Film Screening 2nd August, 2014

Poster for The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars 

7:00 PM, 2nd August, 2014
No Guests

  • M
  • 126 mins
  • 2014
  • Josh Boone
  • Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
  • Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Willem Dafoe, Laura Dern

Hazel (Woodley) and Gus (Elgort) meet in school, in less than ideal circumstances. He is recovering from cancer; she, undergoing the usual cancer treatments, expects to die, and thus to destroy everybody she loves. Whilst Gus is determined that fear of loss shall not prevent them from loving each other, Hazel’s fears keep her uninvolved. And so battle between falling in love and protecting our loves is joined.

This is a lovely tale to see unfold, full of charm, humour, and genuine individuality even as it touches despair and grief: far from a simple formulaic tale. Stereotypes remain peripheral; the tale is always about the human heart. Hazel’s parents support her as parents should; Gus’s imagination roams free of his peers’ approval. Less a play than a novel, the film explores real relationships.

At a low point in your life, this is the perfect movie to immerse yourself in. You’ll find it even more rewarding at other times. The distractions that plague more-formulaic films are largely absent here. The dialogue is fresh; the sound, crisp. School scenes depart from stereotype. The cinematography is beautiful, somewhat European in look. Treat yourself to an evening of tears sweet and salty.

John P. Harvey

Poster for The Other Woman

The Other Woman 

9:16 PM, 2nd August, 2014

  • M
  • 109 mins
  • 2014
  • Nick Cassavetes
  • Melissa K. Stack
  • Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

The Other Woman is The First Wives Club for the new millennium – feisty, comedic women bond and seek vengeance on their wayward lovers/husbands (except cut sassy, singing diva Bette Midler and replace with sassy, singing diva Nicki Minaj). Well, kind of…

The Other Woman brings the empowered and independent woman (Diaz), the supportive and loving wife (Mann) and the sweet and bubbly beach bunny (Upton) together in an unlikely friendship after discovering that they all share the one man. Although the plotline is clichéd and can get a bit crude, this revenge/chick-flick is actually hilarious. The lines are fun and fast, and the casting is spot-on: Cameron Diaz is in her element within a raunchy comedy and Leslie Mann is magnificent. I have always felt that Leslie Mann’s break onto the big screen due to being Judd Apatow’s wife was not simply a coincidence. But in this film I feel for the first time she is not a fill-in, she almost steals the show… she is ‘comedy gold’. And of course the object of desire/retribution, the charismatic scoundrel is played, appropriately, by that beautiful face we love to hate, “Game of Thrones’s” Jaime Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

So if you love a bit of well-timed revenge comedy, enjoyed 1996’s The First Wives Club, or would just like to watch Kate Upton, in all her glory, running along the beach in a bikini “Baywatch” style, come check out The Other Woman.

Elyshia Hopkinson