Rumours (2024) NYFF 2024

Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson tell the story of a G7 meeting during a looming crisis and the weird things that happen as they try to write a draft statement about the events. 

A great cast including Cate Blanchett and Charles Dance chew the scenery in silly look at end of the world. It's a crazy film that doesn't really make any sense, but survives because the cast makes it worth watching.

At the press screening I attended the reaction was mixed. Some people liked it and some people didn't. The argument against the film was that there really wasn't much here. And to be honest I can see that, it is ultimately a shaggy dog tale with a wicked sting in the tale about the uselessness of our leaders, but I liked it. 

If you are a fan of the cast or the directors it's worth a look 

Zero (2024) Beyond Fest

Two Americans wake up in Dakar with bombs strapped to their chests and told that they have ten hours in which to complete certain tasks or else they will be killed. This results in a mad dash across the city.

On the face of it ZERO is a great action film that mixes fantastic action sequences with some very funny lines. It’s a dark  film that carries us along from the first frame to the last.

The problem with the film is that it is a bit bleak and obtuse for it’s own good. The film’s mysterious voice (Willem Dafoe) talks about all sorts of great deeds and  the like, but I don’t think we ever see it. The film is ultimately a mad man toying with a several people while causing mayhem along the way. It was fun until I realize that there wasn’t going to be a happy ending.

As a film in the genre of people having to complete various tasks by a certain time, this film is really good. Actually its one of the best to come along in the last decade or so. The problem here is that the motivation behind the task is kind of muddy. The film, thanks to the stinger at the end, wants to be a kind of a spin on the SAW franchise. It irks me that the film has to lean back of things that went before when it’s clear that everything else connected with the film is top of the line and had the film been more logical with the plotting it would have been one of the best of 2024.

As it stands ow it’s a really good, if rather bleak, action film.

Intercepted (2023) opens Friday

The weight of what we see and hear in INTERCEPTED will crush you. While the film is not graphic in a typical war documentary, the weight of the words will pulverize your soul.

The film is footage of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people after the Russian invasion. We watch as they go through their daily routines in a country at war. Yes, we see the destruction, but also, we see children playing, the people repairing damage, farming, driving. Everything that people do in peaceful time. Over the images we listen to the intercepted cellphone calls that Russian soldiers made to their loved ones. They speak of the terrible things that they have done and experienced in the war. We also listen to them have very human conversations about their lives as well.

The mix of life and death is jarring. At first it kind of seems a clever game, and then the enormity of what we are seeing and hearing begins to hit home and root itself in our souls. The unseen violence begins to carve us up. The sadness that it brings weighs us down. You will become confused as you realized that one group of humans sees another as less.

I did not expect my ass to be kicked this badly.

In an age when we are flooded with films on Ukraine to the point that many blend together, INTERCEPTED stands out and reveals itself to be one of the best films on the war and the tragedy it has brought.

Recommended.

Above the Knee (2024) Beyond Fest

A man think that there is something wrong with his leg and wants to have it removed. 

While framed as a thriller or horror film, this is really more a drama about people dealing with body image. The film is a look at people who suffer from body integrity identity disorder. That is a disease where people want to remove a limb or some part of their body because they feel there is something wrong with it. While it's a creepy idea for most people, it is a very real condition.

For me the film is a bit of a curate's egg. It seems to want to both talk about the condition and also be a thriller. The problem is that it's told in such away that there is no mystery and danger outside of whether the leg will go and whether the main character's relationship will survive. The result is the tone is off.

Is it a bad film?

No but it isn't really memorable.

Brief thoughts on the Hamptons International Film Festival 2024 starts Friday

Starting this week is the Hamptons International FIlm Festival starts and if you are on the east end of Long Island you should go.

Started some 30 plus years ago by Steven Speilberg and some other filmmakers the festival was set up so the filmmakers and the rich and powerful didn't have to run the length of Long Island to get into the city to see great films. Over the years it's grown and now is a launching pad for many films.

While I live on Long Island I've only been to the festival once. The problem is that it is about an hour and a half or more away from me depending upon traffic. It's a long ride even for my friends who live closer and they end up doing Air B&B or a hotel rather than drive back and forth (don't ask about public transport).  Additionally the film overlaps the New York Film Festival and that festival is in my blood so it gets priority

It kills me every year because they always show such great films. Don't believe me then check their website.

This year we'll be having some coverage of a bunch of films. Reviews will be coming as we see them and get reviews up.

If you need a starting point here is a list of the films we've covered before with links to the reviews:

ADULT BEST FRIENDS

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

BAD ACTOR

BAD SHABOS

BLITZ - seeing this at NYFF

CHECKPOINT ZOO

SING SING

SPACE COWBOY

MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT

ROOM NEXT DOOR- seeing this Friday at NYFF

WORLD ACCORDING TO ALLEE WILLIS

VIKTOR

DAHOMEY I saw this at NYFF and a review is coming

EMILIA PEREZ I am seeing this at NYFF 

JANE AUSTEN’S PERIOD DRAMA

LIZA: A TRULY TERRIFIC ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY

MARIA

MY NAME IS EDGAR AND I HAVE A COW

SABBATH QUEEN

SECRET MALL APARTMENT

For tickets and more information go here

Maria (2024) NYFF 2024

Angelina Jolie gives a  performance for the ages as Maria Callas in the story of the final five days of her life. We watch as she tries to make comeback, deal with health issues and drifts in and out of reality.

I wanted to see MARIA but I didn't need to see it. If I could fit it in I would do so, and if not, no big thing. Now having seen the film I can't imagine how I had that sort of an attitude. This film rocked the pillars of heaven. 

The reason this film works is Jolie. This is one of the best performances I've ever seen. Jolie inhabits the role in every minute. This isn't an actress on screen but Callas or some version of her. Outside some of the singing you will forget that we aren't watching the diva.

Oscar? Oh hell yea. I would be shocked if she doesn't win every award under the sun.

And the rest of the cast matches from her. Pierfrancesco Favino as her butler is excellent, as is Alba Rohrwacher. They both deserve Oscar nominations.

