happy 5th birthday, javaflix!

Once upon a time, I made it to most of the films screened by JavaFlix Savannah.
Of late, the votes tended to elect commercially-released movies that I'd already seen.
This year, I saw "The Florida Project" in March, an Oscar-nominated film with Willem Dafoe. (Yes, I've been hooked on him ever since "To Live And Die In LA" - especially the money-making scene.) JavaFlix had a wonderful discussion afterward!
Several months then passed before I attended another film with this group. Sure, I had that last semester at Armstrong, then trips to the Kennedy Space Center. Plus, The Savannah Bananas came to town and I went to see Elvis in Las Vegas.
In other words, I was busy enough to not be enticed.
Finally, in August, they had a film I'd never seen! "Ali's Wedding" was a Muslim romantic comedy set in Australia - that was definitely different! The title character has been promised to wed another, but he wants to be with the girl he loves. What a quandary! To complicate matters, he's an IK - the Muslim equivalent of a preacher's kid - so the family is taking all of this quite seriously.
Such a lively discussion had followed!
September had "American Animals", a film that never came to any cinemas here. I had voted to bring it, so I made sure to be there. Glad I was! This tale of four guys looking to score some valuable books - yes, I said 'books', early ones by James Audobon - from the local library. Of course, things didn't go as planned with their heist, primarily because these guys truly weren't that smart.
Still, a good movie that led to a good discussion about crime and consequences.
October should have been the 5th birthday of JavaFlix, but life intruded and the screening had to be postponed until the following month.
That meant the November offering was "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot", a documentary starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jonah Hill. The film concentrated on the alcohol recovery program for paralyzed cartoonist John Callahan, portrayed by Phoenix, with Hill as his mentor in the Alcoholics Anonymous group.
What a fabulous movie, with character acting that deserves Oscar notice!
Kudos to Sam, the new ringleader of this group!
Patrick, the founder, has wed his lady love and they are down in Jacksonville.
Since Sam has taken charge, she has retooled the voting process for the movies to be shown. She has made sure that the five films proffered for us to vote on are not movies that have been shown at the local cinemas. Hallelujah! Every once in a while, a commercial film finds its way onto the ballot, but not often.
I do hope the Meetup group will continue, but it may not. So many people have 'joined' the group on the website that the fees have greatly increased for the leader. In addition, the church that allows the group to screen films in its community hall are requiring the group to have liability insurance. Consequently, we are now required to pay a modest fee of five dollars for each screening we attend. Considering that the group rarely has more than fifteen people (of the thousand-plus members on the meetup website), I see more and more of the financial burden falling on the shoulders of this young woman who is trying to keep JavaFlix alive.
We'll see what the future holds...
however, the immediate future for mi and mis tres amigas holds a late viewing of "The Grinch", a hiphop retooling of the Dr. Seuss classic.
Gotta go!