Films this week 4/26 to 4/28/2024
by Gary Palmucci | 25th April 2024 | Gary's Corner
New Plaza Cinema’s regular programming will be on hiatus over the weekends of May 3-5 and 10-12 during a series of CUNY student-related events, one of which (see below) will have some limited free screening tickets available to our patrons.
As a result, we’re packing this weekend’s schedule with more films than usual, including multiple reprises of our sell-out hits, Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance and the rockumentary Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille. Also encoring: Farewell Mr Haffmann, Karaoke, and Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding. Our previously-announced screening of Kiss Me Kosher, with guest John Carroll Lynch, has been postponed. We hope to reschedule it later this spring.
Our one new release this week comes from producer-director Uberto Pasolini, nephew of the legendary Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and best known here for the Oscar-nominated The Full Monty. The film is Nowhere Special, an inspired-by-true-events chronicle of a Belfast working class, single father (James Norton, featured in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and the UK policier Happy Valley) compelled by tragic circumstances to find a family to raise his son. Currently tracking at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a diverse group of international critics has praised the movie’s unsentimental approach and attention to emotional detail. Check out Glenn Kenny’s review in this Friday’s New York Times.
On Sunday, filmmaker David Licata will join us after a screening of his recent documentary, A Life’s Work, which poses the question: “What is it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your own lifetime?” Licata examined four ambitious projects and the people behind them, in a moving effort to find some answers.
Later that afternoon, Max Alvarez and I will screen and discuss Terrence Malick’s classic Badlands, starring Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, and Warren Oates, part of our salute this month to the amazing movie year of 1974 and an example, I think, of cinematic “perfect pitch.”
Finally, as mentioned above, on Thursday May 9th and Saturday May 11th, CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College will present an LGBT Film Festival including some selections curated by New Plaza Cinema: the classic nineties documentaries Paris Is Burning and The Celluloid Closet, and the 2008 feature Milk, featuring Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning performance as San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, winner of that year’s Best Picture award from the NY Film Critics Circle. Please check your email, Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram accounts for further details on showtimes and a limited number of free tickets which will be available for each screening.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema