Films this week 11/22 to 11/28/2024
by Gary Palmucci | 23rd November 2024 | Uncategorized
The tenth installment of New Plaza Cinema’s ongoing series, NYC Filmmakers Short Film Showcase will be presented on Friday night. Programmer Michael Jacobsohn has come up with another provocative batch of work by local talent, many of whom will appear after the screening to discuss their work. This program always sells out, so get your tickets accordingly.
Our ‘Noirvember’ classic film event will feature another unflinching Otto Preminger drama, Where the Sidewalk Ends starring Dana Andrews as an embittered NYC cop who can’t repress his sadistic impulses when it comes to interrogating crime suspects. Gene Tierney, Karl Malden and Gary Merrill co-star.
Saoirse Ronan’s Oscar-contending portrayal in The Outrun has been enthralling New Plaza Cinema audiences for the past two months; this weekend we’re adding her other new film, Blitz to our lineup (the two will play back-to-back on Sunday afternoon). From the gifted UK director Steve McQueen – his epic WW2 documentary Occupied City played here earlier this year – Blitz chronicles a young mother (Ronan) and her son’s separation during the years of German air attacks on London, and the boy’s harrowing attempts to reunite with her in the city after being evacuated to the English countryside. His journey also becomes a mosaic of a nation physically transformed by war, and the socio-political changes taking root in its populace.
Animated feature films have been taking many diverse forms (e.g. Robot Dreams, which we ran last summer) in recent years, in addition to the usual family-entertainment formulas. A new one from Australia, Memoir of a Snail, joins this weekend’s lineup. It ‘s the very un-formulaic tale of a woman whose lifelong collecting of snail-related items, including many hand-carved artifacts, serves as a balm to life’s disappointments, and even its disasters. Featuring the voices of Australian talent including Oscar-nominee Jacki Weaver and Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee, the film was hailed by the NY Times’ Alissa Wilkinson :
“Memoir of a Snail feels heartfelt and personal, like an exhortation to the downtrodden drawn from hard-won life experience. Animation is the right medium for the tale: Everyone’s features and foibles are exaggerated, and, most importantly, the bleak comedy of the story is funnier when these caricatured figures, with their wild hairdos, big teeth and floppy facial expressions, play out the action. The film becomes funny, even if you’re wincing through the chuckles — the themes are dark, and it’s hard to watch someone so innocent go through so much. (Sometimes it’s shocking, but in clay that can be funny, too.)”
Other films reprising this weekend: Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, Demi Moore’s bravura turn in The Substance, Kate Winslet in Lee, and the crowd-pleasing doc about SF cold-water swimmers, Cold Refuge (check our website for possible special guests).
Coming the weekend of November 29, the acclaimed, Gotham Awards-nominated Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, with its director present; and on December 7, to celebrate National Beavers’ Week, one more show of Hundreds of Beavers, with special guests from the film – possibly in costume….
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Gary Palmucci
Film Curator