Movies that Matter
You are invited to free evenings of pizza, film, and conversation.
Open to the Public and Free!
First and Third Fridays, Neumayer Residence
Doors open: 6:15pm Movie rolls: 7:00pm sharp
| Next movie: | The Tree of Life |
| Date: | March 2, 2012 |
View Film Schedule
The showing of the movie will be followed by complimentary dessert and informal but lively discussion of the ethical and spiritual aspects of the film.
Please RSVP to Daniel Neumayer at 510-451-3009 or daniel@joyfulharmony.org by noon Friday so we know how much pizza to order (and specify meat or veggie :).
Location: 565 Bellevue #2407, Oakland, CA 94610
The movies are shown on our new 58" plasma HDTV with Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Our apartment has a breathtaking (really!) view of the entire Bay Area.
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Upcoming Movies
| The Tree of Life March 2, 2012
Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the most unusual, most inventive, film of last year! The story of a dysfunctional family in the 1950s, and the story of the universe, blended in a manner that is both challenging and beautiful. Can't be explained, must be seen.
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 | Hugo March 16, 2012 With Eleven(!) Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography, this is not just for kids. Martin Scorsese creates a new kind of film, part fantasy, part history, part mystery. Hugo, a young orphan living in the walls of a train station in Paris in the 1930s, (more...) |
| To Be Announced April 6, 2012 Please check back. |
 | Moneyball April 20, 2012 [Rescheduled from Feb.] Five Oscar nominations, including, Best Picture, Actor, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor. Brad Pitt in the true story of how Billy Beane, manager of the Oakland A's, changed the game of baseball. Roger Ebert’s, 4-star review, “A smart, intense and moving film that isn't so much about sports as (more...) |
Movies We've Watched Before
 | 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days This amazing drama from Romania won the Golden Palm at Cannes. Synopis from MetaCritic: During the final days of communism in Romania, two college roommates Otilia and Gabita are busy preparing for a night away. But rather than planning for a holiday, they are making arrangements for (more...) |
 | Almost Famous Jason Lee and Billy Crudup co-star in director Cameron Crowe’s enchanting coming-of-age story based on his teenage experiences. (Oscar for best screenplay.) A teenage writer (Patrick Fugit) gets the plumb assignment for covering his favorite band for Rolling Stone. With Francis McFormand as the boy’s mother, Kate Hudson as a band groupie, plus Jason Lee and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. |
 | Bagdad Cafe The 1988 classic about a group of misfits becoming a caring community at a small cafe in the middle of the desert. Jasmin, a German tourist who speaks no English, is dumped by her husband in the middle of the desert, winds up stumbling into the Bagdad Cafe where she becomes the catalyst that changes the lives of those who hang out there. CCH Pounder, Jack Palance. |
 | Beginners This intriguing drama tells the story of Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a graphic artist coming to grips with the imminent death of his father (Christopher Plummer), who, at 75, has one last secret: He's gay. And he has a young lover. Oliver sets out (more...) |
 | Black Swan This is one of my Personal favorites. Not really a movie about dance, but rather a tense psychological drama. A dancer’s obsession with her artistry leads to her loosing touch with life and (more...) |
 | Blazing Saddles This classic Mel Brooks comedy tackles race relations head-on, no holds barred, no taboo left unchallenged, no line not crossed. The mayhem begins when the redneck citizens of a small town in the old west (who else would occupy the old west in a Mel Brooks film?) bizarrely elect a black man a sheriff. It’s all down hill from there in one of Brooks’ funniest films. With Brooks, Gene Wilder. |
 | The Blind Side Nominated Best Picture; Sandra Bullock won for Best Actress. One act of kindness leads to another, and the next thing you know an affluent white Memphis couple has taken in a homeless black high school student. Thus begins the improbable tale of a poor young man with ambitions to play for the NFL. Based on a true story. |
 | Blue Valentine SF Chronicle: “Extraordinary and beautiful.” Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) use one night to try to rekindle the fire of their now sexless marriage. The film contrasts the golden days when everything was possible and hot blooded romance would last forever, (more...) |
 | Bound Roger Ebert calls the first film by Andy and Larry Wachowski, “a caper movie, a gangster movie, a sex movie and a slapstick comedy. It wrings you out and leaves you gasping.” Jennifer Tilly and (more...) |
 | Brazil This modern cult classic is at once funny and disturbing. Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam takes us on a wild ride through an Orwellian future, where a daydreaming civil servant (Jonathan Pryce) is, through a series of bureaucratic mistakes, is somehow declared to be an enemy of the state. (more...) |
 | An Education Nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Actress (Carey Mulligan) and Writing. In 1961 London, Jenny must choose between trying to get into Oxford, and the very different, much more exciting life offered by an older man. Her choices lead to a different kind of education, while her family is intrigued by the older man. With Emma Thompson as Jenny’s school mistress. Rated PG-13 |
 | Broadcast News A funny romantic comedy with something important to say. William Hurt is the smooth, handsome, anchorman with the low IQ, Holly Hunter is the brilliant, driven producer in James L. Brooks’ romantic comedy set in a (typical?) dysfunctional newsroom. Albert Brooks is the talented correspondent (more...) |
 | Cape Fear Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake brings new moral complexity to this 1960‘s classic. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) has spent the last decade in prison, blaming his defense attorney, Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), for his conviction. (more...) |
 | Conviction Based on a true story. Hillary Swank plays Betty Anne, a working mom and high school dropout, who watches helplessly as her brother, Kenny, is arrested for murder, defended by an incompetent public defender, convicted, and sentenced spend the rest of his life in prison. Convinced he is innocent, Betty Anne puts herself through high school, (more...) |
 | Crazy Heart Jeff Bridges won Best Actor in this audience favorite story of Bad Blake, a washed-up country music star struggling to recover his life. Down to playing bowing alleys, Blake is interviewed by a young reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and is set on a new trajectory. No Hollywood ending here, rather a bitter-sweet lesson of what is possible in life. Crazy Heart also won the Oscar for Best Song. |
 | Departures In this refreshing Japanese film, which one the Oscar for Best Foreign Laungage Film, a newly unemployed, young cellist, Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) has an epiphany in which he realizes his life in on the wrong track (more...) |
 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind What if you could forget the terrible things that happened in you life, completely erase the memories? Clementine (Kate Winslet) and Joel (Jim Carrey) each undergo a medical procedure to erase their failed affair from their minds. Joel tries to cheat on the procedure, turning this romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist into a fascinating labyrinth. Oscar for Best Screenplay, 2004. |
 | Exit Through the Gift Shop The search for elusive street artist Banksy, leads a budding filmmaker on a journey that has the filmmaker become the subject of the film.This unique documentary plays like a drama, funny, and moving, while the real life characters develop over the years. Real life captured on film. |
 | Fargo Frances McDormand earned an Oscar for her turn as pregnant Sheriff Marge Gunderson, who's sharper than her Northern Minnesota dialect suggests. The intrepid Gunderson bangs on doors and asks questions to unravel a kidnapping plot and the string of murders it provokes. McDormand receives grand support from William H. Macy as a car dealer who conspires with hotheaded kidnappers Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. |
 | Finding Neverland Oscar nominated in 2004 for Best Picture, writing, actor, and music, Finding Neverland tells the story of the inspiration for, and writing of "Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp). Having gotten to know four fatherless children, Barrie begins the classic play of children who don't want to grow up. Kate Winslet (more...) |
 | Groundhog Day What do you get when a romantic comedy is written by a Zen-Buddhist? Groundhog Day! Our annual showing, during the week of Groundhog Day. The film explores the phases that a not-so-nice weatherman (Bill Murry) goes through when he is trapped (or perhaps blessed) with repeating the same day over 10,000 times until he gets it right. |
 | I Am Love Roger Ebert, “An amazing film. It is deep, rich, human. It is not about rich and poor, but about old and new. It is about the ancient war between tradition and feeling.” (more...) |
 | Inside Job The perfect film for tax day, Inside Job (Oscar for Best Documentary), tells the story of the 2008 economic crisis, its causes, the people and institutions that created it. I found this film to be (more...) |
 | Julie and Julia Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Childs won her a nomination for best actress in this film based on two true stories. The New Yorker: “One of the gentlest, most charming American movies of the past decade. Its subject is less food as something to cook than food as the binding and unifying element of dinner parties, friendship, and marriage.” With Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. |
