Gary's Corner
Films this week 1/9/2026 to 1/15/2026
Gary’s Corner
by Gary Palmucci | 9th January 2026 | Gary's Corner
New Plaza Cinema audiences packed our auditorium for numerous sold-out screenings of The Choral during last month’s 12-day holiday stretch , producing the single biggest box office gross for the film on the US arthouse circuit. We are delighted – if a bit exhausted by the holiday ‘marathon’ – and as always, grateful for your support. The Choral, with its beautifully understated performance by Ralph Fiennes as well as a gifted and diverse supporting cast, will continue here for at least the rest of January, including four shows on this week’s Thursday-Sunday schedule.
On Saturday morning we’ll be doing a very special screening of the epic (5 1/2 hours, with 15 minute intermission) documentary My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow, which has swept virtually every ‘best doc’ award from the major critics’ groups –including the NY, LA and National Society of Film Critics — as well scoring a slot on the Oscar shortlist.
Of this gripping saga about a group of young Russian journalists who put their careers (and lives) on the line reporting on the Ukraine invasion, the NY Times’ Alissa Wilkinson wrote:
“Yes, I know that is a substantial commitment of time. Hear me out. I’m trying to avoid hyperbole, but I don’t know how else to say this: It is perhaps the most essential investment of time you can make in a movie theater this year. And yet it is not just ‘important’ or consequential — it is brilliant, riveting, vital, devastating.”
After Saturday’s screening we’ll be joined by Ksenia Mironova, one of the journalists chronicled in the film, in conversation with US film reporter Jeff Reichert.
On this week’s calendar we’ll also be reprising several of our most popular recent holiday films including Nuremberg, Blue Moon, Sentimental Value, Shttl (with another Q&A by its tireless lead actor Moshe Lobel) , and the scintillating US indie Peter Hujar’s Day.
Finally, we’re offering ‘sneak previews’ of two additional Oscar short-listers. On Thursday night, Jordan’s submission for Best International Film — All That’s Left of You, from Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis and executive producers Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, a sprawling chronicle of multi-generational struggle on the West Bank. Tickets are going fast for this one.
And on Sunday night, Palestine 36, a dramatic recounting of the 1936-39 Arab revolt against British colonial rule during the Mandate period.
Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbas and Saleh Bakri head the large cast, and director Annemarie Jacir will join us afterwards for a Q&A.
Films 6/23 – 6/26/2022
New Plaza Cinema at the West End Theatre will be "on hiatus" in July and August due to the theatre's lack of air conditioning. We expect to be back after Labor Day, and you will know our exact plans and dates as soon as we do. We're very grateful to the Church of St Peter and St Andrew — Pastor K. Karpen, general manager Brent Ness and his dedicated staff — for hosting us during these five intensely gratifying months, along with our projection and big-screen "techs," Roger and Steve Getzoff. It's been a lot of hard work and long hours, but the joyful support of you, our audience has made every day and every show worthwhile. We look forward to greeting you again in cooler, drier temperatures! For the final weekend of...
Films 6/17 – 6/20/2022
This long weekend observance of the Juneteenth federal holiday affords New Plaza Cinema the opportunity to present an unusually eclectic batch of films at the West End Theatre. In addition to hold-over screenings of Fanny: the Right to Rock, Petite Maman, West Side Story (2021), and of course The Automat, whose ebullient director Lisa Hurwitz will once again join us, consider these films. Crimes of the Future — As usual, in her Critic's Pick review the NYT's Manohla Dargis nailed it: "Few filmmakers slither under the skin and directly into the head as mercilessly as David Cronenberg. For decades, he has been unsettling audiences, derailing genre expectations and expanding the limits of big-screen entertainment with exploding...
Films 6/09 – 6/12/2022
This weekend's New Plaza Cinema at West End Theatre program features a special event we've been "teasing" for some time now in our pre-show announcements: A pair of back-to-back, separate admission screenings of the 1961 and 2021 adaptations of West Side Story. This is a unique opportunity to experience — for the first or umpteenth time — Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' groundbreaking adaptation of the legendary Broadway smash, winner of ten Oscars including Best Picture. And, to catch up with (or perhaps re-evaluate) Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner's kinetic update with its own Oscar winner, supporting actress Ariana DeBose. Our theatre's 10 x 22 foot screen and five stereo speakers will be shown off in all...
