Films this week 9/15 to 9/17/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 14th September 2023 | Gary's Corner
The British drama Scrapper joins New Plaza Cinema’s first run film lineup this weekend. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Scrapper recalls the late 50s to early 60s UK golden age of “kitchen sink realism” cinema — films like A Taste of Honey, Saturday NIght, and Sunday Morning and Whistle Down the Wind.
In her recent NY Times Critic’s Pick review, Claire Shaffer writes, “Director Charlotte Regan’s feature debut is as whip-smart as the 12-year-old girl at its center. Georgie (played wonderfully by newcomer Lola Campbell), lives alone in her apartment in London following the death of her mother…’Scrapper’ is tender without falling into sappiness. Regan doesn’t romanticize Georgie’s struggles with poverty, grief and bullying, which are accompanied by a gritty sense of humor. At the same time, the film’s vivid cinematography fills the screen with symmetry and pastel colors....”
On Sunday afternoon we’ll be screening Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 romantic comedy Crossing Delancey, followed by a Q&A with our very special guest, its star Peter Riegert. At press time tickets were sold out. We will have a standby line at showtime.
Among our various holdovers I would particularly note Pablo Lorrain’s 2012 drama NO, one of several exceptional films from last weekend’s program commemorating the 1973 overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende. Manohla Dargis original review is well worth reading in full.
After five near-capacity weekends, we had to “pause” our screenings of Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, with Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale, but it’s back this weekend — the ultimate autumn Saturday matinee…
Also reprising this weekend — the bound-for-award-season-glory Past Lives, the mischievous Theatre Camp, Joan Silver’s debut film Hester Street, crowd pleaser The Miracle Club and of course Make Me Famous, with — as usual — its producer and director “telling all” afterwards.
Coming soon:
Sept 22 – Michael Roemer’s rediscovered classic, The Plot Against Harry
Sept 29 – Carlos — a brand-new documentary portrait of the guitar wizard, plus The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, chronicling the daring art-film producer of The Last Emperor and dozens of others
Oct 6 – Pedro Almodovar’s latest, Strange Way of Life, starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema