Films this week 10/06 to 10/09/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 6th October 2023 | Gary's Corner
Spanish master Pedro Almodovar, whose Parallel Mothers was one of New Plaza Cinema’s biggest hits, and distributor Sony Classics (Living, Turn Every Page) this weekend bring us a unique double-feature.
Strange Way of Life, direct from last week’s NY Film Festival premiere, where hundreds of hopeful stand-by viewers were turned away, stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in a western, as a hardened sheriff and his long-departed lover whose reappearance may mask some ulterior motives. On the website rogerebert.com, home to some of our best young film critics, Brian Tallerico has this intriguing assessment:
“It makes perfect sense that a director who adores heightened emotion would be drawn to the Western…when one factors in that Almodovar was once attached to Brokeback Mountain…(this) makes even more sense. He has proclaimed that he was attracted to the physicality of Annie Proulx’s novel but felt that he couldn’t capture that in a Hollywood production…despite a deep admiration for what Ang Lee was able to accomplish. He has called his own two-hander Western an “answer” to that film, and it’s a pretty good one.”
Accompanying Strange Way of Life will be another featurette, his only previous English-language production to date, 2020’s The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton (who’s also featured in the doc Storms of Jeremy Thomas, which we’re reprising this weekend). This adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s famous one-woman show, previously a filmed showcase for Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman, chronicles a jilted lover watching time pass next to the suitcases of her “ex,” and a restless dog who doesn’t understand that his master has abandoned them both…
Rescheduled due to last Friday’s inclement weather, director Richard Dewey and the late Tom Wolfe’s daughter Alexandra will join us for a Q&A following Sunday’s 12:15 pm screening of Radical Wolfe. Also, director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore will again join us following our Monday-holiday afternoon screening of Make Me Famous. This may be their last appearance for a while, as they’ll be taking the film on a national release later this month.
Also holding over this weekend — Carlos, The Plot Against Harry, Past Lives, and Scrapper.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema