Ti West’s X was, of course, a delightful blood-bath! The girl from Southwark, London (Mia Gipsy Mello da Silva Goth) pulled off a flawless accent in the role of a coke-snorting, exotic dancer, intent upon making it big in the movies. Well, in real life she has. Always wonderful to watch. Even LaBoeuf can’t seem to get her out from under his skin!
We started our evening with a little, bloody appetizer from Purity Ring: Begin Again. Tasty
Emma Seligman’s debut feature, Shiva Baby, made us cringe tonight… in the way that we like to cringe. Although it’s not a horror movie, it almost could be, with new plot twists coming hard and fast, spiraling ever downward with every glass of wine Danielle (Rachel Sennott – excellent) knocks back, and every staccato note of Ariel Marx’s haunting score. The cast is all solid, but Dianna Agron brought another level of tension, with her knockout performance as Kim, a Westchester blonde “Shiksa” entrepreneur (she’s actually Jewish btw). Perfect.
Our short tonight was the vintage I Fink U Freaky, by Die Antwoord. Dark stuff all night!
I went out on a bit of a limb tonight with this one. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn opens with what used to be called a sex tape, the existence of which provides the premise for the rest of the movie. I stayed hunkered down behind my bar, worried that my guests could be offended or embarrassed by the three and a half minutes of hard core action on screen. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about. It seems that people are pretty familiar with this kind of thing! The pacing of Radu Jude’s movie is perfect (one IMDB contributor, not wanting to give anything away, described it as a roller coaster ride) and kept our audience suspended in delight.
It felt like old times here tonight. We had a couple of fresh-off-the-boat newbies (always great to welcome), and Ellen insisted that the lazy bartender make popcorn for her to distribute. lol
Our short feature was Emma Allen’s Ruby a fast moving stop motion self portrait
It’s hard to believe that Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques is 67 years old! The re-mastered Criterion release looked great on our screen tonight. We had a nice turnout for this creepy delight… some folks returned for the first time since Parasite! It felt like old times, and we managed to not think about the war for a minute.
Keeping it French, our short this week was Justine Vuylsteker’s somewhat erotic graduation film, Fish Don’t Need Sex.
My choice of tonight’s feature was rather polarizing. Some of you wouldn’t even consider watching another (supposed) biopic about Lady Di, and/or the Royal Family, for various reasons political and otherwise (one person loved The Crown so much, that they weren’t eager to see the royals portrayed by actors that they were unfamiliar with in their roles). Still others can’t bear to watch Kristen Stewart at all, and were recently appalled by her Oscar nomination for Spencer.
I beg to differ! This trippy movie was never meant to be an accurate account of Diana’s life, rather a dark portrayal of a woman imprisoned in a loveless marriage, on the verge of cracking up completely. Personally, I believe this fictional account was full of non-fiction. Of course, there were some purely fantastical elements thrown in to spice up this twisted dish, but the “dish” came out of the oven cooked to perfection. Stewart did an amazing job, albeit the same job she always does. This time she had something more to sink her lovely teeth into.
A point of trivia for you movie lovers: have you noticed that Neon seems to have become the new A24? Almost everything good that I see these days is a Neon release.
As Putin’s murderous onslaught rages on, we repeated short intro: a rousing video performance of the anti war Disenchantment, by the Ukrainian metal band, Ignea. Planning to attend the I Stand with Ukraine rally in Times Square on Saturday, rocking this two-sided sign. Bigly.
A very small group of us were mesmerized (once again, in my case) by Jane Campion’s masterpiece tonight. Benedict Cumberbatch transformed himself brilliantly and convincingly from a British gentleman to a rough-edged, toxicly masculine 1920’s American cowboy. Well, he’s rather more complicated than that, as is the movie itself. If you’re interested in dissecting The Power of the Dog more deeply, I suggest that you watch Lucas Blue’s thorough explanation on YouTube.
My dog, Tick, a Jack Russell Terrier, watches movies earnestly with us… I’ve never seen anything quite like it. He pays very close attention and takes exception to animals being on the screen, particularly horses. You can imagine how much he didn’t like The Power of the Dog… unless maybe he finds pleasure in “protecting” us from them. In any case, he gets used to the idea that these big critters are going to be sharing our space for a few hours, and finds himself a friendly lap to settle down in.
Our short opening feature was Maestro directed by Illogic… It’s so great to be back.
Tonight marked the return of NewScreen after 1 year, 10 months and 27 days of Covid-19 shutdown. Our small group of fully-vaxxed folks practiced sensible mingling, while enjoying a beautiful movie and great cocktails, etc. The sense of magic was palpable.
Who knows where the road ahead will take us, but in the meantime, we’re so happy to be here, and provide this small Thursday night oasis. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a mirage.
Our short this week featured the British band, Wet Leg, performing their zany, tongue-in-cheek Chaise Longue. Wonderful.
I hope I’m wrong about this, but our Friday night showing was possibly the last NewScreen of the year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were four of us, so social distancing wasn’t an issue… well maybe it was at the bar, but precautions were taken and hands were well washed.
We settled into our sofas, probably only 5 feet apart, and enjoyed Amodóvar’s best film in years, and then returned to the bar to demolish half a loaf of freshly baked banana bread. Tradition is important, specially in tough times.
Our short feature was In Pursuit of Ghosts, by Max Cooper and Tim Hodge – a mesmerizing loop of an Eadweard Muybridge human motion study, with added graphics.
Our Valentine’s eve special feature brought in a good audience tonight. Eighteenth century lesbian love in Brittany… pretty racy. Apparently, the portrait-painting technique was ill-researched and not realistic. Not being a painter, I was unaware of this, so for me – not a deal-breaker. I thought Portrait of a Lady on Fire was richly beautiful, and deeply touching. Hard not to shed a few tears. Céline Sciamma is on fire herself.
Our hysterical animated short was Bad History – Putin by FrameBreed.
“My heart is cold. My moves are bold. Never get old. I save the world.”
Russia’s official submission to the 2019 Oscars, 27 year old (then – now 28) director Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole (Dylda) left our audience in a state of ecstatic shock tonight. For a few, the memory of propaganda surrounding the “great patriotic war” was uncomfortably close to home, but for those of us lucky enough to be peeking through this window for the first time, or perhaps looking through the same window with a different perspective, this tableau of beautiful bleakness was a gorgeous treat, with outstanding performances by Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina. I’m already looking forward to watching it again with some dinner guests (you know who you are). Thank you to my lovely friend Anastasia Komarova for suggesting (insisting, even) that I see this ))
Tonight’s short feature was Le Silence de la rue, directed by Marie Opron. Also beautiful.
And, yes… of course there was banana bread!