Actually… really enjoyable. More on this coming.
Love Actually. Actually…
The Rapture. Oh baby.
Another plot with a surprising twist, Iris Kaltenback’s The Rapture (Le ravissement) demonstrates just how difficult it can become to maintain a spur-of-the-moment deception. That’s kind of enough said… no spoilers here.
Our short tonight was one of our all time favorites, Over Time, directed by Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland, and Damien Ferrie.
Kinds of Kindness. When life gives you Plemons…
The critics largely panned this, and I admit that it took me a while to get around to watching it for that reason, but… Lanthimos is Lanthimos, and when a best friend described her reaction to this as “flabbergasted” last week, I just had to watch it then and there. “Flabbergasted” was a perfect term.
I imagine that this project was hatched during the making of his last film. As he often does, he retained most of the actors from the hugely successful Poor Things, and went on to make Kinds of Kindness with them. I suspect there was a lot of input from this stellar cast, Emma Stone in particular (this is just me speculating…). Mark Ruffalo, who was brilliant in Poor Things, was swapped out for Jesse Plemons, who took it to a whole ‘nother level(s). “It girl” Margaret Qually graduated from bit part (Dafoe (as “God”)’s new experiment at the end of Poor Things) to powerhouse character(s).
One of our guests tonight had seen Kinds of Kindness before, and wanted to see it again, suspecting that a second watching would bring more focus. He was right.
In the meantime, I found this article that, aside from one minor inaccuracy*, explains a lot.
*The hair caught in the swimming pool pump was not one of the synchronized swimmer twins’.
Birth. Twenty years old… alive and kicking.
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.
Strange Darling. Electric Ladyland.
Thanks to Greg for bringing this relatively unknown 2023 slasher flick from J.T. Mollner to my attention. I say “relatively unknown”, but it seems that it is gaining recognition and expanding its fan base daily. Strange Darling is a smart, extraordinarily well constructed puzzle piece, doled out in six tight, non-sequential chapters. It totally blindsided me.
Our recycling of shorts continued this tonight with Paul Trillo’s surreal AI-generated animation, Thank You For Not Answering.
My Old Ass. Our NewScreen.
After last week’s roller coaster ride of The Substance it was good to lighten up tonight. My Old Ass is, after all, a rom-com-dram, coming-of-age, and in some ways even a tad Hallmarkian, but packs a surprising gut punch. Tears were shed. And laughs were laughed.
Taking advantage of the main feature’s relatively short run-time, we showed one of our longer shorts: Little Red Riding Hood, directed by David Kaplan, and featuring a very young Christina Ricci. Wonderful, as always.
The Substance. Almost as scary as our new reality.
It seemed to me that it would be fun to watch this movie after all the talk talk talk of the election, and the terror of waking up to gruesome election results on Wednesday. The concept was to fight scary with scary. The Substance served up a heaping portion of gore and tremendous entertainment. I’m sorry it was a bit much for some of you. Watch the trailer next time!
Our short this week was Be a Lady They Said featuring Cynthia Nixon.
Next week, I’ll try to lighten up. A bit.
Heaven. Hell yeah.
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
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.
Tommy. Another fantastic season finale.
OMG. Ellen did it again. Our bespoke finale curator came up with another great musical to end our season, and even though it was, unusually for us, a Tuesday night, the turnout was heartwarming. See you in the fall!