Customer Reviews

The New Year Parade

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw the movie at Torino Film Festival, in Italy and loved it. it's really great, i could totally relate to the different feelings and emotions portrayed. I loved the fact that it avoids sensationalizing the whole divorce process and just show bits of this family falling apart and how the kids try to build something different for themselves. It's also great how the story is linked up with the community life and how shows the reality of the city and the Mummers. Well done!

Watched this movie twice, very good!
I'm a filmmaker, from watching this, I learned a lot about how a small crew could make something great and also meaningful!

As a philly ex-pat I had been very excited to see this film, in part, due to its setting in South Philly. I was rewarded. There are some great shots of the 'real Philly': rowhomes and neighborhood scenes. Additionally, it uses the annual build-up to the Mummers parade in a very smart way. All of these provide settings and situations to illuminate the tension between the characters' community- and private-selves and the consequences and ramifications for both during crises. Visually it is a delight and the soundtrack is also nice. Excellent performances caught expertly on film.

Saw The New Year Parade at the "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" exhibition at the MoMA and loved it.

This film captures the essence of white blue-collar Philly life that is still lived in the neighborhoods that has never really made it to the screen before. That unique Philadelphia tradition in the white neighborhoods of the New Year Brigades exists nowhere else and having known participants, this film captures the flavor exactly, right down to the accents. It's a sad story of a family in the process of coming apart, but it is also a story of continuing tradition, the love between parents and children, and the intense pain that those relationships have the potential to sometimes create. Although it centers on the father/son relationship, the problems faced by the women in the family are also portrayed in straightforward and caring fashion. But above all, this film captures those moments that those of us who live in or near Philadelphia know so well, the implosion of the Vet, the pathetic little neighborhood fireworks moments on the Fourth, and the tradition of the New Year Brigades, the competition, the loyalties among the members, and the enduring sense of carrying on a local tradition, no matter how obsessive or crazy it seems.

This was an excellent movie with a seldom seen accurate portrayal of Philly row houses and communities. The actors and non-actors alike were amazing in their performances. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. Definitely recommend.