Cinema Seminar – Chaotic Comedies

Cinema Seminar – Chaotic Comedies

What happens when one bad decision snowballs into mayhem? In this series we’re enjoying comedies where everything spirals hilariously out of control. For Scorsese’s surreal After Hours to the Coen Brother’s Burn After Reading to the wild true story Zola, this term, film professor Dan Jatovsky teaches about comedy, chaos, and characters who can’t catch a break.

March 11 – After Hours (1985)    
Martin Scorsese directs Griffin Dunne as a word processor whose simple date in downtown Manhattan becomes a surreal, Kafkaesque nightmare. As the night spirals into increasingly bizarre encounters—featuring Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, and Catherine O’Hara—every attempt to get home only makes things worse.

March 18 – Burn After Reading (2008)    
The Coen Brothers unleash George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and John Malkovich in a pitch-black farce about gym employees who find a CIA analyst’s memoir and mistake it for a goldmine. What follows is a masterclass in miscommunication, paranoia, and spectacularly bad decisions.

March 25 – Zola (2020)    
Based on the viral Twitter thread that broke the internet, this wild ride follows a Detroit waitress (Taylour Paige) on what should be a quick Florida road trip with a new friend (Riley Keough). Instead, she finds herself trapped in an increasingly unhinged saga involving sex work, crime, and a boyfriend who won’t stop talking.

Dan will introduce the film with commentary, we’ll screen it together, and then he’ll lead the discussion following the film. Even if you’ve seen the movie, watching it together and discussing it with an expert makes for a richer experience.

Wednesday, 3/11: 10:30 AM-1:00 PM   
Wednesday, 3/18: 10:30 AM-1:00 PM   
Wednesday, 3/25: 10:30 AM-1:00 PM   

For All Three: $30/Member, $40/Guest
Per Film: $12/Member, $15/Guest