Summer Session invites you to enjoy life on campus in August.
Programmed by Jessica Ostrower, Ph.D. candidate, UCI Visual Studies Program
Thursdays in August at 7:00 pm in the Lucille Kuehn Auditorium (Humanities Instructional Building, Room 100) (Building #610 on campus map)
Here's what people are saying about the Film Series.
In the summer of 2009, we find ourselves peering over the precipice—if we aren’t already in the deep valley—of economic doom, and this on the heels of two decades hailed by many as one of the greatest boom-times in American history. What an opportunity to return to several films from the last 25 years that have chronicled similar moments of boom and bust in the recent American past. All of these films offer a prescient reminder of the costs that always seem to travel with the gains. This series brings together four films that expose and raise questions about a number of difficult, relevant, and sometimes hilarious issues: what happens to the so-called “pursuit of happiness” when one is pushed to the limit? What is the relationship between capitalism and violence? And what role does the individual play in the large-scale processes of economic fluctuation? Those costs can be personal, cultural or social, cloaked in tragedy or comedy, explicit or implicit. It seems important to revisit these important cultural artifacts that record, reflect, and evoke the complex social tensions around economic success and failure in the United States.
| Movie | Date / Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wall Street |
August 6, 2009 |
Michael Douglas’s greedy, unscrupulous, and ruthless stockbroker, Gordon Gekko, has become an icon for the corruption that reigned on Wall Street in the 1980s. As Gekko’s eager protégé, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) learns how to maneuver the fine line between criminality and legitimacy. Fox brokers deals that win him success, catapulting him near the pinnacle of financial power. But his triumph doesn’t last long as his shady dealings soon bring him to the attention of federal agents, forcing him to make difficult decisions about friendship, wealth, and family. Martin Sheen rounds out the excellent cast as Fox’s working-class father. |
Glengarry Glen Ross |
August 13, 2009 |
Based on David Mamet’s acclaimed play, this film chronicles two days in the lives of four real-estate agents at the firm of Glengarry Glen Ross in Chicago. Internal competition and personal desperation multiply when the boss (Kevin Spacey) brings a young man, Blake (Alec Baldwin), from the head office to “motivate” the crew to sell, sell, sell. After learning that the corporate office will only keep the top two sellers on, competition among colleagues grows even uglier. Down-and-out agent, Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon) struggles to make the cut in the rivalry with his fellow salesmen played powerfully by Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, and Al Pacino. Mamet highlights the worst in each character as the fight for individual survival pits man against man. |
Trading Places |
August 20, 2009 |
In this smart, savvy, and hilarious comedy by John Landis, two richer than rich brothers and schemers, Mortimer (Don Ameche) and Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) conspire to carry out a social experiment, when presented with a fortuitous opportunity. Will breeding or circumstances win out if they switch the lots of the pompous manager of their brokerage firm, Louis Winthorp III (Dan Aykroyd), and a homeless guy from the ghetto, Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy)? Unfortunately for them, they are unprepared for the moment when Valentine, after he’s successfully assumed responsibility for the Dukes’ financial firm and settled into his new, fancy Philadelphia digs, discovers the hoax and lets the now impecunious Winthorp in on it. Comedy and social commentary meet among these actors’ winning performances. |
American Psycho |
August 27, 2009 |
Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 novel of the same name follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), an enterprising, exacting, and narcissistic businessman and possible serial killer through 1980s New York. We see Bateman’s hollow day-to-day existence comprised of conversations with fellow yuppie executives (Jared Leto and Justin Theroux) about designer business cards, men’s fashion, and their sexual escapades. In this, he’s engaged to the vapid New York socialite Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon), but is also sleeping with his friend’s fiancée (Samantha Mathis). Parallel to this life is another in which Bateman fulfills an increasingly violent appetite; but whether this is a reality or the warped fantasies of a man living a life without purpose or meaning remains ambiguous to the end. |
