While November kicks off the film awards season, that’s not entirely the case this year. The strikes in the entertainment industry have led to the postponement of many film releases to 2024. And the films that did make this year’s cut—such as Todd Hayne’s May December, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, Sofia Copolla’s Priscilla, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro—are not being sufficiently promoted to generate the usual awards season buzz.
For many cinephiles out there (myself included), the awards season is like the Super Bowl: It’s a fun, extravagant, and exciting lead-up to a night where we party and make fun-but-futile predictions. So while it’s a bit of a bummer that this year’s awards buzz is more of a gentle hum, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of repertory and local film events shaking out all over the Hudson Valley throughout November. Here are some of the most exciting movie screenings and film events happening at independent Hudson Valley theaters this month.
Joan Baez: I Am a Noise
There’s a big difference between being well-known and being famous, and Joan Baez might disagree with you on what she considers herself. Often most connected with her time touring alongside (and dating) Bob Dylan in the ’60s, anyone who knows a quarter of the legacy Joan Baez has left behind over the past 50-plus years will tell you that’s nowhere near the full of it. This documentary, directed by Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor, and Maeve O'Boyle, showcases not only the singer-songwriter’s fantastic works but also her neverending efforts in nonviolent action for civil rights across the last half century, including her interactions with MLK and her protest work for gay and lesbian rights throughout the ’70s and ’80s.
What makes this documentary particularly special are the interviews with Baez herself, now 82 years old, as she recounts moments throughout her life, telling anecdotes about legends while opening up about her experiences with therapy and how her art has affected not only the world, but her own life.
Joan Baez: I am a Noise screens November 3-8 at the Rosendale Theater.
Strange Way of Life
There are few people living as talented and influential as Spanish director and screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar. As exciting as the news that he will be directing a second full-length, English language film in the next year is (a move that will surely open him up to both broader audiences and awards recognition), his most recent foray into the movies comes in the form of a short Western starring two dreamboats: Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke.
Hawke has been an indie and arthouse mainstay for over 30 years, and Pascal has recently become an industry darling, with amazing turns in high-budgeted projects like The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Almodóvar’s goofy-yet-sad- tone is on full display throughout this 31-minute story of friendship, love, and the ways of the gun, with Hawke and Pascal using up every ounce of screen time for pure cinematic magic that never takes itself too seriously but effortlessly engages at all times.
Strange Way of Life screens November 10 at The Moviehouse.
Found Footage Festival Volume 10: Popcorn Classics
Found Footage Fest founders Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher are two friends that are extremely funny, very talented, and also happen to have a collection of over 11,000 VHS tapes, which is a recipe for a really good time. Combing through their seemingly endless archive of magnetic tape boxes, for the past 19 years cohosts Joe and Nick have worked to put together collections of advertisements, movie clips, and more, to curate live evenings of surprises, laughs, and overall insanity, with equal parts delightful nostalgia and, “Dear God, what were we all doing back in the ’80s?”
The mix ranges in content for various ages, so the live event has been rated TBC for now, but in general, all clips shown are for fun and in good taste, even if the content was originally created in bad taste. The event is marked to run for 120 minutes, so you know there will definitely be more than enough laughs and memories for this Sunday night out.
The Found Footage Festival Volume 10 event is on November 12 at Tinker Street Cinema.
Movie Bingo: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II
As the owner and programmer for Story Screen, I’ve hosted and developed loads of events across the Hudson Valley over the past 10 years, and truly none have been as fun to run and attend as our Movie Bingo nights. Our hosts put together some awesome gameplay, printing randomly customized bingo cards with events and quotes from the movie that will be screened, along with standard bingo numbers to be pulled at random, as players watch a classic film. Bingo card winners can win cool movie-related prizes curated for each film by the hosts, or even a tasty drink from the hosting bar. Cards cost $5 each or 3 for $10. Buy as many as ya want and win as many times as you can throughout the film’s duration.
Most recent Movie Bingo nights have included screenings of: Independence Day, Spider-Man, Tron, and Beetlejuice. This month, we’re teaming up with Happy Valley Arcade Bar in Beacon, NY, for one of the wackiest movies ever made: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. If you don’t want to play and just want to watch the flick, that’s totally cool, too. Happy Valley Arcade Bar will be slinging Ecto-Cooler inspired cocktails (with non-alcoholic versions available) as well as fresh pizzas and other bar snacks.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze Movie Bingo event is on November 15 at Happy Valley Arcade Bar.
Utmost Lanthimos: A Retrospective
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more provocative director than Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, whose films over the past 15 years have started many an argument in my daily life. A true-blue “you either get it or you don’t” artist, Lanthimos has become increasingly more popular as his films have started to garner the attention of awards voters. One factor involved with this is his popularity with some of the most talented actors working today, including Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone, and Olivia Coleman, who won her Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Lanthimos’s 2018 film, The Favourite.
UTMOST LANTHIMOS from Upstate Films on Vimeo.
This month-long retrospective at Upstate Films showcases some of the director’s most popular and influential work, from his breakthrough 2009 entry, Dogtooth, to his outrageously funny take on modern relationships, The Lobster, and arguably, his most famous work, the aforementioned The Favourite, which was an awards darling and winner throughout the season. All of these films act as an appetizer for the December release of his new film, Poor Things, which has already started to gain awards buzz for Best Picture and Best Director categories, as well as several acting categories, most notoriously, a near-guaranteed second Oscar win for lead star, Emma Stone. The film has been described as a reinterpretation of Frankenstein, this time told as the fantastical story of a young woman brought back to life, who begins to relearn and question the role women play in this ridiculously run world.
The Utmost Lanthimos: A Retrospective series runs all November at Upstate Films Starr Cinema, with Dogtooth on November 4 & 7, The Lobster on November 11 & 14, The Favourite on November 18 & 21. Poor Things starts next month on December 22.