Films 6/02 – 6/05/2022
As many readers may recall from last week's "letter" (and our Friday NY Times ad), we listed three titles as having their "final screening" last weekend. Well, one of them, Drive My Car had such a bump in attendance that we couldn't resist doing yet another "final show" this Saturday. For any skeptics, please be assured this will indeed be the final show, as next weekend we'll be featuring the 1961 AND 2021 versions of West Side Story, both nearly three-hour films that will make it impossible to schedule additional titles of that length. New additions to this week's New Plaza Cinema program include Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, a documentary chronicling that venerable town's glorious, 50-plus-years-old annual spring...
Films 5/27 – 5/30/2022
On this Memorial Day weekend we'll be operating on a Friday through Monday schedule as we did on our opening Presidents' Day stanza in February, which now seems like many, many screenings and Q&As ago... Friday will be a special $10 admission for all shows. This will be a transitional weekend as we prepare for various new films and special-event screenings in June. Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen and the Oscar-winners Drive My Car and Belfast will each be having their final showings. Both Belfast and The Duke (which we'll be offering five screenings due to last weekend's demand) will be presented in "open caption" versions, both for hearing-impaired viewers and for overall better clarity of their impassioned UK and...
Films 5/19 – 5/22/2022
We're continuing this weekend with our long-running hits — The Automat, Drive My Car, Belfast — and some recent additions such as Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen, Irmi and Tampopo. Three other diverse titles are joining the program: My Coffee With Jewish Friends was one of the very last titles to open at Lincoln Plaza in January 2018. In an over 60-year career documentarian Manfred Kirchheimer has specialized in portraits of (often Jewish) New Yorkers. The NY Times' reviewer noted that "...in this film he speaks with more than 20 people and comes away with countless viewpoints, as well as some smiles and bittersweet tales...intercutting conversations that range from wistful to indignant to delighted." Francis...
Films 5/12 – 5/15/2022
This weekend's New Plaza Cinema @ West End Theatre screening schedule is packed with special presentations and personal appearances. In addition to our ongoing runs of Oscar-winners Drive My Car and Belfast, crowd-pleasing docs The Automat (special guest tba) and Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen and the fascinatingly eccentric drama Tale of King Crab, consider these: On Thursday, two very different takes in our ongoing series of recent Jewish-themed and Israeli cinema. Irmi featured at closing night of the 2021 NY Jewish Film Festival relates the inspiring life story of Irmi Selver, a refugee who in the 1930s escaped her hometown of Chemnitz, Germany during the Nazi onslaught. And on a completely different note, the...
Films 5/05 – 5/08/22
This weekend at New Plaza Cinema @ the West End Theatre we're adding Kenneth Branagh's Oscar winning Belfast (Best Original Screenplay) to our ongoing runs of The Automat, Drive My Car and The Wobblies, as well as three new releases and a 1960s British reissue. Anaïs in Love - I strongly recommend perusing in the NY Times Manohla Dargis' heartfelt tribute to this French romance with a first-rate cast. Its young title character — a contrarian in both her emotions and life choices — falls into an affair with a publisher, then in love with his charismatic wife, an author (the radiant Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi). Dargis notes, "Anaïs is, in other words, a 21st century human being who, in finding herself on her own stubborn, singular,...
Films 4/29 – 5/01/22
A very eclectic mix of films is on this week's New Plaza Cinema @ West End Theatre schedule. In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day we'll be screening on Friday and Sunday afternoons a double bill of reflective documentaries. Black Flowers is the inspiring story of five Israel-based Holocaust survivors who choose art as a vehicle for healing the wounds of their past. Director Tammy Federman — with sponsorship from the American Jewish Committee — will join us for a Q&A after Friday's show. Commandment 613 introduces us to Rabbi Kevin Hale, a joyful sofer (Torah scribe) who restores scrolls that were saved from destruction in Czechoslovakia during the Shoah. After Sunday's screening, Rabbi Hale will invite audience members for...
Have a question or comment for Gary?
You can reach him at films@newplazacinema.org