Thanks to Greg for bringing this relatively unknown 2023 slasher flick from J.T. Mollner to my attention. I say “relatively unknown”, but it seems that it is gaining recognition and expanding its fan base daily. Strange Darling is a smart, extraordinarily well constructed puzzle piece, doled out in six tight, non-sequential chapters. It totally blindsided me.
Our recycling of shorts continued this tonight with Paul Trillo’s surreal AI-generated animation, Thank You For Not Answering.
After last week’s roller coaster ride of The Substance it was good to lighten up tonight. My Old Ass is, after all, a rom-com-dram, coming-of-age, and in some ways even a tad Hallmarkian, but packs a surprising gut punch. Tears were shed. And laughs were laughed.
Taking advantage of the main feature’s relatively short run-time, we showed one of our longer shorts: Little Red Riding Hood, directed by David Kaplan, and featuring a very young Christina Ricci. Wonderful, as always.
It seemed to me that it would be fun to watch this movie after all the talk talk talk of the election, and the terror of waking up to gruesome election results on Wednesday. The concept was to fight scary with scary. The Substance served up a heaping portion of gore and tremendous entertainment. I’m sorry it was a bit much for some of you. Watch the trailer next time!
Our short this week was Be a Lady They Said featuring Cynthia Nixon.
Next week, I’ll try to lighten up. A bit.
Another great night. Thanks to everyone for coming out. An unlikely couple, for sure, but love is often strange. Thank goodness.
Our short tonight was another perennial fave. Soft Animals, directed by Renee Zhan
We started our new season in fine form tonight, with this captivating Norwegian film. I managed to get everything almost right, eventually. It’s funny how easy it is to forget all the little things that make NewScreen work.
Our short feature tonight was Maestro (which, of course, drove Tick crazy!) directed by Illogic. Great to see you all again.
The reason I give props to YouTube? I was recording a trailer for the movie I had planned to show tonight, and the algorithm queued up the trailer for this. I had never heard of it, nor was I familiar with the work of director, Alice Rohrwacher. So… it turns out that I don’t know a lot about a lot of things… but the trailer grabbed me, and I set to “work” watching it. I was blown away, as were our guests tonight.
When I say set to work, I mean that I feel it’s my duty to know a film before I show it to a group of trusting people who make the effort to schlep to Alphabet City for NewScreen. I made an exception recently for Hundreds of Beavers, which I just KNEW would be fantastic, and wanted to be on the discovering side, along with my guests. Good call. What a crazy ride!
In case you’re interested, the film that got “bumped” tonight was All Your Faces (Je verrai toujours vos visages). That would have been a great screening as well…
Hundreds of Beavers was not the first unseen feature I’ve ever shown. Many many years ago, I found myself in a Blockbuster (remember them?) and managed to get my hands on their last copy of the recently released The Hurt Locker, which I showed unseen at MovieNight. As it turned out, my instincts were good ))
Goran Stolevski branched out in a new direction with Housekeeping for Beginners. His previous movie, You Will Not Be Alone entranced me (and some of you, I hope, after being screened here for the third time, a few weeks ago) and I had been eagerly awaiting this new work from the Macedonian-born, now living in Australia, director.
This did not disappoint. We laughed, we cried, we laughed again. And then we applauded when the closing credits rolled. Another great NewScreen night!
Based on an actual unsolved murder, this fascinating police procedural came up with so many likely suspects (homegirl fell in love easily, apparently) only to discover that none of them could actually have done it. The scenario was indeed bleak, but director Dominik Moll focused more on the workings of the police department, the detectives and the things that haunt them, and their personal problems. Somehow, there was plenty to laugh at.
Speaking of plenty to laugh at… my homemade short Miracle at MovieNight worked it’s magic on our guests once again tonight.
I was craving something rich and delicious this week, and when this came to mind, it was impossible to shake off. It came to mind because Goran Stolevski’s new film, Housekeeping for Beginners, is just about to hit American theaters… I can’t wait to see what he does with that story. I the meantime I thought we should see this one again. Result!
Thanks to all my loyal peeps who came out on yet another rainy April night to enjoy this astonishingly beautiful work.
Also… our short was amazing too… Thank You For Not Answering, directed by Paul Trillo. Spooky.
This was fun. I can’t remember how I originally stumbled upon this quirky little gem. Probably came up as one of “More like this” on IMDb while checking out a Jacques Tati film. Full of great gags and and silliness, Lost in Paris was a great laugh, and we welcomed some new guests.
Thursdays feel good. Let’s do another one.