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.
OMG. Ellen did it again. Our bespoke finale curator came up with another great musical to end our season, and even though it was, unusually for us, a Tuesday night, the turnout was heartwarming. See you in the fall!
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!
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.
Tonight, we were a bunch of guys enjoying a very funny feminist film. Power to the girls! As strange as that may seem, it felt totally natural to this viewer.
Yorgos Lanthimos goes from strength to strength, and his latest, Poor Things, a fantastical steam punk voyage, delighted eighty percent* of our lovely audience tonight. His second collaboration with Emma Stone is bearing delicious fruit, and looks to continue with his next. Kinds of Kindness will be released this June, and Willem Dafoe will also rejoin the cast.
I’m inclined to say, “Can’t wait!”, but of course, I’ll have to. Stay tuned!
*The other twenty percent included some sleepy-heads, and some who just didn’t like. That’s ok. Maybe it’s an acquired taste.
On a recent WNYC call-in radio show, on the subject of what makes a good movie to watch on an airplane, on caller touted his practice of choosing a movie by a female director. “It’s most often you’ll get an interesting perspective.”
Well, we certainly got an interesting perspective tonight! Lila Aviles’ Totem, takes us on a sometimes quiet, sometimes chaotic coming of consciousness through the eyes of Sol, a seven year old, during a large family’s preparation for what we soon learn will be her father’s last birthday.
Incidentally, this season of NewScreen has featured more work by women directors than ever before. Nothing “airplane” about this curation, though!
Thanks to everyone who came out tonight. Lovely.