Ed Lachman's  cinematography should be the front runner for an Oscar. It may be the best he's ever done, I so want to sit down with him and have him walk me through the film.

This is glorious filmmaking and I don't know what to say beyond that other than see it.

MISERICORDIA (2024) NYFF 2024

Alain Guiraudie's MISERICORDIA starts off as if wants to be a Hitchcockian thriller,  but it not so quickly descends into bedroom farce where it should have been from the start.

The film begins when a former employee man comes to the home of his former employer for his funeral and he ends up committing murder. Things become complicated as he tries to not let anyone know what happened.

Never getting the tone right MISERICORDIA flounders for much of it's running time. Not much happens. And up to a certain point you will be asking if it is this a comedy or a thriller? It isn't clear until almost the very end. 

Complicating everything is the fact that Guiraudie doesn't tell us anything about any of the characters. Lots of details are not in the film, such as the lead character being a former employee. Everyone has a back story they clearly know but at the same time we are not let in to any of it. What exactly is everyone's relationship? I have no clue because it isn't in the film (it is all revealed the press notes). The characters aren't cipher's they are voids.

It isn't until the murder happens that the questions as toi what is happening stop because we get a sort of narrative thrust. And it isn't until the film falls fully into farce that the film finds it's tone. But by that time the film is a complete mess even if we are laughing at it. (And don't bring the kids since erections are used as punchlines twice)

Yea I kind of liked it but this really should have been better.

Worth a shot

Lazaro at Night (2024) NYFF 2024

Three friends all try to get the same acting job. Afterward they get together and discus when they first met.

Dry art house comedy is not going to be for all audiences. Its a low key film  about largely bland people. Well except for Lazaro who is a bit of dick. He's the sort of a guy  you wonder how he he has any friends. 

To be honest I didn't much care for this. I kept  waiting during it's brief run time for something exciting to happen or for me to feel for something for someone on screen. it never happened.

For art house hounds only.

HARVEST (2024) NYFF 2024

Athina Rachel Tsangari's HARVEST is a throw back to some of the medieval films of the 1970's that seemed to be a a mix of renfair dress and an electric score. It's a film that seems to want to desperately say something ,but unfortunately it doesn't seem to know what with it's ideas lost in long sequences that don't always seem to have a point  or simply get lost from it's translation from a source novel.

The plot covers several days in a village that is two days ride from anywhere. Watched over by Master Kent, a man who is the Lord thanks to marriage, he now watches over the land since his wife passed away. As the film opens one of the villagers burns down a stable where doves are stored. He did it for the hell of it. No action is taken against him and the fire is eventually blamed on one of three outsiders who have the misfortune to wander in and camp on the edge of town during the fire. Worse for everyone there is now a new Lord of the manner, the cousin of Master Kent's wife who has laid claim to the land and is going to evict everyone and turn it all into sheep pasture.

You would think this would be ripe for drama, and you would be right, but only if it was in better hands. Sadly Tsangari bobbles the ball everywhere. Too much is unsaid, dreamy sequences ramble on, threads are brought up and dropped, the time frame seems out of whack. The cast and characters are a real mixed bag. Sure the the leads are fine, but beyond them the cast is an incredible mixed bag with accents coming from all nations and performances that are ludicrous at times. One gentleman talks out of the side of his mouth like Popeye and it was all I could do not to laugh out loud during the press screening.

To be fair I can't be certain if the bad performances are the result of the actors or the script and direction. In all seriousness most of the characters are not just badly drawn, but badly drawn in crayon with the unpunished arsonist reduced to looking like a wide eyed moron in every shot, the townsfolk acting like something that central casting rejected and the villain of the piece coming off as the most cliched mustache twirling boo hiss bargain basement sort. He isn't a person, just a character that exists simply to say vile things  so that the film can lurch and lumber to a conclusion.

And lastly, while I know that generally you structure a film so things happen around the main character, and pretty much everything does here, but there is no personality just some one reduced to wandering through things as bad shit happens to everyone around him.

When the film was over one of the writers siting next to me cursed out loud  saying that she has to get rid of the tickets she bought for the public screening.  This was one of her must sees of the festival and had come to the press screening because she had to see it. Afterward all she could think was how to tell her friend the screening was off because she couldn't inflict this on them or herself again.

Not Recommended.

Nickel Boys (2024) NYFF 2024

This is going to be a two part review of RaMell Ross' film version of Colson Whitehead's NICKEL BOYS. I am doing this because to say what I want to say I may infer details that may reveal late in the game plot details. Part One will not be spoilery, Part Two might be, so when you get to Part Two you can surf away if you want.

I want to begin with a word of warning. Almost the entire film is told in POV style, meaning everything we see is from the point of view of the characters. I say this up front because some people, myself included, are not a fan of it. There are reasons that it isn't really used in films except as an experiment or as a sequence in a regular film. At the NYFF press conference Ross discussed this and was aware of the pitfalls. Because of this, and because POV does not translate well to small TVs, laptops and especially cellphones I want to say that if you are interested in seeing this film (and you really should its a good film), do so in a theater.

PART ONE

NICKEL BOYS is the story of two young men who meet in a the Nickel Academy, a reform school in Florida in the mid-1960's. It's an abusive hell hole where the boys are beaten for infractions and sometimes taken to Boot Hill, never to return. The story is nominally the story of Elwood a bright young man who makes the mistake of taking a ride with the wrong man and is charged with car theft. Once at Nickel he meets Turner who becomes his friend. 

This is a beautifully crafted adult film. It looks great, it is deftly edited to include archival material, has all but one great performances (I'm looking at you Hamish). It is the very definition of an award contending film, from top to bottom. Expect lots of Oscar nominations

It is a deeply moving film that reduced one writer I saw in the men's room to a sobbing mess.

In many ways it is one of the best films of the last five years... and yet I only like the film and I'm pretty certain it will be forgotten as a footnote film in a few years time.

