Fall 2023 Festival Round-Up: New York Film Festival/NewFest

 The big kahuna, wherein I recount the joys of the 2023 New York Film Festival and NewFest. 

Films included are a lot, and you should just read the article. The click would mean something dear to me.

At the movies: Enys Men.

 

Since I first saw this one at last fall's New York Film Festival, Enys Men (Uh-NEEZ MANE) has occupied a significant part of my subconscious. Moody and ethereal and a lot of fun.

The 2021 New York Film Festival

 This year's NYFF was a whole new bundle of experiences for me. After last year's fully virtual fest, this year went back to in person (my first time not attending at Lincoln Center since 2002). I did my best with what all links I could get from helpful publicists, but it's a much more focused gathering of film herein. (No thanks whatsoever to Neon and A24, who completely ignored my eMails and whose films I was able to see through dumb luck thanks to other festivals. They don't read these, though if they did I'd like to think it might cause them a bit of shame and/or regret.)

Subsequent Catching Up with Jason Shawhan

What all have I done since the last big update? Well...

A review of PASSENGERS.

A review of SING.

A review of LA-LA LAND.

A review of ROGUE ONE.

A review of EVOLUTION.

A review of AQUARIUS.

Excerpts from the Press Conference for BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK.

A piece on the PET SHOP BOYS, as well as a review of their concert.

My write-up of the 2016 New York Film Festival.

Oh yeah, and the piece about BEYONCE, LEMONADE, and THE FORMATION TOUR.

And my ballot for the 2016 Indiewire Critics Poll.

Grabbing every bit of awareness that I can.

One of the neatest experiences I had at this year's New York Film Festival was finding my photography a source of assistance to some colleagues. I was more than happy to take press conference photos for tireless champion of cinematic quality Vadim Rizov, and I never made a point of compiling them all into an easy-to-access digest. I'll not make that mistake again.

Alain Resnais

Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz

Harmony Korine

Lee Daniels

I love Film Festival life. It's like being a lower-tier Warhol superstar, only safer and you don't lose everything to heroin.

Everything that I watched on the Northeastern Excursion, Part II

Teorema (Italy-Pier Paolo PASOLINI) ***

Patrick (Australia-Richard FRANKLIN) **

Zombie Nightmare (Canada-Jack BRAVMAN) 1/2

Min Ye/Tell Me Who You Are (France/Mali-Souleymane CISSÉ) **

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Israel/US-Werner HERZOG) ***1/2

Trash Humpers (France/US-Harmony KORINE) (for Nashvillians) *** (for normal people) *1/2

Mother (South Korea-BONG Joon-Ho) ****

Precious (US-Lee DANIELS) **1/2

Kärleksbarn/Lovechild (Sweden-Daniel WIRTBERG) ****

Barbe Bleue/Blue Beard (France-Catherine BREILLAT) ****

A History of Independence (France/Mali-Daouda COULIBALY) *

Indepencia (France/Germany/The Netherlands/Phillipines-Raya MARTIN) **1/2

Altered (US-Eduardo SANCHEZ) **

The Girl in Lovers' Lane (US-Charles R. RONDEAU) **

La Momia Azteca contra el Robot Humano/The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy (Mexico-Rafael PORTILLO) -

Racket Girls (US-Robert DERTANO) *

Let's Scare Jessica To Death (US-John D. HANCOCK) ****

Funland (US-Michael A. SIMPSON) **

Prom Night (2009) (US-Nelson McCORMICK) *

The Hebrew Hammer (US-Jonathan KESSELMAN) **

Donkey Punch (UK-Oliver BLACKBURN) *

Curral de Mulheres/Amazon Jail (Brazil-Oswaldo De OLIVEIRA) *1/2

Wicked Lake (US-Zack PASSERO) 1/2

A Serious Man (UK/US-Ethan and Joel COEN) ****

Los Abrazos Rotos/Broken Embraces (Spain-Pedro ALMODÓVAR) **1/2

Soccarat (Spain-David MORENO) ****

Life During Wartime (US-Todd SOLONDZ) ***1/2

Chicken Heads (Palestine/US-Bassam Ali JARBAWI) *1/2

White Material (Cameroon/France-Claire DENIS) ***

A Serious Man (UK/US-Joel and Ethan COEN) ****

Paranormal Activity (US-Oren PELI) **1/2

Whip It (US-Drew BARRYMORE) ***1/2

La Mujer sin Cabeza/The Headless Woman (Argentina/France/Spain-Lucrecia MARTEL) ****

Couples Retreat (US-Peter BILLINGSLEY) -

The Brood (Canada-David CRONENBERG) ****

The Thing (US-John CARPENTER) ****

Toy Story 3D (US-John LASSETER) ***1/2

Toy Story 2 3D (US-John LASSETER) ****

La Mujer sin Cabeza/The Headless Woman (Argentina/France/Spain-Lucrecia MARTEL) ****

Alien (UK/US-Ridley SCOTT) ****

Panic, Chaos, and the Art of Storytelling.

Picture it. A pleasantly divey bar in the east village. The personae: John Lichman, Vadim Rizov, Matt Prigge, and me. It was an absolute honor for me to be part of, taking part in an in-depth discussion about cinema with people who not only get published in high-profile venues but who are also known electronically.

I had a blast, and would love to do so again.

Listen here.

Pity it couldn't have gone on, when the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and death were under discussion.

Everything what I have watched since beginning the Northeastern Sojourn, so far.

Der Baader-Meinhof Complex/The Baader-Meinhof Complex (Germany-Uli EDEL) ****

Le Silence de Lorna/Lorna’s Silence (Belgium/France-Jean-Pierre & Luc DARDENNE) ** 1/2

Batman & Robin (US-Joel SCHUMACHER) 1/2

The September Issue (US-R.J. CUTLER) ****

Extract (US-Mike JUDGE) **

Julie & Julia (US-Nora EPHRON) ***

The Aristocrat (US-Greg CROTEAU) **

Motherhood (US-Katherine DIECKMANN) * 1/2

Zombieland (US-Rubin FLEISCHER) *** 1/2

Donnie Darko (US-Richard KELLY) ****

Ha-Buah/The Bubble (Israel-Eytan FOX) **

Europa (Denmark/France/Germany/Switzerland/Sweden-Lars VON TRIER) *** 1/2

35 Rhums/35 Shots of Rum (France-Claire DENIS) ****

Grace (US-Paul SOLET) ** 1/2

Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshestvie na rodinu/A Room and a Half (Russia-Andrey KHRZHANOVSKY) ** 1/2

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (US-Bradley KAPLAN/Ian MARKIEWICZ/Albert MAYSLES) **

Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura/Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl (France/Portugal-Manoel DE OLIVEIRA) ** 1/2

Morrer Como Um Homem/Die Like a Man (Portugal-Joao Pedro RODRIGUES) *** 1/2

The Washingtonians (Canada-Peter MEDAK) *

Eskalofrio/Shiver (Spain-Isidro ORTIZ) **

Antichrist (Denmark/France/Germany/Italy-Lars VON TRIER) *** 1/2

La Partita Lenta/The Slow Game (Italy-Paolo SORRENTINO) ** 1/2

Lebanon (Israel-Samuel MAOZ) *

Lili's Paradise (Peru-Melina LEON) ***

Hadewijch (France-Bruno DUMONT) ****

Pyaasa (India-Guru DUTT) ***

The Informant! (US-Steven SODERBERGH) ***

The Funk (Australia-Cris JONES) * 1/2

Politist, adj./Police, Adjective (Romania-Corneliu PORUMBOIU) ***

L’Herbe des Folles/Wild Grass (France-Alain RESNAIS) ****

Walled In (Canada-Gilles PAQUET-BRENNER) * 1/2

Baghead (US-Jay & Marc DUPLASS) 1/2

Sam Kinison: Why Did We Laugh (US-Larry CARROLL) **

Koara Kacho/Executive Koala (Japan-KAWASAKI Minoru) **

Aamir (India-Raj Kumar GUPTA) ** 1/2

Chicken Heads (Palestine/US-Bassam Ali JARBAWI) * 1/2

White Material (Cameroon/France-Claire DENIS) ***

Plastic Bag (US-Ramin BAHRANI) *** 1/2

36 vues du Pic Saint Loup/Around a Small Mountain (Italy/France-Jacques RIVETTE) ** 1/2

At the movies: Wendy and Lucy.

Dog lovers who found Marley and Me too sappy and Hotel for Dogs too unrealistic now have their prayers answered. This is a film about how only dogs really embody basic human decency anymore, and it has the understated grace of Bresson and the earthy disillusioned pragmatism of Varda. Wendy (Michelle Williams) is trying to make her way north, to Alaska, to get a job working in a fish-processing plant. All she has in life is a beat-up old car and her dog, Lucy. When the car breaks down in the Pacific Northwest, everything is thrown into chaos. But when Lucy ends up missing after a run-in with the police, Wendy is adrift.

So the trek for work becomes a desperate quest to find a loved one, because that’s what we, as humans who love, do. And hope is a subversive act. Michelle Williams’ central performance is enthralling, and she better articulates the nameless dread of being alive in these uncertain times, buffeted about by money and opportunity, than countless essays, articles, or Dateline exposés. It’s a remarkable performance and a remarkable film. There’s one tracking shot through a nicely enough appointed animal shelter that reduced an audience of the most hardened big city film critics to weepy piles of jelly, not because of manipulative elements or playing unfairly with expectations, but because of its acknowledgement that hundreds of similar stories unfold every day and that’s just the world we live in.

Famous people talked to me? NYFF edition.

So here are some New York Film Festival flashbacks, when I got to talk to Steven Soderbergh and Mickey Rourke as part of the Festival's superawesome press set-up.

Everyone knows that I sometimes have a tumultuous relationship with my corporate overlords, so you can imagine my delight and surprise at having some material actually available on the big ol' website. So enjoy...

At the movies: Happy-Go-Lucky.

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a primary school teacher in South London possessed of a truly sunny disposition. A firm believer in looking on the bright side of life, this woman is, and she’s found a good network of friends that help her get along just fine. Her bike recently stolen, she decides to take driving lessons, and her instructor is a paranoid and racist conspiracy theorist (Eddie Marsan) who nevertheless seems to be looking for some kind of positivity in his life. So we have dueling ideologies in one corner, but Happy-Go-Lucky is really the kind of breath of fresh air that anyone tired of miserabilism or just looking for something frothy and fun should check out.

Mike Leigh, the man who specializes in journeys into the dark places of the human heart, has made a feel-good comedy? Absolutely. Without altering his methodology (extensive preparation and rehearsals, improvising the script over several weeks with the cast, evolving a complete universe for the characters), he’s decided to spend some time looking on the bright side of life. With Poppy and her friends, the film not only has a believable and interesting collective of characters, but an astonishing ensemble of meaty roles for women. Sex and the City be damned, here’s a group of women that actually seem fun to be around.

Director Mike Leigh has always had a gift for getting great performances, but Sally Hawkins’ Poppy is practically luminescent. It’s the kind of performance that wins awards and gets people’s attention, and thanks to her anchor, the film is as refreshing and nurturing as a homemade sandwich or a puppy that knows instinctively not to pee on the floor. Leigh has trod a vaguely similar path before, with 1999’s Gilbert and Sullivan history Topsy-Turvy, but here he’s in completely new territory, and the end result is winning acclaim all over the world, as well as a new accolade: accessible. With an effect undiminished by multiple viewings, Happy-Go-Lucky will fix whatever’s wrong for you for a little while, leaving you happy, hopeful, and regretting nothing.

At the movies: Ashes of Time redux.

In this moody reconstruction of his 1994 wu xia (think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or Curse of the Golden Flower) epic, Wong Kar-Wai (In The Mood for Love, Chungking Express) brings us a series of interconnected tales of men and women, wounded by love and betrayal, enduring recursive patterns in their lives, waiting for another chance at happiness to find them.

After the mixed response to his 2007 English-language debut My Blueberry Nights, rightfully acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai decided to undertake a restoration of this film, but when they tried to begin the process, they found the original negatives in horrible shape, and a more radical course of action was deemed necessary. So Wong re-edited the film, adjusting the colors and eliding some moments. The digital recoloration of Christopher Doyle’s remarkable cinematography and slight tweaks and edits here and there don’t diminish any of the film’s grandeur, though they do allow it to take its thematic place amongst Wong’s more recent work (especially 2046). And because of it, the mere sight of a wicker birdcage will fill you with an immense and timeless sadness

It’s mind-boggling to audiences today to look at the cast Wong has at his disposal here. The late Leslie Cheung, both Tony Leungs (Chiu-Wai and Ka-Fai), Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, and even Sammo Hung handling the abstract and unusual action choreography... So much has happened since then, both globally and in the lives of those icons of Hong Kong cinema; that wu xia itself is now an exportable film genre couldn’t possibly have been predicted. But it is a testament to all involved that Ashes of Time has endured as a modern classic. As dizzyingly romantic a night at the movies as one could hope for.

At the movies: Changeling.

For years, the quintessential Angelina Jolie performance was in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow; an interesting but somewhat inert film that exploded into Technicolor life anytime her one-eyed military advisor popped up to unleash an amphibious squadron. With the exception of the tragically underseen A Mighty Heart, she’s been toiling away in character roles with nuclear star wattage ever since her Oscar. So now we get Angelina front-and-center in a hard-hitting melodrama about suffering and persistence, and she’s just marvelous. It’s just a pity that the surrounding film isn’t up to the standard she sets.

Changeling isn’t utterly reprehensible like Absolute Power or The Rookie, nor is it perfunctory like Blood Work. Certainly, in the Clint Eastwood oeuvre, it sits securely above those films. But it’s a mess that feels surprisingly impersonal and atypical, stymied by a script that either lapses all too often into the ridiculous or allows too much ridiculousness from historical record to remain. I have no doubt that there were actual shocking reversals, multiple court cases, mass axe murders, an operatic hanging, and a dramatic jailhouse confrontation. But what we see onscreen doesn’t feel like a movie based on a true story, but rather a true story that seems to be engineered out of the iconography and history of the movies.

The story of the vanished child Walter Collins is a dynamic frame on which to hang the story, but there’s so much else stuffed into the film that it tears itself asunder. Better would have been to focus on the scenes between Jolie’s Christine Collins and the false child foisted upon her by the police. It’s in these three scenes that Changeling achieves the greatness it oh-so-briefly shows, and a leaner, more focused film might have been an emotional juggernaut. But because Eastwood and writer J. Michael Straczynski want to expand the story into a comprehensive portrait of 20s Los Angeles, the focus shifts and falters, and by the time the forcible commitment and quasi-pedophilic ax murders start coming, it’s just simply too late. Fortunately, Eastwood has another film coming later this year, and I’m still more than willing to see anything he puts out. But this isn’t nearly what it could have been. ** ½

At the movies: The 46th Annual New York Film Festival.

Here's my handy-dandy overview of the 46th Annual New York Film Festival. As these films receive some form of Nashville (for All The Rage) or national (for Dish Magazine) release, I'll go in depth. But for now, here's the digest for all to luxuriate in regarding the thirty films and shorts that I saw. A ^ between the film's title and rating indicate that I have discussions with involved filmmakers coming as well.

It was a phenomenal year for both the NYFF, specifically, and film in general. There was not a single thing that I saw that I hated (like last year's Actrices/Actresses), and everything I saw offered up something unusual and interesting and worthy. As the number of distributors willing to take a chance on foreign and independent cinema dwindles with every day that passes, it gets harder and harder to experience film in its proper theatrical context. So for the meantime, places like the NYFF (and our own Nashville Film Festival) become more and more valuable.


ENTRE LES MURS (The Class) ***
It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, and at first feels like a typical Dangerous Minds/Stand and Deliver type film en francais - the young teacher who cares, dealing with students who are stymied by varying levels of bureaucracy and indifference. But as it goes along, it gets weirder and more dialectical, and by the end I was pretty much won over. Sony Classics has it for the US, which means it'll get a week at Green Hills.

CRY ME A RIVER **
One of the two new films from Jia Zhang-ke at this year's NYFF, and this one is pretty much inert. Students in the 90s, currently adults adrift in their own lives, nobody's happy but they do soldier on. There's some nice tracking shots down a river, though.

WENDY & LUCY *** 1/2
Absolutely devastating portrait of isolation and life on the brink- harsh, elliptical, and filled with a pervasive sense of sadness and beauty. Michelle Williams is truly amazing here, and dog lovers, this is the movie for you. Oscilloscope Films (The Beastie Boys' film label) is handling this, so it will more than likely be coming to the Belcourt at some point.

I DON'T FEEL LIKE DANCING ***
Can you build a film around an extended sick joke? If it's as good and genuinely effective as this one, then yes.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR *** 1/2
Holy shit. An animated documentary with the urgency of an unquiet witness and the soul of the most imaginative of poets, and structured around the basics of psychic exploration in a way that will infuriate Scientologists, this may also be the film that pushes the evangelical Christian faction in this country into apoplexy. It's a remarkable film, funny and devastating, and featuring one of the most haunting sequences I've ever seen (three men emerging from the sea, to a cello lead that sounds slightly reminiscent of Vig Mihaly's score for Werckmeister Harmoniak- which is a good thing). Again, Sony Classics has it, so be on the lookout for its one-week run at Green Hills.

LOVE YOU MORE ****
The best thing I saw during Press Week I, this short from British artist/Pet Shop Boys collaborator Sam Taylor-Wood (whose only other film I had seen was in a segment of the erotic anthology Destricted) is a short and sweet tale of High School lust played out to the sound of the Buzzcocks. With any luck, this might pop up at the '09 Nashville Film Festival in the shorts program.

TONY MANERO ***
Simulatneously about the casual violence and horror of life in Chile under the rule of Augusto Pinochet and one man's need to express himself through dance and wanting to be like John Travolta, this film is upsettingly violent, features hardcore sex, and at least one disco dancing sequence in every reel. How could I not love it?

UN CONTE DE NOEL (A Christmas Tale) *** 1/2
A colleague dismissively called this Kings and Queen 2, but I think it's weirder and a bit more incisive than that. Family dramas, insanity, cancer, sexual frustration, and the arduous process of forgiveness- yeah, it's like that. Highly recommended, though. IFC has it, and with any luck, it'll be this year's big Christmas arthouse hit.

LOVE IS DEAD ***
A dark, dark French short that is ruthlessly pragmatic and full of the kind of wit that works beautifully here but leaves you wondering if the filmmaker will make the step up to feature-length material.

TOKYO SONATA *** 1/2
Kuorosawa Kiyoshi is back, and this time he's made a fairly conventional film- one that takes the issues that form the subtext of his genre material and works with them on the surface. It's a fascinating portrait of this moment in history, and the central cast is pretty damned great. It takes some wide turns in the last half hour, but is still a fascinating development in Kurosawa's body of work.

AFTERSCHOOL **
This film aims to be an expose of what life is really like in the age of voyeuristic video and violated civil liberties, while at the same time getting at what's really going on with these kids today. Every time I was ready to walk out, something amazing would happen, and every time I was ready to love this film, it did something incredibly stupid. Also, it's one of those films that seems to think that shock is a valuable tool when used without context. It's not. This si the kind of film that it's very easy to overrate. I'm interested in what director Antonio Campos comes up with next, and the frame composition is among the best I've ever seen. But still, it's just not all that.

DEMAIN PEUT-ETRE (Maybe Tomorrow) *** 1/2
An exceptional French short about identity, race, and observation. Haunting, and again, with any luck it may pop up in the shorts program at the '09 Nashville Film Festival.

