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
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.
Just a few hours before tonight’s screening, Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine, using the preposterous pretext of keeping the peace in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Unfortunately, many Russians have no easy access to real news, and have swallowed Putin’s lies whole. There but for the grace of god go we. Think “Fox News” and now “Truth Social”.
Our crew of four managed to find some solace in each others’ company though, and occasionally rise above the pervading sense of doom . Although it wasn’t always easy to concentrate on the movie, when we could, we were moved to laughter and tears.
As a tribute to our friends in Ukraine, our short intro featured a rousing video performance of the anti war Disenchantment, by the Ukrainian metal band, Ignea
Our first ever Tuesday night screening was a smashing success. Who knew? The experiment will continue. The biggest issue? I need to adjust my banana buying schedule, in order to have some nice ripe ones ready to bake into a loaf on a Tuesday… we only had a bit of leftover bread tonight. First world problems!
Mark Jenkin’s Bait is an eerily strange mixture of old and new. The old: 16mm black and white film, shot on a Bolex camera with sound (and a bit too much distress, in my opinion) added later. The [not so] new: The conflict between the locals and the gentrifying townies and their Airbnb guests. The protagonist, Martin, is a fisherman with no boat since a disagreement with his brother, who has gone over to the other side, seemingly, and has repurposed the boat to run daytrips for tourists.
“How was the drive?” asks one weekender of another. “Awful! Seven Hours.” “Same. Nevermind. We’re here now.” Kind of sums it up. Bait is a quirky must-see.
Speaking of quirky, we started our evening in the same vein, with Facing It, directed by Sam Gainsborough. Brilliant
Our Halloween special wasn’t without its own ghosts! After our unruly crowd was persuaded to take their seats, we ran the pre-movie short, and we expected the feature to follow smoothly. It did not. The file had become corrupt, somehow and was screaming loudly at us. I tried another copy… same thing! What to do? Show it on DVD. DVD! It’s been a while. I was so happy to be able to pull through, and so were the audience.
Hats off to Connie, who stole the pre-movie spotlight with her green bug costume. Fantastic. I’ll try to update this post with a picture. Anyone? Even in the very back row, she continued to shine… until she turned her glowing antennae off. “They’re real.” she claimed.
We set a rather high bar for our second official season of NewScreen with this British classic. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man was originally relegated to the minor leagues, and cut down in length to serve as an opening short for Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (our next feature, btw.)
The most asked question after the movie? “How did you find this?” In fact, this was recommended to me by Sophie K. Davis, about 10 years ago!
Tonight’s opening short was Cheeto Christ Stupid-Czar, by the amazingly clever satirist, Randy Rainbow.
Two oddball loners discover that they are sharing the same dream in Ildikó Enyedi’s On Body And Soul. This is enchanting stuff, and our audience was indeed enchanted. Incidentally, this was Enyedi’s first new feature in 18 years. Welcome back!
Sticking to the theme of unlikely love stories, our animated short this week was Next Flight Home directed by Jake Wegesin. A pigeon and a dove. Sweet.
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…
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