PART TWO

As I said above I don't like POV films. They always feel artificial. The camera never looks the way we actually look, it more intentionally picks and chooses what we are seeing. While at the press conference we were told that the actors were allowed to just act with camera rigs attached to them, moving and looking where they did, but there are still multiple times where you wonder, like in the drive into Nickel that Elwood didn't look one way (to his right in this case),  until that moment arrives and you realize that he waited for a special shot (or so it seems).

Because several characters are used to show us POV there are several times when we not always clear until a certain point whose POV we are seeing. I know why, because of where the story goes, but it still is bothersome. Is this Elwood or Turner? It's not always clear. 

One of the biggest problems with POV, and it is  something that deeply affects NICKEL BOYS has it in copious amounts, is that we lose a huge amount of the performances because much for a good part of the film the perfomances of Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse is just vocal and we lose the physical performance. This is bad because in all performances are are not just vocal, but physical. We get clues to the inner lives of the people on screen from the the way the character moves, reacts, looks around a room, stands, sits and so on. Having a character all or only revealed through a POV camera gives us zero clues about the inner life of the character. Yes we SEE everything that they SEE but we don't get any idea what they are FEELING.  Sure in this case we occasionally get to see Elwood from Turner's POV and vice versa, but ultimately we have no emotionally and viscerally understood sense of the characters. We simply have never seen enough of them to really know them. Actually it ends up  with much of what we feel are not what the character showed us but we have brought to the table. For me Elwood and Turner are largely ciphers.

This might have worked in the context of the film except that something happens about half way in the film that kind of rattles the structure in that is the introduction of Daveed Diggs as the adult version of Elwood. While his arrival is not troubling unto itself the problem is that the film is revealed to be a memory play from HIS POV. At that point you suddenly realize that well over half the film are things we could never see, because he didn't see them. Sure we can see his character's memories, but we can't have seen or known about any thing anyone else did or felt or saw. By doing the film in POV director RaMell Ross essentially breaks the film because we are seeing things outside of the scope of who really is the central character. (This works better in novels where language often smooths over the rough spots)

Yes, the film is a brilliantly made and edited film. Yes, it's wonderful that RaMell Ross doesn't spoon feed us and uses montage and inserts in a way that would make Sergei Eisenstein proud, but outside of the intellectual notions of what POV can do to show us what a character sees, it incredibly limiting in making us feel, and leaves the structure fragile to the point that any misstep in revealing information, can cause the audience to break with the film and go - "How do we know this?". We can't.

A bigger problem with the dueling POVs is that we don't see the actors enough, to the point that something late in the game went over the heads of numerous people in the press screening. For several people it wasn't until someone in a group discussing the film that someone who had read the book mentioned how something was handled, and almost everyone chimed in, "I didn't catch that,"  despite the bit spelled out. If the usually eagle eyed critics didn't catch it then the public is probably gonna miss it too. 

In the end,  I really like it, but I know it's film is doomed  to be forgotten and remembered as a film of the moment. I know it will click with many people, hence the man crying in the bathroom, but Ross's intellectual construction of the film and drive to make people see what the characters see, instead of feel what they feel, will keep the audience away. 

In all honesty if Ross had filmed this head on, not POV I would have had no trouble saying it's one of the great American films, period full stop. However because the mode of telling shaves away layers and layers, I am forced to say its a solidly good one.

Recommended for what works, with the proviso that if you see it do so in a theater, because this will mean less on your cellphone.

Stranger Eyes (2024) NYFF 2024

 

I may bitch about how films get into festivals, but even so STRANGER EYES has me flummoxed. This is such a mess I can't believe it was programmed anywhere.

This multi-part story begins by telling the story of a couple whose child went missing. It then shifts into the story of a neighbor who is spying on them, before swerving in a couple of other WTF directions which make you realize the kidnapping was a come on. (as is the whole thing about cameras everywhere)

While a couple of people liked that the film swerved, I could never get past plot holes and errors that riddle the film. I broke with the film when we see  events that we saw transpire as recorded from the POV of the stalker. What wrecked it for me was the fact he would have had to have been visible to us in those earlier scenes.  

Going past that, a great deal isn't explained. One character is stabbed and seems to die...and then doesn't and the police don't do anything about it? The connections of characters isn't even hinted at until it is front and center. Boat loads of details just aren't there with the result that characters suddenly appear, events just happen and motivations are in the wind. While a couple of writers I talked to after the screening said everything doesn't have to be explained, and they are right but, honestly there are only so many holes you can have in an umbrella before you get wet. This umbrella has too many holes.

"Wait what?" something I said repeatedly.

My head hurt when the film was done

This film needs another edit and another hour of material for it to just begin to make sense.

Skip this.

bluish (2024) NYFF 2024

Moments in the lives of two women in Austria.

Yes, the film is literally moments in the lives of two young women. There is just moments. That's it.  It's a film where members of the audience can read anything they want to into the material because there really isn't connecting material just moments...

...in bluish rooms or having blue in the shot (say nail polish).

I know some people love this sort  of art house film. Me I'd rather just curl up in my bed and sleep.

For art house fans only.

HAPPYEND (2024) NYFF 2024

HAPPYEND was the first film in the first 10 screened for the press at NYFF where everyone was joyfully happy with the film. It was, in the words of several writer, the first truly good film. As I write this I've seen 15 films from the festival and it's one of  5 I would recommend.

The film follows five friends in high school in Japan. They love hanging out, each other, playing pranks and music. As their last days of school wind down everyone is worried about earthquakes, government intrusion in their lives and the new security system installed in the school.

While the film has serious undertones such as the growing oppression of government (literally the Japanese government and figuratively the school) as well as racism and xenophobia, the film is most certainly happy. Its a celebration of the joys of having friends. While there are ups and downs there are no artificial tragedies, just life moving along.

I was delighted. 

This is a film full of life and joy and love. It's like hanging out with your best friends. Yes it is very bittersweet, the film brings up to high school graduation and everyone's paths are headed in other directions, but they are still upright and still friends.

When the film was over there was some discussion about why other New York festivals like New York Asian or Japan Cuts didn't grab it and the conclusion was whomever saw it from NYFF wasn't stupid enough to let it go.