SERBIS (Service) ** 1/2
Family travails, in and around a four-story moviehouse in Angeles City in the Philippines. Lots of betrayal, hardcore sex, transsexual gender shenanigans, and through it all, the inescapable sounds of the modern city. Oh, and an extended plot point about pus. Regent Releasing has this for the U.S., which means it will get a small-scale release in NYC, L.A., San Francisco, and possibly in cities with high Filipino populations and/or Tagalog speakers, then come out on DVD shortly thereafter. So much gets crammed into 93 minutes that you almost wish the director had made a miniseries out of it- the setting and characters are rich, but there's so much left unsaid or seen. But I would love to spend more time with this film's central family.

TIRO EN LA CABEZA (Bullet in the Head) **
This was the screening where a significant portion of the press corps lost their mind. The film is, for all intents and purposes, silent. We hear ambient sounds, consistent with the placement of the camera (almost always far away), but even when we're in the same room as the main characters, they speak but no sound comes out. It's meant to be an allegory about how hard it is to understand what motivates horrifying acts of violence, and it works- sort of. But people HATED this movie. Eh, it's interesting. But it would work better as a short.

HUNGER *** 1/2
Pretty damned amazing, this one. It's a great political film, a savage prison movie, an effective procedural, and rife full of possibilities for theological and political debate. There's a central reel-length conversation that easily ranks among the finest of the year, and it's always interesting to see what happens when artists from other media give film a try. The final half-hour, which depicts the hunger strike that lends the film its title, isn't quite as staggering and transcendent as the first hour, but the film is still a remarkable achievement. IFC Films has this for distribution, and they're aiming for March 09 for a release. I'm not sure when it'll play here, but I'll lay down dollars that it will play in Nashville at some point.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY ^ ****
A delight. A frothy (but slightly edgy) comedy from Mike Leigh? Perish the thought. But this film is like a big goofy drunken British hug, and I can't wait to see how audiences take to it. This opens on Halloween at the Belcourt, and mark my words- this is the perfect date movie. If you bring a date/spouse/significant other with you to see this movie, dimes-to-dollars says you'll get some that evening.

THIS IS HER ** 1/2
A snarky but ultimately effective Kiwi short that aims to dig, laterally and figuratively, into women's issues. It gets derailed in its final third by a sappy Lilith-lite ballad, but there's still some interesting moments.

VOY A EXPLOTAR (I'm Gonna Explode) **
If you'd only ever watched Harold & Maude, Romeo and Juliet, and Y Tu Mama Tambien over and over again, then you too could have made this film. The leads are cute and the young-lovers-on-the-run trope never really gets old, but there just wasn't enough of a spark here to make the ingredients properly- explode. Maria Deschamps, the film's star, has a hell of a career ahead of her, making her motion picture debut in a part that feels like 60% Anna Karina, 25% Bjork, and 15% Linda Manz.

THE ARGENTINE ^ ** 1/2
A/K/A Che Part I. We were shown what is being called The Roadshow Presentation, which has no credits or specific differentiation of title, so I'm going from the standard titling of the two. This was a cinemascope biopic on the rise of Che, with the occasional high-contrast black & white interlude from his speech before the UN in the early sixties. It jumps around in time a bit, but you're always kept at a distance from the material. It's well-acted, but it's not all that.

GUERILLA ^ *** 1/2
A/K/A Che Part II, when everything gets kind of nuts and handheld and 1.85 and visceral. Guerilla is not quite Tropical Malady, but it's damned close, and both as an extended thinkpiece and an emotionally draining experience, here's what makes it all worthwhile. It's good enough to make me realize and acknowledge that The Argentine is pretty good as well. But in the battle of the Ches, put me down solidly for Part II. IFC Films has this for the U.S., and in Nashville, that usually means Belcourt. So send in your eMails and bloggables if you want to show some Che pride, or are intrigued at exploring the fall of such an absolutist ideology. Either way, there's something here for you.

RALPH ***
Cutesy short about love truly being a universal language. Not essential, but not unpleasant.

L'HEURE D'ETE (Summer Hours) ****
Following up his globalization trilogy (Demonlover, Clean, and Boarding Gate), Olivier Assayas turns his focus on the family and makes one of the most beautiful and restrained dramas of the year. One mother, three children, five grandchildren, two dogs, a housekeeper, and an exquisite country house. There are no big scenes, no flare-ups or crying jags, just a rapturous dive into the eddies and whorls of the time we spend as families. IFC has it for the US. Keep an eye out for this one, it will floor you. Bring Mom and Dad with you as well.

SECURITY ***
An interesting (and non-maliciously deeply misogynist) short from Germany about loneliness and store policies. It would seem to clever for its own good were it not so devastating.

THE WRESTLER ^ *** 1/2
And the Academy Award goes to... Mickey Rourke. The story is conventional, and it appears our boy Darren Aronofsky's been watching some Dardenne brothers films in the past few years. But it's edited like a normal movie, and Rourke (and Marisa Tomei) are just exceptional. The story is pretty conventional, so it plays against Aronfsky's arthouse instincts beautifully. And how can you not love a film whose soundtrack is half 80s hair metal and half trap-rap. The way that Guns 'n Roses's "Sweet Child O' Mine" is used in this movie made me tear up like a damned fool. Fox Searchlight is releasing this in NYC and L.A. on December 19th, with the rest of the country to follow soon after.

WAIT FOR ME ***
A three-minute documentary that is effective and scarring.

CHANGELING ^ ***
The good news is that Clint Eastwood is still an amazing director, Angelina Jolie knocks it out of the park, there are quite a few moments that are of unearthly power, and it starts with the old-school Universal logo from way back in the day. The bad news is that the script is a mess, it's way too long, and there are a few scenes (mostly involving a necessary subplot) that are just embarrassing to behold (though some are apparently taken from historical record). This one makes some of the same mistakes that Mystic River did, and it makes them bigger. Am I jaded because hyperstylized and violent representations of violence against children just don't affect me anymore? I should be horrified seeing axe murders and nonconsensual electroconvulsive therapy, but none of that holds a candle to some of Angelina's scenes with the child-who-is-not-hers. Worth seeing, absolutely. But one of Clint's best? No.

GOMORRAH **
The latest evolution in Mafia movies. A colleague compared it to The Wire and found it wanting. There's some tense moments, and its indictment of blustery machismo is refreshing, but after two-plus hours, I just wanted everyone to get shot in a surprise fashion and for the thing to be over with. That said, a couple of connoisseurs of gangster films said it was a spectacular achievement, so go with that if you're so inclined. IFC has it for the US, so it'll be around. And it's nice, between this and Tropic Thunder, to see "Sadeness Pt 1" get some cinema love.

AHENDU NDE SAPUKAI (I Hear Your Scream) ****
A remarkable single-shot short about the process of loss, told completely in silhouette. Just remarkable.

LA MUJER SIN CABEZA (The Headless Woman) ****
Take the skeleton of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, then send it wandering off into the last half hour of Mulholland Drive but preparing for a Last Weekend at Marienbad, and you have the idea of where this remarkable mindmelter from Argentina's Lucrecia Martel will take you. It is so much subtler than any of those films, though, and filled with so much possibility and tinges of the most visceral dread. This and Synecdoche, NY are proving the films from this northward sojourn that I want to dwell in repeatedly, again and again. If there is any justice, this film will get some kind of further distribution.

C'EST DUR D'ETRE AIME PAR DES CONS (It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks) *** 1/2
A battering ram of a documentary that illustrates the trial of the publishers and editorial staff of French weekly Charlie Hebdo, which printed those infamous twelve cartoons which portrayed the prophet Mohammed. The film has countless things to say about the role of the press and the courts and religious authorities, and all of it is pretty fascinating even if lack of access to the actual courtroom proceedings lends a surreal air to the whole thing. Certainly worth seeing, and as provocative a way as any for me to finish up my time at the 46th Annual New York Film Festival.

"I think it was smoke inhalation."

CREATURE (d. William MALONE) * 1/2
C'EST DUR D'ETRE AIME PAR DES CONS/IT'S HARD BEING LOVED BY JERKS (d. Daniel LECONTE) *** 1/2
SYNECDOCHE, NY (d. Charlie KAUFMAN) ****

"She would have already have been dead by then..."

