Wednesday, February 10 – 8:00 PM
THE MAID
Directed by Sebastián Silva
With Catalina Saavedra
Chile, 2009, 95 minutes,  not rated
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
Official Site

Raquel, maid to a large family, moves through the house, performing her chores day in, day out. She seem almost part of the furniture-but there’s more to her than meets the eye. Her position in the household is rocked when two new maids are brought in to help her. Raquel’s blanks are filled in, and the story veers into unexpected, rich terrain.

“It's funny--bleakly, blackly so at times, but also tenderly funny with flashes of genuine compassion. The Maid is among the best films I've seen this year.” – Dana Stevens, Slate

“The Maid would have been worthwhile just as a showcase both for good acting and for the director's virtuosity. But the movie's ultimate virtue is its humanity.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

“In a remarkable performance that won her a special award from the world cinema jury at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Chilean television vet Saavedra goes through one of the most uncanny psychophysical transformations I've ever seen in a movie without the benefit of obvious makeup or other prosthetics.” – Scott Foundas, The Village Voice

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Wednesday, February 17 – 8:00 PM
COCO BEFORE CHANEL
Directed by Anne Fontaine
With Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola
France, 2009, 105 minutes, rated PG-13 for sexual content and smoking
Official Site

Coco Chanel was perhaps the single most influential figure in 20th-century fashion, and this honest and sympathetic film charts the rise of this ambitious, difficult woman, taking note of the obstacles and opportunities offered by her time, place and circumstances. Without judgement or moralizing, the story examines Chanel and the various men who played key roles in her life and career, and treats each with curiosity and compassion.

“This refreshing alternative to the usual potted biopic provides an absorbing look at a
singular, steely determination as it was forged and annealed, long before it made itself   known to the world.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

“Coco is played by Audrey Tautou, and she's phenomenal--self-contained, tightly focused, sparing with her smiles, miserly with her joy, often guarded to the point of severity, yet giving off a grave radiance at every moment she's in front of the camera.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

“Through Tautou's performance, ‘Coco Before Chanel’reveals the formation of an artist.” – Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

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Celebrate Black History Month
Saturday, February 20 – 7:30 PM
Rivertown Film and The Nyack Center Present
GOOD HAIR
Directed by Jeff Stilson
With Chris Rock, Maya Angelou, Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Al Sharpton,
USA, 2009, 96 minutes, documentary, rated PG-13 for some language including drug and sex references, and brief nudity.
Official Site

Buy your tickets online in advance, here.

As only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore how hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks and self-esteem of the black community.
Guest speaker to be announced.

“Rock is not only funny, he's an affable and intelligent host in a documentary that is accessible, breezy and highly informative.” – Claudia Puig, USA Today

“There are things in Good Hair, Chris Rock's deeply funny and very serious documentary about the African-American obsession with straightened tresses, that may make your hair stand right up on end.” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“Spirited, probing and frequently hilarious, it coasts on the fearless charm of its front man and the eye-opening candor of its interviewees, most of them women — including the actress Nia Long and the hip-hop stars Salt-n-Pepa” — and all of them ready to dish.”– Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

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RIVERTOWN COSPONSORS:

Tuesday, February 23 – 6:30 PM – FREE
VCS Gay Pride Rockland presents
HINEINI: Coming Out in a Jewish High School
USA, 2005, 60 minutes, documentary, in English and Hebrew
The story of the fight to establish a gay-straight alliance at a Jewish high school and the transformative impact it had on the entire community.
Official Site

Wednesday, February 24 – 8:00 PM
A SERIOUS MAN
Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
With Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed
USA, 2009, 105 minutes, rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence
Official Site

There’s a lot on Larry Gopnik’s plate: He’s a devout Jew, a physics professor approaching tenure, his son is about to have his bar mitzvah, and he’s undergoing an esoteric, existential crisis that has him searching for clues and signs while trying to figure out what God wants from us. While the search for the “meaning of life” may not be pat, the film reveals it to be both quite funny, and serious. Post-film discussion: A Screenwriters’ Perspective with J.D. Zeik.

“A tart, brilliantly acted fable of life’s little cosmic difficulties, a Coen brothers comedy with a darker philosophical outlook than No Country for Old Men but with a script rich in verbal wit.” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

“Writer-directors Joel and Ethan Chen have seized the opportunity afforded by the Oscar-winning success of No Country for Old Men, to make their most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“The story is at once hilarious and horrific, its significance both self-evident and opaque. The same could be said of most of the Coen brothers’ movies, in which human existence and the attempt to find meaning in it are equally futile, if also sometimes a lot of fun. (For us, at least.)” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times