This is a magical film that will make you feel good.

See it ASAP

TWST (2024) NYFF 2024

This is a repost of the review that ran when the film World Premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month

TWST is a profound head scratcher.  Andrei Ujică's found footage film looks at the Beatles arrival in New York City and the surrounding area up to their performance at Shea Stadium and it is oddly lifeless. How the great filmmaker could make a film this dull boggles the mind, more so when it it playing two of the biggest film festivals in the world.

The film is a mix of documentary footage mixed with some fictional characters (inserted via drawings). It's a film aiming to to recreate a moment in time and make it alive for today by mixing by mixing old footage and the words of some people who were there and some new material. 

Unfortunately it just sort of lies there.

The problem with the film is that out side of the voice over and the inserted drawings a great deal of this material is material that we've either seen or seen a version of. Specifically if you are a Beatles fan you've seen this before. This is especially true  if you are from New York.  While the film stitches a great deal of the footage of the arrival of the group to NYC and the insanity and press conference together it's nothing particularly exciting. Its a lot of people screaming and the Beatles cracking wise. Why are we being shown this? I'm not certain.

Once the press conference is over the film switches gears and we get sequences in the city, at Jones Beach and else where, and while we get some voice overs that attempt to stitch the material together into a faux narrative, nothing really sticks. There is little excitement. Worse some of the constructed conversations feel fake. While I can blame Ujica's not being from New York in the 60's for some of the clunkiness of the dialog, the truth is the words feel artificial and not anything would say. For example the girl's discussing shooting of the World's Fair Pavilions footage is structured not so much to be the actual talk of two young women, but rather to explain what we are seeing.

None of it is bad as such, but rather it's incredibly dull...and worse it never seems to give us a reason as to why we are seeing this. Honestly I have no clue, none, as to why we are seeing any of this.

Personally out side of getting to hear the radio broadcasts of WMCA, WABC and others I really could have cared less.

A boring bust.

NO OTHER LAND (2024) NYFF 2024

HARUN (a qudraplegic man crippled by an Israeli bullet): Is anyone coming?
HARUN's MOTHER: No, no one is coming

Exchange in a tent between parent and child after they are left alone for the night

As people move to close down this year's NYFF because of the financial support from Israeli sources, they seem to be completely unaware that NO OTHER LAND is playing the festival  and that with in it's crushing 95 minutes is an emotional bomb that is going to change hearts and minds in ways that protests will never manage.

The film a record of the systematic destruction of an West Bank community from 2019 until 2023. It's a document of how the Israeli government is using the military and the settlers to drive out the Palestinians so that they can claim the land.

Finished literally days before the October 7 attack, the film is a blistering explanation of where the anger that spawned that attack came from. It's a film that broke the audience of writers at NYFF and was the first in 10 films screened to get long applause from most of audience.

The filmmakers make clear that the people in the village have been there for generations with some families living there since 1830. This is not a reclaiming of land the Palestinians took for a new settlement but the removal of a people who had been there since the beginning of time.

My attitude toward the film as a film was, for a certain amount of time, that the film was a solid retelling of Israeli human rights violations and then the story of Harun takes center stage an the film drops the gloves and it makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that the treatment of the Palestinians is nothing short that genocide. My heart, and the hearts of those around me were crushed.

Harun was shot for defending his home and then left for dead. He survived but as a quadriplegic who had to be cared for my his mother, because there is no medical help for him and literally moved around in a cart. It's no wonder seeing things like this day after day that the light in director Bael Adra's eyes dims and fades over the course of the film.

Let me make clear that is not a statement directed at all Israelis but the government under Netanyahu, they are criminals. 

Many will call this a political film, but it is not. It is made by a group of directors and reporters who are both Israeli and Palestinian. There is no side. Frankly it is simply a document of a great wrong against humanity. The only politics in the film is that it's Israelis with guns and heavy machinery against Palestinians with cameras.

A week before I saw this film I saw the film WE WILL DANCE AGAIN, about the October 7 attack and was shocked at the brutality of what happened, and then I saw NO OTHER LAND and my single thought was of course the October 7 attack happened...but why didn't it happen sooner?

This film is an absolute must see.

Easily one of the best and most important films of not only the festival but 2024 as well.

Brief thoughts on Haunted Heart (2024)

A woman travels to a remote Greek island to take a job at a restaurant. Over the time she begins to fall for the owner, an American ex-pat who wants to keep his past hidden.

This is a great looking thriller driven by a great cast. Everyone hits their  mark and this is largely a really good thriller. Sure, the film covers ground we've traveled before but the cast and the filmmaking make it a trip that is worth taking.

At the same time, the film has one thing that works against it, and that is the film is much too long. As good as the film is, it needs to be shorter. It's not that there is anything wrong, it's more that the film isn't doing anything that requires this to be 128 minutes. It's not fatal but the film drops from great to good.

Run time quibble aside HAUNTED HEART is worth a look, especially on a rainy night on the couch.

All We Imagine as Light (2024) NYFF 2024

I had finished watching ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT  and I was pondering it's considerable wonders when I looked at social media and found the press corps at Cannes (where it just won the Grand Prix) raving like crazy people about the film. I was horrified by this turn, not because the film is bad, not even remotely, but their words were promising a film bigger and louder than the small gem that is going to find a place in your heart and live there forever.

Because I do not want to over sell the film, honestly what I would rather do is get copies of the film and just press it into your hands while saying "Take this and watch it -- we'll discuss it later".

I can't stress it enough - don't read the gushing reviews- just buy a ticket and see it.

The film is a mix of documentary sequences with narrative. The documentary sequences are sequences in and around the location with voice over. They are hypnotic bits that grab us and pull us into the tale. It's a brilliant device that makes everything we see so much more real. The narrative is the story of three women in Mumbai. A nurse is thrown off when her estranged husband shows up with a gift. Her roommate is trying to find a place where she can be intimate with her boyfriend. The pair take a trip to the beach with a friend and try to sort it all out.