In the past few days, I saw the following:

IT'S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE (d. Larry COHEN) ***
AHENDU NDE SAPUKAI (I Hear Your Scream) (d. Pablo LAMAR) ****
LA MUJER SIN CABEZA (The Headless Woman) (d. Lucrecia MARTEL) ****
OUTING RILEY (d. Pete JONES) ** 1/2
ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 VOLTS (d. ISHII Sogo) * 1/2

Folded.

I genuinely love it it when my friends become successful. That's not faux-modesty, or in the slightest sarcastic. It makes me incredibly happy when people who are good and kind and deserving of all that's awesome in the world get to reap some benefits.

And sometimes, that benefits me as well, which is how I happened to find my way into the Ben Folds show at Terminal 5 in NYC last night (and had the best burger in Manhattan, which is a secret I cannot post in a blog but will gladly tell you in person or via drunken phone call at some point in the near future). I was overwhelmed by the crowd and the quality and the energy that Folds and his crew were pumping out; so much so that it wasn't until a few songs in that I remembered I had a VIP pass. This meant I got a great view and a chance to embarass myself hooting and hollering amidst islands of suits and haute-haught.


That's my friend Sam on the drums, and in this photo he's got a sort of Hindu-multiarm look, which is suitable for drummers, I think.

The new stuff is really good (and suited for the time in which we are living), and I'm planning on picking up a copy of the new record at an actual record store. Now I know what you're saying, you're saying "but do such places even still exist?" And the complicated answer is 'yes.'

But why I wanted to write about this was because of a moment I shared with several hundred people, when Folds had the entire audience doing tripartite harmony on "Not The Same." It was like being in church if church still had the power to move me. It was like being kissed properly. It was one of the most electrifying moments I've had in the city on this particular trip, and I don't even know how to articulate it beyond saying that it certainly helped me get some shit settled and move into a severe abundance of hope.

I'm yammering on, and not doing particular service to any involved parties. But I tell you, it was one of the most profound little moments I've had this year, and I thought I'd share it with whomever happens to be reading.



Recently, I saw:

RALPH (d. Alex WINCKLER) ***
L'HEURE D'ETE/SUMMER HOURS (d. Olivier ASSAYAS) ****
APRIL FOOL'S DAY (d. The Butcher Brothers) -
SECURITY (d. Lars HENNING) ***
THE WRESTLER (d. Darren ARONOFSKY) *** 1/2
WAIT FOR ME (d. Ross KAUFFMAN) ***
CHANGELING (d. Clint EASTWOOD) ***
GOMMORAH (d. Matteo GARRONE) ** 1/2

and here's the latest Folds video, directed by Tim and Eric (of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame).

Che Pride.

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (d. Fred DEKKER) ***
THE ARGENTINE (d. Steven SODERBERGH) ** 1/2
GUERILLA (d. Steven SODERBERGH) *** 1/2

Further along.

This is what I've seen since the last time I did one of these updates.

DEMAIN PEUT-ETRE (Maybe Tomorrow) (d. Guilhem AMESLAND) *** 1/2
SERBIS (Service) (d. Brillante Ma. MENDOZA) ** 1/2
TIRO EN LA CABEZA (Bullet in the Head) (d. Jaime ROSALES) **
HUNGER (d. Steve McQUEEN) *** 1/2
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (d. Mike LEIGH) ****
THIS IS HER (d. Katie WOLFE) ** 1/2
VOY A EXPLOTAR (I'm Gonna Explode) (d. Gerardo NARANJO) **
ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (d. Jonathan LEVINE) *** 1/2

"A disease immune to bureaucracy."

I've seen the following:


BLINDNESS (d. Fernando MEIRELLES) ** 1/2
THE DUCHESS (d. Saul DIBB) **
AFTERSCHOOL (d. Antonio CAMPOS) **
THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (d. KITAMURA Ryuhei) ***
RETURN TO THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (d. Victor GARCIA) 1/2