New York Film Festival 2019

[Chris Knipp]

BONG JOON-HO: PARASITE 기생충 (Gisaengchung) (2019)


LEE SON-KYUN AND JO YEO-JEONG IN PARASITE

Crime thriller as social commentary? Maybe not.

I've reviewed Bong's 2006 The Host ("a monster movie with a populist heart and political overtones that's great fun to watch") and his 2009 Mother which I commented had "too many surprises." (I also reviewed his 2013 Snowpiercer.) Nothing is different here except this seems to be being taken more seriously as social commentary, though it's primarily an elaborately plotted and cunningly realized violent triller, as well a monster movie where the monsters are human. It's also marred by being over long and over-plotted, making its high praise seem a bit excessive.

This new film, Bong's first in a while made at home and playing with national social issues, is about a deceitful poor family that infiltrates a rich one. It won the top award at Cannes in May 2019, just a year after the Japanese Koreeda's (more subtle and more humanistic) Palm winner about the related theme of a crooked poor family. Parasite has led to different comparisons, such as Losey's The Servant and Pasolini's Theorem. In accepting the prize, Bong himself gave a nod to Hitchcock and Chabrol. Parasite has met with nearly universal acclaim, though some critics feel it is longer and more complicated than necessary and crude in its social commentary, if its contrasting families really adds up to that. The film is brilliantly done and exquisitely entertaining half the way. Then it runs on too long and acquires an unwieldiness that makes it surprisingly flawed for a film so heaped with praise.

It's strange to compare Parasite with Losey's The Servant, in which Dick Bogarde and James Fox deliver immensely rich performances. Losey's film is a thrillingly slow-burn, subtle depiction of class interpenetration, really a psychological study that works with class, not a pointed statement about class itself. It's impossible to speak of The Servant and Parasite in the same breath.

In Parasite one can't help but enjoy the ultra-rich family's museum-piece modernist house, the score, and the way the actors are handled, but one keeps coming back to the fact that as Steven Dalton simply puts it in his Cannes Hollywood Reporter review, Parasite is "cumbersomely plotted" and "heavy-handed in its social commentary." Yet I had to go to that extremist and contrarian Armond White in National Review for a real voice of dissent. I don't agree with White's politics or his belief that Stephen Chow is a master filmmaker, but I do sympathize with being out-of-tune, like him, with all the praise of Boon's new film.

The contrast between the poor and rich family is blunt indeed, but the posh Park family doesn't seem unsubtly depicted: they're absurdly overprivileged, but don't come off as bad people. Note the con-artist Kim family's acknowledgement of this, and the mother's claim that being rich allows you to be nice, that money is like an iron that smooths out the wrinkles. This doesn't seem to be about that, mainly. It's an ingeniously twisted story of a dangerous game, and a very wicked one. Planting panties in the car to mark the chauffeur as a sexual miscreant and get him fired: not nice. Stimulating the existing housekeeper's allergy and then claiming she has TB so she'll be asked to leave: dirty pool. Not to mention before that, bringing in the sister as somebody else's highly trained art therapist relative, when all the documents are forged and the "expertise" is cribbed off the internet: standard con artistry.

The point is that the whole Kim family makes its way into the Park family's employ and intimate lives, but it is essential that they conceal that they are in any way related to each other. What Bong and his co-writer Jin Won Han are after is the depiction of a dangerous con game, motivated by poverty and greed, that titillates us with the growing risk of exposure. The film's scene-setting of the house and family is exquisite. The extraordinary house is allowed to do most of the talking. The rich family and the housekeeper are sketched in with a few deft stokes. One's only problem is first, the notion that this embodies socioeconomic commentary, and second, the overreach of the way the situation is played out, with one unnecessary coda after another till every possibility is exhausted. This is watchable and entertaining (till it's not), but it's not the stuff of a top award.

Parasite 기생충 (Gisaengchung), 132 mins., debuted in Competition at Cannes, winning the Palme d'Or best picture award. Twenty-eight other festivals followed as listed on IMDb, including New York, for which it was screened (at IFC Center Oct. 11, 2019) for the present review. Current Metascore 95%. It has opened in various countries including France, where the AlloCiné press rating soared to 4.8.


PARK SO-DAM AND CHOI WOO-SIK IN PARASITE

[Chris Knipp]

EDWARD NORTON: MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN (2019)


GUGU MBATHA-RAW AND EDWARD NORTON IN MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN

Edward Norton's passion project complicates the Jonathan Lethem novel

The NYFF Closing Night film is the premiere of Edwards Norton's adaptation, a triumph over many creative obstacles through a nine-year development time, of Jonathan Lethem's 1999 eponymous novel. It concerns Lionel Essrog (played by Norton), a man with Tourette's Syndrome who gets entangled in a police investigation using the obsessive and retentive mind that comes with his condition to solve the mystery. Much of the film, especially the first half, is dominated by Lionel's jerky motions and odd repetitive outbursts, for which he continually apologizes. Strange hero, but Lethem's creation. To go with the novel's evocation of Maltese Falcon style noir flavor, Norton has recast it from modern times to the Fifties.

