Fall is in full-force at Wesleyan, and I absolutely love it. Everyone’s coughing and sneezing all over the place, picking their flu-buddies. The leaves are right at that point where they’ve gone from being pretty to being pretty annoying. Thesis students have begun to panic. Oscar season is quickly approaching. Apparently it’s Thanksgiving next week, which just seems totally insane to me, and yet I can’t explain why…
The more I take note of these seasonal changes, though, the more I end up appreciating those truly rare things that are constant in Wesleyan life. (Speaking of change, honestly what the f is up with the new website? Why is there a picture of me on it? And who took this picture?) There are very few things which in my four years at this school, have never changed: the chicken fingers at WesWings (always delicious), the shitty hours at Wesshop, the smell of the Eclectic GOTE room (always putrid), and the Film Series, one of the few student-run programs that’s been here forever and that isn’t going anywhere. You can count on that calendar in your mailbox four times a year and movies in the Goldsmith four times a week. When the ground freezes over with ice, when you’re stuck in bed with the swine, looking at that weird new Wesleyan homepage, think of the Film Series as that anchor in your Wesleyan life, the cure to your autumn blues. As my favorite quotationist Homer…Simpson once said, “The answer to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a beer bottle, they’re on TV.” Let’s just imagine that by TV he meant the Film Series.
So even though we’re here for you this Friday and Saturday, even the rights to non-theatrical distribution can be capricious in these volatile times. The Film Board would like to remind you that due to availability issues, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is playing tonight! 500 DAYS will play on Friday, 12/4. (This is good news, if you’re confused.) Apologies if this messes up any Friday night date-plans, but seriously… In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let’s put our differences aside, gather together in the Goldsmith on this chilly eve, and give thanks to the Wesleyan Film Series by watching Brad scalp some Nazis!

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
2009. USA/Germany. Dir: Quentin Tarantino. With Brad Pitt, Christopher Waltz. 153 min.
TONIGHT, November 20, 8PM $5
The king of aesthetic violence in cinema returns to the big screen with this rousing, adventurous rewriting of history, ripe with enough blood and guts to last you at least until his next effort. Brad Pitt dons a sweet ‘stache and sports a southern swagger as he leads a band of hilariously vengeful Jewish-American soldiers on a mission across Europe to collect Nazi scalps. However, the real standout performance may come from one Christopher Waltz as the film’s heartless, arrogant, and slimy Nazi-officer antagonist; he’s detestable and cringe worthy in all the right ways. BASTERDS is an incredibly wild, raucous film-going experience that will have you wincing, laughing, and shouting at the screen throughout its entirety. The first scene alone is as wonderfully tense as they come nowadays, and the glorious climax is among the most entertaining in recent memory. So before you travel home to eat turkey this Thanksgiving, come by the Goldsmith on Friday and get a nice big helping of some Dead Nazis, courtesy of Chef Tarantino.
***NOTE: This film is replacing 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, which will instead be screened on Friday, December 4
SECONDS
1966. USA. Dir: John Frankenheimer. With Rock Hudson. John Randolph. 100 min.
If you thought that incredibly creepy partial face transplant scene in FACE/OFF was impressive, you cannot miss SECONDS, my single favorite movie from the 1960s. I beg you to trust me on this one—people weren’t even getting plastic surgery back then, but Frankenheimer knew what was good. Basically, John Randolph plays a man in the midst of some good-old middle-aged malaise. Looking for some serious rejuvenation, he joins a secret organization where he’s drugged, killed (sort of), and then given a new face, a new body, and new identity. Enter sexy beefcake Rock Hudson, who tries really hard to stop being so studly so he can philosophize about the meaning of existence and identity. Frankenheimer is completely ahead of his time here, delivering a nightmarish, post-expressionistic sci-fi pic aimed at an intelligent audience.