Love is a hustle.

A Kubrick Christmas kicks off with 2001: A Space Odyssey, the director’s 1969 science fiction trip!

Opening in prehistoric times, the film jumps from early man’s discovery of a strange monolith and subsequent development of weaponry to hundreds of thousands of years into the future when humanity has mastered space travel. As the rest of their crew rests in hibernation, scientists Dave and Frank lead a mission to Jupiter to retrieve a mysterious ancient artifact, accompanied by sentient computer system HAL 9000. When HAL’s intellect and ego are challenged, the journey takes an ominous turn as the craft races closer to its cryptic destination.

Our December Volunteer of the Month is Sydney Torrence, who has chosen Paul Schrader’s visually stunning biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters as her VOTM pick. 

The film weaves together three distinct narrative threads: a dramatized account of Yukio Mishima’s final day leading up to his shocking ritual suicide in 1970, flashbacks to key moments in his personal life, and stylized adaptations of his literary works. Through these interwoven segments, Schrader delves into Mishima’s internal struggles with identity, beauty, nationalism, and the tension between art and action.