Leading cast members, besides Norton himself, are Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Cherry Jones, Bobby Cannavale and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. In his recasting of the novel, as Peter Debruge explains in his Variety review, Norton makes as much use of Robert Caro's The Power Broker, about the manipulative city planner Robert Moses, a "visionary" insensitive to minorities and the poor, as of Lethem's book. Alec Baldwn's "Moses Randolph" role represents the film's Robert Moses character, who is added into the world of the original novel.

Some of the plot line may become obscure in the alternating sources of the film. But clearly Lionel Essrog, whose nervous sensibility hovers over things in Norton's voiceover, is a handicapped man with an extra ability who's one of four orphans from Saint Vincent's Orphanage in Brooklyn saved by Frank Minna (Bruce Willis), who runs a detective agency. When Minna is offed by the Mob in the opening minutes of the movie, Lionel goes chasing. Then he learns city bosses had a hand, and want to repress his efforts.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw's character, Laura Rose, who becomes a kind of love interest for Lionel Essrog, and likewise willem Dafoe's, Paul Randolph, Moses' brother and opponent, are additional key characters in the film not in the Johathan Lethem book. The cinematography is by the Mike Leigh regular (who produced the exquisite Turner), Dick Pope. He provides a lush, classic look.

Viewers will have to decide if this mixture of novel, non-fiction book and period recasting works for them or not. For many the problem is inherent in the Lethem novel, that it's a detective story where, as the original Times reviewer Albert Mobilio said, "solving the crime is beside the point." Certainly Norton has created a rich mixture, and this is a "labour of love," "as loving as it is laborious, maybe," is how the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw put it, writing (generally quite favorably) from Toronto. In her intro piece for the first part of the New York Film Festival for the Times Manohla Dargis linked it with the difficult Albert Serra'S Liberté with a one-word reaction: "oof," though she complemented these two as "choices rather than just opportunistically checked boxes." Motherless Brooklyn has many reasons for wanting to be in the New York Film Festival, and for the honor of Closing Night Film, notably the personal passion, but also the persistent rootedness in New York itself through these permutations.

Motherless Brooklyn, 144 mins., debuted at Telluride Aug. 30, 2019, showing at eight other festivals including Toronto, Vancouver, Mill Valley, and New York, where it was screened at the NYFF OCT. 11, 2019 as the Closing Night film. It opens theatrically in the US Nov. 1, 2019. Current Metascore 60%.

[Chris Knipp]

[Found also in Filmleaf's Festival Coverage section for the 2019 NYFF]

MARTIN SCORSESE: THE IRISHMAN (2019)


AL PACINO AND ROBERT DE NIRO IN THE IRISHMAN

Old song

From Martin Scorsese, who is in his late seventies, comes a major feature that is an old man's film. It's told by an old man, about old men, with old actors digitized (indifferently) to look like and play their younger selves as well. It's logical that The Irishman, about Teamsters loyalist and mob hit man Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), who became the bodyguard and then (as he tells it) the assassin of Union kingpin Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) should have been chosen as Opening Night Film of the New York Film Festival. Scorsese is very New York, even if the film is set in Detroit. He is also a good friend of Film at Lincoln Center. And a great American director with an impressive body of work behind him.

To be honest, I am not a fan of Scorsese's feature films. I do not like them. They are unpleasant, humorless, laborious and cold. I admire his responsible passion for cinema and incestuous knowledge of it. I do like his documentaries. From Fran Lebowitz's talk about the one he made about her, I understand what a meticulous, obsessive craftsman he is in all his work. He also does have a sense of humor. See how he enjoys Fran's New York wit in Public Speaking. And there is much deadpan humor in The Irishman at the expense of the dimwitted, uncultured gangsters it depicts. Screenwriter Steven Zaillian's script based on Charles Brandt's book about Sheeran concocts numerous droll deadpan exchanges. It's a treat belatedly to see De Niro and Pacino acting together for the first time in extended scenes.

The Irishman is finely crafted and full of ideas and inspires many thoughts. But I found it monotonous and overlong - and frankly overrated. American film critics are loyal. Scorsese is an icon, and they feel obligated, I must assume, to worship it. He has made a big new film in his classic gangster vein, so it must be great. The Metascore, 94%, nonetheless is an astonishment. Review aggregating is not a science, but the makers of these scores seem to have tipped the scales. At least I hope more critics have found fault with The Irishman than that. They assign 80% ratings to some reviews that find serious fault, and supply only one negative one (Austin Chronicle, Richard Whittaker). Of course Armond White trashes the movie magnificently in National Review ("Déjà Vu Gangsterism"), but that's outside the mainstream mediocre media pale.

Other Scorsese stars join De Niro and Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel. This is a movie of old, ugly men. Even in meticulously staged crowd scenes, there is not one young or handsome face. Women are not a factor, not remotely featured as in Jonathan Demme's delightful Married to the Mob. There are two wives often seen, in the middle distance, made up and coiffed to the kitsch nines, in expensive pants suits, taking a cigarette break on car trips - it's a thing. But they don't come forward as characters. Note also that out of loyalty to his regulars, Scorsese uses an Italo-American actor to play an Irish-American. There's a far-fetched explanation of Frank's knowledge of Italian, but his Irishness doesn't emerge - just another indication of how monochromatic this movie is.

