Commonwealth College Film Series
Movie showings take place Mondays
at 7:00 pm in 504 Goodell. Films are free and open to all Commonwealth College members and their friends. Snacks and refreshments will be served prior to the showing.
Please RSVP to events@honors.umass.edu by the Sunday prior to the showing.
Spring 2010
 Feb 1: The Truman Show (1998)
Comic actor Jim Carrey plays it (mostly) straight for this smart satire from director Peter Weir (DEAD POETS SOCIETY). The life of Truman Burbank (Carrey) has been broadcast around the world with tremendous success since the day he was born. A star for the mere fact that he exists, Truman has no idea that there are cameras in every corner of his world. But soon, cracks begin to show in the constructed world, and Truman questions his existence while everyone around him is in on the joke. Weir directs a fine cast, including Laura Linney as Truman's wife and Ed Harris as the show's director. Screenwriter Andrew Niccol also added interesting twists to the scripts for S1M0NE and GATTACA.(taken from rottentomatoes.com)
 Feb 8: Wag the Dog (1997)
When a Firefly Girl accuses the president of sexual misconduct in the Oval Office less than two weeks before the upcoming election, White House official Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) is told to bring in Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro) to fix the situation and save the president's chances for reelection. This mysterious "fixer" fabricates a conflict with Albania in an effort to detract attention from the sex scandal, bringing in legendary Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to "produce" the war. When the CIA foils the initial plot, the creative team turns to a new story line, creating the saga of a U.S. soldier left behind enemy lines whom the president vows to find and return to American soil. Directed by Barry Levinson (DINER, RAIN MAN) and loosely based on Larry Beinhart's novel AMERICAN HERO, this merging of Hollywood and politics is both thought provoking and comical. The inspired casting of Hoffman as the self-absorbed producer and De Niro as the mysterious spin doctor is bolstered by a superb supporting cast that includes Denis Leary and Andrea Martin.(taken from rottentomatoes.com)
 Feb 22: Brazil (1985)
BRAZIL is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece. Cowritten by Gilliam, playwright Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown, the cult-favorite film is set in a futuristic society laden with red tape and bureaucracy. When a bug (literally) gets in the system, an innocent man is killed, leading mild-mannered Sam Lowry (an excellent Jonathan Pryce) to reexamine what he wants out of life. He decides to fight the totalitarian system in his search for freedom--and the woman he loves. The terrific, offbeat cast features Robert De Niro as a renegade heating engineer; Katherine Helmond as Sam's ever-younger mother; Michael Palin as a government-sanctioned torturer with a distaste for upsetting the status quo; Bob Hoskins as a vengeful Central Services employee; Jim Broadbent as a wacko plastic surgeon; the wonderful Ian Holm as Sam's nerve-ridden, pitiful boss, afraid of his own signature; and Kim Greist as the rebel Sam falls for. The look of BRAZIL is relentless, overwhelming, and outrageously spectacular. Giant monoliths rise from the street; government offices are a network of computers, pneumatic tubes, and narrow hallways built with Nazi-like precision; and apartment complexes are a maze of washed-out grays and numbers, all frighteningly uniform. The terrorist explosions actually bring color into this dull, monochramatic world. BRAZIL is a nightmare vision of the future, yet also hysterically funny and incisive, one of the most inventive, influential, and important films of the 1980s.(taken from rottentomatoes.com)
 March 1: Search and Destroy (1995)
Middle-aged Martin Mirkhein is a complete failure. He's run a successful business into debt, his marriage is falling apart, and now he's owes the IRS $147,956 in back taxes. Martin may not have much going for him but he has read "Daniel Strong," a best-selling, self-help novel by the popular TV guru Dr Waxling. Now he wants to turn the novel into a major motion picture. To do that, Martin needs the rights and the revenue. Given his grating personality and terrible track record, it won't be easy to get a hold of either. He sets out to meet with Dr. Waxling but ends up sleeping with Waxling's screenwriter-assistant Marie, instead. Determined to make a movie, Martin and Marie move to New York. There, they get involved with wealthy Kim Ulander, an enigmatic businessman with quirky tendencies and a repressed desire to live dangerously. If they aren't careful, this daring duo may not come out of this deal alive.(taken from rottentomatoes.com)
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