Jonathan Glazer’s Birth has lived on vividly in my memory since first seeing it and then screening it at MovieNight, in the old place, in the old days. Our Black Friday screening pulled in a great group of folks, and Nicole Kidman’s performance was mesmerizing.
Our short tonight was the ever-frantic “Tanto”, by Cassie Marin, directed by King She.
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 ))
Tonight’s feature was arguably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Our audience was enthralled, to say the least. What kind of imagination comes up with this kind of thing? Well, obviously that of Mike Cheslik. If you feel like being thoroughly entertained by 108 minutes of unrelenting visual thrills, gags, and slapstick, please watch Hundreds of Beavers.
Of course, our short feature tonight had to be Evil Beaver!
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.
This one didn’t age very well, IMHO. I’ve seen it a few times and loved it, and I thought it would make a great NewScreen feature, but it was just a bit too slow, and just a bit too weird. Shelly Duval’s Millie Lammoreaux character used to make me laugh, but this time around she just made me feel sad for her. My guests seemed to enjoy it, though… Next!
Our opening short tonight was Rene Zahns rather sexy animation Soft Animals
This will be a hard act to follow, on a few levels. A beautifully visual, smart, quirky movie that pretty much ended director Michael Powell’s career – people were just not ready for his departure from the role of beloved director of what became British classics. Guess what… this one became another.
On top of that, we had a great audience tonight: our most faithful guests were joined by people we haven’t seen in a while, and everything just, um, clicked (reference to the shutter of Mark’s ever-present film camera).
And… even the opening short was wonderful. Check it out: Mette / Mama’s Eyes
Apparently the banana bread was “best ever” as well. Should I just quit now, while I’m ahead? Joking.
Tonight’s feature was another spooky and ghostly tale, which took its delicious time ensnaring us. I discovered it circuitously (as always) and was, of course, drawn in by another compelling performance by Vicky Krieps.
One of our loyal NewScreen supporters, upon receiving this week’s invitation declared themselves* as “not a Krieps fan”, and therefore uninterested in attending this week… this declaration is something I must add that to a growing list of things I simply can’t wrap my head around. Krieps is an amazing actor.
Also (for you gear heads)… has an AMC Pacer ever been featured in another movie? I think probably so…
Ultimately, the “proof of the [NewScreen] pudding”, is in the applause, which broke out spontaneously at movie’s end. Thank you all for getting it.
*pronouns changed to protect the identity of the person in question.
Well, that was a blast!
When I started noticing the posters for this popping up around town , and everywhere, I thought it was probably some some TV show for that would only appeal to Gen Z’ers. My curiosity eventually got the better of me though, and I was blown away. Smart, funny and exciting… just ask anyone who was here tonight!
And yes. The dance!
Since it seems that no one bothers to read this blog, I won’t spend much time writing it.
You Won’t Be Alone is, simply put, one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen in years. So good I showed it twice. Thanks to all the lucky ones who came to see it.
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