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Event
PARIAH (2011) & MY SUMMER OF LOVE (2004) (double feature)
Wednesday and Thursday, April 4-5, 2012:
Winner of the Excellence in
Cinematography Award,
2011 Sundance Film Festival
PARIAH
2011, USA, 86 minutes, 35mm, Focus Features
Written and directed by Dee Rees
Starring Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans,
Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis
Wed & Thu: 7:30 pm
PLUS, on the same double feature:
Winner of the Alexander Korda Award
for Best British Film,
2005 BAFTA Awards
MY SUMMER OF LOVE
2004, UK, 86 minutes, 35mm, Focus Features
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Screenplay by Pawel Pawlikowski & Michael Wynne
Based on the novel by Helen Cross
Starring Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine
Wed & Thu: 9:20 pm
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Reviews of PARIAH:
"Ignore the idiots who dismiss the painfully funny and potently moving 'Pariah' as 'Precious Lite'. This vibrantly alive debut feature from Dee Rees, drawn from her own life, introduces an original voice. Rees' focus is on Alike (the altogether wonderful Adepero Oduye), a 17-year-old African-American virgin from Brooklyn's middle-class Fort Greene. Alike is eager to come out as a lesbian without knowing quite how to do it or to break the news to her churchgoing mother (Kim Wayans) and her cop dad (Charles Parnell). In her corner are sass-queen sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) and BFF Laura (a knockout Pernell Walker). But what happens when Alike finds herself attracted to Bina (Aasha Davis), who's more closeted than she is? The gifted Rees makes finding out a stirring and heartfelt journey. And Oduye is unforgettable. A star is born."
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Stirring. At its heart is an incandescent performance by Adpereo Oduye, who captures the jagged mood swings of late adolescence with a wonderfully spontaneous fluency. Ms. Oduye conveys not only the intelligence and will power of a young woman who is bursting out of her chrysalis like the butterfly she describes in the poetry she writes in a journal, but also the vestigial shyness of a bright, sheltered child in the throes of self-discovery. An acutely observed examination. The cinematographer Bradford Young makes you feel like an inhabitant of this part of Brooklyn."
- Stephen Holden, New York Times
"5 stars! An astute coming-of-age drama!
"Adepero Oduye's composed performance, is a splash of determination and humor alongside the inevitable swells of yearning. 'Pariah' benefits from solid performances among its young cast and warm, lucid camerawork from cinematographer Bradford Young. The film benefits most of all from writer/director Dee Rees' careful screenplay, which dances that shifting line between fear and emergent hope."
- Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle
"At its soulful heart, 'Pariah' is a stinging street-smart story of an African American teen's struggle to come of age and come out. Writer-director Dee Rees has a distinctive style and strong voice. The film's pace is set by an infectious, insistent hip-hop beat, with director of photography Bradford Young wielding the camera like an unsympathetic paparazzo. Rees has been smart in the way she's constructed Alike's world. Adepero Oduye as Alike is 'Pariah's' subtle center, with the actress moving seamlessly between the tomboy thrilled to play hoops with her dad to the sour-faced daughter forced to wear pink by her mom. She makes all of her character's discomfort with life believable, from the pain of rejection to her fumbling, and sometimes funny, attempts at being 'the guy.' There is a real tenderness to the film, especially as Alike navigates those first tentative moves at not just sex, but love all the conflicting emotions of actually falling for someone. Rees in turn gives 'Pariah' a surprising and empowering maturity."
- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
"More movies directed by women are opening in New York this December than perhaps any month ever and one of the most impressive is Dee Rees' auspicious debut feature, 'Pariah.' Rees, a former marketing executive for Proctor & Gamble and Schering-Plough, also wrote this fresh and sensitive autobiographical indie, about a 17-year-old lesbian coming of age in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Relative newcomer Adepero Oduye is luminous as the poetry-loving Alike, who's begun hanging out with her openly gay butch BFF, Laura (Pernell Walker), at gay clubs. And then there's Alike's increasingly complicated relationship with her parents: her homophobic mother and a dad who has more conflicted feelings something Rees vividly depicts without tipping into the painful earnestness so common to this kind of movie. Instead, she has the characters' faces say more than reams of dialogue could. This is a look at the joy, confusion and heartbreak of adolescence that's both culture- and locale-specific and, at the same time, universal. A rare low-budget movie photographed (quite artfully, by Bradford Young) on 35mm rather than on video, this Sundance sensation is being presented by Spike Lee, its executive producer. 'Pariah' is an exciting journey of discovery both for the audience and for a feisty heroine determined to learn how to be true to herself. Don't miss it."
- Lou Lumenick, New York Post
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Review of MY SUMMER OF LOVE:
"Any attempt to describe My Summer of Love -- as, say, 'a class-conscious lesbian drama' or 'the tale of two beautiful teenaged girls discovering themselves...and each other' -- threatens to reduce writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski's singular achievement to a dour stereotype or a titillating come-on. Make no mistake, this film matches its touching romance with acid wit and its careful social anthropology with gorgeously sun-dappled imagery. The result is a picture so perfectly balanced that it carries the joy, and the weight, of real life. The authentic performances earned international attention for stars Natalie Press, with her sly intelligence and wide-open face, and Emily Blunt, with her regal self-possession and flashes of vulnerability. As adolescent loners untied by a common contempt for what's expected of them, the actresses inhabit their carefully drawn characters completely. Factor in Ryszard Lenczewski's gorgeous cinematography, electro-pop duo Goldfrapp's evocative score, and Pawlikowski's discerning adaptation of Helen Cross' novel, and you have a pastoral romance that's both lyrical and unsentimental. Who knows why sapphic teens inspire so many filmmakers to such great heights, but My Summer of Love joins Heavenly Creatures and Show Me Love in the art-house canon."
- Brian J. Dillard, Allmovie
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This is a double feature:
your ticket admits you to BOTH films!
The box office opens approx. 15 minutes before the first film and then re-opens shortly before the second film for those who wish to only see the second film.
If you wish to only see the second film and purchased ticket(s) through Brown Paper Tickets, you will be able to claim your ticket(s) to the second film about 10 minutes before the second film starts.
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LocationNew Beverly Cinema (View)
7165 W. Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
United States
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