It's a movie though, ready to serve a loyal audience with ritual storytelling and violence, providing pleasures in its $140 million worth of production values in period feel, costumes, and snazzy old cars (though I still long for a period movie whose vehicles aren't all intact and shiny). This is not just a remake. Its very relentlessness in showing Frank's steady increments of slow progress up the second-tier Teamsters and mafia outsider functionary ladders is something new. But it reflects Scorsese's old worship of toughs and wise guys and seeming admiration for their violence.

I balk at Scorsese's representing union goons and gangsters as somehow heroic and tragic. Metacritic's only critic of the film, Richard Whittiker of the Austen Chronicle, seems alone in recognizing that this is not inevitable. He points out that while not "lionizing" mobsters, Scorsese still "romanticizes" them as "flawed yet still glamorous, undone by their own hubris." Whittiker - apparently alone in this - compares this indulgent touch with how the mafia is shown in "the Italian poliziotteschi," Italian Years of Lead gang films that showed them as "boors, bullies, and murderers, rather than genteel gentlemen who must occasionally get their hands dirty and do so oh-so-begrudgingly." Whittiker calls Scorsese's appeal to us to feel Sheeran's "angst" when he's being flown in to kill "his supposed friend" (Hoffa) "a demand too far."

All this reminded me of a richer 2019 New York Film Festival mafia experience, Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor/Il traditore, the epic, multi-continent story of Tommaso Buscetta, the first big Italian mafia figure who chose to turn state's witness. This is a gangster tale that has perspective, both morally and historically. And I was impressed that Pierfrancesco Favino, the star of the film, who gives a career-best performance as Buscetta, strongly urged us both before and after the NYFF public screening to bear in mind that these mafiosi are small, evil, stupid men. Coppola doesn't see that, but he made a glorious American gangster epic with range and perspective. In another format, so did David Chase om the 2000-2007 HBO epic, "The Sopranos." Scprsese has not done so. Monotonously, and at overblown length, he has once again depicted Italo-Americans as gangsters, and (this time) unions as gangs of thugs.

The Irishman, 209 mins,. debuted at New York as Opening Night Film; 15 other international festivals, US theatrical release Nov. 1, wide release in many countries online by Netflix Nov. 27. Metascore 94%.

[Chris Knipp]

KLEBER MENDOÇA FILHO, JULIANO DORNELLES: BACURAU (2019)


SONIA BRAGA (CENTER) IN BACURAU

Not just another Cannes mistake?

This is a bold film for an arthouse filmmaker to produce, and it has moments of rawness and unpredictability that are admirable. But it seems at first hand to be possibly a misstep both for the previously much subtler chronicler of social and political unease as seen in the 2011 Neighboring Sopunds and 2016 Aquarius, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and for Cannes, which may have awarded novelty rather than mastery in giving it half of the 2019 Jury Prize. It's a movie that excites and then delivers a series of scenes of growing disappointment and repugnance. But I'm not saying it won't surprise and awe you.

Let's begin with where we are, which is the Brazilian boonies. Bacurau was filmed in the village of Barra in the municipality of Parelhas and in the rural area of the municipality of Acari, at the Sertão do Seridó region, in Rio Grande do Norte. Mendonça Filho shares credit this time with his regular production designer Juliano Dornelles. (They both came originally from this general region, is one reason.) The Wikipedia article introduces it as a "Brazilian weird western film" and its rural shootout, its rush of horses, its showdowns, and its truckload of coffins may indeed befit that peculiar genre.

How are we to take the action? In his Hollywood Reporter review, Stephen Dalton surprises me by asserting that this third narrative feature "strikes a lighter tone" than the first two and combines "sunny small-town comedy with a fable-like plot" along with "a sprinkle of magic realism." This seems an absurdly watered down description, but the film is many things to many people because it embodies many things. In an interview with Emily Buder, Mendoça Filho himself describes it as a mix of "spaghetti Western, '70's sci-fi, social realist drama, and political satire."

The film feels real enough to be horrifying, but it enters risky sci-fi horror territory with its futuristic human hunting game topic, which has been mostly an area for schlock. (See a list of ten, with the 1932 Most Dangerous Game given as the trailblazer.) However, we have to acknowledge that Mendonca Filho is smart enough to know all this and may want to use the schlock format for his own sophisticated purpose. But despite Mike D'Angelo's conclusion on Letterboxd that the film may "require a second viewing following extensive reading" due to its rootedness in Brazilian politics, the focus on American imperialists and brutal outside exploiters from the extreme right isn't all that hard to grasp.

