Films this week 7/21 – 7/23/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 20th July 2023 | Gary's Corner
Director Nancy Buirski joined us on Sunday evening for a beautiful Q&A following her new documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. She’ll be back after Friday’s 6:30 pm screening, accompanied by Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger’s nephew Ian Buruma.
Other Q&As this weekend include the tireless producer-director team of Heather Spore and Brian Vincent following the 5 pm Saturday show of their doc Make Me Famous, and our in-house experts Max Alvarez and Dan Cahill dissecting Douglas Sirk’s 1958 The Tarnished Angels (starring Rock Hudson, subject of a controversial new documentary, and the resplendent-in-white Dorothy Malone) after its Sunday, 12:15 presentation.
Next month’s classics: 60th Anniversary tributes to Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Visconti’s The Leopard.
And speaking of Italian cinema — joining this weekend our recent screenings of L’Immensita and Scarlet is Amanda, a dark comedy from another young director to watch, Carolina Cavalli, spotlighted at last Fall’s Venice and Toronto film fests. In her NY Times ‘Critic’s Pick’ review, Beatrice Loayza pronounced it “a smart, stylish debut (that) plays like Lady Bird by way of Wes Anderson’s deadpan existentialism.”
Recent university graduate Amanda is “terrified of socializing with people her own age. She claims to prefer hanging out in the family chateau…She would secretly kill for meaningful companionship — but first, she has to learn not to bite.” Check out the exuberantly contrarian trailer.
Another addition this weekend, The Miracle Club, showcases three beloved actresses: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Maggie Smith in “sublime performances,” per the Chicago Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper. Set in 1967 Dublin, the film follows the trio on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, seeking to assuage a tangled web of tragedies and troubles.
And after a terrific two-month run, Saturday’s matinee of Close to Vermeer will be our final screening. Coming soon, another look at the historic Rijksmuseum show — Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema