Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy<\/em><\/a> from Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose latest film, Drive My Car, was both a surprise “Best Picture of the Year” winner at last week’s NY Film Critics’ Circle awards, and #1 on NY Times reviewer Manohla Dargis’ Ten Best List.<\/p>\nWhile elaborating on her year-end list, Dargis also rhapsodized about the joyous sensations of returning to the cinema in mid-summer: being, as she wrote, “…back in the place that makes me supremely happy: I was at the movies. Since then, I have watched many new releases in person, including at two festivals where I gorged like a famished person. I had spent the first part of the year on book leave, and while I\u2019d streamed plenty of new and old films then, I missed going out (anywhere). I missed really, really big bright images and I missed the rituals, including the quick search for the most perfect seat and the anticipatory wait for the movie to begin, for someone to hit the lights and start the show.”<\/p>\n
Many readers have probably noticed that this is a subject I’ve also frequently returned to in this column. By coincidence, this past week I found myself in cinemas on three different but each very satisfying occasions: for Paul Thomas Anderson’s exuberant Licorice Pizza, on 70mm film in an 800-seat (all filled!) East Village theatre; completely alone in a cinema in the same complex for an epic documentary on the great composer Ennio Morricone, screening without publicity for awards qualification; and in a near-full Brooklyn house for Spencer, with its indelible performances by Kristen Stewart and Sally Hawkins.<\/p>\n
What a week. As I’ve also previously noted, many more “A'” pictures are coming into the marketplace this month and next. What better time \u2014 if you haven’t yet \u2014 to reconnect with the energy and enthusiasm of a darkened movie house?<\/p>\n
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
\nNew Plaza Cinema<\/em><\/strong>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_sidebar orientation=”right” _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_sidebar][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re continuing for another week with our current Virtual Cinema lineup, including Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy from Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose latest film, Drive My Car, was both a surprise “Best Picture of the Year” winner at last week’s NY Film Critics’ Circle awards, and #1 on NY Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garys-corner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6784"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6784\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newplazacinema.org\/test_area\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}