Tag Archives: Nicolas Cage

2002 ADAPTATION screened tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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Adaptation (2002, R)

In conjunction with Susan Orlean’s personal visit to CALS on September 28, CALS presents this stunning original comedy based on her work that seamlessly blends fictional characters and situations with the lives of real people.

It is a meta-film experience as Adaptation centers around obsessive orchid hunter John Laroche (played by Chris Cooper), New Yorker journalist Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep), Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage), and his twin brother, Donald (also Cage).

As Charlie struggles to adapt Orlean’s best-selling book The Orchid Thief, he writes himself into his own movie. The various stories crash into one another exploding into a wildly imaginative film. Adaptation is at once a hilarious drama and a moving comedy.  The film was nominated for four Oscars (including an Adapted Screenplay nomination for real-life Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin Donald Kaufman).  Cooper won the Supporting Actor Oscar.

Admission is free! Doors to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater open at 6:00 p.m. Film starts at 7:00 p.m. Beer, wine, and concessions will be available!

Back to School Cinema: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

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FasttimesEvery so often a film comes along which seems to launch most of the cast into various levels of stardom.  1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of those movies.

Amy Heckerling directed Cameron Crowe’s script of life in a California high school.  While Sean Penn may have been the breakout star of the movie for his stoner Spicoli, he was hardly the only actor to make a mark with it.  Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates all saw their profiles rise due to this film.

Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards and Forrest Whitaker, though in minor roles, also appear in the movie.  Others in the cast included Tony Award winners Ray Walston and Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, Scott Thomson, Vincent Schiavelli, Amanda Wyss, D. W. Brown, Taylor Negron and Nancy Wilson (Mrs. Cameron Crowe).

Episodic in nature, this film celebrates and commiserates the challenges of life in high school. It examines classes, dating, and bad jobs.