The Pitch (Jan. 2 – Jan. 8)

Happy New Year from the Civic!

Opening on Jan. 2, 2015, Academy Award nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie (rated G) , a young, happy foster kid who’s also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they’d be back for her someday, it’s been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything’s about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx).

Splitting the weekend with Annie, Chris Rock will ring in Nelson’s new year with his latest acclaimed comedy Top Five (rated 18A) written, directed and starring Chris Rock himself. Certified fresh with an 89% rating. “As smart, funny, and trenchant as writer-director-star Chris Rock’s best standup work,” this semi-autobiographical work is the most complelling thing Rock has brought to the screen.

And finishing the week, we bring in a Thursday film that should excite our Nelson audiences. Rosewater (rated PG) screens on January 8 at 7:30. Jon Stewart, famed for The Daily Show, takes the directoral helm for the film potrayal of the memoire of Maziar Bahari, Iranian-Canadian journalist who was incarcerated by the Iranian government from June 2009 to October 20, 2009. Bahari is played by Gael Garcia Bernal, who among many other great films, starred in the new Civic Theatre’s very first Thursday film, No.

And as a final reminder leading into the New Year, don’t miss…

Celebrating New Year with the Civic family. An evening of family fun, film and pizza with a live-feed on-screen countdown to midnight. This is a dry, family-friendly, all-ages event. Book of Life plays @ 8pm, followed by short screen pleasures until the New Year countdown. Individual and family tickets available at civictheatre.ca.

And on New Year’s day, once all that bubbly apple cider has worn off, The Drop, starring James Gandolfini and written by Dennis Lehane, writer of Clint Eastwood’s multi award winning Mystic River, will occupy the honoured position of first Thursday Film of 2015. Never one for straight forward crime drama, Lehane instead weaves a tapestry of the life of a neighborhood where all the elements co-exist.

Let the New Year resolution to bring in more great film begin.

Coming Soon: Theory of Everything, The Interview, Foxcatcher, Birdman

Have a great week,

Jason.

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