It was great to revisit this classic tonight! Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces packs so much color and depth into a rather short 98 minute package. We had a great turnout too.
On another note, I’m going to rethink the popcorn policy here. Every Friday morning, I throw so much uneaten popcorn out. As cute as it is for me to deliver popcorn to each sofa, it appears that not everyone wants it. I think I’ll just set it out on the side bar, and folks can help themselves. I know… first world problems!
Speaking of which, tonight’s animated short was the disturbingly poignant story of an immigrant’s futile attempt to make a new life in a first world country: Paper or Plastic, directed by Nata Metlukh
A very special NewScreen tonight… kind of a hard one to “sell”… Erik Poppe’s Utoya: July 22 reenacts a 72 minute terrorist attack on an AUF (a youth group affiliated with the Norwegian Labor Party) summer camp. The movie is shot in one continuous take, and focuses on Kaya, who has dragged her younger sister to summer camp, very much against her teenage will. The experience is brutal, and mesmerizing. It felt inappropriate to be breaking out popcorn, and the audience agreed when polled.
Utoya: July 22 was recommended by writer and NewScreen regular, Howard Fishman, who interviewed Poppe for the New Yorker at this year’s Gothenburg film festival (Read Howard’s review). Apparently the crew went through five full takes, and loudspeakers were set up throughout the woods to broadcast the “gun shots”. At one point, Kaya is hiding on the forest floor, attempting to use a mobile phone, when she notices a mosquito landing on her arm. She lets the mosquito be. Quite a metaphor…
The mosquito in question. Def not CGI.
After watching the end credits all the way through (folks were kind of in shock at the ending), a lively discussion broke out about the mosquito. CGI? Nope. it was real. All the more reason to applaud the camera work.
And then… banana bread! It’s getting to be a thing.
Our not-so-short feature this week was Little Red Riding Hood, starring a very young Christina Ricci, directed by David Kaplan. It never fails to entertain.”Are you pinching out a big loaf?” LOL
On the face of it, one might assume that a documentary whose premise is fairly obvious – triplets separated at birth are reunited – wouldn’t be able to hold its audience in rapt attention, but Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers does just that. I won’t go into details for the sake of not being a spoiler, but suffice it to say that there are many layers of skin to peel off of this particular onion. Some layers are stretched a bit, but overall, this is mesmerizing stuff.
This week we revisited two NewScreen favorites: The Chemical Brothers – We’ve got to try, directed by Ninian Doff, featuring “Girl the Dog”. We just had to show it again.
Tonight marked the first screening of a Japanese movie in the seventeen year history of MovieNight/NewScreen, and it surely won’t be the last. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme D’or winning Shoplifters is an intimate portrait of a “family” who share no blood lines, but are very much a functional unit.
It was a busy night at the bar and consequently the movie started a bit late. Sorry kids! I’ll be more disciplined in future. I know some of you have a long way to go home on a school night.
Our animated short feature this week was La Pista, directed by Juanluigi Toccafondo.
There has been a lot of criticism from the LGBTQ (not sure if those are all the letters currently in use, to be honest) community of cisgender director Lukas Dhont’s directorial debut, Girl, based on a real life account of a 15-year-old girl, born in the body of a boy, who has aspirations of one day becoming a ballet dancer. I guess I’m not qualified to appreciate or refute that criticism, but let me say this: I felt a lot of her pain through the artistry of this beautiful movie, and so did our audience. Once again this week, a ripple of applause spread through the room.
Minister levitates with pregnant woman on top. Don’t try this at home, kids.
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed brought in a nice-sized audience this week. As you may know, Schrader wrote the screenplay for Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese in 1976. In First Reformed, the protagonist, Reverend Toller (portrayed remarkably by Ethan Hawk), reprises the roll of Travis Bickle.
In the words of Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, writing for the A.V. Club, “The subject matter is an outrageous update of the alienation of Schrader’s classic Taxi Driver script for a world of LiveLeak videos and climate change; Travis Bickle’s eerily fizzing Alka-Seltzer becomes pink Pepto-Bismol sludging in [Toller’s] whiskey glass like a toxic spill.”
This week’s short garnered a round of applause! The Chemical Brothers – We’ve got to try, directed by Ninian Doff, featuring “Girl the Dog”. Thanks for sending the link, Igor 🙂
It was one of those nights when people wanted to hang out, so we watched a few amusing shorts, and devoured a loaf of homemade banana bread, still warm from the oven. Nice.
For the first time in his movie-making career, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is not credited as a writer. It’s not like you’d notice though… with The Favourite, Lanthimos once again demonstrates his prowess for quirky, dark humor. Beautifully shot by Robbie Ryan (American Honey, I, Daniel Blake), and wonderfully acted by Coleman, Weiss and Stone, The Favourite delighted our audience. Except for one…
For some reason, this movie drives my puppy, Tick, absolutely crazy. He’s always been sensitive to animals and loud noises on the screen, but not on this scale. Even the opening credits cause him to start growling, and any act of violence, gunshot, or animal provokes outbusts of barking. I hope he wasn’t too much of a distraction.
Tonight’s short feature was the rather naughty 1980YEN – Takoyaki Story, directed by Sawako Kabuki.
NewScreen was on fine form this week with Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum – one of this year’s foreign-language Oscar nominees, and the Jury Prize-winner at Cannes last year. In the words of Robbie Collin from the Telegraph, ” It’s the story of a child surviving on the streets of Beirut, infused with the richness of great fiction and the heart-in-mouth power of frontline news footage. The peril feels so truthful and specific, and the young cast’s reactions to it so astonishingly natural, that my heart couldn’t work out whether it should break or pop.”
I couldn’t put it better. We cried, and then we applauded.
Incidentally, this is the third foreign-language Oscar nominee to appear at NewScreen (Cold War and Roma preceded), and we’re not done yet. Watch this space!
Tonight’s short feature was Brain Wave directed by Jake Fried.
As much as I feel that Valentine’s Day is bull*hit, I am an unabashed romantic. I thought it would be great to show a classic love story tonight. Marie suggested Casablanca, since it was also showing at the wonderful Metrograph, just down the road. Great suggestion. This film ticks all the right boxes. As I expected, there were a few guests seeing this for the first time, and I was proud to present a crisp remaster, on the big screen.
Also… we have another hit cocktail on our hands! The (Barely) Pink Lady went “viral” at the bar. Sooooo delicious!
Issues persist with the email list, but it got through to a few, and it really felt like old times to host a few folks that I hadn’t seen for years, and even a couple of new faces.
As some of you may know, I have only recently started paying attention to Gaga. It was all just way too glamorous for me before, but I watched the Netflix doc (Gaga: Five Foot Two) a few weeks ago, and I kinda fell in love. She is amazing in this moving love story… even on my third watching, tears were never far away. I kinda wish I had saved this for Valentine’s Day, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
Tonight’s short feature (yes, the full program is back! I heard you!) was Enough, by Anna Mantzaris. It was her first-year film project at the Royal College of Art
