The 2024 awards season is officially over, with some truly great films of different shapes, sizes, and genres gracing the big screen. It’s been a wild ride filled with surprises and disappointments, but most importantly, overflowing with fantastic films that we will surely be talking about for years to come. As slightly warmer weather approaches, there’s no better time than now to watch some old favorites or catch up on some smaller limited-release films from last year, all in the comfort of your cozy, local cinema.
March holds a little bit of something for everybody in the Hudson Valley, so be sure to mark down these six movie events happening at independent theaters in the area.
No Other Land
Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal, No Other Land has been hailed as one of the most powerful documentaries in recent time and has been reaching larger audiences as its release has gotten wider and wider throughout the first few months of this year. It documents the story of a Palestinian activist and Israeli journalist who form a unique bond while recording the destruction of an occupied West Bank village by Israeli soldiers. Where almost all documentaries seek to explain the events of their subject and engage their audience with emotional understanding and empathy, No Other Land seems to simply exist as a record of terrible events happening right in front of your eyes. There are moments in the film where the viewer might even feel a sting of guilt for not being able to reach into the screen and lend a hand. As brutally visceral as it is quietly hopeful, this film is sure to go down as one of the most important feature documentaries on the subject.
No Other Land continues its run on March 2 at Time & Space Ltd and starts March 14 at Story Screen Cinema.
In the Company of Men
Neil LaBute’s 1997 black-comedy Sundance hit, In the Company of Men, is one of those movies that could slip between the cracks in even the most committed movie lover’s experience. A small film that introduced the world to actor Aaron Eckhart, the movie garnered a staggering amount of critical acclaim at the time of its release. Slowly, the feature seemed to simmer away in reputation, as other unflinching films on the subject of misogyny and corporate ego began to be released with bigger budgets and wider audience appeal. That being said, the movie has aged perfectly, and it pains this writer to report that it has never been more topical than it is right now. The story follows two recently heartbroken corporate executives who decide to take out their frustrations on the female gender by finding the most innocent woman they can and ruining her life. Of course, things don’t go according to plan. The movie is just as mean-spirited as it is hilarious in its use of dark satire, giving an exaggerated look at the minds of men who think they are powerful. Turns out, it’s not all that exaggerated. This event will feature a post-screening discussion and Q&A with director Neil LaBute conducted by John Carroll Lynch.
In the Company of Men screens March 8 at The Moviehouse.
Breaking Away
The 1979 sports comedy by Peter Yates, Breaking Away, has remained an undeniable mention whenever discussing the greatest sports movies ever made. It features an absolutely killer cast of young actors soon to be household names, including Daniel Stern, Dennis Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley, and Dennis Quaid. The story revolves around four working-class teenagers in a small Indiana town who band together to help one of them achieve their dream of becoming a competitive bicycle racer. One of the things that makes this story of sportsmanship so particular is its surprisingly vulnerable, coming-of-age tale in a small town that seems to offer no escape (hence the title). Of course, the “big fish in a little pond” story trope can be found in plenty of sports movies, but the chemistry between these characters and the overall whimsical tone of the film brings everything together into a movie that is simply a joy to watch and revisit.
Breaking Away screens March 12 at Jacob Burns Film Center.
The Fugitive
Easily one of the most quotable movies of the ’90s, Andrew Davis’s The Fugitive is an effortless film. That’s not to say that the making of the film wasn’t rigorous, as even a small peek into its production history would prove the exact opposite. No, the aforementioned effortlessness comes in its execution of a series of complicated events told simply, all while putting entertainment front and center. The film follows a man on the run who, after being wrongfully convicted for his wife’s murder, cleverly evades a team of US marshals while attempting to clear his name. It notoriously features fantastic lead performances by Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, with an unbelievable supporting ensemble that includes Daniel Roebuck, Joe Pantoliano, and L. Scott Caldwell, as members of Jones’s team. It’s hard to think of a better way to spend St. Patrick’s Day evening than watching Harrison Ford in a green scully cap blending into a parade in Chicago.
The Fugitive screens March 17 at Story Screen Cinema.
A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy: An Afternoon with Richard Haass (and Ruth Ben Ghiat)
Richard Haass, the director of the Council on Foreign Relations, shares the film A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy as part of a free afternoon event all about preserving democracy. Haass’s New York Times best-selling book, The Bill of Obligations, is a crash course in the methods of those who wish to destroy our country’s freedoms and how we as Americans can stop that from happening. Haass simplifies even the most complicated and overwhelming scenarios, which he acknowledges is very much the point of some of these tactics. The film was made as a documentary for PBS, and now Haass is sharing it with the greater population, along with conversations with some of the most interesting minds working today to halt the power of anti-democratic establishments.
Following the screening of the film, Richard Haass will share a discussion with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a Professor of History and Italian Studies at NYU and the preeminent scholar on anti-democratic movements.
A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy screens for free on March 22 at Upstate Films Starr Cinema.
Space Jam
In true classy style, the good folks at The Rosendale Theater are welcoming in March Madness in the best way possible: screening the 1996 masterpiece of live-action/animation shenanigans: Space Jam. Starring basketball legend Michael Jordan and doctor enthusiast Bugs Bunny, the movie was an undeniable sensation upon its release and features some of the most mindblowing visual effects and computer animation seen at the time. The story infamously revolves around a recently retired Michael Jordan, having shifted sports careers from basketball to baseball, who is thrust into a conflict between the Looney Tunes and a team of super-aliens in a game of hoops for the cartoons’ freedom. The movie comes complete with a world-class soundtrack that just might be the most 1996 thing ever made, as well as a personal performance from Jordan that still rings honest nearly 30 years later.
Space Jam screens March 23 at The Rosendale Theater.
