Loft Cinema

Election was one of the first films I watched as a teenager that really changed my perspective on what film could say. On the one hand, Election is a comedy about a teacher who sabotages a high school presidential election because he has beef with one of his students. But if you look closer, the film is really a biting satire about the battle between morals and ethics. Alexander Payne presents these terribly flawed characters in such a familiar way, you'd almost swear he attended your high school. You rarely find yourself cheering on characters as they lie and cheat and cheat on each other, but Election is that rare gem that does what movies do best: gives hope to the most hopeless of characters. Oh, and not to mention, Reese Witherspoon gives probably one of her best performances as Tracy Flick. 

Floor staffer Brooke Hartnett on why she chose Butter for her Staff Selects pick.

I chose Butter as my Staff Selects because it's a real fun time. The cast is top notch and the writing of the film is really sharp and witty. The movie is just funny and fun while sneakily touching on a lot of real issues - marriage, adoption, family, success, adultery, even sexuality. Plus, I LOVE Jennifer Garner.

Assistant Theatre Manager Pedro Robles on why he chose Robocop for his Staff Selects pick.

Who could have known how accurate in its depiction of the future a non-assuming, 25-year-old action movie could be in the year 2014? Super corporations, advances in robotics, the fall of once-mighty Detroit -- in the year 1987, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven unknowingly brought the world an instant classic.

  This visceral Reagan-era satire disguised as a sci-fi bloodbath stars Peter Weller as our hero turned machine. After being murdered by cop-killer criminals, Alex Murphy is forcibly resurrected by the evil megacorporation OCP and transformed into Robocop: the future of law enforcement! The plot thickens when our hero's humanity begins to seep through in a classic tale of the ghost in the machine. This Russian nesting doll of a movie has everything: Over-the-top violence! Amazing robotic design work from Rob Botin! Superior in-camera stop-motion effects from Phil Tippet, and the exploration of such existential questions as the existence of a soul! Can a corporation own one's soul? And not to mention guns, guns, GUNS!!! I know I'd buy THAT for a dollar.

Lisa Schaefer on why she chose The Thin Man as her staff select film.

The Thin Man plays Sunday, March 16 at 7:00pm.

Loft Cinema General Manager Jason Denholm on why he chose Daisies as his staff select film.

“Daisies” is a film which is difficult to convey in words. The descriptions most commonly associated with reviews of the film – “new-wave”, “absurdist”, “anarchic”, “Surrealist”, “Dada”, “feminist”, “nihilistic” – are accurate but incomplete. “Daisies” is a collage where the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The films impact is sensual, it is the brilliant succession of images, sounds, and colors - and their juxtapositions - rather than straight narration that conveys what is “Daisies” ostensible subject: avarice and lust. But this is where “Daisies” proves to be such a powerful film – it is sharp and concise without being didactic, and multiple readings of the film and its ‘meaning’ are not only possible, they are inevitable. Some of these are contradictory, and so much the better. It is a film to be experienced with the senses, let it wash over you, and don’t try to understand it too quickly.