Films this week 02/21/2025 to 02/27/2025
by Gary Palmucci | 21st February 2025 | Gary's Corner
We have two very special events on tap this weekend – at 5 pm on both Friday and Saturday – courtesy of our friends at distributor Greenwich Entertainment. After the screening of their latest release, Ex-Husbands, we’ll be joined for Q&As by its writer-director Noah Pritzker and stars Griffin Dunne (After Hours, This Is Us), James Norton (Grantchester; New Plaza Cinema favorite Nothing Special) and Miles Heizer.
This rueful comedy-drama of three generations of American men and their ongoing couplings, and uncouplings, also boasts a sterling supporting cast including Rosanna Arquette, Richard Benjamin and The Sopranos’ John Ventimiglia. Tickets are going to be airborne for these two shows.
With Oscar season nearing its climax we’re also pleased to offer this weekend another nominee for best documentary feature, No Other Land, an extraordinary collaboration between a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist living in or near Masafer Yatta, in a southern corner of the occupied West Bank that has suffered extensive razing of its residents’ homes by Israeli forces. The NY Times’ Alissa Wilkinson writes:
“The film captures this destruction between 2019 and 2023 and in archival footage from Palestinian Basel Adra’s family. No Other Land also shows the growing, sometimes tense friendship between Adra and an Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, who arrives in Masafer Yatta to report at the start of this period. What they witness then and in subsequent years is harrowing, especially since it happens over and over again. Alongside the repeated demolitions, friction points emerge in Adra and Abraham’s relationship — for instance, Abraham can travel freely around the country, while Adra cannot — and this strain starts to build a lucid picture of frustration for both men.”
Check out a news story in the February 19 NY Times about this film’s acclaim at festivals around the world and its filmmakers’ many harrowing experiences, as well as its struggle to obtain US distribution. We are grateful to veteran DIY releasing specialist Michael Tuckman -who’s worked for decades with Frederick Wiseman – for making it available to us.
Also holding over this weekend: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Conclave, The Seed of the Sacred Fig,
A Real Pain (all Oscar contenders) and the exuberant crowd-pleaser, Liza – A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.
Coming next weekend, direct from its downtown premiere, the Canadian/ Persian, sleeper hit / surrealist comedy Universal Language.
And on March 23, a very special, rare screening of Martin Scorsese’s epic 2005 documentary No Direction Home – Bob Dylan. This will be a free screening- please watch our website for details on ticket availability.