Manny Perry Movie Club Article
This isn’t related to writing, teaching, or publishing but seemed worth posting about nevertheless. For more than twenty years, I’ve been participating in a (very nearly) weekly movie club, and recently, on the occasion of our thousandth movie, Sean Clancy wrote a feature about us for the state newspaper. You can find the article here (behind a paywall) … or pasted below, minus the photos:
Little Rock’s Manny Perry film club has seen 1,000-plus films since ’04
October 3, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
by Sean Clancy
On a Sunday evening in late September, six friends gathered for dinner and conversation at Loca Luna in Little Rock. They are members of the Manny Perry Movie Club, a group that has been getting together pretty much every Sunday for the past two decades to watch movies and then discuss them.
It was actually the second time the movie club members -- Michael Cook, Kevin Brockmeier, Sylvia Amsler, Brad Caviness, Antonio Garcia and one who wished to remain anonymous -- met that day. An earlier session over Zoom included Becca Krukowski from her home in Charlottesville, Va. It was then that the movie lovers discussed their reactions to "Anatomy of a Fall," the 2023 French drama about a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband's death.
The film, chosen by Krukowski, was movie number 1,001 viewed by the club since its inception in 2004.
"I feel like it's the perfect movie," Krukowski said a few days later. "The acting, and the way the story is told, it gives you these additional perspectives evolving over time."
It was a hit with her fellow members, with its lowest score an 8 on a scale of 10.
Yes, score. Along with discussing the films, club members grade each movie and the group keeps a list of films viewed going back to 2004, with favorites and not-so-favorites ranked. Caviness, who works for the Arkansas Spinal Cord Commission and co-hosts the "Shoog Radio" program on KABF-88.3 FM, is the club's scorekeeper.
Last year's top-ranked film was Danish action comedy "Riders of Justice," with a 44. The least fave: "Lenny," the 1974 bio-pic starring Dustin Hoffman as doomed comedian Lenny Bruce, with a dismal -20. (In 2004, the first year the group was together, the most popular movie was "In America," about an family of Irish immigrants in New York, with 51 points; "Team America: World Police," from "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, bombed, with a -30 score.)
The 1,000th movie watched by the Manny Perry crew was last month's viewing of the 1982 blockbuster "E.T. the Extraterrestrial." It was picked by Cook, a political consultant and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic who reviews films for KLRT-TV and KARK-TV.
"I went into it thinking everybody would be raving about it," he said at Loca Luna. Not everyone was blown away by the movie, he adds, "but it was fun to get everyone's perspective on an American classic."
When asked about some of the more polarizing movies over the years, two titles stuck out. The quirky comedy "Napoleon Dynamite" from 2004 and "Wendy and Lucy," the 2009 indie drama from director Kelly Reichardt starring Michelle Williams.
"In the very beginning we had the great 'Napoleon Dynamite' debate," said Cook, who has been with the group since 2004. "Half the club adored it, and half the club hated it."
As for "Wendy and Lucy," Brockmeier, who keeps a list of all the films viewed by the club, resolutely refers to it as a "wonderful movie that deserves a 10 out of 10 score" as the others laughed.
"People still joke in the group about 'Wendy and Lucy' after all these years," says Brockmeier, the Little Rock author of "The Brief History of the Dead," "A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade," "The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories" and others.
No matter the debate over the merit of a particular movie, the group remains friendly and close, even when they don't agree.
WHO IS MANNY PERRY?
The beginning of the Manny Perry group dates to late 2003 or early 2004. Rusty Wyrick and his partner, Pepper Pepper, had planned to see a film at Market Street Cinema in Little Rock. Wyrick doesn't remember the name of the movie, but the projector had broken and the showing was canceled. In the lobby they chatted with a woman who had also hoped to see the film. Plans were made to meet the following week to watch a movie together, which then led to dinner and a discussion of what they'd seen.
Others joined in on the movie-watching in the next few weeks and the bunch ran into Brockmeier, who was going to see the same film, and invited him to join the discussion afterward over dinner. Caviness and Garcia were also among the early members.