Bacurau starts off as if it means to be an entertainment, with conventional opening credits and a pleasant pop song celebrating Brazil, but that is surely ironic. A big water truck rides in rough, arriving with three bullet holes spewing agua that its driver hasn't noticed. (The road was bumpy.) There is a stupid, corrupt politician, mayor Tony Jr. (Thardelly Lima), who is complicit in robbing local areas of their water supply and who gets a final comeuppance. The focus is on Bacurau, a little semi-abandoned town in the north whose 94-year-old matriarch Carmelita dies and gets a funeral observation in which the whole town participates, though apart the ceremony's strange magic realist aspects Sonia Braga, as a local doctor called Domingas, stages a loud scene because she insists that the deceased woman was evil. Then, with some, including Carmelita's granddaughter Teresa (Barbara Colen), returned to town from elsewhere, along with the handsome Pacote (Tomaso Aquinas) and a useful psychotic local killer and protector of water rights called Lunga (Silvero Pereira), hostile outsiders arrive, though as yet unseen. Their forerunners are a colorfully costumed Brazilian couple in clownish spandex suits on dustrider motorcycles who come through the town. When they're gone, it's discovered seven people have been shot.

They were an advance crew for a gang of mostly American white people headed by Michael (Udo Kier), whose awkward, combative, and finally murderous conference we visit. This is a bad scene in more ways than one: it's not only sinister and racist, but clumsy, destroying the air of menace and unpredictability maintained in the depiction of Bacurau scenes. But we learn the cell phone coverage of the town has been blocked, it is somehow not included on maps, and communications between northern and southern Brazil are temporarily suspended, so the setting is perfect for this ugly group to do what they've come for, kill locals for sport using collectible automatic weapons. Overhead there is a flying-saucer-shaped drone rumbling in English. How it functions isn't quite clear, but symbolically it refers to American manipulation from higher up. The way the rural area is being choked off requires no mention of Brazil's new right wing strong man Jair Bolsonaro and the Amazonian rain forest.

"They're not going to kill a kid," I said as a group of local children gather, the most normal, best dressed Bacurauans on screen so far, and play a game of dare as night falls to tease us, one by one creeping as far as they can into the dark. But sure enough, a kid gets shot. At least even the bad guys agree this was foul play. And the bad guys get theirs, just as in a good Western. But after a while, the action seems almost too symbolically satisfying - though this is achieved with good staging and classic visual flair through zooms, split diopter effects, Cinemascope, and other old fashioned techniques.

I'm not the only one finding Bacurau intriguing yet fearing that it winds up being confused and all over the place. It would work much better if it were dramatically tighter. Peter DeBruge in Variety notes that the filmakers "haven’t figured out how to create that hair-bristling anticipation of imminent violence that comes so naturally to someone like Quentin Tarantino." Mere vague unexpectedness isn't scary, and all the danger and killing aren't wielded as effectively as they should be to hold our attention and manipulate our emotions.

Bacurau, 131 mins., debuted in Competition at Cannes, where it tied for the Jury Prize with the French film, Ladj Ly's Les misérables. Many other awards and at least 31 other festivals including the NYFF. Metascore 74%. AlloCiné press rating 3.8, with a rare rave from Cahiers du Cinéma. US theatrical distribution by Kino Lorber began Mar. 13, 2020, but due to general theater closings caused by the coronavirus pandemic the company launched a "virtual theatrical exhibition initiative," Kino Marquee, with this film from Mar. 19.

[Chris Knipp]

BERTRAND BONELLO: ZOMBI CHILD (2019)


LOUISE LABEQUE AND WISLANDA LOUIMAT (FAR RIGHT) IN ZOMBI CHILD

Voodoo comes to Paris

If you said Betrand Bonello's films are beautiful, sexy, and provocative you would not be wrong. This new, officially fifth feature (I've still not seen his first one, the 2008 On War), has those elements. Its imagery, full of deep contrasts, can only be described as lush. Its intertwined narrative is puzzling as well.

We're taken right away to Haiti and plunged into the world of voodoo and zombies. Ground powder from the cut-up body of a blowfish is dropped, unbeknownst to him, into a man's shoes. Walking in them, he soon falters and falls. Later, he's aroused from death to the half-alive state of a zombie - and pushed into a numb, helpless labor in the hell of a a sugar cane field with other victims of the same cruel enchantment. In time however something arouses him to enough life to escape.

Some of the Haitian sequences center around a moonlit cemetery whose large tombs seem airy and haunted and astonishingly grand for what we know as the poorest country in the hemisphere.

From the thumping, vibrant ceremonies of Haitian voodoo (Bonello's command of music is always fresh and astonishing as his images are lush and beautiful) we're rushed to the grandest private boarding school you've ever seen, housed in vast stone government buildings. This noble domaine was established by Napoleon Bonaparte on the edge of Paris, in Saint Denis, for the education of children of recipients of the Legion of Honor. It really exists, and attendance there is still on an honorary basis.

Zombi Child oscillates between girls in this very posh Parisian school and people in Haiti. But these are not wholly separate places. A story about a Haitian grandfather (the zombie victim, granted a second life) and his descendants links the two strains. It turns out one of those descendants, Mélissa (Wislanda Louimat), is a new student at the school. A white schoolgirl, Fanny (the dreamy Louise Labeque), who's Mélissa's friend and sponsors her for membership in a sorority, while increasingly possessed by a perhaps imaginary love, also bridges the gap. For the sorority admission Mélissa confesses the family secret of a zombi and voodoo knowledge in her background.

