10 favorites from New York Film Festival
Film critics tend to look at cinematic years a bit like an oenophile might rate a particular season of grapes: Some years are spectacular, others more pedestrian, and the reasons why are myriad — weather, humidity, temperature, temperament, acidity levels, etc. — and largely outside anyone’s control.
If you’re lucky, there will be years — or vintages, to stretch the analogy — you remember fondly as being exceptional (2007 and 2016 are right up there), alongside slightly less impressive efforts.
One way to get a handle on all of this is through the golden triad of festivals all clustered in late summer and early fall. Between Venice in late August, Toronto in early September, and New York in early October, you get a pretty clear picture of what studios are planning for the prestige season, as well as the internationals and indies which have already been displayed at Sundance and Cannes.
The New York Film Festival, with its tightly controlled, highly curated selections, closes out the major festival season with its own set of premieres and heavy Cannes favorites. Here are 10 such films
likely to make some noise come awards season.
American Dharma: Over the years, documentarian Errol Morris has released filmed interviews/ interrogations of several controversial figures, including Robert McNamara (The Fog of War) , and Donald Rumsfeld (The Unknown Known) , but he has never pushed the envelope harder than with this film, in which he invites one Stephen K. Bannon to speak his mind in front of the camera. More than a few left-leaning critics have questioned giving that kind of platform to such a man in the first place; and members of the right have suggested that the whole thing is a liberal setup, designed to make Bannon look as bad as possible. Either or both POVs are in play here, though given Morris’ previous track record, he’s much less interested in gotcha journalism than he is exploring the mindsets of different people, investigating their stated views beyond bland soundbites.
The Ballad of Buster Skruggs: Obviously, any movie by those crafty Coen brothers has to be on the list. Joel and Ethan continue their sweet relationship with the New
York festival by showcasing their Netflix anthology-series-turned-feature-film which made its world debut at Venice. (Apparently, the famously fastidious brothers didn’t much like the idea of viewers being able to watch the series out of their preferred order.) The six standalone episodes of their Western are sewn together into one whole, which might work brilliantly or feel a bit too disconnected — either way, I’m excited to see what happens. Early returns at Venice suggest it works very well, though from the sound of it, the brothers are still in the same goofy zone as Hail, Caesar! Burning: Playing early at Toronto International Film Festival
(TIFF), Chang-dong Lee’s film got short-shrift in terms of critical buzz, but make no mistake, this slow, yearning noir plays its meticulous angles and character sweeps in ways that reverberate in your head for days after you watch it. The story concerns a young man in Seoul who falls in love with a young woman from his hometown, only to see her hook up with a twisty, rich snoot, who may or may not have something to do with her disappearance. With no one else to fill the gumshoes, the young man takes it upon himself to solve the mystery.
The Favourite: Yes, how else would one follow an oddly somnambulant drama about a kid wiping out the members of his doctor’s family to prove a moral point, than by an 18th-century costume drama concerning Queen Anne and her attendants? For Yorgos
Lanthimos, one of the more interestingly exploratory filmmakers in current international cinema, this project would appear to be a bit more on the straight and narrow, as it were, but that could just be the con within the con. Lanthimos has a genius for the visceral kick, generally involving unexpectedly moving violence, so it will be interesting to see how that sensibility meshes with the standards of historic drama.
High Life: Easily the most divisive film at TIFF, Claire Denis’ peculiar sci-fi flick, which stars Robert Pattinson as one of two survivors of a ship filled with convicted criminals, is either a masterpiece or an unwatchable, dull artistic indulgence, depending on how you take your cinema. Apparently things take a turn for the definite surreal at times. There weren’t a
lot of moderate opinions on Film Twitter, which instantly makes it an intriguing possibility.
If Beale Street Could Talk: Barry Jenkins follows up the movingly heartfelt Moonlight with another intimate portrait, only this time it’s of a young woman (KiKi Layne, who is terrific), fighting to clear the name of her fiance (Stephan James) after he’s falsely accused of a crime in 1960s era New York.
Private Life: Tamara Jenkins’ moving film made its debut at Sundance, but as much as critics seemed to dig it, other, larger profile films (Hereditary, Eighth Grade ) sucked the already high-altitude oxygen out of Park City, Utah. Hopefully, the NYFF will be its turn to shine, and this clever, superbly acted dramedy, which starts Kathryn Hahn and an irascible Paul Giamatti as a long-suffering married couple
desperately trying to have a baby by any means necessary, will most surely get more of a bounce. Equal parts acrimonious and sweet, but far from saccharine, Jenkins’ film mines emotional treasures from seemingly small veins, and her pair of leads (along with Kayli Carter, who plays a niece asked to carry their baby to term) are absolutely riveting.
Roma: The best film I saw in Toronto.
Shoplifters: The Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Hirokazu Koreeda’s bittersweet drama follows a would-be family using wiles to survive in harsh times, creating a warm environment in an otherwise frigid world. That it turns out the “family” is constructed of odd bits and pieces collected by a empathetic but unconventional couple (Kirin Kiki and Lily Franky), and whose members are linked together only by
desperation and misguided belief, makes the drama into a fascinating exploration of our human bonds. Subtle, but reverberating, it’s the kind of film that sticks in your head for days after you see it, like spicy Indian take-out, becoming even richer and more sublime over the course of time.
Wildlife: The stand-out here, apparently, is the brilliant performance of Carey Mulligan, as the wife of a dissolute man (Jake Gyllenhaal), who decides to leave his family and go fight wildfires, leaving his wife and teenage son behind to fend for themselves. Written and directed by Paul Dano, known previously for his acting (Little Miss Sunshine, Youth, There Will Be Blood), from a novel by Richard Ford, the critical notices began at Sundance and have continued at Cannes, and TIFF among others.