Films this week 12/29/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 27th December 2023 | Gary's Corner
Our first-run engagements of Freud’s Last Session and The Teachers’ Lounge continue on this New Year’s holiday weekend.
Anthony Hopkins (as Sigmund Freud) and Matthew Goode (as C.S. Lewis) continue their spirited battle of wits and emotions in Freud’s Last Session. Over the numerous screenings of the film I have introduced this past week, I’ve had the feeling that many in our audience who emerge afterward are feeling a mix of joy and melancholy in its depiction of both the psychiatrist and the actor — each at a later phase in their lives (Hopkins turns 86 on New Year’s Eve!) but still imbued with virtuosity.
In her Critic’s Pick review on Christmas Day, newly minted NY Times film reviewer Alissa Wilkinson noted, “Taking on the uneasy complexity of a progressive modern society, and the friction produced when pluralism and an insistence on order and obedience collide, is a bold move, and The Teachers’ Lounge pulls it off with a sense of tension that makes the whole thing play like a thriller.”
Director Ilker Catak and his luminous leading lady, Leonie Benesch, are making their top-billing debuts with American art-house audiences. You’ll be impressed — and riveted — by their work here.
Also, a reminder that David Lean’s classic Brief Encounter returns for an encore screening on Sunday, January 7 at 12:15 pm.
Gary Palmucci. Film CuratorNew Plaza Cinema