Thierry Méranger of Cahiers du Cinéma calls this screenplay "eminently Bonellian in its double orientation," its "interplay of echoes" between "radically different" worlds designed to "stimulate the spectator's reflection." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times bluntly declares that it's meant to "interrogate the bitter legacy of French colonialism."

But how so? And if so, this could be a tricky proposition. On NPR Andrew Lapin was partly admiring of how "cerebral and slippery" the film is, but suggests that since voodoo and zombies are all most white people "already know" about Haitian culture, a director coming from Haiti's former colonizing nation (France) must do "a lot of legwork to use these elements successfully in a "fable" where "the real horror is colonialism." The posh school comes from Napoleon, who coopted the French revolution, and class scenes include a history professor lecturing on this and how "liberalism obscures liberty."

I'm more inclined to agree with Glenn Kenny's more delicately worded praise in his short New York Times review of the film where he asserts that the movie’s inconclusiveness is the source of its appeal. Zombi Child, he says, is fueled by insinuation and fascination. The fascination, the potent power, of the occult, that's what Haiti has that the first wold lacks.

One moment made me authentically jump, but Bonello isn't offering a conventional horror movie. He's more interested in making his hints of voodoo's power and attraction, even for the white lovelorn schoolgirl, seem as convincing as his voodoo ceremonies, both abroad and back in Haiti, feel thoroughly attractive, or scary, and real. These are some of the best voodoo scenes in a movie. This still may seem like a concoction to you. Its enchantments were more those of the luxuriant imagery, the flowing camerawork, the delicious use of moon- and candle-light, the beautiful people, of whatever color. This is world-class filmmaking even if it's not Bonello's best work.

Bonello stages things, gets his actors to live them completely, then steps back and lets it happen. Glenn Kenny says his "hallmark" is his "dreamy detachment." My first look at that was the 2011 House of Tolerence (L'Apollonide - mémoires de la maison close), which I saw in Paris, a languorous immersion in a turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel, intoxicating, sexy, slightly repugnant. Next came his most ambitious project, Saint Laurent(2014), focused on a very druggy period in the designer's career and a final moment of decline. He has said this became a kind of matching panel for Apollonide. (You'll find that in an excellent long Q&A after the NYFF screening.) Saint Laurent's "forbidden" (unsanctioned) picture of the fashion house is as intoxicating, vibrant, and cloying as the maison close, with its opium, champagne, disfigurement and syphilis. No one can say Gaspard Ulliel wasn't totally immersed in his performance. Nocturama (2016) takes a group of wild young people who stage a terrorist act in Paris, who seem to run aground in a posh department store at the end, Bonello again getting intense action going and then seeming to leave it to its own devices, foundering. Those who saw the result as "shallow cynicism" (like A.O. Scott) missed how exciting and powerful it was. (Mike D'Angelo didn't.)

Zombi Child is exciting at times too. But despite its gorgeous imagery and sound, its back and forth dialectic seems more artificial and calculating than Bonello's previous films.

Zombi Child, mins., debuted at Cannes Directors Fortnight May 2019, included in 13 other international festivals, including Toronto and New York. It released theatrically in France Jun. 12, 2020 (AlloCiné press rating 3.7m 75%) and in the US Jan. 24, 2020 (Metascore 75%). Now available in "virtual theater" through Film Movement (Mar. 23-May 1, 2020), which benefits the theater of your choice. https://www.filmmovement.com/zombi-child

[Chris Knipp]

OLIVIER ASSAYAS: WASP NETWORK (2019)


GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL AND PENELOPE CRUZ IN WASP NETWORK

Spies nearby

The is a movie about the Cuban spies sent to Miami to combat anti-Castro Cuban-American groups, and their capture. They are part of what the Cubans called La Red Avispa (The Wasp Network). The screenplay is based on the book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War by Fernando Morais, and it's mainly from the Wasp, Cuban point of view, not the FBI point of view. Unlike the disastrous Seberg, no time is spent looking over the shoulders of G-men, nor will this story give any pleasure to right wing Miami Cubans. But it won't delight leftists much either, or champions of the Cuban Five. The issues of why one might leave Cuba and why one might choose not to are treated only superficially. There's no analysis of US behavior toward Cuba since the revolution.

On the plus side, the film is made in an impeccable, clear style (with one big qualification: see below) and there's an excellent cast with as leads Edgar Ramirez (of the director's riveting miniseries Carlos), Penelope Cruz (Almodóvar's muse), Walter Moura (Escobar in the Netflix series "Narcos"), Ana de Armas (an up-and-comer who's actually Cuban but lives in Hollywood now), and Gael García Bernal (he of course is Mexican, Moura is Brazilian originally, and Ramirez is Venezuelan). They're all terrific, and other cast members shine. Even a baby is so amazing I thought she must be the actress' real baby.

