Saturday, September 24, 2022

Screening: Check Out Amsterdam With Special Q&A Early And Free!

We have partnered with 20th Century Studios for a screening of the exciting, fan first screening of Amsterdam in IMAX!  This is going to be a special one with a great film followed by an exciting Q&A!

Join Director-Writer-Producer David O. Russell and the cast of 20th Century Studios and New Regency’s AMSTERDAM for an exclusive IMAX Live Q&A on Tuesday, September 27th at 4:00pm PST/7:00pm EST as part of the AMSTERDAM: The IMAX® Live Experience. This exclusive fan-first opportunity provides IMAX® and 20th Century Studios moviegoers the opportunity to screen the upcoming original crime epic in advance of its October 7, 2022 release while connecting with the cast during a live Q&A session (Moderated by TCM host and Entertainment Weekly correspondent, Dave Karger). All attendees will receive a commemorative mini poster.  

Written and Directed By: David O. Russell
Starring: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña

Screening Info
AMSTERDAM
Tuesday, September 27th
7:00 PM
AMC Georgetown 14
Washington, DC

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Screening: Check Out The Greatest Beer Run Ever Early And Free!

We have partnered with Apple for a screening of the new Zac Efron and Russell Crowe film based on a true story, The Greatest Beer Run Ever!  

To show support for his neighborhood friends serving in Vietman, Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) decides to do something totally outrageous:  travel to the frontline by himself to bring the soldiers a little piece of home – their favorite can of American beer.  However, what started as a well-meaning journey quickly turns into the adventure of a lifetime as Chickie confronts the reality of his controversial war and his reunions with the childhood buddies thrust him into the com plexities and responsibilities of adulthood.  Based on an incredible true story, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is a heartfelt coming-of-age tale about friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice.  

Director: Peter Farrelly
Writers: Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, Brian Currie
Starring: Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Jake Picking, Will Ropp

Screening Info
THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER 
Wednesday, September 28th
7:00pm 
AMC Tysons Corner 16
McLean, VA

Screening: Check Out My Best Friend's Exorcism Early And Free!

We have partnered with Amazon for a screening of the new horror comedy, My Best Friend's Exorcism!  This is a virtual screening opportunity so you can watch it from the comfort of your own home! 

Surviving the teenage years isn’t easy, especially when you’re possessed by a demon. It’s 1988, and best friends Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) are navigating boys, pop culture, and a paranormal force clinging to Gretchen like a pair of neon legwarmers. With assistance from overly confident mall exorcist Christian Lemon (Christopher Lowell), Abby is determined to compel the demon back to the pits of hell—if it doesn’t kill Gretchen first. At turns horrifying and hilarious, My Best Friend’s Exorcism pays homage to 1980s pop culture with a totally timeless tale of terror and true friendship. Based on Grady Hendrix’s best-selling novel.

  Directed by: Damon Thomas
Written by: Jenna Lamia
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Amiah Miller, Cathy Ang, Rachel Ogechi Kanu, and Christopher Lowell
Rated: R
Runtime: 96 minutes

Screening Info
MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM
Thursday, September 29th
7:30 pm
Virtual

Friday, September 16, 2022

Goodbye, Don Glees! Review: An Anime Coming of Age Adventure

Release Date: September 14, 2021
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Director/Writer: Atsuko Ishizuka 
OLV Cast: Ayumu Murase, Natsuki Hanae, Yuuki Kaji, Kana Hanazawa 
English Dub Cast: Adam McArthur, Nick Wolfhard, Jonathan Leon, Victoria Grace 

Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life. 

Goodbye Don, Glees! has a Stand By Me feel, with a group of friends adventuring off into the woods to both accomplish a task and grow as friends and individuals.  The first thing you will notice is the beautiful animation.  This anime has a clean, but wholly anime style that is impressive to see.  The film is a set in a small town in the woods, and the animation highlights this perfectly.  From deep forests, to beautiful vistas, to just the overall highlights of their journey, this is a movie that will make you stop and take notice.  And it's not just the inherent beauty of the setting that will make you take notice, the film is set in a town that is too small for any of these personalities, and the animation helps to set that stage.  The town looks old and run down, which is a nice contrast to the beauty and wonder of the world around the Don Glees.  

But the film isn't all about the visuals.  The ambient music that accompanies these visuals is equally beautiful.  It really gives you a sense of wonder and excitement as the journey progresses.  And as with many coming of age films, this movie has a ton of heart throughout.  Despite the turmoil, the bond that these friends share is energetic and infectious.  And the ending of the film keeps this trend going, with a fulfilling climax that really brings it all home. 

However, Goodbye, Don Glees! is not without its faults.  For a film that focuses so much on maturing and growing into your own, there are some surprisingly juvenile moments that set a very different tone than the rest of the film.  And the movie does jump around in the timeline, which makes for a confusing overall story.  I liked it eventually, but it left me scratching my head at the start.  Because of this, it is one of those movies that I will probably have to watch again just to fully understand, but it is also one that I am looking forward to experiencing again.

Goodbye, Don Glees! is an anime coming of age with stunning animation, a wonderful soundtrack, and despite some initial immaturity and confusion, grows into a heartfelt and heart wrenching film.  

Watch it.

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Goodbye, Don Glees! is in theaters on September 14, 2022.   

See How They Run Review: A Great Cast Fuels This Whodunit Mystery

Release Date: September 16, 2021
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Director/Writer: Atsuko Ishizuka 
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan,Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson, Charlie Cooper, Shirley Henderson, Lucian Msamati, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Pearl Chanda, Paul Chahidi, Sian Clifford, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Ania Marson, Tim Key, David Oyelowo

In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after the film’s Hollywood director is murdered. When world weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

I had high hopes for See How They Run due to the stellar cast and wonderful concept.  And for the most part they delivered with a series of quirky characters and a stylish look.  The film starts off slowly but builds consistently as the mystery grows and the questions intensify.  And contributing to this tempo is a wonderful soundtrack that captures the style and whimsy of this film.  Strangely, the soundtrack seems to contribute more to the overall mood and energy than some of the plot devices.  Additionally, the movie does have a nice, dry sense of humor that comes through often.  And the film builds to an ultimately satisfying, very whodunit ending. 

However, despite me having very high hopes for this film, ultimately it did not grab me as much as I would have expected.  The film has a very slow start, one that had me wondering when more would happen.  Although See How They Run does eventually build in the final third, it just never reached what I was hoping it would become.  At the end of the day, I was left wondering if the journey had been worth it.  And the dry humor has plenty of moments but those moments were far more scattered than I was anticipating.  

And despite the movie's bold style, I did not get the same boldness from the characters.  It was a strange disconnect to have a film that had such a sense of identity that was not communicated through the main conduits.  I felt like some of the talent was not utilized well.  Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors but it often felt like his talent was wasted in this film.  His character is weary and downtrodden for most of the movie, muting his natural humor and charisma.  Ultimately, given the style and list of quirky characters, I was expecting something similar to Knives Out, but where Knives Out was sharp and stylish, see how they run was dull and muted.  

See How They Run has a stellar cast and an ultimately satisfying mystery, but in the end it feels like a dulled Knives Out rather than a fresh stab at the whodunit genre. 

Rent it.

If you liked this review and want to see more from Watch or Pass, please consider 
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See How They Run is in theaters on September 16, 2022.  

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Screening: Check out Goodnight Mommy Early and Free

We have partnered with Amazon for a screening of the creepy film, Goodnight Mommy!  This one is going to be a fun one (despite the scary content) with complimentary wine and a fun photo opportunity! 

When twin brothers (Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) arrive at their mother’s (Naomi Watts) country home to discover her face covered in bandages—the result, she explains, of recent cosmetic surgery—they immediately sense that something doesn’t add up. She sets strange new house rules, smokes in her bathroom, and secretly rips up a drawing they gave her—things their loving mother would never do. As her behavior grows increasingly bizarre and erratic, a horrifying thought takes root in the boys’ minds: The sinking suspicion that the woman beneath the gauze, who’s making their food and sleeping in the next room, isn’t their mother at all. 

Directed by: Matt Sobel
Written by: Kyle Warren
Cast: Naomi Watts, Cameron Crovetti, Nicholas Crovetti, Peter Hermann 
Rated: R
Runtime: 91 minutes

Screening Info
GOODNIGHT MOMMY
Wednesday, September 14
7:00 pm
Landmark E Street

Screening: See The Silent Twins Early And Free

We have partnered with Focus Features for a screening of The Silent Twins, a film based on the amazing true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, who grew up in Wales in the 1970s/1980s!

THE SILENT TWINS stars Letitia Wright (BLACK PANTHER) and Tamara Lawrance as June and Jennifer Gibbons, who grew up in Wales in the 1970s/1980s. Only communicating with each other, they created a rich, fascinating world to escape the reality of their own lives. They were committed to a high-security psychiatric institution, where they met journalist Marjorie Wallace. June and Jennifer entrusted her with their diaries and Marjorie quickly realized the girls were incredibly talented writers and artists, but alienated, and psychopathic as they had been diagnosed. The book on which the movie is based, “The Silent Twins”, is written by Marjorie Wallace. Angieszka (Aga) Smoczynska is an emerging Polish director with a unique vision, who was determined to show the twins as strong, fearless and creative, qualities that were largely ignored in the press coverage of their story at the time.

Director: Agnieszka Smocynska
Writer: Andrea Seigel
Cast: Letitia Wright, Tamara Lawrance, Nadine Marshall

Running time: 113 mins
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R

Screening Info
THE SILENT TWINS
Monday, September 12
7:00 pm
Landmark E Street

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Giveaway: Win a Digital Copy of Minions - The Rise of Gru

We have partnered with Illumination to give away a digital copy of the all new chapter in the Despicable Me story, Minions: The Rise of Gru!   

Long before he becomes the master of evil, Gru is just a 12-year-old boy in 1970s suburbia, plotting to take over the world from his basement. When the infamous supervillain group, the Vicious 6, ousts their leader, Gru attempts to join their ranks but soon finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. With Gru on the run, the Minions attempt to learn martial arts to help save him, and Gru discovers that even bad guys need a little help from their friends. Packed with the franchise’s signature subversive humor, MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU features more thrilling action than any Despicable Me film ever before!

Cast: Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Taraji P. Henson, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Jean-Claude Van Damme, with Julie Andrews, and Alan Arkin
Original Score By: Heitor Pereira
Co-Directed By: Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val
Story By: Brian Lynch and Matthew Fogel
Screenplay By: Matthew Fogel
Produced By: Chris Meledandri p.g.a, Janet Healy p.g.a, Chris Renaud p.g.a
Directed By: Kyle Balda

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