The Sound of Music
7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
Whether or not you’re into Black Friday, coming to see one of the most enduring and endearing movies of all time will offer a significant break from full-blown holiday madness.
“The Sound of Music” is a 1965 film based on the 1959 stage musical of the same name. Music was composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The story is based on the true story of the Trapp Family Singers.
Julie Andrews stars as Maria, a young nun in an Austrian convent who regularly misses her morning prayers. Deciding that Maria needs to learn something about the real world before she can take her vows, the Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) sends her off to be governess for the children of the widowed Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Arriving at the Trapp home, Maria discovers that her new boss is cold and aloof, and his seven children virtual automatons - at least, whenever the Captain is around. Otherwise, the kids are holy terrors. But Maria soon ingratiates herself with the children.
As Maria herself begins to fall in love with the Captain, she rushes back to the Abbey so as not to complicate his impending marriage to a glamorous baroness (Eleanor Parker). But the children insist that Maria return, the Baroness steps out of the picture, and Maria and the Captain confirm their love in the song "Something Good."
Unhappily, they return home from their honeymoon shortly after the Nazis march into Austria. Von Trapp is called back to active duty in the service of the Fuhrer. The Captain wants nothing to do with Nazism, and he begins making plans to take himself and his family out of Austria. (www.rottentomatoes.com)
The Sound of Music is rated G.
House of Flying Daggers
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
In its last presentation in the Art House Film Series, The Varsity will show the Zhang Yimou’s 2004 martial arts romance film “House of Flying Daggers.”
The House of Flying Daggers is a rebel group that steals from the wealthy and gives to the poor. Two police deputies working with the government are ordered to investigate the dancer Mei who is rumored to be working with the rebels. But, both men are defenseless against her powers.
The film is best known for its extraordinary cinematography and balletic martial arts fight scenes. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars writing: "Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals… the film is so good to look at and listen to that, as with some operas, the story is almost beside the point, serving primarily to get us from one spectacular scene to another."
“House of Flying Daggers” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Zhang Yimou is one of the greatest living Chinese film directors best known for “Raise the Red Lantern” (1991) and “The Great Wall” (2016).
“House of Flying Daggers” is rated PG-13.
The trailer for “House of Flying Daggers” is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLVaSYzAvg
Bad Santa
7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
The Christmas season gets less joyous in this very dark 2003 comedy. Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) is a con man and a thief who teams up with his friend Marcus (Tony Cox), a midget, for a very special scam each year during the holiday season.
Willie gets a job as Santa Claus at a shopping mall, his pal tags along as an elf, and they use their employee status to crack mall security and rob stores blind just before Christmas. However, there's one flaw to this plan -- Willie is a bitter, foul-mouthed and perpetually grouchy alcoholic who doesn't care for kids, and it's all he can do to keep himself from getting fired while on the job.
The mall's manager (John Ritter, in his last film appearance) is certain something's wrong with the Santa he's hired, so he asks the mall's chief of security (Bernie Mac) to do some research on Willie. Meanwhile, one of the kids Willie is forced to talk to becomes a regular customer; overweight, awkward, and the frequent target of bullies, the boy manages to arouse something like sympathy from Willie, who tries to give him some advice and develops something vaguely resembling Christmas sprit along the way. (www.rottentomatoes.com)
Bad Santa is rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence.
Love Actually
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," 2003’s Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas.
The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get lucky -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. (www.rottentomatoes.com)
Love Actually is rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.
Scrooged
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth.
Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings - even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve.
Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who Frank one last chance to redeem himself. (www.rottentomatoes.com
Scrooged is rated PG-13 for adult situations and language, violence
Christmas Vacation
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” returns to The Varsity again this year.
This 1989 comedy was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series. The Vacation film series was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon magazine, "Christmas 1959."
The film stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo and Randy Quaid, with Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki as the Griswold children, Audrey and Rusty.
In this movie, The Griswold family’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
Since its release in 1989, Christmas Vacation has often been labeled as a modern Christmas classic.
Christmas Vacation is rated PG-13.