All posts by newscreen_mt6x3h

Sami Blood. Certainly not sami old, sami old.

Trailers

I had been wanting to show this one for a while and, what can I say but ‘Wow!”. Amanda Kernell’s debut feature Sami Blood is a coming-of-age with a different slant. It looked great on our new screen, but you should still seek it out if you haven’t seen it.

For some reason, the invitation emails have become unreliable again, and many of you were unaware of this screening. I don’t really know what to do about it, but I would urge you to just check here to see what’s showing in a given week. This blog is updated at noon on Mondays, if there will be a screening during the week.

Today was Joni Mitchell’s 67 birthday, and we honoured (Canadian spelling, for the Canadian lady) it with a video of her outstanding live rendition of Big Yellow Taxi at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, with a bit of hindrance from a misguided “friend”.

The Orphanage. Home sweet creepy home.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff, Strange Stuff

Our Halloween special wasn’t without its own ghosts! After our unruly crowd was persuaded to take their seats, we ran the pre-movie short, and we expected the feature to follow smoothly. It did not. The file had become corrupt, somehow and was screaming loudly at us. I tried another copy… same thing! What to do? Show it on DVD. DVD! It’s been a while. I was so happy to be able to pull through, and so were the audience.

Hats off to Connie, who stole the pre-movie spotlight with her green bug costume. Fantastic. I’ll try to update this post with a picture. Anyone? Even in the very back row, she continued to shine… until she turned her glowing antennae off. “They’re real.” she claimed.

Don’t Look Now. Sound advice, but difficult to follow.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff
A bridge too far?

The second part of our Creepfest mini-season, leading up to the Halowe’en special, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now delivered a knockout punch. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie had some chemistry going on for sure. Sweet.

Some tardy arrivals (natives of a certain country) delayed the start of our feature (not you, Max!) , so it was a bit of a late one, but we had a great evening, capped off with a loaf of banana bread, fresh from the oven. As usual, not a crumb remained.

Tonight’s opening short was Bicycle, by Cool 3D World. Clever stuff.

The Wicker Man. Oh Jesus! Oh Lord! Oh NewScreen!

NewScreen Stuff, Strange Stuff
Take the flame. Feel him in.

We set a rather high bar for our second official season of NewScreen with this British classic. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man was originally relegated to the minor leagues, and cut down in length to serve as an opening short for Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (our next feature, btw.)

The most asked question after the movie? “How did you find this?” In fact, this was recommended to me by Sophie K. Davis, about 10 years ago!

Tonight’s opening short was Cheeto Christ Stupid-Czar, by the amazingly clever satirist, Randy Rainbow.

Burning. Well… not so hot.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff
Topless frolicking in the Korean countryside

According to A. A. Dowd, in his review for the A.V. Club “Burning simmers. For nearly two-and-a-half perfectly measured hours, it turns up the heat without boiling over: a drama becoming a thriller in slow motion, intensifying little by little minute by minute, until finally it reaches a shocking, powerful crescendo.”

This is pretty accurate, and I still love this film, but ultimately it was a poor choice to screen on a Saturday night. I should have chosen something more festive. Oh well… you can’t win ’em all.

Our short this week was a thought-provoking music video The Bully, by Sody, directed by Will and Carly.

On Body And Soul. One stag, one doe, one thick, juicy leaf.

Movies, Strange Stuff
Sweet dreams, Mária.

Two oddball loners discover that they are sharing the same dream in Ildikó Enyedi’s On Body And Soul. This is enchanting stuff, and our audience was indeed enchanted. Incidentally, this was Enyedi’s first new feature in 18 years. Welcome back!

Sticking to the theme of unlikely love stories, our animated short this week was Next Flight Home directed by Jake Wegesin. A pigeon and a dove. Sweet.

Five Easy Pieces. Hold the chicken!

Movies, NewScreen Stuff
Strange carfellows

It was great to revisit this classic tonight! Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces packs so much color and depth into a rather short 98 minute package. We had a great turnout too.

On another note, I’m going to rethink the popcorn policy here. Every Friday morning, I throw so much uneaten popcorn out. As cute as it is for me to deliver popcorn to each sofa, it appears that not everyone wants it. I think I’ll just set it out on the side bar, and folks can help themselves. I know… first world problems!

Speaking of which, tonight’s animated short was the disturbingly poignant story of an immigrant’s futile attempt to make a new life in a first world country: Paper or Plastic, directed by Nata Metlukh

Utoya – July 22. No popcorn tonight.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff, Strange Stuff
“You will never understand”

A very special NewScreen tonight… kind of a hard one to “sell”… Erik Poppe’s Utoya: July 22 reenacts a 72 minute terrorist attack on an AUF (a youth group affiliated with the Norwegian Labor Party) summer camp. The movie is shot in one continuous take, and focuses on Kaya, who has dragged her younger sister to summer camp, very much against her teenage will. The experience is brutal, and mesmerizing. It felt inappropriate to be breaking out popcorn, and the audience agreed when polled.

Utoya: July 22 was recommended by writer and NewScreen regular, Howard Fishman, who interviewed Poppe for the New Yorker at this year’s Gothenburg film festival (Read Howard’s review). Apparently the crew went through five full takes, and loudspeakers were set up throughout the woods to broadcast the “gun shots”. At one point, Kaya is hiding on the forest floor, attempting to use a mobile phone, when she notices a mosquito landing on her arm. She lets the mosquito be. Quite a metaphor…

The mosquito in question. Def not CGI.

After watching the end credits all the way through (folks were kind of in shock at the ending), a lively discussion broke out about the mosquito. CGI? Nope. it was real. All the more reason to applaud the camera work.

And then… banana bread! It’s getting to be a thing.

Our not-so-short feature this week was Little Red Riding Hood, starring a very young Christina Ricci, directed by David Kaplan. It never fails to entertain.”Are you pinching out a big loaf?” LOL