Films This Week 4/09/21

by Gary Palmucci | 9th April 2021 | Gary's Corner

Hello everyone. We’re continuing this week with our three Oscar nominees while still hoping to add one or two others next Friday as well as a few other venerable holdovers.

Last Saturday night I headed back to another movie house after that rather unusual experience of seeing Tenet in 70mm in the cavernous (and near empty) Village East. This time it was Minari at the handsomely refurbished Nitehawk Cinema on Prospect Park West in, per one neighborhood wag, “the People’s Republic of Park Slope.”

I had last been in this theatre some eighteen months ago, to see Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story flawlessly projected in 35mm. This time there appeared to be about 30 patrons in the roughly 300-seat house and a different vibe from the previous week, one that seemed to whisper, “We’re just happy to be here.”

The inspired, and inspiring tale told in Minari, which many of you have also experienced, seemed just right for the moment. This Korean-American family’s struggle to survive and stick together despite seemingly endless setbacks also mirrored many scenes and emotions we’ve been living this past year.

And a few coincidental details took me back to the heady opening weeks of New Plaza’s tenure at NYIT — Minari’s generous distributor A24 had also supplied us then with films like First Reformed and 8th Grade, and star Steven Yeun had appeared in another Oscar contender which we played, Burning from South Korean master Lee Chang-dong.

As Minari worked its wonders, my partner and I munched popcorn, sipped a soda suspiciously like Mountain Dew, and deftly adjusted our postures as Nitehawk’s signature waitstaff periodically scurried across the aisle.

For at least one evening, the return of moviegoing seemed to be incrementally moving in the right direction. Among the pre-show trailers was the tantalizing documentary Truffle Hunters from our friends at Sony Classics. That might well be the next visit.

We’ve heard this week from a couple of our members who have also ventured out, and look forward to hearing from more.

Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema