Friday Film Fare
Movie lovers know there’s nothing like a good film to help you unwind after a long week of work, school, and other commitments. And Central aims to please with Friday Film Fare. Jim Silverthorn, our resident cinephile, is your host for films ranging from classics like “Dog Day Afternoon” - to more recent popular hits like “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Plus, he’ll introduce you to lesser known gems that will surprise and delight. Please join us the third Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. Admittance is free. Just grab some popcorn and a soda - and make yourself comfortable in the Fireplace Room. Here is what’s playing soon:
The Color Purple (2023)
October 18th at 7:30
A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in 1982, an acclaimed Steven Spielberg film in 1985, The Color Purple is now . . . a musical? Yes, and a fine and moving one too. The story of Celie Harris (Fantasia Barrino), a young black woman in the rural South, separated from her beloved sister and from her own children, and forced into a loveless marriage to an abusive spouse becomes a decades-spanning epic of enduring love, resilience and finding independence. And with a ravishing musical score that opens on a Sunday morning with “The Good Lord Works in Mysterious Ways” to a final, heartfelt “Amen”, this latest incarnation of the now-classic tale glows with a Christian message of, above all, forgiveness. [141 minutes; color; Rated PG-13]
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
November 15th at 7:30
Henry Holland (Alec Guinness) is a meek bank clerk who for years has overseen the transfer of a staggering fortune in gold bullion. A plan to steal a shipment is not the real challenge. The major task would be getting it out of the country. But then appears a fellow rooming house lodger (Stanley Holloway) who manufactures souvenir replicas of the Eiffel Tower to be shipped to France. Fake gold replicas, that is. So why not some that aren’t so fake? And thus is born a perfect crime scheme that goes wildly imperfect through a series of edge-of-seat turns in this hilarious gem from the late 40’s-early 50’s golden era of British film comedy. [81 minutes; b&w; Not Rated]
The Holdovers (2023)
December 13th at 7:30
A decidedly unpopular instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school is forced to stay on campus during Christmas 1970 break and babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, the handful becomes just one troubled young man (Dominic Sessa). Along with the school’s cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is mourning the loss of her son in Vietnam, the three spend two very snowy weeks as a makeshift family through comic misadventures, self-discovery—and joy. Director Alexander Payne has crafted a fine skein of wry humor and warm emotion for any holiday season. [133 minutes; color; Rated R]
August: Osage County (2013)
January 17th at 7:30
A tragic family death brings the three strong-willed daughters of the Weston family home to Oklahoma and to their eccentric but equally strong-willed mother (Meryl Streep) for a family gathering of repressed emotion, resentment and long-suppressed revelation. Darkly hilarious, yet also oddly touching, this film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize play by Tracy Letts inserts much fun into the dysfunctional—which this family most certainly is. Meryl Streep’s breathtaking turn as Violet may be your new favorite Mommie Dearest. Let’s just say you won’t want seconds at this dinner table. [120 minutes; color; Rated R]
The Shootist (1976)
February 21st at 7:30
John Bernard Books (John Wayne), a celebrated gunfighter (called a shootist in those days), aware that he is dying, seeks to spend his final days in peace in a boarding house run by a widow (Lauren Bacall) and her young son (Ron Howard) in Carson City in 1901, as a new century dawns. But peace is not to be Brooks’ fate. Old scores mean one last battle remains. This was to be Wayne’s last film (in sad irony, the actor’s actual condition matched that of his character), giving this Western tale an aura of peaceful acceptance and a moving farewell for a true screen legend. [100 minutes; color; Rated PG]
Living (2022)
March 14th at 7:30
Rodney Williams (Bill Nighy) is a senior London City Council bureaucrat, supervising a board of other, younger bureaucrats, endlessly shuffling paperwork. When a medical diagnosis tells Williams his time is short, he decides it’s time to take stock. How can a simple, ordinary man, leading a simple, ordinary—OK, monotonous, boring—life leave a legacy? Kings leave palaces; pharaohs pyramids. Perhaps Williams can leave . . .a playground? With a screenplay by Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and a flawless performance by Nighy, Living, like its protagonist, will quietly, but relentlessly haunt you. [102 minutes; color; Rated PG-13]
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
May 2nd at 7:30
Ah, yes, a familiar childhood story and family favorite. But wait. This isn’t Pinocchio. This is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. And here we find ourselves far from Disney and in the darker and more adult world of Carlo Collodi’s original story of the wooden puppet who wanted to be a real boy. Now set in 1930’s Fascist Italy (with a cameo appearance by Il Duce Benito Mussolini himself), the breathtakingly intricate stop-motion animation will make you forget that it’s animation you are seeing, as del Toro imbues the oft-told tale with a bold new resonance about living with courage, compassion and finding what it means to be truly human. (Caution: this Pinocchio is not a children’s movie, nor is it recommended for younger viewers.) [117 minutes; color; Rated PG]