Four American soldiers combine to liberate a missing shipment of gold in the chaos of Iraq after the first Gulf War.
This is a bold, even brazen attempt to get to grips with the complexities and hypocrisies of the US intervention in Iraq in the early 90s. David O Russell’s stinging film marries anarchic black comedy, action adventure tropes, and cutting edge technique. Plus a big dose of star power.
Do the mercenary motivations of George Clooney and his Desert Stormers function as a metaphor for wider political imperatives? How could they not? Certainly there is nothing reassuring about the Americans’ racist attitudes to the Iraqis. This was the most vivid portrait of the new theatre of war Hollywood had produced to that point: impersonal, high-tech, highly mediated and little understood. It’s a high point in Russell’s erratic but always ambitious career, which went on to include Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter and American Hustle.
The screening on Sunday Aug 23 will conclude with a free screening of Werner Herzog’s 54-minute documentary Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Some kind weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger
Roger Ebert
It remains the most caustic anti-war movie of this generation.
David Edelstein, The New York Times
Russell not only has designed an action-adventure laced with incendiary humor but a movie that wants to explore race, politics, war, the media and U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. In large measure, he pulls it off with breathtaking aplomb.
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Media Partner
David O Russell
George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze
USA
1999
English
Book Tickets
Tuesday August 25
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt, Edward L. McDonnell
Screenwriter
David O. Russell, John Ridley
Cinematography
Newton Thomas Sigel
Editor
Robert K. Lambert
Original Music
Carter Burwell
Production Design
Catherine Hardwicke
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
Three Kings
George Clooney headlines David O Russell's bold, brazen attempt to get to grips with the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, as 4 US soldiers try to liberate a missing shipment of gold amidst the chaos and carnage.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin, but he's also an existential loner who adheres to his personal code. Despite the thriller trappings, this is really a lampoon of that genre, and a melancholy reverie for the cultural melting pot we call home.
The Straight Story
David Lynch goes a different direction in this linear Midwestern about a septuagenarian (Richard Farnsworth) who drives nearly 400km on a lawnmower to visit his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).
90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Kiarostami's dry comic masterpiece follows a Tehrani film team's thwarted attempts to document a traditional Kurdish funeral... Trouble being, there's no one to bury, and, worse, virtually no cell service...
Fight Club
1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher's bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man today. This modern classic does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction.