Park Chan-wook does it again! No Other Choice is deliciously entertaining combination of darkness and humor, all, of course, delivered up with a ton of style. Awards material? I hope so. In the meantime, I’m thinking that The Handmaiden is ripe for another look. Hmm.

So what’s this “king” business? The French (and others) celebrate Epiphany (January 6th) during the month, with a Galette des rois (Kings cake), a buttery sweet pie made of puff pastry with almond cream filling. It is sliced up and distributed among the guests and, inside one piece will be found the fève (a trinket, coin, bean, or even a small plastic baby). Whoever finds the fève is crowned king or queen for the night. The prize tonight was meant to be free drinks for the monarch, but I won, so the point was moot. Not a fix, I promise.

Thanks to Annalise for baking, and bringing. Fun!

Tonight was (unofficially) our Christmas special, and final screening of the year. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, an astute examination of familial dysfunction, seemed a fitting movie for the Holidays. Blood is indeed thicker than water although, at times, viscosity can be complicated.

Sentimental Value is a masterpiece, in my opinion… never a misstep, and fine performances from the entire cast. Above all, Renate Reinsve’s performance was mesmerizing, as it was in Trier’s last feature, The Worst Person in the World. Ironically, she was about to give up on her unsuccessful acting career just before she got called for Worst Person. Look at her now!

Thanks to the lovely folks who came out tonight. See you next year ))

Tonight’s screening may very well have been the US premiere for this quirky, and highly entertaining work from Quentin Dupieux. Released in France in July, The Piano Accident has not as yet found distribution here. NewScreen has you covered!

Adele Exarchopoulis has been a MovieNight favorite since Blue is the Warmest Color, and more recently at NewScreen in The Five Devils. Her role in The Piano Accident was truly remarkable, including a little “laugh-snort” that she apparently came up with herself. We were all doing it as the credits rolled.

So, there we were watching a pretty entertaining adventure in the Moroccan desert (people partying, dancing, tripping, a father searching for his missing daughter), and then… Boom! All hell breaks loose. Suffice it to say, tonight’s audience was shocked… in a great way.

Anna Biller’s hands-on retro vision of perfect 70’s cinema was, in the words of IndieWire’s David Ehrlich “Archly funny — but also hyper-sincere”. What a movie! What a great night at NewScreen!

I was so pleased to rediscover this a few weeks ago. Accident is arguably the least known Pinter/Losey/Bogarde collaboration (the others are The Servant and The Go-Between) but the easiest to watch. As one reviewer advised, “Don’t try to match them drink for drink.” Of course we didn’t.

We did manage to demolish half a loaf of Borodinsky bread and a large jar of herring. Thanks Igor!

You had to be here. Enough said.

Ken Loache’s beautiful 1969 film Kes quietly moved us to tears tonight. The heavy South Yorkshire accent was challenging even with the aid of subtitles, which were peppered with “Thee”s and “Thou”s.

Sometimes bleak, sometimes rich, and not without a few laughs… I was proud to bring this classic to NewScreen… finally.

Wow. I was excited to see you all after the summer hiatus but, to be honest, I hadn’t expected the full house that turned up. Lovely to see you, and happy for some new faces.

The Swimmer is ultimately quite a bleak tale but initially, it’s a fanciful romp . Ned turns up (clad only in a pair of Speedo trunks) unexpectedly at some well-to-do neighbors who are all suffering from “I drank too much last night” scenarios but are delighted to see him again (it’s been a while). He informs them that he has realized that he can “swim home” via a network of his neighbors’ pools. He accepts a drink, and continues on his way, diving into their pool, and heading on to the next. As he gets nearer to his goal of “swimming home”, his neighbors are increasingly less happy to see him and, at the Biswanger’s pool party, the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan, after which it was all down(stream) from there for Ned. Tragically brilliant.

Igor turned up with herring, but alas, no Borodinsky was available. Next week!