 | Midnight in Paris One of my favorites from 2011. The Woody Allen romantic comedy, without Woody, is also an imaginative fantasy about our desires to live in a different time or place. Owen Wilson dreams of (more...) |
 | Mother A unique, atmospheric murder mystery/crime thriller, this Korean film won awards around the world. When a mother works to convince the authorities that her mentally challenged son’s murder conviction is a mistake. (more...) |
 | Notes on a Scandal Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were both nominated for Oscars for this story of the conflicts and unlikely friendship between an older, cynical and lonely conservative teacher, and a young, attractive pottery instructor. The older woman is loathed (more...) |
 | Rabbit-Proof Fence An amazing, true, story of children overcoming staggering odds. Until the 1970s, Australian law call for young girls of mixed aboriginal and European blood to be forcibly removed from their homes and placed in an internment camp to be trained as domestic servants. (more...) |
 | Shirley Valentine Shirley, a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, spends her life taking care of her husband while talking to the wall, wondering what became of her life. An unexpected trip to Greece with a friend changes Shirley’s view of the world and herself. Pauline Collins was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. |
 | A Single Man One of the best films of 2009. Colin Firth turns in an amazing, Oscar nominated performance as George Falconer, a middle-aged man who seems to have lost everything - (more...) |
 | The Hurt Locker Nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Kathryn Bigelow), Actor (Jeremy Renner) and Writing. Many say it is the first film to capture what the war in Iraq is like. Members of the EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) team must contend with their reckless new leader. As the city explodes into chaos, the leaders true character is revealed, and each man is changed forever. Rated R for war violence and language. |
 | Junebug Amy Adams got an Oscar nomination in this favorite from 2005. When big-city art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) meets her new husband’s (Alessandro Nivola) small-town southern family she learns she is not in Chicago anymore. (more...) |
 | Lone Star Director John Sayles invites you to return to the scene of the crime. Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth Pena and Matthew McConaughey, in the 1996 mystery/romance which Roger Ebert calls "A great American movie, one of the few to seriously try to regard with open eyes the way we live now. This film is a wonder -- the best work yet by one of our most original and independent filmmakers -- and after it is over, and you begin to think about it, its meanings begin to flower." |
 | Mostly Martha Fourteen international awards. Martha is head chef of a prestigious restaurant who communicates through cooking - the opening credits will make you hungry! A tragic death leaves Martha to care for her eight-year-old niece, an amazing head-strong girl. Together they learn what family and love are all about in this comedy/romance. Just the ticket for the holiday season. In German with English subtitles. |
 | O Brother, Where Art Thou In this rollicking, music-filled adventure, a trio of escaped prisoners embarks on the adventure of a lifetime as they set out to pursue their freedom and the promise of sharing in the division of a fortune in buried treasure. |
 | Precious Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Won for Writing and Supporting Actress. How could Precious, or anyone, survive being a sixteen-year-old African-American, trapped in Harlem, pregnant, subjected to the whims of her abusive mother? (more...) |
 | Schultze Gets the Blues A German mine worker, forced into early retirement, discovers Zydeco music, picks up his accordion, and takes a life-changing journey to Louisiana. A funny, touching film with great music and a good heart. In German with English subtitles. |
 | Solitary Man I loved watching Michael Douglas as a disgraced car dealership magnate who, after decades of shoddy business practices and self-centered personal relationships, desperately tries to salvage something of his life. (more...) |
 | The Kids Are All Right The Comedy about growing up confused in modern America. Mic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), are same-sex parents, whose children set out to find their sperm-donor father, in order to make him part of the family. Good intentions (more...) |
 | The Social Network Eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor. Won three, including the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The true story of the origins of Facebook. Arron Sorkin’s screenplay follows three Harvard students as they join forces to create a new online experience, but then fight over who’s idea it was and (more...) |
