The 55th New York Film Festival in Progress, Our Picks
The 55th New York Film Festival is off to the races. Opening last Thursday night (a move from its typical Friday spot to accommodate for Yom Kippur), this year’s fest runs 18 days. For the fifth consecutive year, Kent Jones and his discerning programming committee have assembled a slate that is true to NYFF form, featuring a mix of world premieres, and standouts from the international festival circuit, including films that have screened at Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Locarno, Venice, and Berlin . Also, the New York Film Festival is big on supporting its alumni. This year finds Agnes Varda, Todd Haynes, Woody Allen, Hong Sang-Soo, and Noah Baumbach among those returning to present their latest projects.
As things get underway, we can’t help but think back to last year’s festival and the events that surrounded it. It was the countdown to the presidential election, hot topics were racial inequality, and diversity and equal representation in Hollywood. The fest opened with Ava DuVernay’s insightful documentary The 13th and the main slate showcased a number of exceptional films directed by women and/or featuring strong female characters including Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Woman, and Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. The fest also examined the role of the artist in society with three poetry-themed films, Pablo Larraín’s Neruda, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, and Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion.
This year’s festival was conceived in a different climate than its predecessor. Last year’s issues haven’t gone away, but now we have Trump in the White House and he’s fueling the fires of division and tweeting up a storm. Today’s buzz words are “fake news” and “gaslighting”, and a war with some foe (Russia, Korea, or Iran) seems imminent. The fest’s programming is dominated by humanistic stories with many of the films based in the past, before the era of social media. There are also several artist portraits, including documentaries on Joan Didion, Steven Spielberg, Arthur Miller, and Basquiat.
Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying garnered this fest’s opening night slot. Adapted from Darryl Ponicsan’s 2004 novel, which was written as a sequel to The Last Detail, the film is set in 2003 and stars Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carrell as a trio of vets who served together in Vietnam. Motivated by a recent tragedy, Carrell’s character decides to get the band back together, and after a bit of cajoling, the threesome embark on a road trip from Washington D.C. to Portsmouth, NH. While the dramedy explores some interesting ideas with regard to patriotism and the moral dilemmas of war, Linklater selected to lob the audience a softball rather that deliver something more impactful or unexpected. It just fell flat.
Last Flag Flying may not have soared to new heights, however, there are quite a few films coming up this week to get excited about. Below are the ones we suggest you look in on:
Generating a ton of buzz out of Sundance, Luca Guadagnino’s (I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel finds Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet embroiled in a love affair in Italy during the summer of 1983.
If you miss this one at the festival, never fear, it opens in New York and Los Angeles on November 24, 2017.
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Tony Zierra’s Filmworker offers another avenue into the mysterious world of Stanley Kubrick. For this documentary, Zierra focuses on the auteur’s loyal right-hand man Leon Vitali.
If you fail to see it at the festival, Kino Lorber plans a 2018 theatrical release.
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Susan Lacy delivers a 147-minute argument for why Steven Spielberg is one of the great filmmakers of our generation.
If you miss it at the festival, you can catch it on HBO. It premieres on the cable network on Saturday, October 7, 2017.
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Filmmaker Brett Morgen has pieced together a new documentary on famed British primatologist Jane Goodall from footage shot for but not used in Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees.
If you don’t catch it at the festival, National Geographic is opening it in select theaters on October 20, 2017. In New York, it will be playing at Sunshine Cinema and Landmark at 57 West.
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First Reformed is a last minute addition that fills the hole left by Ava DuVernay’s cancelled talk. The film recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where it earned writer/director Paul Schrader the Green Drop Award. The thriller stars Ethan Hawke as a troubled pastor who Amanda Seyfried’s character engages for help with her extremist husband.
If you miss it at the festival, A24 will be bringing it to theaters in 2018.
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Greta Gerwig has made a name for herself as an actress and has flirted with writing and directing in “co-” roles on Miss America, Frances Ha and Nights and Weekends. With Lady Bird, she officially gets in the driver seat. The film, which stars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, is a quirky teen comedy about growing up and letting go.
If you miss the film at the festival, A24 is bringing it to theaters beginning November 3, 2017.
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The Other Side of Hope earned Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki the Silver Bear for Best Director award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The dark comedy explores an unlikely friendship between a Syrian asylum seeker and an elderly Finnish restaurant owner. Some have referred to it as being the first great fiction film about the 21st century migrant crisis.
If you don’t catch it at the festival, it is being released in the U.S. by Janus Films. In New York, it will playing at the Film Forum sometime this winter.
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Norwegian film director Joachim Trier (Oslo, August 31st) returns to the New York Film Festival with Thelma, an enthralling slow-burn supernatural psychosexual thriller. Also worth noting, the film has been selected as Norway’s foreign-language Oscar contender.
If you miss it at the festival, Thelma will be coming to theaters on November 10, 2017 courtesy of The Orchard.