A quiet, gentle film with it's own rhythms, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT takes its time telling its story.  Never big and loud this film is something more akin to spending a few hours with the characters. It's a film that slowly works its way into your heart and head. What seems just okay at the start ends up being deeply moving at the end. A second trip through the film reveals it to be a much deeper film than you may think at the start and by the time we reach that final shot we are even more moved. (I was not going to see it a second time, but some time after I saw it it was growing bigger and stronger and I had to revisit it.)

This is a deeply moving film that works it's magic on a visceral level. It's a film whose charms should not be shouted about but rather experienced.

Is it one of the best films to play Cannes (and NYFF) this year? Without a doubt, but this quiet film about the human heart needs to be seen for what it is and not over sold as something it is not.

Go see this film. Go see it and be moved.

Blue Diamond (2024) Beyond Fest

A woman goes home for her mother's funeral. As she tries to grieve, she must deal with her mother's ski club.

Jokey shaggy dog tale is a film you are either going to love or hate. It's a knowing tale that heads to an unexpected conclusion.  It's a cute film that rambles around for a while before it gets to its point. 

Is it worth watching? In a collection but it doesn't stand on its own.

Ghost Killer (2024) Fantastic Fest

GHOST KILLER has a young woman with a messy life  ending up having the ghost of a murdered assassin attached to her. He won’t leave until she gets revenge for him.

This good but odd mix of horror, action and humor is entertaining but at the same time isn’t as satisfying as it should be. Blame the uneasy mix of genres that doesn’t always blend as perfectly as it should.. It’s never fatal but it’s bumpy.

And as good as she is I think part of the problem is Akari Takaishi in the lead. She’s fine but the role and her performance is played much too close to her one in the Baby Assassin’s Franchise. Watching her I kept waiting for bigger laughs.

My quibble aside, GHOST KILLER is worth a look.

Life And Deaths of Christopher Lee (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

Christopher Lee in Marionette Form discusses his life and career.

This is an excellent look at Lee’s life that digs a bit deeper than most documentary bios. Told by his friends and relatives the film is the first time, outside of reading his autobiography, that I felt like I was really knowing the man. Actually because Lee is dead and  his relatives can speak free and you get a much more human portrait.  You truly see the man.

Is it perfect?

No Lee lead a very long very productive life and as such things had to go or get just mentioned. Despite that this is an absolute must see for any film fan, not just a fan of Lee's.

Highly recommended.

Wild Robot (2024)

 

A crated robot helper is washed ashore on an uninhabited island after a storm. Accidentally turned on by an animal it runs amok on the island scaring the animal as it tries to find someone to help. After learning to speak the animals language it tries to help again. After killing a family of geese, Roz ends up raising the only surviving goose with the help of a fox.

WILD ROBOT is a gorgeous film that is going to win the hearts of many. It's a good film with a great voice cast (none of which are over used) and some truly glorious sequences that are among the best ever put on film. At the same time the tone is all over place (it flops from Looney Tunes to very serious at random) and the film emotionally ends 2/3 of the way in but it still keeps going. 

I want to say again I really like the film but all this talk coming out of the Toronto Film Festival of an instant classic and destined to get a Best Picture nomination is a bit much. Give me five years on the classic bit, and as for the Best Picture nomination in addition to best Animated Film, uh, no.

While I like that the film deals with darkness- characters DIE- the film, especially in the early part of the film doesn't know if it's going to be a jokey film or something more serious with death and destruction mixing with humor. I mean characters eat each other and jokes are made. 

As for the plotting, the film builds to a crescendo and then keeps going. We get an odd winter sequence followed by an action sequence full of robots with ray guns and a finale that had me orchestrating it in my seat "now this happens" followed by what the lines of dialog that were word for word what was said on screen. 

But the voice cast makes it work. Lupita Nyong'o is note perfect and breaks your heart as Roz. It's a glorious piece of work. Additionally some of the big names, say Ving Rhames and Bill Nighy come in and grab you with their first line. Rhames doesn't come in until the glorious beyond words flying sequence but he instantly sells it.

The animation is glorious, and some of the best I've ever seen. The animators must have been left to do what they wanted and it shows in character motion and sequences that are unlike anything you've seen before. 

The good over whelms the bad and as such  WILD ROBOT is recommended.

(By way of an aside, and because I don't know where to put this and feel I have to say it, there is an animated film version of the novel KENSUKE'S KINGDOM which recently opened in the UK and will open in the US in October which tells a thematically similar story, that is emotionally satisfying, and ends at the similar moment where WILD ROBOT should have. Be warned there are no robots, however there are cute animals and some bad men which result in moments that mirror the death of Bambi's mother)

Universal Language (2024) NYFF 2024

 

I started laughing almost from the first frame and continued doing so until the end credits. I laughed more at this film than almost any American comedy of the last two decades.

At the outset the plot of UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE seems to be several different stories. The truth is it’s all one big interconnected tale, you just have to stick with it until all the pieces line up.  Don't worry that isn’t going to be a problem because the film is going to be making you laugh out loud for most of its running time.

The humor is very much absurdist of the best sort. Think of it as something akin to the manic madness of a Marx Brothers comedy but with a more modern and less devil may care attitude.  Referencing the Marx’s may make you wonder how that is possible, but something happens in the first few minutes that makes you realize that is the absurdist territory we are operating in. (I will not spoil it)

What I love about the film is that the humor isn’t dry or forced.  Too many absurdist comedies don’t feel real and feel like they are trying to make a point. Eugène Ionesco’s plays which are excellent absurdist pieces, can, when done badly feel forced. Here there is things feel silly absurd but they also feel grounded. We can see the things that happen actually happen.  I can see myself trying to figure out how to get stuck money, deal with stolen glasses or pretty much anything else that happens here including dealing with turkeys.

I laughed out loud from start to finish, and when I wasn’t laughing I was smiling.

And I know there is more to this film beyond the laughs, but the laughs and smiles are what I took away from the film, so that is what I am reporting on.

I love this film.

Highly recommended.

EBONY AND IVORY (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

EBONY AND IVORY is either going to double you over in laughter or it’s going to make you want to get up and go home. It all depends on your personal sense of humor.