 | The King’s Speech Colin Firth’s portrayal of the young King George VI, forced to overcome his stuttering in order to make a speech that would rouse his countrymen to fight the Germans, won him the Oscar. This true story of personal courage (more...) |
 | The Fighter Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale recreate the true story of a talented boxer with a troubled past, battling drug addition, who focuses his energy on training his brother to become a champ. (more...) |
 | The Illusionist "This is a remarkable movie: lovely, slow-paced and almost silent, rich with pathos and deft comic gestures." – SF Chronicle. The Illusionist is washed-up, outdated, and overlooked. Wandering from one city to another searching for a stage to preform upon. Alice is (more...) |
 | The Piano Acting Oscars for Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin for this 1993 drama of love, obsession, and mystery. A mute but strong-willed woman (Hunter) arrives in New Zealand for an arranged marriage, with her daughter (Paquin) and her beloved piano in tow. (more...) |
 | The Debt Just because everybody knows it’s true, doesn’t mean it is.Helen Mirren is a former Mossas intelligence agent with a secret, and a past, (more...) |
 | The Secret in Their Eyes My favorite film of 2010. This acclaimed Spanish film has it all: An unsolved murder which unfolds slowly, a unique love story, an exploration of revenge. A startling discovery comes to light (more...) |
 | The Apostle Robert Duval's masterpiece. He wrote, directed, and stared as the charismatic leader of a small, fire-and-brimstone church who runs amuck, is given a second chance, and then has to choose what his life is all about. (more...) |
 | The Talented Mr. Ripley Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman star in this tale of romance, mystery, and murder. Damon is Ripley, a lavatory attendant, who begins re-inventing himself when he is mistaken for a Princeton grad. Thus begin the deceptions. He loves the new identity and moves on to bigger games, becoming - and replacing - another man. |
 | True Grit One of my favorites of 2010. A 14-year-old girl hires an alcoholic U.S. Marshal (Bridges) to track down the murderer of her father (Brolin). A second marshal (Damon), both ally and competition, (more...) |
 | The Turning Point Choices. Making them, living with them. Ann Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Leslie Browne were all nominated for Oscars, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, a total of 11 Oscar nominations. Shirley MacLane is a former ballerina (more...) |
 | The Thin Blue Line Errol Morris's gripping, groundbreaking 1988 docudrama made such a strong case that Randall Adams had been wrongly convicted of the murder of a police officer, that the State of Texas released Adams from prison. All the key players are interviewed - the detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the accused. All still believe in the rightness of their position, even when the trial is shown to be a travesty. |
 | The Truman Show What you would you do if one day you discovered that your entire life was the most popular show on TV - broadcast live, 24/7, from the day you were born? What if you found that your entire world was artificial, simply a giant studio lot? Jim Carrey plays happy-go-luck Truman, the unsuspecting lead in the ultimate reality show. </div> |
 | UP Can an animated film be funny, touching, and thought provoking? Yes, if it's made in Emeryville by Pixar. The funny, yet poignant story of 78 year old Carl, who gets a second chance at fulfillment. After attaching thousands of balloons to his house to make it fly, Carl discovers a young boy scout is an accidental stowaway. Up follows their adventures as they both learn what’s important in life. |
 | Up in the Air George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick were all nominated for Oscars for acting, plus nominations for Best Picture, Directing, and Writing. What if you spent your life traveling the country to fire people? What if you loved the life of all travel and no real connection with anyone? What happens when two unique women enter your life? This story has a lot to say about life in the USA. |
 | Wall-E Emeryville’s Pixar won yet another Oscar (Best Animated Film) for this amazing portrayal of life in the future where humans have destroyed the planet and left for greener pastures, leaving robots behind to clean things up. This unique film – a love story, a cautionary, yet hopeful tale – is told almost without dialog. (more...) |
 | Wings of Desire The 1988 clasic is one of Roger Ebert’s Great Films, and certainly on of Wim Wenders’ best, this romantic fantasy tells the story of a Guardian Angel (Bruno Ganz) who (more...) |
 | Winter’s Bone I found this, one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, to be the perfect modern film noir. When 17 year old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers that her father has put up the family home for his bail, she embarks on an dark adventure (more...) |
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