April 19-25, 2024

This week,  Civil War continues here at the Pickford, and, while it has become A24’s biggest opening for any of their films, it’s been fascinating to see the extreme variations in reactions to the film, from audiences and critics alike, roll out across the country. The variety in responses perhaps makes Civil War something of a Rorschach test, where individual audience members maybe bring as much to the film as they take from it, and thus, interpretations on its meaning, significance, and value necessarily differ, too. I find the differing reactions -- often quite passionate reactions -- honestly quite exciting, reminding me that one of the joys of art is the subjectivity of our responses to it. “Good” art, “bad” art -- no one person and no one critic can ever have the final say, but observing what a work of art might provoke, both in myself and in others, is an often profoundly illuminating activity. Such is the case, I believe, with this film: the conversations we have about it are perhaps as important as the thing itself. 

And new to our screens this week is Housekeeping for Beginners from Macedonian director Goran Stolevski. Much like Here, last week, Housekeeping for Beginners is a film that represents what we might call counterprogramming, a film that is much different from the gutting sharpness of Civil War, something gentler and warmer, a reminder of all that's good and beautiful, even in a difficult world.  

I have loved both films Stolevski has made so far -- You Won't Be Alone (a truly wonderful gender-bending folk-horror fairytale) and the beautiful Of an Age (a gay coming-of-age romance, based on Stolevski's own life) -- and now this, his third film, shows he continues to be a filmmaker to be reckoned with. There are few other directors who have made three such stunningly self-assured films in a row right at the beginning of their careers. 

Carlos Aguilar writes, in his illuminating profile of Stolevski for the New York Times, Stolevski’s films tell “stories centering outsiders,” those ostracized from society in some way, and Stolevski’s own life has informed this thematic element. He immigrated to Australia as a boy -- a stranger in a new land -- and came out as gay as a teen, and it was in the world of movies that he found kinship: “Avidly watching stories centering on homosexual characters such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Law of Desire or Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together had slowly made him comfortable enough to accept his own sexual orientation.”  With all three of his films, it’s not hard to imagine viewers finding comfort in them, films about perceived outsiders that function as welcoming spaces of acceptance and validation, much like Stolevski found in the films of the filmmakers who came before him. 

Housekeeping for Beginners “chronicles the chaotic everyday interactions of an unconventional queer family,” and the lead character, “Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a lesbian in Skopje, North Macedonia, marries her male best friend, a gay man, [in order] to adopt her late partner’s two daughters” (NYT).  As such, it's a film about found-family, and it not only tells Dita’s story of unorthodox marriage and adoption, but the story of her expansive home, an LGBTQ-safe house she provides for those who've been cast out by their own families. 

If Civil War is a sobering look at the dehumanizing violence of a nation turning upon itself and tearing itself apart, Housekeeping for Beginners is its mirror opposite -- people who find each other, even amidst the chaos and pain, and create community.  As Rafa Sales Ross says quite beautifully in her review, the film is a "poignant ode to the radical potential of camaraderie."

Also new to our screens is Disco Boy, a film we could not give a full run to (what with other films filling the space), but it’s such a stunning work and so deserving of an audience, we worked to make room for two showtimes: it’ll play for just Saturday at 3:45 pm and Sunday at 6:00 pm.  

Fans of the art of acting and of the luminous Franz Rogowski (who many may remember from the brilliant Passages this past fall) will appreciate this one as Rogowki is again putting in a fabulous performance and proving he is one of the best actors working today. 

But Disco Boy is also a wonderfully compelling film, particularly in how it develops its themes with dual storylines: in the first storyline, Rogowski plays a young Belarusian who runs away to France to try to make a new life in a new country, but he is caught, and, as an undocumented immigrant, he has the choice of being sent back or joining the French Foreign Legion in order to earn French citizenship. "Put your life on the line for France, and we might let you stay" is essentially the deal.  In the second storyline, another man, Jomo, in Nigeria has become a guerilla soldier and revolutionary in order to fight for his community's survival against the oil industry.  The two men's lives become connected in tragic and evocative ways, and the film is ultimately an illuminating, affecting reflection on the meaning of home, identity, and belonging within the structures of conquest and racialized colonialism. 

Those familiar with Claire Denis's masterpiece Beau Travail, too, will recognize howDisco Boy references Denis's work, both its connection to the French Foreign Legion and its haunting ending (and I would dearly love to be able to offer a Disco Boy/Beau Travail double feature!), but Disco Boy is a stunning piece of work on its own, a truly fabulous debut from director Giacomo Abbruzzese and well-deserving of its award at Berlinale (Outstanding Artistic Contribution, 2023).   

We have just one special event this week, but it’s an exciting one! We’re kicking off a new Kid Pickford series with a line-up of Pixar classics, Kid Pixar, an ode to the studio that changed the face of American animation with its inventive use of technology -- their first film, Toy Story, was the first entirely computer-animated feature film -- and its humorous, poignant, and delightfully creative characters and storylines, stories to make us laugh and maybe even cry a little, too. (I can’t even think about the opening sequence of Up or certain sequences of Finding Nemo without tearing up a little!) 

From now until November, we’ll be playing the most beloved of the classic Pixar films in chronological order: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL*E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Incredibles 2. 

So join us this Saturday at 1:30 pm or Sunday at 10 am for a celebration of the characters who started it all, Woody, Buzz, Mister Potato Head, Hamm, Rex, Slinky, and Bo Peep, in the delightful and hilarious Toy Story. Tickets are just $7. 

See you at the movies, friends! 

Melissa