Nothing really makes sense for the first hour. We don't get the whole picture, and we never do, really. We focus on René Gonzalez (Édgar Ramirez), a Puerto Rican-born pilot living in Castro’s Cuba and fed up with it, or the brutal embargo against Castro by the US and resulting shortage of essential goods and services, who suddenly steals a little plane and flies it to Miami, leaving behind his wife Olga and young daughter. Olga is deeply shocked and disappointed to learn her husband is a traitor. He has left without a word to her. Born in Chicago, he was already a US citizen and adapts easily, celebrated as an anti-Castro figure.

We also follow another guy, Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura) who escapes Havana by donning snorkel gear and swimming to Guantanamo, not only a physical challenge but riskier because prison guards almost shoot him dead when he comes out of the water. Roque and Gonzalez are a big contrast. René is modest, content with small earnings, and starts flying for a group that rescues Cuban defectors arriving by water. Juan Pablo immediately woos and marries the beautiful Ana Marguerita Martinez (Ana de Armas) and, as revealed by an $8,000 Rolex, is earning big bucks but won't tell Ana how. This was the first time I'd seen Wagner Moura, an impressively sly actor who as Glenn Kenny says, "can shift from boyish to sinister in the space of a single frame" - and that's not the half of it.

This is interesting enough to keep us occupied but it's not till an hour into the movie, with a flashback to four years earlier focused on Cuban Gerardo Hernandez (Garcia Bernal) that we start to understand something of what is going on. We learn about the CANF and Luis Posada Carriles (Tony Plana), and a young man's single-handed effort to plant enough bombs to undermine the entire Cuban tourist business. This late-arriving exposition for me had a deflating and confounding effect. There were still many good scenes to follow. Unfortunately despite them, and the good acting, there is so much exposition it's hard to get close to any of the individual characters or relationships.

At the moment I'm an enthusiastic follower of the FX series "The Americans." It teaches us that in matters of espionage, it's good to have a firm notion of where the main characters - in that case "Phillip" and "Elizabeth" - place their real, virtually unshakable loyalties, before moving on. Another example of which I'm a longtime fan is the spy novels of John le Carré. You may not be sure who's loyal, but you always know who's working for British Intelligence, even in the latest novel the remarkable le Carré, who at 88, has just produced (Agent Running in the Field - for which he's performed the audio version, and no one does that better). To be too long unclear about these basics in spydom is fatal.

It's said that Assayas had a lot of trouble making Wasp Network, which has scenes shot in Cuba in it. At least the effort doesn't show. We get a glimpse of Clinton (this happened when he was President) and Fidel, who, in a hushed voice, emphatically, asserts his confidence that the Red Avispa was doing the right thing and that the Americans should see that. Whose side do you take?

Wasp Network, 123 mins., debuted at Venice and showed at about ten other international festivals including Toronto, New York, London and Rio. It was released on Netflix Jun. 19, 2019, and that applies to many countries (13 listed on IMDb). Metascore 54%

[Chris Knipp]

TARIK SALEH: CAIRO CONSPIRACY (2022)


FARES FARES, TAWFEEK BARHOUM IN CAIRO CONSPIRACY

Intrigues between centers of political and religious power in Egypt

TRAILER
INTERVIEW

Tarik Saleh proposes that the grand imam of Al Azhar, the ancient center of Muslim authority and learning in Cairo founded in 970 AD, dies and an el-Sisi-like head of state seeks to influence the choice of a successor through inserting a spy- manipulator. The neat and intricate if somewhat fishy plot, initially inspired by Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, won Saleh the screenplay award at Cannes.

Its Arabic title translates as "Boy from Heaven," but here it's called Cairo Conspiracy, La Conspiration du Caire in French. The French title of his 2017 film, which also has a breathless criminal action noir quality, is Le Caire Confidentiel, The Nile Hotel Incident over here. These films are breathless and fascinating but for some reason don't leave a very strong impression. This may come partly from their being fabulously skillful mockups of Cairo, made from far away: Saleh, a Swedish citizen born with of an Egyptian father, is persona non grata in Egypt and can't set foot there. The other reason is that the plotting is intricate, but at some points neither convincing nor possible to follow, and at one remove from personal emotion. Nonetheless this is a very watchable film and was a hit at Cannes for good reason.

Cairo Conspiracy was made in Turkey and Sweden. This is what movies do, but it's still fascinating and amazing. How did Saleh make the street scenes look so much like Cairo? How did did he recreate Al Azhar, with its hundreds of religious students in their red-banded turbans and prim outfits? Egypt's security ministry building? Cairo's government leaders and staff aren't as tricky a feat of mise en scène mockup, but where did he get all these Egyptian, or Egyptian-sounding, actors speaking Eghptian dialect with Egyptian accents? These are questions to be resolved in interviews. (All Arabs watch a lot of Egyptian films, so that helps.) But at the end, this is a movie seeking to achieve present-day authenticity about Egypt, but it is not an Egyptian film.

