Perfect Days at Real Art Ways

“A profound tale of finding peace, meaning, and beauty in life.” – Next Best Picture

“A humane, hopeful embrace of everyday blessing.” – Variety 

“A poem of extraordinary subtlety and beauty.” – Vox

96% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.

A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

Academy Award Nominee for Best International Feature Film

“A landmark movie.” – The Times

“Breath-stopping.” – Time

“Screaming with fear and alarm and terribly necessary for its time.” – Vanity Fair

“…it is about the ways in which people close themselves off to destabilizing truths.” – Boston Globe 

“…a master class in how to show without showing.” – Wall Street Journal 

92% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

Oscar Winner for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound

Registration is now closed due to overwhelming response.

Schedule:

Reception at 4:30pm

Film at 5:30pm

Discussion at 8pm

“A brilliant, cinematic masterpiece.” – Forbes

“One of the most unusual and ingenious of recent screenplays.” – The New Yorker

“Rich in thought, ‘Origin’ is a dense, forceful masterwork, and, quite simply, the most radical film of DuVernay’s career.” – RogerEbert.com

“It will leave you speechless.” – Deadline

“Few American movies this year reach so high, so boldly.” – New York Times

Synopsis:

While grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, Isabel sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery. Despite the colossal scope of her project, she finds beauty and bravery while crafting one of the defining American books of our time.

“The film listens for this community’s heartbeat, finding its steady pulse just as expected: healthy and strong.” – New York Times

“Stirring, bittersweet, and reflective.” – Boston Globe

100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

River City Drumbeat is a powerful and uplifting story of music, love, and legacies set in the American South. Edward “Nardie” White devoted his life to leading the African-American drum corps he co-founded with Zambia Nkrumah in Louisville, Kentucky three decades ago. Together they inspired youth from their West Louisville neighborhood to thrive by connecting them with the art and cultural traditions of their African ancestors.

River City Drumbeat follows this creative community of mentors, parents, and youth making their way in a world where systemic forces raise obstacles to fulfilling their dreams.

Featuring a performance from Hartford Proud’s Drill Drum and Dance Corp.

Sponsored by Suzanne Hopgood in honor of Frank Lord

This film showing is part of the Mandell JCC’s 28th Annual Phyllis Hoffman Hartford Jewish Film Festival!

“The story is unique and ultimately illuminates not just an odd time in the history of 42nd Street (“the Deuce”) but an unusual tale of the American Jewish experience.” – Orlando Weekly

“The true genius of Queen of the Deuce is how one woman’s life story opens up into a multitude of perspectives, allowing all the voices in her family to share in this portrait of the immigrant experience.” – That Shelf

Synopsis:

From the late ’60s to the mid ’80s, in the notorious Times Square area known as the Deuce, the eccentric, Greek-born Chelly Wilson built a porn cinema empire and a reputation as one of the most savvy and charismatic figures on the scene. With a cigarette in hand and bags of money stashed in the corner, Chelly regularly held court in her bunkerlike apartment above the legendary 8th Avenue all-male Adonis Theatre, summoning a lively cabal of associates, entertainers and fellow poker players, with her female lovers always hovering and grandchildren often underfoot. Yet few in her circle knew of the risks she took to get there. Queen of the Deuce reveals Chelly’s origins as a taboo-breaking entrepreneur and traces the fraught events that lead to her departure from Europe on the eve of war, and the unconventional trajectories of her American business ventures and personal life. With the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and gay pride in frame, Queen of the Deuce is an alternate take on cultural history as seen through Chelly Wilson’s empowering story of survival.

This film showing is part of the Mandell JCC’s 28th Annual Phyllis Hoffman Hartford Jewish Film Festival!

“A handsome, stirring, yet untaxing dose of underdog-sports uplift.” – Washington Post

“A film that often feels like one has walked into an oil painting: well-crafted, lovely to look at, and rather old-fashioned.” – Associated Press

“When people say ‘they don’t make movies like that anymore,’ this is the kind of movie they’re talking about.” – RogerEbert.com

Synopsis:

The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.

“…a rousing success that got me thinking about my own experiences.” – The Boston Globe 

“One of the best and boldest American comedies in years with a dynamite performance by an Oscar-ready Jeffrey Wright.” – ABC News

“The best picture of the year.” – Washington Post 

92% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

American Fiction confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards!

Best Picture

Best Actor – Jeffrey Wright

Best Supporting Actor – Sterling K. Brown

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Original Screenplay

“Often beautiful, never pretty, occasionally creepy and perpetually surprising, Poor Things lives in Stone’s fiery eyes; her performance is, to borrow Bella’s words, a changeable feast.” – Seattle Times

“The best movie of the year.” – RogerEbert.com

“You won’t know what hit you, which is just one reason why I’m rabid to see it again.” – ABC News

“Both literary and cinematic, Poor Things gives the audience everything we can ask for in a film — beauty and wonder; hefty ideas and clever storytelling; twists, shocks and laughter.” – Wall Street Journal 

“mordantly funny, whimsical and wacky, unprecious and unpretentious, filled with so much to adore that to try and parse it all here feels like a pitiful response to the film’s ambitions.” – indieWire

93% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

“A fond character study that luxuriates in its subject’s livewire personality while acknowledging how exasperating and exhausting he could be.” – BBC.com

“Engrave an Oscar for Bradley Cooper for his heart-full-to-bursting tour de force as Leonard Bernstein. Alive with glorious music, the film resonates with the love the bisexual legend feels for the wife (a sublime Carey Mulligan) who lives with his demons.” – ABC News

“…Maestro is the real deal: the rousing, complex and heartbreaking rhapsody its subject deserves.” – Financial Times

“An absolute marvel. One of the finest films of the year.” – Rolling Stone

“Bradley Cooper exerts and exhausts his soul.” – IndieWire

Golden Globe nominee for Actor in a Drama Motion Picture, Actress in a Drama Motion Picture, and Drama Motion Picture.