The film is nominally the story of Michael Jackson going to visit Paul McCartney in Scotland and what might have happened had the meeting went this way.

The film is the work of director Jim Hosking  whose previous films like The Greasy Strangler, whose work is one of a kind. That is not meant to be a knock, more that Hosking is a director  who has his own view of the world and of cinema and it doesn’t play well for everyone.

I was amused by this film, as I was with STRANGLER, but I’m not a huge fan. The film is a bit too deadpan at times for my taste, and I wasn’t in love with Hosking’s use of long sequences of silence (for example the film opens with McCartney standing on a beach watching Jackson row in a boat and he whips back and forth between the two in a much too long sequence.). Yes some of the low brow humor hits and dome doesn’t, and I was a short time into the film when I realized that I didn’t know how to review it because this film is such a silly deadpan film that personal opinion going to be the determining factor if someone likes it. One simply can’t be objective regarding how this plays only subjective.

Worth a look who like bent humor

Wrecked a Bunch of Cars Had a Good Time (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024 Toronto 2024

 

Portrait of four participants in a demolition derby

Excellent short sports doc is a great deal of fun. The film is a wonderful throw back to the sort of docs that occasionally played across america in the 1970's. I had a blast with this. Honestly there is enough material here that they could expand this and make it a feature if they wanted.

One of the joys of 2024

Highly recommended.

Severed Sun (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

In rigid religious community a woman kills her husband releasing an evil force. 

I don't know what a I feel about this film. There are somethings that I love and there are some things I don't.  I'm kind of left wondering if this would have been better in a different form.

The two things that are working against the film are first the film is very talky. There are lots of conversations and speeches. It's not so much that it's talky it's more that the conversations are just people sitting and talking, often sitting as if they were directed to sit that way and not in the way people who walked in would sit. As for the speechifying it's often just someone addressing the camera. It never feels real, it feels like a theatrical moment. (actually many of the shots feel theatrical)

The other problem is that the film feels padded. While film is 80 minutes long (74 minus end credits) it still feels padded. Some of this probably could have been trimmed.

On the other hand there is something about the film that I can't shake. There is an oppressive mood that I like. There are some creepy images, especially the dark figure that seems to causing everything to happen. Additionally the story is really good. 

Several days on I'm still pondering.

Do yourself a favor and read some other reviews and decide for yourself if you want to see the film.

Sleep (2023) opens Friday

Lee Sun-kyun's final film is the story of a couple who are expecting their first child. Things become complicated when the Sun-kyun's character begins sleep walking... but is it something else like possesion.

This intimate horror comedy is a film that is one you need to stay with. The film is a film that moves at its own pace and in its own way. Its a film that shifts from comedy to horror to drama. Its a film that wants to explore what it means to be a new parent and what it's like to become sleep deprived. It's a film that ponders reality. At the same time it wants to make you chuckle before making you stare wide eyed in shock and horror as W...T...F drops out of our mouths.

I'm not going to lie, this film can be an uneven viewing experience. The shifts in tone can be a little grating. It's not that anything is bad, rather it's a matter of you're not certain as to what to feel or what the film is getting at. To be certain there are moments in the film that are magnificent (I love the medium), but it isn't always certain as to what this film is....

...and then the film moves int to the final 15 or so minutes and suddenly.... things become riveting ... and  frankly bat shit crazy. I'm not saying a word as to what happens other than its going to make you talk to the screen.

If you can work with this film and it's rhythms, you are going to love this film. 

Recommended 

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

 

Jane Schoenbrun and Kati Kelli’s widower Jordan Wippell assemble some of You Tuber Kati Kelli’s You Tube programs in a tribute to an artist who died much too soon.

Kelli was a youtuber who put together YouTube shows all by herself in her childhood home and later in her apartment. These were ow fi affairs where Kelli talked to the camera, dressed up performed skits and did whatever came to mind. She was a talented young woman who created because she had to.

The pieces we see are very much of a type. They are very well done bits of the sort you see all over the various social media platforms where people talk to the camera. Some bits are better than others, as is typical with any sort of collection. What I liked is that over the course of  film is you see Kelli grow as a filmmaker.

The heartbreaking bit is that this collection ends with Kelli’s short film TOTAL BODY REMOVAL a creepy but funny short that she finished days before she died of an asthma attack. It’s a film that shows her growing as an artist. It makes you wonder what she might have achieved had she  been able to do more films.

I liked this film, which considering I’m not a fan of the talk to camera sort of thing is saying a great deal. Kelli was a hell of an artist and it’s clear she had talent.

Recommended.

A pointer toward Chainsaws Were Singing (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

I’m not even going to try and review CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING. The film is an over the top film about lovers and a chainsaw killer that isn’t remotely serious even if it has severed limbs and oceans of blood. Whether you like it or not will be determined by how you click with it’s twisted sense of humor and if you like the songs. (yes this is musical.)

For me this was mostly a lot of fun… maybe too much. The film runs an ungodly 118 minutes. For me that was about 45 minutes too long. Yea, its fun but then it got repetitive.

That said- if you’re a gore hound give it a try.

My Eternal Summer (2024) San Sebastian 2024

A young woman of 15 travels with her parents into the country for a summer vacation. It’s going to be the last one with her mother who is dying.

This low key coming of age film is the sort of thing that we’ve seen before, but it works before the cast. The script hits all the expected points of dealing with an impending loss and the life of a teen age girl who is coming of age.  It hits all the expected plot points but it does so in a way that keeps us watching.

The reason the film works is the cast. Kaya Toft Loholt, Maria Rossing, Anders Mossling make up family that seems real. We can feel the affection for each other. They are so good that you want to spend time with them. You want to hang out with them even though you know the ride is going to be bittersweet.

I know that everyone wants a film that breaks the mold but sometimes a nice quiet film that does what it does at the top of it’s game without bells and whistles is more than enough.

ETERNAL SUMMER may not have the bells and whistles but it is more than enough for an evening’s entertainment.

