New Directors/New Films and Film Comment Selects 2014 General Forum thread

[Chris Knipp]

GILLIAN ROBESPIERRE'S OBVIOUS CHILD

This ND/NF 2014 film has been in the news (June 26, 2014) because of NBC initially refusing to air an ad for the film because it used the word "abortion." OBVIOUS CHILD began releasing June 6, 2014 but has recently spread to more theaters. It is now showing at five theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Filmleaf review of OBVIOUS CHILD here.

Metacritic rating 75%.

[Chris Knipp]

HÉLÈNE CATTET, BRUNO FORZANI: THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS/L'ÉTRANGE COULEUR DES LARMES DE TON CORPS (2013)--ND/NF






Strand releasing has announced that this MD/NF film opens 29 August 2014 in New York at the IFC Center.

Metacritic rating (as of 4 July 2014) 56%.

[Chris Knipp]

Selects

BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI: ME AND YOU/IO E TE (2012)--FCS

US theatrical release began 4 July 2014 at Lincoln Plaza, Broadway at 62nd Street. Metacritic rating (as of 4 July) 56%. But Stephen Holden in the NY Times review 4 July 2014 was appreciative, calling it a "small, beautifully made film."

[Chris Knipp]

FABIO GRASSADONIA AND ANTIONIA PIAZZA: SALVO

22 August 2014 limited US release led to a review by Mike D'Angelo in The Dissolve. He admires the opening tour de force but finds the "descent into mawkishness" and introduction of the miracle of sight that's virtually ignored thereafter mean, as they rather do, that the second half of the film is useless. It's true Salvo is lopsided, but again, in the context of today's lame, ho-hum Italian filmmaking, the excitement and intensity of that opening and of Bakri's presence deserve more recognition than D'Angelo's stern and tidy wrapup gives them. (Salvo also stands out in a New Directors series that was a pretty mixed bag.) Whether the promise here pays off remains to be seen. Metacritic's rating of 59% shows August 2014 US reviews reviews were on the cusp of favor but not quite there. In her NY Times review (rated a 70 by Metacritic) Manohla Dargis shows some enthusiasm in her very specific observations of scenes, and she calls Bakkri " a man as beautifully sculptured and silent as a Michelangelo slab." Somehow this failure remains more memorable than a lot of successes.


SALEH BAKRI IN SALVO

[Chris Knipp]

ABDELLAH TAÏA: SALVATION ARMY (2013)

Just announced (19 Dec. 2014): It opens in New York on January 23, 2015 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.



"Winner, Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival
Official Selection, Venice Film Festival
Official Selection, New Directors/New Films
Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival"

[Chris Knipp]

YOUTH (Tom Shoval 2013)

This Israeli film about two middle class siblings who go wrong, one of my favorites of ND/NF 2014, goes into US release Friday 21 August 2015.