For those aware of all this it is fascinating, but can be distracting. Nonetheless Saleh tells a good story. All the actors are good. There are some minor turns that are delicious, but in the foreground are the young, innocent Qur'anic scholar, son of a Nile Delta fisherman from Manzala, Adam Tahar (the world-weary, forever put-upon Tawfeek Barhom), and the jaded government security operative, Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares, who played the very different-looking inspector in Saleh's previous film), who corrupts Adam by manipulating him. But there other marvelous actors who play the main Al Azhar imam-teachers, the chief candidates to be the new grand imam. They sit in the Al Azhar mosque courtyard with their "halaqa" of student-acolytes around them, and each one gets to give a brief speech showing their very different world-views. When did religious philosophy get so prominently placed in an action film? It's thrilling and cool.

So is the way we think back and realize that everything was manipulated from the moment that Adam learns from his local imam that he's been awarded a scholarship to the ancient place of Muslim learning. And the way thought there is not much violence, and that at arm's length, yet there is a sense of constant danger, and Saleh reinhabits dozens of classics here about young innocents who slip, in spite of themselves, into sophistication, danger, and power.

The reviews often brand the plot as routine, following a "familiar template," but the art of narrative is in telling old tales in new ways We have seen plenty of intrigues, but we have never seen young men sitting around in circles in the courtyard of Al Azhar as the center of an intense government-planned coup.

Maybe Tarik Saleh loves genre too much (not that denies that; he warmly affirms it in interviews). But there is no other way he could have told this story. Maybe this is, technically, not an Egyptian film: but it's the most Egyptian film the international audience may ever see. He may be too ingenious a constructor of plots. (Surprisingly, he has direct family connections with this one, with Manzala and with Al Azhar.) But this is what he does.

Now. He first appeared in the 1980's as one of the most known graffiti artists of Stockholm. He made a number of documentaries, then turned to features in 2009, 2014 (the Chris Pine-featured English language film The Contractor) and 2017 (The Nile Hilton Hotel incident).

Cairo Conspiracy/ ولد من الجنة (walad min al-jinna, "Boy from Heaven"), 126 mins., in Arabic, debuted at Cannes in Competition (Best Screenplay award); over thirty other international festivals including Melbourne, Zurich, London, Busan, Stockholm, Oslo, MIll Valley, and MoMA the Contenders; US theatrical release Dec. 2, 2022. Available on multiple platforms. Watched on Amazon Prime Nov. 26, 2023. Metacritic rating: 72%. French theatrical release Oct. 26, 2022 (AlloCiné press rating 3.8 - 76%)e

[Chris Knipp]

EMERALD FENNELL: SALTBURN (@20230


BARRY KEOGHAN IN SALTBURN

Summer in the country

One can't give Emerald Fennell's new movie Saltburn a pass. There is too much that's wrong with it. But it held my interest more than I had been led to expect. Its decadence-porn may qualify it as a guilty pleasure. You may remember Fennell's debut, Promising Young Woman, starring Carey Mulligan, which held everyone's attention and got won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.. This one doesn't go for men but for a small segment of the English upper class who can still live poshly on ancestral estates. The shots are crude and it's not clear why they're being fired at this late date. Fennell's desire is to shock, to hold the attention. Those are more important aims for her than being convincing. But she does succeed at those aims. This is one not to miss for fans of British "eat the rich" films and for admirers of Barry Keoghan. Keoghan has shone so often in minor roles - he likes to get your attention too - and here, as in Yorgos Lanthimos' Killing of a Sacred Deer, he gets a juicier role. The final sequence, in which he dances naked from room to room to room enfilade in a great mansion, is so well done it's almost worth sitting through the film for it. Fennell forgets the point. What the hell! It's just a trip.

First year Oxford student Oliver Quick (Keoghan) wangles a summer invitation to the stately home of classmate Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). It's 2006 - so everything isn't traded around instantly on social media quite yet; but the date may also simply fit Fennell's own youth. She's reported to come from wealth, but not exactly blue blood, so there may be complicated feelings. It seems Oliver is to be a toy and amusement for Felix and his family. He is flattered - but he has other plans.

All we know is that Oliver is enamored of Felix, or of his looks, his aristocratic ease, his circle of admirers. There's a title, plenty of money, and the stately home, which turns out to be very grand indeed and equipped with butler and footmen and a boxwood maze. They dress for dinner - black tie and all that. The budget was grander than for Promising Young Woman and included funds for some fancy entertaining, a big birthday party in costume. It starts out like Bridehead Revisited, or rather a crude parody of Waugh and his novel's handsome film and television adaptations. It winds up being something rather like Highsmith's often-filmed Talented Mr. Ripley.

Saltburn has parents and a sister for Felix and assorted hangers-on. There is "Poor Dear Pamela," which brings back Carey Mulligan for a brief appearance, but you are more strongly advised to look for her as Leonard Bernstein's South American wife in Maestro, a wonderful performance in one of the best American films of the year. You are better off seeing Jacob Elordi in Sofia Coppola's new film, Priscilla, playing Elvis. Both roles are superficial and both Elvis and Felix are schticks, but Priscilla is the better film. The Australian-born Elordi does have a Greek god quality, but doesn't that suit Elvis better than an English aristocrat?

