Gary's Corner

Another 2025 Academy Award recipient joins No Other Land (now in its third month) on this weekend’s New Plaza Cinema canvas. I’m Still Here, Brazilian director Walter Salles’ chronicle of a family’s heartbreak and resilience during the tumultuous early ’70s, brought home the country’s first-ever Oscar win, for Best International Feature. The film’s tragedy is tenaciously embodied by its star Fernanda Torres (an Oscar nominee) and a surprise appearance from Fernanda Montenegro, star of the director’s 1998 Central Station; both its lead actress and that film, you may recall, were nominees that year.

After two sold out screenings last weekend, it was only fitting that The Cornelia Street Cafe in Exile return for an encore. Its filmmaker – and our Short Film Showcase curator – Michael Jacobsohn will again join us for some Q&A, along with Cornelia Street co-founder Robin Hirsch. Tickets are going fast for this show.

In The Penguin Lessons, an English schoolteacher (Steve Coogan) unhappily transplanted to Argentina learns some life-changing lessons when he’s befriended by a penguin, during a fateful period in that nation’s political history. NY Times film reviewer (and occasional New Plaza Cinema guest) wrote:
“A movie aspiring to be a droll animal-led comedy and an examination of a dictatorship has an intimidating number of needles to thread. The director of The Penguin Lessons, Peter Cattaneo, also made The Full Monty, so he has some experience with crowd-pleasing films, at the same time being deft with unusual subject matter.”
Jonathan Pryce co-stars.

Two American independent films also join this week’s lineup…fittingly, in the case of Eephus, the wonderfully dry, daft tale of the final baseball game being played on a small Massachusetts town’s diamond, prior to its being converted to other purposes. Though much more modestly scaled, I found this to be a baseball movie classic in, um, a league with Bull Durham, Eight Men Out and Mr. Baseball. Check it out.

The other indie is Secret Mall Apartment, a new documentary from Jeremy Workman, whose World Before Your Feet was a long-running NPC hit way back in 2019-20. This time Jeremy investigates the story of eight Rhode Islanders who over 20 years ago created a secret apartment inside a busy Providence mall, living there for several years, filming everything along the way in the process of becoming deeply attached to the space. Saturday’s screening will include a special pre-recorded intro from executive producer Jesse Eisenberg. This one’s been playing downtown to packed houses with our friends at the IFC.
And speaking of downtown…the ’80s lower east side art scene doc Make Me Famous, approaching the second year of its New Plaza ‘residency,’ will also be back this weekend, with its peripatetic filmmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore on hand for Q&A; they almost always bring colorful guests.

Last but not least, our diverse but equally endearing Italian gems, Vermiglio and There’s Still Tomorrow.
Coming next weekend, a superb new Holocaust documentary, Here Lived, delving into the relatively unknown history of the hidden children in the Netherlands who evaded Nazi capture by hiding in occupied territory. This screening will be presented by longtime NPC friend and supporter, Nancy Fisher.