Gary's Corner
Films this week 9/12/2025 to 9/18/2025
Gary’s Corner
by Gary Palmucci | 12th September 2025 | Gary's Corner
This weekend’s New Plaza Cinema schedule includes a crowd of two-hour-plus ‘schedule busters,’ in film biz parlance, but we hope you’ll agree they’re all worth presenting.
At the top of the list is the recent documentary Henry Fonda for President. In his NY Times ‘Critic’s Pick’ review, Glenn Kenny (an NPC friend) writes,
“Henry Fonda was inarguably one of the greatest actors ever produced by the United States. The Austrian filmmaker Alexander Horwath pushes this self-evident truth further in his purposefully expansive documentary Henry Fonda for President. The movie convincingly posits that Fonda was, cinematically, the embodiment of America itself. Horwath has gathered a vast amount of archival material from film, television, radio and more to make his case.”
Fonda’s many iconic roles – some of which we’ve screened both in-theatre and on our ‘classic film talkbacks’- include Young Mr Lincoln, The Lady Eve, My Darling Clementine, The Wrong Man, Twelve Angry Men, Once Upon a Time in the West, and even a famous 2-part TV episode of Maude from the late ’70s. Another superb essay on the film –and Fonda himself – that I recommend is from former Village Voice critic J. Hoberman, in Artforum: https://www.artforum.com/columns/j-hoberman-henry-fonda-for-president-559591/. Director Alex Horwath will join us for a Q&A following Saturday’s 11:30 a.m (note that early start time) screening.
Following last weekend’s sold-out shows we’re pleased to reprise our ‘back to back’ replay of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low and Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, as well as Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (for two screenings). My esteemed colleagues Max Alvarez and Dan Cahill will on Sunday present Louis Malle’s 1957 feature debut Elevator to the Gallows, with Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet and a landmark, improvised score by Miles Davis. Later that afternoon, the downtown-80s-art scene doc Make Me Famous, now in the third year of its NPC ‘residency,’ will return, ushered by its director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore, with some special guests.
Also back for encores- some new, some ‘as usual’- are Bad Shabbos (with co-screenwriter Zack Weiner joining us), director MIchael Winterbottom’s Palestine period drama Shoshana and Rebel With a Clause. The Blonde Boy From the Casbah and East of Wall will have their previously-announced encores next weekend.
And, coming soon:
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NYC Short Filmmakers’ Showcase – The latest installment of curator Michael Jacobsohn’s ongoing series highlighting new, local filmmaking talent will roll next Friday, September 19 at 7 pm.
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Ain’t No Back to a Merry Go Round – on September 20 at 430 pm (with director present) we’ll screen this new documentary on an untold story of the early civil rights movement, set in 1960 Washington DC: radical black students, liberal white suburbanites, a carousel, a segregated park…
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More Sunday afternoon classics: Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, on September 28, with its luminous star, Brooke Adams joining us for a Q&A.
Films 2/19/21
Hello everyone. As most of you may know, there was good news earlier this week from distributor A24 on their special, pre-video-on-demand Virtual Cinema engagement of Minari. After their initial ticket allocation for the February 12-25 run quickly sold out, A24 — a company whose films New Plaza has frequently played (e.g. First Reformed, 8th Grade, Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Farewell) — stepped up and released a new batch of tickets which, as of today, are still available for daily performances from February 19-25. From what I'm reading and hearing from our fellow art houses around the country, Minari has been coming on strong with audiences and local critics as a potential Oscar contender, with special attention...
New Films 2/12/21
Hello everyone. We've had many requests for ticketing updates on the film Minari, which as of Thursday night was "sold out" for the first ten days of its February 12-25 run. Tickets are still available for the final four days: Monday-Thursday February 22-25. Distributor A 24 has indicated they will announce on Monday, February 15th whether additional tickets and showtimes will be made available for the remaining, currently "sold out" dates as well as the possibility of the run being extended a third week. As soon as we know, we will "blast" an update. This is "Oscar short list" announcement week in numerous categories, and this weekend New Plaza will feature two titles each from the "best international film" category -...
New Films 02/05/21
Hello everyone. Our three new films arriving today include: M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity - You may've perused our previous notes on this new documentary on the legendary Dutch graphic artist. We'll be hosting the NYC theatrical premiere along with dozens of cutting-edge art houses around the U.S. Here again is the trailer. Two of Us (aka Deux) - France's official submission for best international film in this year's Oscar race (and a Golden Globe nominee this week) stars Barbara Sukowa (Lola, Hannah Arendt) and Martine Chevalier as two long time lovers whose bond is suddenly tested by unforeseen events. Here is the trailer. Heartworn Highways - This restoration of the seminal 1976 country music doc features...
Films 1/30/21
Hello everyone. This week is relatively quiet as we prepare for a wave of new movies next Friday and beyond on our Virtual Cinema site. The distributor of Nasrin, the documentary we recently featured on valiant Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (narrated by Oscar winner Olivia Colman), asked us to put the film back in rotation for a couple of weeks and we happily agreed. I'm familiar with Nasrin from her appearance in Jafar Panahi's one of a kind 2015 film Taxi, which I heartily recommend here as an online "double feature." Films arriving next week include: M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity - You may have perused our previous notes on this new documentary about the legendary graphic artist. We'll be hosting the NYC...
Films This Week 1/22/21
Hello everyone. We've had an uptick in support for the various films added to our Virtual Cinema this month, including last week's three NY Times Critics Picks: Some Kind of Heaven, Acasa My Home, and My Little Sister, for which we are grateful. One of February's new titles, the documentary M.C Escher: Journey to Infinity has, according to our art house colleagues around the country, been stirring a lot of advance audience interest. New Plaza's Feb 5 premiere will be an NYC Virtual Cinema exclusive. Here again is the film's trailer. More announcements coming next week! Gary Palmucci, Film CuratorNew Plaza Cinema
New Films 1/15/21
Hello everyone. Our three new additions to this week's Virtual Cinema lineup have achieved an unusual distinction — each one received a "Critic's Pick" in today's NY Times. Here's our cinematic "hat trick": Some Kind of Heaven - Variety's Dennis Harvey wrote from last year's Sundance Film Festival, "Those nostalgic for the fond portraits of eccentric Americana in Errol Morris’ early work — and pretty much everyone else — will be delighted.... a peek at life in The Villages, an increasingly vast Central Florida retirement community where those who can afford it spend their twilight years 'being on vacation every day.' This highly entertaining documentary captures the near-surrealism of a prefab senior playground, while also...
New Films 1/8/2021
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...
Looking back at 2020
Several decades ago the esteemed Italian director Marco Bellochio made a film titled “Salto nel Vuoto,” or “Leap Into the Void.” If the transition to 2021 after this incredible year feels to many of us like a similarly vertiginous leap, here at New Plaza Cinema we also feel fortunate that — with your invaluable enthusiasm and support — we've been able to at least figuratively “keep the lights on.” Even before the pandemic changed everything, our year had started calamitously when the beloved NYIT cinema was destroyed in a January flood. You, our loyal audience flocked to a benefit screening at Symphony Space, stirred by “Cinema Paradiso” and the late Ennio Morricone's soaring themes, and the Museum of Art and Design quickly...
New films! “Collective” & “Nasrin”
Hello everyone. This week, we're adding three more documentaries to our lineup, including one "encore" that has been the subject of recent critical attention in the NY Times. Some of our viewers have asked us, "Why so many documentaries and so few new feature films?" The short answer is that it's a function of independent film distribution during this extraordinary time, with major market cinemas still mostly closed and many "A" titles being held back into early 2021 when a belated award season kicks into gear and more key theaters (might be) open. I will address this situation further in an upcoming Gary's Corner. In the meantime, here are the films: City Hall - An extraordinary front page article in the NYT this week...
Have a question or comment for Gary?
You can reach him at films@newplazacinema.org