gen X woman constantly for what she wants, but with a sultry playfulness here.

While there's still more than a hint of Allen's famously patronising attitude to women for which many can't excuse, it's a strong return to form. The pace works, the ideas are solid and the casting is spot on.

"Occasionally endearingly audacious, Woody Allen's screenplay for Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a further riff on the unique, unpredictable nature of romantic relationships among the human race," wrote Andrew L Urban of Urban Cinefiles.

"By the time Cruz appears, Vicky Cristina Barcelona has delivered on those initial good omens: it's Allen's best film in at least a decade," said Nicholas Barber of the Independent.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona screens this Friday 17th April at 7.30pm at Port Fairy Cinema in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.

Click below to watch trailer:

Lars & The Real Girl - September 19th

When you're an odd young man, it's hard to do the right thing by others - or even yourself. But in small town America you can get away with just about any amount of weirdness.

Lars & The Real Girl is your typical boy meets girl made of rubber, boys falls for girl made of rubber-type movie. Lars (played with colour and sensitivity by Ryan Gosling) is slightly stranger than your garden variety loner. Crippled by his social inadequacies, Lars forms an attachment to a fake plastic woman named Bianca and begins introducing his new flame to his family. (Let's be generous and call Bianca a 'mannequin'.) On the advice of his therapist, they play along, and before long Bianca becomes an indepensible part of the community.

The premise sounds kinda creepy, but this indie hit was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Oscars and a terrific cast make good use of a tight, witty script. Australian-born director Craig Gillespie has crafted an almost believable tale set in chilly, small town America. Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) is always good, and you do feel for Lars' utter helplessness.

"A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around," wrote Helen O'Hara from Empire.

"The film is at once entertaining, heartwarming and thought provoking, hard to label and impossible to simplify - but really easy to enjoy," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

"The impressive thing about this movie is just how unweird it is," said Marc Fennell from Triple J. 

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below for preview of Lars & the Real Girl

No Country for Old Men - August 15th

Is this the baddest bad guy in film history? Have the Coen Brothers, in directing Javier Bardem - Oscar winner for Best Actor in a disturbing wig - created a cinematic villain to rival even Robert Mitchum’s 1955 turn in The Night of The Hunter?

Click above to view trailer:

No Country for Old Men is Port Fairy Film Society’s August screening this Friday 15th August at 7.30pm.

No Country for Old Men is classic suspenseful cinema with all the elements: a drug deal gone wrong, a suitcase full of cash and a down-on-his-luck nice guy who makes the choice to pick it up and run. Bardem’s Anton Chigurh isn’t pleased with that decision, and it’s on for young and old, as they say.

A stellar cast that includes Tommy Lee-Jones, Woody Harrelson, Josh Brolin and Kelly Macdonald delivers the Coen Brothers their most critically acclaimed film since Fargo. With stunning backdrops and a mood of quiet, slow menace throughout, No Country for Old Men is a violent romp through the American desert and into Mexico. It’s a nasty but thrilling business - think Cape Fear meets The Proposition.

“It's the unexpected nature of the characters and what happens to them that makes this return to form from the Coen Brothers both intriguing and satisfying,” wrote Louise Keller from Urban Cinefile.

“Everything about this film is absolutely wonderful. I mean, it is the most tense thriller,” said Margaret Pomeratz from ABC TV’s At the Movies, where both Margaret and David gave the film five stars.

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm