Border. Troll-y F**k!

March 7, 2019Love and Life, Movies, Strange Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

Border came as a complete surprise to many of our guests this week! Ali Abbasi’s fantasy drama centers around a romance between two trolls. One is unaware of her origin, thinking that she is a human with a genetic flaw, and has assimilated into society, working as a customs agent and able to “smell fear” on would-be bad actors. The other lives rough, eats larvae, and has sworn vengeance upon the wicked human race for the horrible treatment of his parents, and other trolls in the past.

There are subplots and twists aplenty in this fascinating film, but one takeaway: trolls don’t hold back during orgasm!

This week’s short was the delightful Stems, a stop motion film by Ainslie Henderson.

Capernaum. Tears were shed.

February 28, 2019Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

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.

Casablanca. Play it (again), Richard!

February 14, 2019Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

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!

Tonight’s short feature was Splitscreen: A Love Story, directed by James W. Griffiths. So sweet!

A Star is Born. I’m gaga for Gaga.

January 30, 2019Movies, NewScreen Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

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

Roma. Yes. It’s that good.

January 10, 2019Moviesnewscreen_mt6x3h

Alfonso Cuarón has created a modern masterpiece with Roma. I can’t really say enough about this film… so I won’t. I’m not a reviewer. The day after my first viewing though, I announced to some colleagues that it was the best film I’d ever seen. “Better than Casablanca?” one of them demanded. OK… I get it. Still…

Roma is held in such esteem that most movie buffs I know refuse to watch it anywhere other than the big screen, even though it’s been available on Netflix for a while now. I was happy to give some of them the opportunity to see it that way.

Cold War. Opposites attract.

December 20, 2018Moviesnewscreen_mt6x3h

Pavel Pawlikowski’s Cold War is a passionate love story between a man and a woman who meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other.

Set against the background of the Cold War in 50s and 60s Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, Cold Waris shot in rich tones of black and white, and in “Academy format” (3:4), as was Pawlikowski’s previous film, Ida. It’s a tragic tale of a couple separated by politics, character flaws and unfortunate twists of fate – an impossible love story in impossible times.

A NewScreen coup: We screened Cold War, the day before it was released 🙂

The Guilty. Who’s who?

December 7, 2018Moviesnewscreen_mt6x3h

Thanks to Norris for this recommendation. The Guilty is Danish director Gustav Möller’s feature film debut… a terse, nail biter set in an emergency call center. Police officer Asger Holm has been demoted to desk work after some initially unexplained incident. As the movie opens, he’s wrapping up his last day on the job. Tomorrow he’ll face an inquiry about the mysterious incident, after which he expects to be back on the street with his partner.

Holm isn’t having a very good last night in the call center, abused by drunkards and idiots with stupid requests for help, but then takes a call from a frightened woman named Iben who manages to convey through a series of “yes”s and “no”s, and pretending to speak to her little daughter, that she’s been kidnapped, and is being driven by her captor to some unknown location. Holm becomes a man obsessed, determined to rescue Iben.

This is edge-of-seat stuff, with a lesson to be learned by all of us.

Good Time. A bar re-stocking party.

November 17, 2018Movies, Strange Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

The Safdie brothers bring grungy, almost relentless chaos in Good Time. Connie Nikas is a small time criminal (played most convincingly by Robert Pattinson) desperately trying to raise bail to spring his mentally handicapped brother (also portrayed brilliantly by Benny Safdie), who is in Rikers Island after a failed robbery earlier in the day. This is some crazy isht.

I had been wanting to start doing some MovieNight-like screenings in the new place, but realized that the bar stock was pretty low. Being (almost) as resourceful as Connie Nikas, I thought, “I know. Bar restocking party!” Thanks to everyone who turned up with hooch. It was, indeed, a good time 🙂

The Death of Stalin. We try out the new place.

April 5, 2018Movies, NewScreen Stuffnewscreen_mt6x3h

With a cast that reads like a who’s who of British comedy (Steve Buscemi and Jeffrey Tambor represent for the US of A), this darkly hysterical romp through Stalinist Russia is also an entertaining history lesson. One wouldn’t normally expect too many laughs in a movie entitled The Death of Stalin, but then again, this is the work of director/screenwriter Armando Iannucci, who’s acerbic wit made us laugh (very much out loud) with In the Loop at MovieNight back in 2009.

The Death of Stalin was banned in Russia, albeit not entirely successfully. Of course, most of our guests tonight were from that place!