AJ Goes to the Dog Park (2024) Fantastic Fest

AJ, mild mannered man who doesn't want much from life except to work his entry level job in the family business, have dinner with his dad and take his dogs to the dog park. However when the dog park becomes a blog park AJ has to right a terrible wrong.

This is a silly comedy with a weird cartoon logic. This isn't surprising since writer/director Toby Junes worked for Cartoon Network. Its a largely a sweet and gentle film with lots of laughs.

I'm going to be honest and say try not to read too much about what happens. I say that because what starts off as a straight forward is slightly off kilter comedy goes completely banana shaped  with magic and weird turns. The less you know the better it is because quite frankly you won't see where this is going. It all strangely makes sense which is an even bigger surprise.

This is a delightful little film that is going to have a long life as a cult film.

Abruptio (2023) opens Friday

 

I completely missed ABRUPTIO until Liz Whittemore DM’d me to say she was being really bothered by the film. I instantly went and tracked it down and now I kind of never want to see it again.

This is the story of a down on his luck guy who ends up with a small bomb placed in his neck. If he doesn’t do the tasks given him, the mysterious people following him will cause the bomb to explode.  The tasks are a series of horrible acts that leave a trail of bodies in his wake, and result in our hero being richly rewarded.

This is as bleak and black a film as they come. It’s a film that posits a world of ugliness and cruelty where we are not in control and the only way to get ahead is to do the most horrible things.  It is deeply disturbing.

The disturbing nature of the film is enhanced by the fact the whole film is told via life size puppets. It may sound like a weird thing to do, but the truth of the matter is there is a very good reason beyond the obvious notion that it shows we are not in control. The payoff is in the final minutes and it’s a  genuine “whoa” moment.

Watching the film is like being strapped into a chair and watching a slow motion car crash. You want to get up and walk away but you can’t. You can’t look away as the turn of events keeps getting worse and worse. It is a dark and nightmarish place that I didn’t like to be in. (that’s a rave)

Absolutely not for anyone looking for a safe Hollywood film, this is a one of a kind film that will leave you battered and bothered.

The New York Film Festival starts Friday

Its the Saturday before the New York Film Festival starts and I just realized that I haven't done a curtain raiser.

I'm sorry I've been busy.... seeing movies.... the last few days for the New York Film Festival.

NYFF is the film festival of my soul. Its the first one I remember knowing about and the first I had to go to. If you are a long time reader you've heard the stories so I'm not going to go into them. I will say that if you want a good time at the movies and want to potentially see history  you need to go to the festival- you never know what is going to happen- It's why I buy a ticket package.

Tickets and information can be found here.

The reality  is I know most of you don't care about anything other than the recommendations  To that end I'm going to give you the best films I've seen so far:

HELLRAISER is restored so now Clive Barker's game changing horror film can be seen on the big screen as it was intended.  If you've never seen it you should because it is now one of the pillars of modern horror and its influence reaches well into subjects less scary.

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE is a wonderful farce about kids in school, turkeys, frozen ice and a few other things. It may not be for all tastes but it made me laugh

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT is a mix of documentary and narrative. It's the story of three women in Mumbai.  And it is so alive... you must see it.

HAPPYEND was an unexpected delight. The story of  a group of friends in their final days of high school. They delightfully live their lives and deal with all sorts of things including a new security system. It's a great film that had everyone in the theater smiling.

NO OTHER LAND is probably the most important film at the festival. A devastating look at how Israel is driving Palestinians out of the West Bank it will make you understand where the rage came from that resulted in the October 7th attacks.  If you want to see sparks fly be at the festival when this film plays. It's one of the best films of 2024.

There will me more reports coming. I've seen about 15 films and all of the reviews will be coming closer to the play dates.

To get tickets go here.

What Happened to Dorothy Bell? (2024) Fantastic Fest

Ozzy Gray tries to find out what happened to his recently deceased grandmother and ends up having to deal with an evil force.

This is a mix of found footage and traditional narrative. It’s a film that feels like it’s documenting real life and if director Danny Villanueva Jr had wanted to push it he could have made a hell of a pseudo documentary.

WHAT HAPPENED TO DOROTHY GRAY is a wicked slow burn  horror film.  One of the few found footage film that isn’t full of filler, this is a film that sets things up and pulls us in. It takes it’s time but it moves along  at a steady pace that builds the sort of suspense that gets under your skin.  I found myself leaning into the events on screen.  I wanted to see what the hell was going on.

Make no mistake this is a chilling film that by the end will have you mumbling to no one in particular.

Heavier Trip (2024) Fantastic Festival 2024

Sequel to the 2018 film HEAVY TRIP has the group Impaled Rektum in prison. They get word that one of their boyhood homes has been seized. At the same time they get an invitation to play the heavy metal festival in Wacken Germany. They manage to escape, but the cops are on their trail, the promoter doesn't seem to be on the up and  up, and the friends are being less friendly. 

This is a funny comedy that is a solid continuation of the previous film. Its filled with funny jokes, great music and a the right amount of charm.

Recommended

DESPICABLE ME 4 (2024)

 

I had no intention of paying to see Despicable Me 4 in the theaters but an NYC heatwave and my being outside nearing heat exhaustion required I get into the AC ASAP  so I ducked into a theater to see the next movie was regardless of what it was. It was an amusing romp and time well spent beyond the cooling off.

The plot has Gru and his Anti-Villain League arresting his arch nemesis ----- at the class reunion. --- vows revenge from prison. Since he has morphed into a cockroach man the cockroaches break him out. Gru and family are put into witness protection and most of the minions go to work for the AVL. Complicating matters is the teen girl who lives next door to Gru, she knows Gru’s true identity and she wants Gru to help her pull a caper.

This isn’t high art but it is entertaining. The minion stuff is hit or miss with the superhero riff probably being best- especially at the end. The Gru and family stuff is dead on wonderful, with the film going into the stratosphere when the blackmail starts. That should have been more of the film, but that’s quibble.

While the film feels like two shorts welded together, the film still shines. I laughed out loud a bunch of times and the retired superhero minions getting called back into action had me acting like a giddy three year old as it reminded me of Ralph Bakshi’s THE MIGHTY HEROES going into battle during the open credits of that series.

