New Films 1/8/2021

by Gary Palmucci | 12th January 2021 | Gary's Corner

Hello everyone. We’re adding two new documentaries and one “reprise” to this week’s Virtual Cinema lineup, as follows:

The Reason I Jump – A Sundance 2020 Audience Award winner, from an acclaimed book by Naoki Higashida (written when the autistic, non-speaking boy was 13), transposes the youth’s eloquent inner dialogue onto portraits of five autistic people on four continents. It is “…an effort to find a cinematic analogue…The portraits are moving and informative…” writes Ben Kenigsberg in the NY Times.

Beautiful Something Left Behind – This 2020 South by Southwest Festival top prize winner portrays in poignant detail a New Jersey facility called Good Grief, specializing in treating very young children who’ve lost a parent. Per Glenn Kenny in today’s NY Times,  “A simple, elegant documentary about children coping with such heartbreaking loss…”

Coup 53 – With the word “coup” on many Americans’ lips this week, we welcome back this riveting, Oscar-qualified chronicle of the infamous (West-supervised) 1953 coup that installed the Shah of Iran and arguably still echoes in both its own current internal history and the region’s geopolitics. At the 2019 Telluride Film Festival Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy noted that the film “Has the air of something that grew from an impudent home movie into a magnum opus.” Oscar-winner Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) and Ralph Fiennes are both creative participants.

And with this week’s inspiring electoral events in Georgia, we’re keeping on for one more week both John Lewis – Good Trouble and Jimmy Carter – Rock n Roll President.

Finally, here’s a link to the trailer for a highly anticipated film opening February 5th about the legendary graphic artist M.C. Escher.

Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema