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New York Film Festival (Sep 27th, 2024 – Oct 14th, 2024)


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        All We Imagine as Light centers on three women in Mumbai: Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), roommates who work at the same hospital, and  Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an elderly woman who works as a cook at the hospital and faces eviction. Anu comes from a Hindu family, so she's reluctant to introduce her Muslim boyfriend to them.  Prabha, who's married, deals with a doctor who flirt with her. Writer/director Payal Kapadia has woven a slice-of-life drama that's understated and gently moving without any schmaltz or heavy-handedness. Occasionally, the film meanders and feels lethargic with too many static shots of characters staring off into the distance during a long or medium shot. Why not at least show the audience what they're looking at? Why not show their face in a close shot so that the audience can try to decipher what they're thinking about? A lot remains unsaid throughout the film and there aren't any powerful, emotionally resonating scenes that stand out. Nor does Kapadia include enough levity. The cinematography, though, is exceptional with some shots that add visual poetry and, in turn, become part of the film's substance. The very thin plot moves at a slow pace, so patient audiences will be rewarded the most. At a running time of 1 hour and 55 minutes, All We Imagine as Light opens in at Walter Reade Theater and Film Forum on November 15th, 2024 via Sideshow and Janus Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      Ani (Mikey Madison), a 23-year-old Russian-American, lives in Brooklyn and works as a sex worker at a Manhattan strip club in Anora. She meets a young man, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, at the club and he hires her to be his "girlfriend" for a week while staying at his father's mansion in Brooklyn. He doesn't want to return to Russia, but in the spur of the moment, he proposes to her because if they get married, he'd be able to stay in the US.She agrees to marry him, so off they go to Las Vegas to get legally married. Ivan's domineering father is furious when he hears the news that he got married. It's up to "flying monkeys", Toros (Karren Karagulian), a priest, and his intimidating sidekicks, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), to convince Ivan and Ani to get a marriage annulment, but nothing goes as planned when Ivan runs away without Ani.

      The screenplay by writer/director Sean Baker blends comedy, drama and thriller, but it works best as a character study of a young woman who's broken on the inside. Ani seems confident on the outside; innately, though, she's vulnerable, lonely, insecure and emotionally immature. It's no wonder that she feels connected to Ivan because he's broken and immature too---even more so because, even at the age of 21, his mother and father still control and baby him. He lures her with money and gifts including a very expensive wedding ring. Most of the time she spends with him at the mansion, he's either taking drugs, playing video games, getting drunk or having sex with her. Is that really the kind of person she wants to spend the rest of her life with? She's naive enough to confuse sex with love and materialistic giving with genuine kindness and compassion, so she's in for a rude awakening. Anora isn't very funny or perceptive as a culture clash comedy or when it veers into dark comedy when Toros and his sidekicks arrive at the mansion.

      Anora has a lot of sadness lurking beneath the surface which gradually rises above the surface as you get to know Ani. Ivan doesn't seem like he's truly capable of changing nor does he show signs of introspection, but Ani has a few epiphanies throughout the course of the film and, in the powerful and refreshingly unHollywood final scene, displays a hint of introspection. Kudos to writer/director Sean Baker for seeing and treating Ani as a complex human being because when he unpeels Ani's many masks, that's when Anora resonates the most emotionally. It's also worth mentioning the stylish cinematography, editing and use of music. Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian and Yura Borisov give breakthrough performances. At a running time of 2 hours and 19 minutes, Anora, is wildly entertaining, honest and tender, but somewhat tonally uneven. It opens in select theaters on October 18th, 2024 via NEON.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1



***Closing Night Film***

 

 

