Last night my buddy “The Rabbit” went to Cape Ann Community Cinema for a movie.  I gotta say guys this is a seriously a gem of place to watch outstanding movies that you may not have heard of on an incredible sound and visual system.

Cape Ann Community Cinema Seating, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19

SHOWN AT 12:30PM
“Gonzo” is the definitive film biography of Hunter S. Thompson, a mythic American figure, a man that Tom Wolfe called our “greatest comic writer.” Thompson is the man that launched a thousand sips of bourbon, endless snorts of cocaine and a brash, irreverent, fearless style of journalism – named “gonzo” after an anarchic blues riff by James Booker. “Gonzo” is directed by Alex Gibney, the Academy Award nominated director of “Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room” and the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary, “Taxi To The Dark Side.” While Gibney shaped the screen story, every narrated word in the film springs from the typewriters of Thompson himself. Those words are given life by Johnny Depp, the actor who once shadowed Thompson’s every move for the screen version of “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas,” and who bankrolled Thompson’s spectacular funeral (photographed for this film) in which the good doctor’s ashes were fired from a rocket launcher mounted with a towering two-thumbed fist whose palm held a giant peyote button.

“A tender, even-tempered elegy to a writer who at his peak could ingest staggering (literally) amounts of drugs and alcohol and transform, like Popeye after a can of spinach, into a superhuman version of himself.” -David Edelstein, New York Magazine

SHOWN AT 2:45PM
In their documentary “Chris & Don: A Love Story,” directors Tina Mascara and Guido Santi show us so many of the famous people that artist Don Bachardy and author Christopher Isherwood (“Cabaret”) knew in their more than three decades together that anyone coming to the film in the middle without any context might think it a “Forrest Gump” caliber ruse. However, there is no digital manipulation here, just incredible pictures of scores of moments from an incredible love shared by an unlikely couple.

“Primed as we are by a culture rich in both homophobia and dirty old men, we can be forgiven for anticipating a sordid cautionary tale. It’s a shock – a happy shock – when ‘Chris & Don’ recounts a love that approaches the transcendental.” -David Edelstein, New York Magazine

SHOWN AT 5:00PM
Actor, performer, and multi-platinum rock icon Marvin “Meat Loaf” Aday reveals surprising shades of himself – and a fertile creative mind in constant flux – in this intimate and highly entertaining theatrical feature documentary. The time is early 2007, one of the most stressful in Meat Loaf’s career. He’s about to launch his most ambitious tour ever, an 18 month long marathon to support “Bat Out Of Hell III,” the final album of the legendary “Bat” trilogy. The earlier “Bat” albums were two of the biggest sellers of all time, with combined sales of over 55 million, so a lackluster but respectable performance on this new tour just won’t measure up. Meat Loaf’s exhausting and often poignant journey takes him from grueling rehearsals in Burbank, California and through the Canadian portion of his tour. Along the way, an unexpected media controversy erupts over the staging of one of his songs – a controversy that raises questions about his art, his age, his relevance – and brings into focus the drive (and demons) that have fueled his over-the-top stage persona for almost 40 years. “Meat Loaf: In Search Of Paradise” is a rich, first-ever portrait of an extraordinary, international icon that includes riveting performances of his biggest hits like “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” “Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth,” “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad,” and of course, “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.”

“Meat Loaf: In Search Of Paradise” is part of our “Sundays Swing” music series.

“‘In Search Of Paradise’ portrays Meat Loaf as an obsessive, self-punishing performer, striving in vain to put on a live show that matches the visions in his head.” -Matt Zoller Seitz, The New York Times

SHOWN AT 7:15PM
This year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film is a curiosity of sorts; it is a Holocaust drama, yet its protagonist is an antihero. Soon after meeting Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch (a captivating Karl Markovics), we realize that he is an opportunistic forger whose dubious skills and penchant for partying landed him in a concentration camp in 1936. As we flash-forward to the back side of the war, we soon realize that Sally has been tapped to create flawless copies of the pound and the dollar with which his Nazi captors will flood the British and American economies while funding a faltering Third Reich’s own war effort.

“Slick, exciting, emotionally trenchant – well done all around.” -Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20

SHOWN AT 7:15PM
“The Real Dirt On Farmer John” will turn every idea you ever had about what it means to be an American farmer – or an American dreamer – on its head. Meet Farmer John, the incredible human being whose inspirational story of revolutionizing his family farm and redeeming his own life has won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world. Director Taggart Siegel of Collective Eye made the film in a most unusual way – shooting farmer John Peterson over 25 years of their evolving friendship, and using multiple media, from 8 mm home movies to modern video – allowing him to capture his alternately humorous, heartbreaking and spirited life with raw drama and intimacy.

Part of our

series of sustainability films.

“What a blessing this film is, for everyone who’s chosen the road less taken, and even perhaps for anyone who’s stood in their way.” -Jan Stuart, Newsday

SHOWN FOLLOWING THE SHORT:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. “The Story Of Stuff” is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. “The Story Of Stuff” exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.