Another great night. Thanks to everyone for coming out. An unlikely couple, for sure, but love is often strange. Thank goodness.
Our short tonight was another perennial fave. Soft Animals, directed by Renee Zhan
Heaven. Hell yeah.
Category Archives: Trailers
Sick of Myself? Sick of NewScreen? Nope.
We started our new season in fine form tonight, with this captivating Norwegian film. I managed to get everything almost right, eventually. It’s funny how easy it is to forget all the little things that make NewScreen work.
Our short feature tonight was Maestro (which, of course, drove Tick crazy!) directed by Illogic. Great to see you all again.
Hundreds of Beavers. OMFG.
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!
Swingers. Go Daddy-O!
28 years later, Swingers remains relevant, even though the answering-machine is pretty much a thing of the past. I mention the aforementioned device, because it plays a huge role in one of the cringiest and funny scenes in the movie. Poor Mike! (not to worry though… happy ending alert!)
Our crew was held enraptured, as happens most NewScreen nights. So happy I got this one off my to-show list!
Our short tonight was Tasty Fish, a music video that I directed in the early 90’s for The Other Two, after the split up of New Order. Is it ok that I featured my own work two weeks in a row???
Anatomy of a Fall. Hail Hüller!
The weather tried it’s best to shut us down tonight, but we prevailed. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall was a transfixing view, and Sandra Hüller was at her finest. She managed to even be funny, in the face of everything happening to her. I got a bit excited, and considered re-visiting Toni Erdmann (her big breakout role). Probably not next week, but…
Past Lives. Finally.
I watched this beautiful film with friends on a warm night last summer, on the big outdoor screen upstate, and kinda filed it away for “later”. In the meantime, a lot of glittering gems pushed their way into my queue. But with it’s Best Picture Oscar nomination, Celine Song’s Past Lives came back into sharp focus for me, and tonight was the perfect “later”.
It’s hard to say what makes this story so moving… but it manages to touch a few places that are difficult to access, in a very non-Hallmark way. Greta Lee was perfectly cast as Nora, although she did seem to have aged significantly more than her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter. The bond between them is totally palpable. Of course I cried.
Lovely to see new guests here tonight, along with our loyal regular crew.
Decision to Leave. To leave a us all a little confused?
Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave is certainly a beautiful, well crafted work, adored by critics, but somewhat hard to follow. A detective investigates a murder, the prime suspect of which is the victim’s beautiful Chinese wife, Song Seo-rae: a foreigner in Korea. She is quite “un-shocked” by the death of her husband, further cementing her prime suspect status.
Detective Jang Hae-joon, however, is seduced by her beauty and isn’t really able to concentrate on solving the crime. Jang also happens to be married, and his wife looks remarkably like Song. Further confusion. Anyway… I still love the movie, and in particular, the way “the affair” ends.
Thanks to my loyal guests for sharing a memorable evening with me, once again.
Head-On. Spot on.
Returning to NewScreen (well technically not, since it was first screened at MovieNight) some 15 years later, Head-On remains as thrilling and sexy as ever, and this week, served as a little German lesson for the Whitehouses. Happy to do my part.
The Survivalist. A post apocalyptic love story?
The Survivalist was director Stephen Fingleton’s first feature length film. A taut, breathtaking thriller, beautifully realized by cinematographer Damien Elliot. I have been in love with this movie for some time now and it seemed like a perfect vehicle to jump back towards the present after our two week excursion into eighties cinema. Good call! Our NewScreen “gang” was enthralled, and I don’t think I’d be wrong to assume that most are still thinking about this one today. And… Mia Goth!
We also enjoyed a pretty sexy pre-movie short tonight. Wet by Ecole des Nouvelles Images. Take a look
Also… a surprise appearance from one Andrew Kozak tonight. Long time no see!
Blow Out. A blow out? Nosiree!
Not a very big crowd this week, but what a great night! I can find De Palma’s work to be a bit over the top sometimes, but this was one of his very best. It was an honor to share it on the big screen with some who hadn’t ever seen it.
Ironically, and totally unintentionally, this was the second movie shown here in a row in which an awl was featured as a murder weapon. I always have one in my toolbox, but had never thought to use it in that manner!