"It just snowballed from there," Wyrick said last week from Tuscany, Italy, where he and Pepper own Casa la Pace Bed and Breakfast.
At Loca Luna, Caviness said that Pepper and Wyrick were "kind of like our glue. They knew most of us through different circumstances. Some we literally met in the theater lobby and said, do you want to get together next week? It's just all about loving movies and getting to know these fantastic people."
Krukowski, who joined in 2008, says that being able to discuss films with other movie lovers is part of what she loves about the group.
"I really enjoy movies," she says, "particularly movies that are a little off the beaten path. And I really enjoy the conversations about the movies afterwards and how it deepens your understanding of the films."
The group settled on the Manny Perry Movie Club name not long after the group's casual formation.
Perry is a Hollywood stuntman and former bodybuilder who was featured in anti-film pirating public service announcements that were shown in theaters before the movies were screened. After seeing him every Sunday on the big screen, the club made him its namesake. And yes, he's aware of the honor.
"He and I are Facebook friends," Cook said. "He's also friends with some of the others, and he's just agog that we're still going after 20 years."
ZOOMING MOVIES
Movies are chosen by a different member each week. In the early years, that meant actually looking at theater ads in the newspaper, picking a film that would be showing around 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and sending details to the group. They would watch it together and then discuss it while dining at a spot chosen by that week's movie-picker. The club also holds an annual Oscars party, and a trophy is given to the member who most accurately predicts winners in the top categories.
Two decades is a long time for any bunch of people to hang together, and there have been plenty of changes in the club over the years. Members have come and gone and many, including several at the Loca Luna dinner, have left and come back.
Pepper and Wyrick moved to Tuscany in June 2010 and spent years not participating in the Manny Perry Movie Club except when they made the occasional visit back to Little Rock.
"One of the hardest things to do was say goodbye to the movie club," Wyrick said. "We just sort of accepted that as our fate."
Krukowski, a professor and behavioral scientist at the University of Virginia, also left in 2010 when she moved to Memphis for a job opportunity.
The pandemic put a damper on activities but only briefly, and there was an unexpected bonus from that otherwise trying time. The club began watching movies via streaming services and discussing them during Sunday afternoon Zoom meetings. This allowed Krukowski, Wyrick and Pepper to rejoin.
"One of the members contacted us and said they were watching movies online and that we could do that, too," Wyrick said. "We jumped at the chance. We couldn't believe that we had the opportunity to participate in this thing that was really such an enjoyable part of our time in Little Rock. ... Reconnecting with everyone has been a real highlight of the experience."
The seven-hour time difference between Italy and Little Rock means that the meetings now take place at 2 p.m. CDT on Sunday. Films also must be available to stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime in English in Italy. Krukowski was able to sneak in "Anatomy of a Fall," which isn't dubbed in English in Italy, because Wyrick and Pepper couldn't participate that week.
Streaming has also allowed the group to expand its viewing because choices aren't limited to what's available in theaters.
"Since we went virtual, it opened up a much larger landscape of classic movies, or semi-classic that we otherwise would not have seen," Brockmeier said.
Club members can also now watch at their leisure, just as long as they've seen the film before the Sunday Zoom session.
STAYING POWER
The club has watched more than 30 films so far this year -- "Rocky," "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget," "American Fiction," "Oppenheimer," "Saltburn," "Four Weddings and a Funeral" to name just a few.
Reflecting on the group he and Pepper pretty much started in the lobby of Market Street Cinema, Wyrick said: "A couple of weeks ago when someone mentioned that it had been 20 years, I joked that if we had adopted a kid it would be off to college by now. ... To me, movies are so enjoyable. We're proud of the movie club. We're proud that everyone has stayed together and stayed in touch."
At Loca Luna, after dinner ended and the club members made their way outside into the early evening, they all hugged each other and parted ways until the next Sunday, when they'd meet again to talk about a movie.