In his review for The New York Times, Peter Schjeldahl calls Payday “a brilliant, nasty little chrome‐plated razor blade of a movie.” I couldn’t say it better in so few words, so let’s leave it there.

Knowing that some of my most stalwart NewScreen attendees would be unable to attend tonight for one reason or another, I really didn’t know what to expect, but hey… the show must go on, right? Each sounding of the buzzer, however, marked the arrival of another pleasantly surprising guest, and, before we knew it, we had a great crew installed, complete with the first watermelon of the season (thank you Vera!), some of which found its way into yummy martinis.

And then… the movie. It had been several years since I had last seen it, and I’d forgotten much of it. What a ride!

Folks often ask how I curate NewScreen. In truth, I stumbled upon this one by happy accident. As the credits rolled tonight, my guests realized that the entire cast of this beautiful movie was female. I suppose if you count the namesake Duke of Burgundy butterfly, there was indeed a male, but that’s a stretch. We don’t count butterflies here. Not yet, anyway.

Another great night.

“It all comes to a wacky climax when our present-day claimants have an Ayahuasca psychoactive experience, which sends them back in time to encounter these historical culture icons in person at an exhibition, resulting in Victor Hugo making improper advances towards Céline. It’s the kind of French movie for which you’ll need a sweet tooth, but it’s tasty.” Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian

Well… not exactly a crowd here tonight, but we were all pleased to see this. It was uncharacteristically light, feel-good fare for NewScreen, and maybe a bit hard to sell. No matter. It was a great night, and I didn’t start the round of applause as the credits rolled. I did, however, join in!

Emily, that is, making a rather striking debut. Is this the beginning of a Polish directors mini-series? I don’t know… it’s tempting though.

Polish born director, Pawel Pawlikowski started making documentaries for British Television, after post graduate studies at Oxford. He claims that film making is not a career. It’s just something he does. Well Mr. P… thanks for doing this, and Ida, another of my favorites, destined to come back to our silvery screen in the future.

To quote IndieWire’s David Ehrlich once more:

“There isn’t a single millisecond of this movie that doesn’t bristle with the raw energy of an artist who’s found the permission she needed to put her whole being into every frame, messy and shattered as that might be.”

He nailed it with that one sentence, and yes, it was messy and shattered… at times difficult to watch (we had one walk-out tonight), but Kristen Stewart’s astounding debut was marked by powerful in-your-face cinematography and moored by Imogen Poots’ tremendous performance – her career-to-date best IMHO – and, for that matter, just a great cast all around. Jim Belushi as Ken Kesey FFS! I can’t help but wonder whether Stewart was “helping out” some actor friends. If so, they didn’t let her down!

Sure. Kinda cheesy in parts, and Kurt Russell’s lines rather too breathily pronounced, but what a blast to watch this one again tonight! A pretty-much full house was enthralled by John Carpenter’s (dare I say?) masterpiece.

I first screened this at MovieNight on 16th St. in the spring of 2002. I guess the time will be 2050? Not likely, but never say never!

This week I once again eschewed the very modern, to look back fondly at what seems like a very different New York City. Has the city changed that much, or is it me? Maybe both. Whatever the case, Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger really hit the spot, with a very snappy script, and great performances all round (fascinating to watch the young Jesse Eisenberg, already shining).

For my part, I was happy to enable a bunch of people forget about the “now” and get lost in the “then” for 106 minutes.