FIVE MUST-SEES
1 TONI ERDMANN
Don’t be put off by the 162- minute running time. Or the art- house label. Or the English subtitles on this German- language film from writer/director Maren Ade. You will not find a more unexpected, funnier film in theatres this year. Come for the gonzo title character and helicoptercrash parent, played by Peter Simonischek. Stay for the karaoke Whitney Houston tune, which earned a mid- screening ovation at Cannes this year. Stay for the naked party. Stay for the weird yeti. Just stay; it’s worth it.
2 PATERSON
Jim Jarmusch’s latest, set in Paterson, N. J., is about a bus driver named Paterson, played by Adam Driver. And if that sounds like a slice of poetry, it might be because the film also plays out as a kind of poem in cinematic motion, as Driver’s character soaks in the world around him and creates heartfelt free verse about everything from love to matches. The result is as elegant as it is unique.
3 THE BIRTH OF A NATION
Talk about taking it back. The last film to carry this title, released in 1915, was an epic, pro- Ku Klax Klan story. Nate Parker’s directing debut is epic as well, but there the similarities end. Parker stars as Nat Turner in the real- life story of a slave in 1830s Virginia who used his position as a lay preacher to foment a slave rebellion. It’s an astonishing and powerful drama.
4 MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Casey Affleck is wonderfully woeful as Lee Chandler, a sad- sack Boston handyman whose life takes an even more doleful turn when he learns that his brother ( played by Kyle Chandler, not Ben Affleck) has passed away. If that sounds too gloomy for words, hold on as writer/director Kenneth Lonergan slowly spins a heartwarming tale of family and, ultimately, hope.
5 LA LA LAND
For those who despair “they don’t make ’em like they used to” comes this old- fashioned Hollywood musical- romance that received well- deserved ecstatic reviews when it opened the Venice film festival last week. Writer/ director Damien Chazelle gives us Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as two starcrossed dreamers. He even provides a cameo for J. K. Simmons, who made his last film, Whiplash, such a guilty pleasure.