       During a blitzkrieg in 1940s London when the Nazis bombarded the city, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), sends her 9-year-old son, George (Elliott Heffernan), to the countryside, but he jumps off of the train in hope of traveling back home in Blitz. Ife (Benjamin Clémentine), a kind Nigerian air warden, assists George through his journey. The screenplay by writer/director Steve McQueen has a few heartfelt moments, but it's often shmaltzy and clunky. Part war film, part melodrama, part thriller, Blitz doesn't combine those genres smoothly or with much emotional depth. The modicum of poignancy comes more from Saoirse Ronan and newcomer Elliott Heffernan's tender performances rather than from the screenplay. There are also some preachy scenes, like in a bomb shelter where Ife suddenly goes on a rant about how everyone should be treated equally regardless of nationality because, otherwise, they'd be like the Nazis. So, McQueen opts for on-the-nose dialogue rather than trusting the audience's intelligence or breathing life into any of the characters. How can you have a small role for Harris Dickinson, but give him so little to do? Why waste his talent? That said, the set design, costume design and use of lighting among the film's strengths while adding visual style. However, the production design alone doesn't compensate for the lack of substance.  At a running time of 2 hours, Blitz opens on November 1st, 2024 in select theaters via Apple TV+.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      László Toth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust before immigrating to America in The Brutalist. Once there, a wealthy entrepreneur, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) recognizes his talent and hires him for a project that includes building a school. Meanwhile, László hopes to reunite with his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), whom he corresponds with through letters. The screenplay written/directed by Brady Corbet and co-writer Mona Fastvold hooks the audience with a captivating, sweeping and poignant first half. However, its second half suffers from a disjointed plot, clunky dialogue and undercooked subplots, i.e. someone being accused of rape and someone expecting to do an Aliyah to Israel. There are too many characters and too much left to the audience's imagination. Moreover, the ending feels very rushed while skipping over too many key events and fails to pack an emotional punch. However, at least it's not a dull slog like Horizon: An American Saga - Part One. Adrien Brody gives an Oscar-worthy performance, one of his best since The Pianist. Guy Pearce is also superb, recalling his powerful performance as the villain in The Count of Monte Cristo. The well-chosen music score and stunning cinematography, with a few trippy sequences and mesmerizing birds-eye view shots, add plenty of style which becomes part of the film's substance. At 3 hours and 35 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist, is beautifully shot and initially captivating, heartfelt and spellbinding before it loses steam and becomes clunky and undercooked. It opens in select theaters on December 20th, 2024 via A24.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2







      Dahomey is an exquisitely shot and refreshingly unconventional, but somewhat dry documentary about 26 looted artifacts transported from Paris to Benin, formerly known as the Kingdom of Dahomey. Director Mati Diop opts for a mostly fly-on-the-wall style reminiscent of the films of Frederick Wiseman with one major difference: an imaginative narration by the statue of King Ghezu, one of the artifacts being transported. This is a pretty straightforward documentary in terms of its content which doesn't offer a lot of insight, analysis or different perspectives. The narration makes it feel experimental and, admittedly, takes a while to get used to in lieu of talking-head interviews. Fortunately, the film ends before it starts to become tedious. At a brief running time of only 1 hour and 8 minutes, Dahomey opens on October 25th, 2024 at IFC Center via MUBI.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2





 

        Elton John: Never Too Late is an electrifying, poignant and illuminating documentary biopic about legendary singer/songwriter and pianist Elton John. Co-directors R. J. Cutler and David Furnish, Elton's husband, combine archival footage, contemporary footage, photographs, interviews and concert footage to chart Elton's rise to fame, his traumatic childhood and his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. You'll learn a lot about Elton's emotional struggles, but the film doesn't dwell on them; it's more about his resilience and how he has managed to conquer adversities despite coming from an abusive home. He candidly discusses his sexuality and how he didn't even explore and discover it until he was in his early 20s. The pace moves briskly, the editing is smooth, and there's just enough of Elton's music included to satisfy his many fans who are watching this wonderful documentary. Bravo to Cutler and Furnish for effectively capturing Elton's warmth, vulnerability, kindness and emotional maturity to provide the audience with a glimpse behind the curtain, so-to-speak. And bravo to Elton John for grasping the powerful message behind the Pablo Neruda poem: "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming." At a running time of 1 hour and 42 minutes, Elton John: Never Too Late is a triumph. It opens in select theaters on November 15th, 2024 via Disney+, and would be a great double feature with The World According to Allee Willis about a lesser known songwriter, Allee Willis.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1



 

 

      In Emilia Pérez, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a lawyer, agrees to help a crime boss, Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascón), to get a sex change operation, fake his death and move his wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and kids to Switzerland. To explain the plot any further would be to spoil its few surprises. Writer/director Jacques Audiard has woven a bold, genre-bending and visually dazzling thriller that turns into an increasingly overwrought, implausible and contrived mess with too many plot holes. Serious scenes, even at a doctor's office, suddenly have characters break into song which attempts to enliven the film, but often makes it awkward and cringe-inducing instead. The songs are poorly integrated and distracting. A systemic issue, though, is that Emilia Pérez doesn't have anyone to care about on screen because they're so unlikable. Manitas, who goes by the name of Emilia after the sex change, is a criminal who has no shame in killing people and lying to her loved ones, so why should the audience root for her? Also, how could her wife not at least suspect that Emilia is actually her husband? Moreover, the third act is a hot mess as it kicks up the action scenes before an ending that can be seen a mile away. At a running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, Emilia Pérez opens on November 1st, 2024 in select theaters via Netflix.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

       Two best friends, Kou (Yukito Hidaka) and Yuta (Hayato Kurihara), rebel against their high school after the principal (Shiro Sano) has installed a surveillance system in Happyend. Writer/director Neo Sora has woven a mildly engaging, but provocative, timely and occasionally funny dramatic thriller. The surveillance system gets installed after someone pulls a prank on the principal by somehow causing his car to end up crashing on its front-end right onto the pavement. Students who misbehave receive points that could lead to suspension or expulsion. Happyend isn't very subtle or deep when it comes to how it explores its themes of protest, invasion of privacy and democracy. The principal remains a one-dimensional character who almost seems like a villain. His character arc is rushed, though, and the ending feels too pat, rushed and contrived. There are also pacing issues with some scenes lasting too long and a few moments during the third act suffer from false endings. Just when the film wraps up its main narrative, it goes on and on and drags while overstaying its welcome. Fortunately, Yukito Hidaka gives a charismatic performance and Hayato Kurihara has great comedic timing which makes his Yuta a lot of fun to watch.  At 1 hour and 53 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours and 30 minutes, Happyend, opens TBA via Metrograph Pictures. It would be an interesting double feature with the more bold, trippy and darker 70s film The Strawberry Statement or the wildly entertaining sci-fi cult classic The Faculty.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

       Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an grumpy and impertinent woman, lives with her husband, Curtley (David Webber) and adult son, Moses (Tuwaine Bennett), in Hard Truths. She occasionally spends time with her much more polite sister, Chantelle (Michele Austin) who works as a hairdresser. Writer/director Mike Leigh spends a lot of time showing how Pansy has no shame in displaying her rudeness at everyone around her including strangers and family. She's a hot-tempered, narcissistic bully whose bitterness and anger runs deep. Where does her rage come from? That's the elephant in the room that Leigh saves for a brief hint at later on when Pany and her sister visit their mother's grave. The screenplay doesn't provide much exposition or backstory, though, so it's unclear how and why Pansy's husband fell in love with her and for how long she's been so angry. Pansy is consistently mean, even to her dentist. Her quips and snaps are initially funny, but gradually grow more and more disturbing. As the saying goes, if you don't master your rage, your rage becomes your master. Back in the early 90's, there was a film called Tatie Danielle with a tagline that would fit Hard Truths as well: "She doesn't know you, and already she doesn't like you." How introspective is Pansy? She doesn't show many signs of introspection, sadly, but Leigh does allow the audience to observe her in her private, quieter moments. If only there were more of those kinds of moments in the film, it would've been a much more powerful and profound experience. Fortunately, Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives a bravura, mesmerizing and Oscar-worthy performance that finds the emotional truth of her role while breathing life into the film even when it starts to become repetitive. At a running time of 1 hour and 37 minutes, Hard Truths opens on December 6th, 2024 for a one-week Oscar-qualifying release before officially opening on January 10th, 2024 via Bleecker Street.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2





 

       Megalopolis is an ambitious and visually stunning, but convoluted, tonally uneven and exhausting mess. The plot centers on an architect, Cesar (Adam Driver), who plans to change New Rome, formerly known as NYC, to a Megalopolis with a special substance he invented called Megalon despite opposition from Mayor Franklyn (Giancarlo Esposito). Oh, and he can also stop time. Set in the future, the screenplay by writer/director Francis Ford Coppola blends sci-fi, thriller, satire, romance and surrealism with very clunky results. The tone shifts so often from serious to zany to bizarre that you might end up with whiplash. Jon Voigt plays Hamilton Crassus III, Cesar's rich uncle. Aubrey Plaza plays a journalist and Cesar's love interest. Laurence Fishburne plays Cesar's assistant. Talia Shire plays Cesar's mother. Shia LaBeouf plays Hamilton's grandson. Nathalie Emmanuel plays Mayor Franklyn's daughter. The always-great Kathryn Hunter plays Mayor Franklyn's wife. Oh, and Dustin Hoffman also has a small roll. The film meanders with too many characters and underdeveloped plots. It's as though Coppolla had many ideas for a movie and threw them all together in a big pot hoping that something will stick. Very little sticks, although some of the outrageously gaudy production design and costume designs stand out. The editing feels choppy at times, and the pace moves too quickly, so Coppola doesn't trust the audience's patience except when it comes to the bloated running time. The performances range from decent to wooden with only Aubrey Plaza managing to poke fun into her role. At 2 hours and 18 minutes, Megalopolis opens nationwide on September 27th, 2024 via Lionsgate and Utopia.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4





 

        In Misericordia,  After the death of his boss, Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) returns to his hometown where he stays for a few days with Martine (Catherine Frot), his boss's lonely widow. Friction arises between Jérémie and her son, Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand), which leads to Jérémie killing him with a rock and burying his body deep in the woods. All of that happens within the first 30 minutes of the screenplay by writer/director Alain Guiraudie, so, clearly, this isn't a nail-biting whodunit in the spirit of Hitchcock or Fincher per se, but it does have a little suspense as Jérémie maintains his innocence and makes up a story that's full of holes. He even changes his story multiple times. He befriends a local priest (Jacques Develay), who also happens to be lonely, and Walter (David Ayala), whom he comes onto him while drunk. Yes, Walter also happens to be lonely. The plot gets increasingly absurd and enters darkly funny territory with a very unconventional and surprising third act that, admittedly, requires some suspension of disbelief. As Hitchcock once observed, though, logic is dull and there's something more important than logic: imagination. If the perspective were to change to Martine's instead of Jérémie, Misericordia, Latin for "mercy", could've been a much more gripping crime thriller. The always-reliable Catherine Frot elevates the film with her charming and heartfelt performance while Jacques Develay steals the scenes as the priest. At 1 hour and 44 minutes, Misericordia is a wildly entertaining, unpredictable and Coenesque dark comedy. It opens TBA via Sideshow/Janus Films.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 2







      No Other Land is a vital, terrifying, eye-opening and heartbreaking protest against war. It's a powerful documentary about the IDF's destruction of Masafer Yatta, a section of the West Bank composed of 19 hamlets. Co-directors Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor unflinchingly capture the suffering of Palestians as they desperately try to defend their homes and protest the demolitions while risking their lives. Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abaraham, an Israeli journalist, became friends as they documented the injustices for the sake of truth and, above all, democracy. The mainstream news doesn't inform the general public about how the IDF destroys Palestinian homes, so kudos to the filmmakers for bravely recording evidence over the course of 5 years and shedding light on tragic events that more people know about. No Other Land uses a fly-on-the-wall approach without talk-head interviews or analyzing its timely, complex and systemic issues plaguing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which started with Tantura, another dark part of Israeli history that's rarely mentioned. It's scary to know that the IDF's demolition of Masafer Yatta and the way that they treated the Palestinian residents occurred not long before the Hammas attacks on October 7th, 2023. At 1 hour and 35 minutes, No Other Land opens on November 1st, 2024 at The Film Society for an Oscar-qualifying run. Hopefully a smart U.S. distributor will pick it up.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1



***Closing Night Film***



 

       Two teenagers, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) meet at a reform school called Nickel Academy where they endured some kind of abuse in Nickel Boys. Set in the 1960s and based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, the screenplay by writer/director RaMell Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes is elliptical and gently moving, but takes too long to get to the meat of the story. Once it arrives there, it leaves too much open to interpretation without being unflinching enough. While the filmmakers deserve praise for trusting the audience's imagination, there are key pieces of information, like what precisely happens in a certain room at the reform school, that remain vague. Also, the film's excessive visual style gets in the way of its substance because of the almost constant use of POV shots and hypnotic time-lapse shots reminiscent of music videos. Did the filmmakers not believe that the narrative can hook the audience? Why hit the audience over the audience in so much visual poetry? It feels suffocating and heavy-handed. Also, the POV shots mean that you don't get the chance to see Elwood or Turner's facial expressions. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has a supporting role as Elwood's grandmother who shows up at the reform school because she's concerned about Elwood and wants to see him. She delivers a long monologue, like she does in The Subject and in the superior Exhibiting Forgiveness. It's also just as powerful and well-acted as the monologue that Viola Davis gives in Doubt, another film that deals with abuse without showing it. At a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, Nickel Boys opens on December 13th, 2024 in select theaters via Amazon MGM Studios.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2





 

       Leonard Fife (Richard Gere), an acclaimed documentary filmmaker suffering from terminal cancer, looks back on his life as Malcom (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), his former students, film him for a documentary in Oh, Canada. Meanwhile, his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), remains by his side. Based on the novel Foregone by Russell Banks, the screenplay by writer/director Paul Shraeder is a dull, clunky and meandering non-linear portrait of a dying man and his painful memories that have shaped his life and work. Told through clunky flashbacks, Leonard's past isn't very interesting and the same can be said about the scenes that take place in the present day. In an underdeveloped subplot, his estranged son confronts him in hope of reuniting, but Leonard refuses to even acknowledge that he's his son. What does Emma even see in him? She's a strong woman for putting up with him for so many years. Unfortunately, she's an underdeveloped character who never comes to life. Oh, Canada just seems to be going through the motions and barely has any narrative momentum which would've been fine if it were engrossing, but it's not. It's often cold, monotonous and while lacking wit, levity and depth before the ending that fails to pack an emotional punch. None of the performances, even those of Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi, who plays younger Leonard, manages to rise above the vapid screenplay nor does the cinematography add any visual style to compensate for the lack of substance. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, Oh, Canada opens on December 6th, 2024 in select theaters via Kino Lorber.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      William Lee (Daniel Craig) escapes from the US to Mexico City to avoid drug charges in Queer. He spends his time there drinking at a local bar, taking drugs and hooking up with other men. He falls in love with one of those men, namely, Gene (Drew Starkey), and embarks with him on a journey to the jungles of South America to find a hallucinogenic drug called yage that can allegedly give them telepathic powers. Set during the 1950s and based on the autobiographical novel by William Burroughs, the screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes is meandering and tonally even while squandering many opportunities to become an engrossing character study. Justin Kuritzkes doesn't provide the audience with enough of a window into William's heart, mind and soul. William seems like someone who's lonely and in emotional pain, but the film barely even scratches his surface, so he begins as a stranger to the audience and stays one until the end credits roll. His romance with Gene isn't explored with much depth, and the same can be said about his friendship with a writer, Joe (Jason Schwartzman). The somewhat melancholic tone becomes monotonous after a while without much levity until the later chapter that takes place in the jungle, so you'll have to be patient. That's when Queer goes bonkers and turns into a pretentious mindfuck with heavy-handed surrealism and even some elements of horror. You'll feel like you're watching a completely different film all-of-a-sudden, so expect some tonal whiplash.

    &nbs Lesley Manville looks unrecognizable as a scientist in the jungle who hooks William and Gene up with some yage. Daniel Craig gives a solid performance and exudes charisma, but, to be fair, he's too big of a star for the role and doesn't quite disappear into it smoothly, so he's somewhat miscast. The main strengths are the costume designs, the lighting and cinematography, some of which achieve levels of visual poetry, i.e. the opening title sequence and the scenes after William and Gene take yage, which add a modicum of much-needed substance. At 2 hours and 15 minutes, Queer, directed by Luca Guadagnino, opens on November 27th, 2024 at Angelika Film Center via A24.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      After the death of their grandmother, a Holocaust victim, David (Jesse Eisenberg) and his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin), travel to Poland to tour the Holocaust-related sites and to visit the apartment that their grandmother had lived at in A Real Pain. The screenplay by writer/director Jesse Eisenberg is a witty, funny and tender emotional journey. Eisenberg understands the concept that the root of comedy can often be found in tragedy. He keeps the story lean by beginning at the airport after David and Benji's grandmother died. There are no flashbacks to their experiences with her, but during a dinner with others in the tour group, a lot gets revealed about how Benji was closer to his grandmother than David was and how blunt she was. Based on the way that they describe her, she seems like kindred spirits with Maude from Harold & Maude. He also confides in them something very personal regarding Benji's suicide attempt. It's a brief scene and a moving one, but underdeveloped as if Eisenberg were scared to allow the film to get too dark and unflinching. The evolving dynamics between David and Benji throughout the tour feels true-to-life, though, especially when they banter. Kudos to Eisenberg for providing them with different personalities. Benji comes across as an annoying, rude jerk as well as a bad influence initially, but there's more to him than meets the eye. He even has no shame in criticizing the tour guide, James (Will Sharpe).

      To be fair, much of the dialogue is on-the-nose and lacks subtlety. However, it never becomes maudlin or cheesy. Jennifer Grey has a supporting role as Marcia, one of the tour group members. Her character, though, just like everyone besides David and Benji, are underwritten and forgettable. Compared to Treasure, which has a similar plot, A Real Pain is much more captivating and heartfelt. In a double feature, it would be the A-movie while Treasure would be the vastly inferior B-movie. Also, Eiseberg deserves to be commended for keeping the running time at 90 minutes which means that he grasps the concept of restraint and that less is more.. A Real Pain opens November 1st, 2024 in select theaters via Searchlight Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2





 

      Upon learning that her friend, Martha (Tilda Swinton), is dying of cancer, Ingrid (Julianne Moore), an author, visits her and agrees to accompany her to second home in upstate New York where she plans on taking a euthanasia pill to kill herself in The Room Next Door.  Based on the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, the screenplay by Pablo Almodóvar is dull and undercooked with stilted dialogue. What could've been a unflinchingly moving and profound movie that explores life, death, friendship and happiness, it barely scratches the surface. There are far more powerful films about assisted suicide like The Sea Inside. Almodóvar seems more concerned about engaging the audience's eyes with stylish set designs, cinematography, and costume designs rather than providing a window into Martha and Ingrid's heart, mind and soul. Why leave the audience at such a cold distance from them? There's a hint of suspense during the last thirty minutes as Ingrid tries to figure out how to avoid getting into trouble for knowingly allowing Martha to take the euthenasia pill. Of course, she claims that she was unaware and lies that Martha didn't tell her the real reason why Martha asked her to be with her in her upstate NY home. The ending, with its heavy-handed use of symbolism, feels anticlimactic and rushed. No matter how hard Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore try to breathe life into their roles, they don't quite manage to accomplish that task because they're undermined by the weak screenplay. At 1 hour and 46 minutes The Room Next Door is shallow, contrived and sugar-coated with style over substance. It opens in select theaters via Sony Pictures Classics.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      The leaders of wealthy democratic nations meet at a G7 summit where bizarre incidents happen and they get stranded in the middle of the woods in Rumours. The screenplay by co-writers and directors Guy Maddin Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson is a wickedly funny, surreal, cerebral and Buñuelian political satire. The world leaders include Hilda (Cate Blanchett), Germany's Chancellor, Edison (Charles Dance), the US President, Sylvain (Denis Ménochet), the President of France, Maxime (Roy Dupuis), Canada's Prime Minister, Cardosa (Nikki Amuka-Bird), the UK's Prime Minister, Tasturo (Takehiro Hira), Japan's Prime Minister, Antonio (Rolando Ravello), Italy's Prime Minister and Celestine (Alicia Vikander), the European Commission's Secretary-General. The plot goes batshit crazy, like most plots do these days, as it veers toward horror and sci-fi. The less you know about the twists, the better, but it does require a lot of suspension of disbelief.

      Guy Maddin and his co-directors maintain a campy, off-kilter tone that takes a while to get used to, but it never feels uneven or clunky. Beneath the surface, the film has a lot to say about politics and class. If you combine Triangle of Sadness, The Exterminating Angel and Dr. Strangelove, you'll get something along the lines of Rumours. On a purely aesthetic level, the cinematography, lighting and use of color add plenty of visual style and atmosphere. At 1 hour and 44 minutes, it opens nationwide on October 18th, 2024 via Bleecker Street.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1







      In The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iman (Missagh Zareh), a judge living in Iran, suspects that his wife, Nahjmeh (Soheila Golestani), and two daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), stole his missing gun. The screenplay by writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof begins as a slow-burning, understated and meandering psychological thriller before morphing into a more conventional and heavy-handed action thriller. Rasoulof trusts the audience's patience and doesn't dive right into the meat of the story right away. He spends a lot of time with exposition and subplots, like a friend of one of Iman's daughters who gets gravely injured during a protest and his wife and daughters tend to her wounds. If Iman doesn't find his gun that suddenly disappeared, he'll be sent to prison. The pace moves slowly initially and then speeds up, especially during the very grim and dark third act that feels more like a Hollywood thriller than  There aren't any surprises, though, and most of the ending can be easily predicted from a mile away. That said, the natural performances and exquisite cinematography are among the film's strengths. However, it's never a good thing when you can feel the weight of the running time. At 2 hours and 46 minutes, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is a well-acted and well-shot psychological thriller, but overlong, meandering and ultimately disappointing without enough surprises. It opens on November 27th, 2024 at Walter Reade Theater and Film Forum via NEON.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

