I first saw Good One on Christmas day, 2024. Of course, I loved it, but I thought at the time that it was maybe a bit slow and quiet for NewScreen. Nonetheless, it left an indelible mark in my memory, and when I dug it out of the proverbial crates last week, I thought “Fuck it. I hope they’ll like it…” Guess what? They didn’t like it… they loved it. I had kinda forgotten how funny it was, as well.

Thanks to Tineke and Zoe for bringing new people to NewScreen. It makes me happy to make people happy with NewScreen!

Thanks to my loyal audience for trusting me and coming out to see this. They were certainly not disappointed! Companion rocks and so does Sophie Thatcher. I’m somewhat embarrassed, but I do have to acknowledge that a nepo Quaid (assuming that the Trumper gene lives on in this fucked up family) also delivered a great performance.

A great NewScreen, once again. Happy me.

For some reason, this gorgeous movie didn’t connect with my guests tonight as much as it did for me… one even described it as mediocre the next day. Although I was able to talk her out of that description, and suggest that she watch it again, I doubt she will, and even if she does, it won’t be the same as it was on our beautiful screen with kick-ass sound.

Oh well.

People who don’t want to watch a great movie again because “I’ve already seen it”? I don’t get it. Is this the way of the world now? Maybe so. I’ll try to remember to deny seeing Casablanca 20+ times when I get pulled up in front of a DOGE inquiry into my movie watching efficiency.

Grumbling aside… thanks to you devotees who came out on St. Valentine’s Eve. to see this gorgeous rom-com. I wanted to remind people that they’ve enjoyed this introduction to Yura Borisov here before his brilliant star turn as Igor in Anora.

Well, this will be a hard act to follow. Magnus Von Horn is certainly a director to keep both eyes on, and for a little over 2 hours, that’s exactly what our house did. Dark and Danish (new cocktail?). Vic Carmen Sonne’s performance was remarkable, as was the cinematography. Gorgeous. And that rug-pull moment… yikes.

I mistakenly stated that MVH had only made two features (this and Sweat), but he has, in fact, made three. His first, The Here After also won high praise. Each of his movies is in a different language, as well.

Great to welcome new people to NewScreen tonight, along with one from waaaay back! Fun.

I happened upon this hidden gem while in pursuit of director Magnus Von Horn’s 2024 feature, The Girl with the Needle. At first glance, Von Horn’s two movies are quite different… one is set in the modern world of social media influencing, the other, in the dark days immediately following the end of the first world war. The common thread? Each tells a story from the perspective of a young woman, struggling to survive in difficult circumstances.

After taking a week off to recover from a surgery, I was really happy to be back, and was gratified by the healthy turnup! More Von Horn next week?

As Ryan Lattanzio summarized in his IndieWire revew: Bird is not Arnold’s best film — how can you top the cross-country raptures of “American Honey” or the final synchronized dance to Nas in “Fish Tank”? But it’s certainly her most ambitious in terms of willingness to stretch her creative reach beyond the social-realist-only confines of some of her early work.

That’s a good way of looking at it. Andrea Arnold’s empathetic observation of youth, particularly those in hardscrabble circumstances, has always been spot-on, in much the same way as that of the Dardenne brothers, but with a very British flavor. Barry Keoghan, and newcomer, Nykiya Adams shone, as did Franz Rogowski, as Bird. Rogowski is a German actor who was born with a cleft lip. His cleft was surgically closed, resulting in a slight lisp. He first appeared on our screen (well, it was the previous screen, at MovieNight, in Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria… maybe time for another look?). His career has gone from strength to strength.

Since I had a surgery scheduled for 6am on Friday morning, it seemed sensible to move NewScreen to Wednesday this week. We had an unexpectedly great turnout tonight. Thanks everyone! See you next time.

It was great to be able to show this ancient gem to people who hadn’t seen it. Apparently Sunrise flopped at the time of its release, due to the rising popularity of “talkies”. I wonder if any of those could possibly be as memorable. Another interesting fact: the studio insisted on a happy ending, which Murnau was against, but eventually caved.

I like a happy ending!