The film is ultimately pure joy, with only the minion nonsense during the end credits being a real disappointment.

Recommended for fans.

Else (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024 Toronto 2024

This is an utterly haunting horror science fiction film that will have you awestruck at its grim beauty while it makes you talk to the screen.

The film follows a couple who meet just before a new disease begins to spread. The disease makes people bond to inanimate objects. When the girl leaves her home to be with her new love everything is okay for a while...and then it isn't.

This film shouldn't work. There are plot lapses, things are left hanging, but in the best sort of dream logic it all comes together. Somehow, someway director Thibault Emin pulls it together in someway and the result is one of the most haunting films of 2024. 

Emin doesn't ape previous body horror films and instead essentially reinvents it as a think of lyric beauty. The images, of everything are so amazingly beautiful that you can't look away. Indeed they are such that you kind of want to press into the screen so that you can walk around and see the wonders he has created.

I am not going to say much more because the power of the film is not knowing so that it clubs you from behind.

One of the most amazing cinematic experiences of the year, it is a must see.

THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEENTOWN (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

This is a look at the town of St. Helens Oregon where the Disney film HALLOWEENTOWN.

This is a look at a small town and how over time a film that has become a holiday staple for many has also transformed the town. We watch as the town talk about how the film has changed their lives and how they handle the new influx of visitors who want to see the real Halloweentown.

This is a very good look at how one film changed the life of a town and it's residents. It's a story that we don't ever see really covered except in a quick clip on the odd TV news program. We get a look at the changing face of Halloween and how what was once a big holiday for kids now is a big holiday for a lot of people.

I had a really good time with this film. In a weird way I can see it becoming just as big a hit as the film that transformed St. Helens.  If I have any quibble with the film is that not having seen Halloweentown in decades, and never being a big fan I wasn't as invested in the film. That isn't the fault of the filmmakers, but it is simply an indication of my own failing as a human being. 

Recommended.

Horizon: An American Saga - first thoughts

 

This piece is a place holder.

I saw the first part of Kevin Costner’s sprawling epic HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA and I’m going to hold off before I really do a review until I see the later parts. I say this because the film feels like the beginning of something and not a complete film. Yes it ends at a break, but this is a film that is clearly part of a bigger film.

To be honest I know why people have hated this. It’s very old school in it’s telling. From the old Hollywood style opening sequence on through the rest of the film, this feels like film from six or seven decades ago. There is nothing wrong with that, it just requires that you give yourself over to it. Also it doesn’t help that there are ton of characters wandering through this and we are well over an hour in until it begins to settle down and we get a handle on things.

None of this is bad, it’s just more that this is a film that is going to go its own way. Because its so long it’s a tough ask to tell people that you are going to have to come back just as it gets going.

Is it worth seeing?

Yes. There looks to be a hell of a tale here. I’m curious if Costner is going to pull it off…. But we’ll see.

Apartment 7A (2024) or they remade Rosemary's Baby via Suspiria Fantastic Fest 2024

Prequel to ROSEMARY'S BABY is basically the same story but refashioned so that it's a bout a single dancer who is injured, moves into the building, and has her career get a boost. Unfortunately she finds herself pregnant with the devils son.

I completely understand why this film has taken years to show up, it's not very good. It's a film that remakes the original, melds in musical/dance sequences that remind one of a less out there SUSPIRIA, is almost entirely shot with the same framing of our heroine center frame from the waste up,  and contains Dianne Wiest's worst performance as she channels the spirit of Ruth Gordon through a broken Ouiji board.

How did this get made? Nay how did it get released...

...okay it's not terrible even if many of the performances and the costuming is. And yes the demon is cool and the film briefly finds it's own voice in the last 20 minutes, so if some one saw those two things, I could see them sending it out into the world with a big push... but any horror lover is just going to balk and wonder why.

And while not terrible its so been there done that that I tuned out and was wondering when it was going to get to the good stuff or end... 

And in the end I can't recommend it

We Will Dance Again (2024)

A look at the October 6 attack in Israel told by the survivors and the footage that was shot that day.

First up I’m not going to get into the politics of this. The sheer loss of life and the brutality of the attack trump any thought of the amorphous and intellectual notions of the Israel/Palestine conflict. By the standard of any living and breathing human with any shred of moral decency it was an horrific sequence of events that simply proves that too many people think violence will solve problems.

As a film documenting the events that played out one morning in October this film is a punch in the face. It doesn’t matter which side you are on, or think you’re on, the film will make you truly consider the cost of violence. Made up of footage shot by the victims as well as by the attackers, WE WILL DANCE AGAIN never looks away. We see it all, from the end of the over night rave which stopped when the missiles were seen in the sky, to the attacks where few were left alive onward to the aftermath. It’s all here and I’m certain you will look away.

Yes the footage is choppy at times. Considering how it was shot, it’s amazing that any of it survives. The images will burn into your brain. Strangely the most problematic is the footage from Hamas which was shot via body cams and so is very unsteady. That’s probably a good thing since we don’t need to see all the death and destruction.

While not for all audiences those wanting to know what happened that day will end up well informed. 

American Godfathers: Five Families (2024)

The History Channel series The Five Families is excellent. Running a breezy six hours the series covers the  history of a the mafia in America in an informative and entertaining way.

Odds are you’ve seen this story any number of times and told in all sorts of ways so its hard to make one that doesn’t seem old hat. Five Families manages to not be old hat.

I think the reason the series works is that it does what most recent tellings haven’t done, and that is tell the whole thing in one go and give an overview  of the important points. No, it isn’t really detailed, and yes it leaves a lot out, but it gives us a wonderful sense of the whole story from founding to the recent collapse in the days after John Gotti. Personally after seeing so many docs and series on the various aspects it was nice to have it all knitted together.

To be honest I wasn’t planning on watching the series but channel surfing between innings during the Met game on the first night hooked me and I ended up watching the series on the next two nights. I even rewatched the parts I had seen before.

The true crime comfort food and is recommended