Films this week 7/4/2025 to 7/10/2025
by Gary Palmucci | 4th July 2025 | Gary's Corner
On this Fourth of July weekend, New Plaza Cinema patrons will have ample chances to catch up with the diverse lineup of films that’ve been packing our house in recent weeks: the uproarious dark comedy Bad Shabbos (including a couple of Q&As with co-screenwriter Zack Weiner, whose appearances here generate almost as many laughs as the movie itself); Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, the rom-com with an unusual twist or two; and the moving first-person documentary, A Photographic Memory, from much-honored distributor Zeitgeist Films.
Also on the schedule this weekend is another new non-fiction title, described thusly by the NY Times’ doc specialist Alissa Wilkinson: “Actors in documentaries about their own lives rarely speak with the kind of candor that Marlee Matlin brings to Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore. This kind of project often results in a cagey puff piece…Not this film. From the start, Matlin speaks with an unvarnished frankness about the loneliness and prejudice she encountered when she burst into public consciousness in Children of a Lesser God, for which she won the best actress Oscar in 1987. For 35 years , she was the only deaf performer with an Academy Award – a record finally broken in 2022, when Troy Kotsur won for CODA (a big New Plaza hit in its limited cinema release), in which he co-starred with Matlin. Now, she says, she isn’t alone anymore.”
By coincidence this weekend we will also be screening two mid-1990s films, each being shown here for the first time in their original director’s cuts:
- Shall We Dance? – the wistfully romantic, mid-90s Japanese crowd-pleaser is finally getting a U.S. release in its original full-length cut, replacing the Miramax re-scissoring. “A well-crafted character study that , like a Hollywood movie with a skillful script, manipulates us but makes us like it.”- Roger Ebert.
- Little Buddha – the Dalai Lama’s recent appearance on the NY Times’ front page seemed like a good incentive to reprise Bernardo Bertolucci’s spiritual epic, his final collaboration with master cinematographer (and previous New Plaza Cinema booster, from his Rome apartment) Vittorio Storaro; this expansive film was also shorn of 20 minutes in its original US release.
Coming up next weekend:
- Director Brandt Johnson, his ebullient muse Ellen Jovin and the Grammar Table will be back on Sunday July 13 for the first of several encore summer shows of Rebel With a Clause, all of which are now posted for advance ticket purchases on the Coming Soon section of our website.
- Sunrise , the 1927 silent film immortal will kick off a three-month series of classics hosted by my esteemed colleagues, Max Alvarez and Dan Cahill.
- All to Play For – rising young French actress Virginie Efira, who beguiled us here in Other People’s Children , returns in a piercing new family drama.
- To a Land Unknown – two Palestinian cousins struggle to make a new life for themselves in Greece, in this acclaimed drama from veteran filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel. A highlight of last year’s Cannes, Toronto and many other international festivals, from distributor Watermelon Pictures (From Ground Zero, The Encampments).