       Iris (Isabelle Huppert), a mysterious French woman, lives in Korea with a roommate, Inguk (Ha Seongguk), and teaches French  to Wonju (Lee Hyeyoung) in A Traveler's Needs. When she's not teaching her French, she walk around with her and her husband (Kwon Haehyo) at a park, reads poetry, drinks a Korean rice wine called makgeolli, and pretends to be her roommate's French tutor when his concerned, controlling mother (Cho Yunhee) arrives. Writer/director Hong Sang-soo has made yet another breezy, undercooked and meandering film with very little dramatic tension and dry, observational humor. How many times can you laugh at Iris drinking makgeolli, though? She clearly has issues with alcoholism which the story doesn't even bother to explore and, instead, uses it for laughs. The only moments of poignancy are there poems that Iris encounters and tries to translate into French. The pace moves very slowly, just like in the director's previous films. Fortunately, Isabelle Huppert's charismatic performance helps to keep the audience somewhat engaged. At a running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, A Traveler's Needs opens at Film Forum on November 22nd, 2024 via The Cinema Guild.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4





 

      Co-directors Stephen Maing and Brett Story follow the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) as they struggle and battle against Amazon to unionizw in their Staten Island warehouse in Union. They opt for a fly-on-the-wall approach like the films of Frederick Wiseman, but it's rather dry without any thoroughness or fair and balanced perspectives. Merely focusing on the ALU isn't enough. By not having access to Amazon's perspectives, Union feels myopic and incomplete. It also squanders many opportunities to humanize its workers other than letting the audience know that some workers wake up very early to get to work.  What's wrong with getting to know some of the workers beyond their experiences fighting to unionize? This is the kind of doc that could and should make the audience enraged, gripped and/or engrossed, but it fails to accomplish those important goals while also failing to find the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. At 1 hour and 42 minutes, it opens on October 18th, 2024 at IFC Center.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4





 

        Youth (Hard Times) is the second part of the Youth trilogy after Youth (Spring). Director Wang Bing focuses his attention on young workers at textiles workshops in the province of Zhili, China. Once again, he opts for a laissez-faire, fly-on-the-wall approach sans talking-head interviews or expositional texts. The texts that do appear on the screen are the names of the workers, their age and which province they're from. If you're hoping to get to know any of them beyond their workplace, you'll be disappointed. What the film effectively sheds light on, though, is the sleaziness of the textile company that hired these young people who clearly work very hard. They dehumanize their own workers and, in some cases, neglect to pay them or just come up with excuses not to pay them. So, in a way, this is a human rights documentary although not one that's very enraging or provocative. Why don't they go on strike or at least form a union? By unflinchingly showing the workers' frustrations, the film allows the audience to empathize with them. Youth (Hard Times) isn't a documentary for audiences with a short attention span who lack patience because it does clock almost to the 4-hour mark and move at a snail's pace occasionally, so it requires a lot of patience. Patient audiences will be rewarded the most. At a running time of 3 hours and 46 minutes, it opens on November 1st, 2024 at Metrograph via Icarus Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4







      Youth (Homecoming) is, thankfully, the last part of the Youth trilogy about young textile workers in Zhili, a province in China. Director Wang Bing focuses on the workers' preparing to go on a break for the 2016 Chinese New Year. Two couples end up getting married while the audience is there to witness their joyous festivities. For the most part, Youth (Homecoming) is mildly engaging without being profound, provocative or very moving. Like the previous films, it tests the audience's patience because of the lengthy running time and the occasionally sluggish pace. There's also nothing exceptional about the cinematography, editing or anything else that would've added style and/or made the film more cinematic. At 2 hours and 32 minutes, Youth (Homecoming), directed by Hans Petter Moland, opens on November 8th, 2024 at Metrograph via Icarus Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





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Avi Offer
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