Synopsis:

Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.

Starring Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan, this film is a love letter to life and art. At its core, it’s an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.

“The film – the latest in the Exhibition on Screen series – blends beautiful footage of the painting and its setting in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna with insightful criticism from curators and scholars to bring the artwork to life. There is a lot to unpack.” – The Guardian 

Synopsis:

This documentary delves into the detail and passion surrounding Gustav Klimt’s exquisite artwork, his scandalous life, the decadent Art Nouveau movement, and the painting that has become one of the most recognized and reproduced in the world—The Kiss.

“A portrait of the determination and grit—and self-absorption—possessed by athletes who push themselves to their limits.” – RogerEbert.com

“…will have you cheering.” – ABC News

“It is quite the tale of heroism and courage in the face of adversity, as well as the importance of teamwork and never giving up.” – Entertainment Weekly 

Synopsis:

A remarkable true story of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit, NYAD recounts a riveting chapter in the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad. Three decades after giving up marathon swimming in exchange for a prominent career as a sports journalist, at the age of 60, Diana (four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening) becomes obsessed with completing an epic swim that always eluded her: the 110 mile trek from Cuba to Florida, often referred to as the “Mount Everest” of swims. Determined to become the first person to finish the swim without a shark cage, Diana goes on a thrilling, four-year journey with her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll (two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster) and a dedicated sailing team.

“A darkly funny, and often truthful, look at the rapid hysteria of our real-world cancel culture.” – Huffington Post 

“It’s undeniably enjoyable and sharp, a reminder that a great idea can go a long way.” – RogerEbert.com 

“This is an ambitious, often provocative interrogation of masculinity, cancel culture, social media, and the power of celebrity through a humorous lens.” – Screen International

Synopsis:

Hapless family man Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom, in this wickedly entertaining comedy from writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) and producer Ari Aster.

“Never less than compelling, her [Helen Mirren] work here feels true from scene to scene.” – Financial Times

“Golda is unusually blunt about the internal devastation that comes with overseeing military operations.” – Wall Street Journal 

“For those with a particular interest in Meir, Israel, or 20th century Middle East history, there’s enough here to hold a viewer’s attention.” – ReelViews

“Mirren portrays Meir in her darkest days at the height of the 1973 Yom Kippur War with empathy and loving subtlety. It’s hard to imagine anyone doing it better…” – San Francisco Chronicle

Synopsis:

Golda is a ticking-clock thriller set during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), faced with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction, must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), with millions of lives in the balance. Her tough leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.

“This elaborate documentary navigates adroitly through the professional and the personal aspects of a very full life.” – Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Directors Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor and Maeve O’Boyle finally do an impressive and affecting job of hitting all those marks, in a film whose chief sin may just be that it doesn’t run about a half-hour longer.” – Variety 

“Anyone with an interest in the key artists of the counterculture movement will find much to appreciate here.” – Hollywood Reporter

Synopsis:

Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, JOAN BAEZ I AM A NOISE is a raw and intimate portrait of the legendary folk singer and activist that shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings. Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage — from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with MLK and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan. A searingly honest look at a living legend, this film is a compelling and deeply personal exploration of an iconic artist who has never told the full truth of her life, as she experienced it, until now.

“[A] consistently smart, funny movie about people who are easy to root for and like the ones we know.” – RogerEbert.com

“It’s the warmest cinematic experience you’ll have all year.” – The New York Post

“The vibes are immaculate from the start and only grow more so as the characters gradually start to become as detailed as the world that The Holdovers constructs around them.” – indieWire

Synopsis:

This film follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

“The occasional exposure flares and soundtrack sync pops reminds us this is a movie, but also that we’re watching what’s raw and possible in art and life, that it’s good to be open to wherever images and sounds may take us.” – Los Angeles Times 

“The film’s provocations have a playfulness and generosity that are enormously appealing.” – The New York Times 

“A narrative that maintains a stolid demeanor even as it takes the oddest turns.” – RogerEbert.com

91% on Rotten Tomatoes

Synopsis:

Introverted and unqualified, Eva is unexpectedly tasked with foleying the sound for a commercial featuring a horse. As she slowly acclimates to the new job, her obsession with creating the perfect equine sounds grows into something more tangible. Eva harnesses this new physicality, becoming more confident and empowered, and lures an unassuming botanist into an intriguing game of submission. Shot on lush 16mm, Piaffe is a visceral journey into control, gender, and artifice.

In German with English subtitles.