Perhaps Elordi got the role more for being upper-storey than for being upper-class: he is nearly ten inches taller than the diminutive Keoghan, whose smallness and inferiority are often stressed in Saltburn - except when they're not. This film is marred by limited and inconsistent characterizations. But this is still a juicy role for the Irish actor, and Oliver Quick (the name a Dickensian twist) is somebody we learn we didn't really know at all. Sometimes he is made to look godlike, and besides the final naked romp is flatteringly shown earlier shirtless and buff.

The excellent cinematography of Linus Sandgren in 4:3 ratio has a misty, pictorial quality that glamorizes everything too much for satire, but is a pleasure in itself. Sometimes there's a dark surreal beauty that reminded me of baroque black and white films like Albicocco's La fille aux yeux d'or. The way the film is allowed such flourishes is one sign that the "eat the rich" theme blurs into "gobble up the rich." The shocks, often involving consumption of body fluids, come at no logical moments, nor do the flashes of loud early 2000's indie pop music, though said to be well chosen.

There are nice turns by Richard E. Grant as Sir James, Felix's father, and Rosamund Pike, as Elspeth, his mother. Alison Oliver has an important role as his sister Venitia, with whom Oliver has a dangerous and kinky flirtation. I have mixed feelings about Archie Madekwe as Farleigh, another Oxford student guest at Saltburn. Farleigh is supposed to be an upperclass American and exists only to taunt Oliver - and to himself (spoiler alert) later be cut down. Fennell is taking crude pot shots. But remember - it's fun.

This is a role that Barry Keoghan was born to play - ten years ago. He is superb except that he is 31. Elordi is too old too, but is five years younger. I just came from watching the Swedish Netflix series "Young Royals," where all the teenagers are played by teenagers, and even when they're good looking, have adolescent skin. When someone tells Oliver he's "real," it rings false. No one at Brideshead ever told Charles Ryder he was "real." Those were better days.

Saltburn, 127 mins.,, debuted at Telluride Sept. 23, 2023, showing also at other festivals including BFI London, Zurich, Mill Valley and Stockholm. US and UK openings Nov. 17, 2023. Metacritic rating: 60%.

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritic ratings of NYFF 2022 Films and links to reviews

Opening Night
“White Noise”
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Metacritic: 66%

Centerpiece
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
Dir. Laura Poitras
Metacritic: 90%

Closing Night
“The Inspection”
Dir. Elegance Bratton
Metacritic: 73%

NYFF 60th Anniversary Celebration
“Armageddon Time”
Dir. James Gray
Metacritic: 74%

“Aftersun”
Dir. Charlotte Wells
Metacritic: 95%

“Alcarràs”
Dir. Carla Simón
Metacritic: 85%

“All That Breathes”
Dir. Shaunak Sen
Metacritic: 87%

“Corsage”
Dir. Marie Kreutzer
Metacritic: 76%

“A Couple”
Dir. Frederick Wiseman
Metacritic: 74%

“De Humani Corporis Fabrica”
Dir. Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Metacritic: tbd

“Decision to Leave”
Dir. Park Chan-wook
Metacritic: 84%

“Descendant”
Dir. Margaret Brown
Metacritic: 87%

“Enys Men”
Dir. Mark Jenkin
Metacritic: 77%

“EO”
Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
Metacritic: 85%

“The Eternal Daughter”
Dir. Joanna Hogg
Metacritic: 80%

“Master Gardener”
Dir. Paul Schrader
Metacritic: 59

“No Bears”
Dir. Jafar Panahi
Metacritic: 92%

“The Novelist’s Film”
Dir. Hong Sangsoo
Metacritic: 82%

“One Fine Morning”
Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve
Metacritic: 85%

“Pacifiction”
Dir. Albert Serra
Metacritic: 79%

“R.M.N.”
Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Metacritic: 75%

“Return to Seoul”
Dir. Davy Chou
Metacritic: 88%

“Saint Omer”
Dir. Alice Diop
Metacritic: 91%

“Scarlet”
Dir. Pietro Marcello
Metacritic: 69%

“Showing Up”
Dir. Kelly Reichardt
Metacritic: 81%

“Stars at Noon”
Dir. Claire Denis
Metacritic: 64%

“Stonewalling”
Dir. Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka
Metacritic: tbd

“TÁR”
Dir. Todd Field
Metacritic: 92%

“Trenque Lauquen”
Dir. Laura Citarella
Metacritic: tbd

“Triangle of Sadness”
Dir. Ruben Östlund
Metacritic: 63%

“Unrest”
Dir. Cyril Schäublin
Metacritic: tbd

“Walk Up”
Dir. Hong Sangsoo
Metacritic: 86%

[Chris Knipp]

MAKBUL MUBARAK: AUTOBIOGRAPHY (2022)


ARWENDY BENING SWARA, KEVIN ARDILOVA IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

In the belly of the beast

Haunting, scary, and meticulous, Autobiography is a superb thriller from Indonesia about moral and political corruption. It's a hypnotic coming of age tale, slow and precise but breathtaking. In a way it is metaphorical, but it's tactile and specific. This debut feature marks first time director Makbul Mubarak as one to watch with interest. It's about - what? - the grooming of a servant, a right hand man, a successor, an assassin, an ally, an enemy? The ambiguity is hypnotic and fascinating in a story that's as much about corrupt and corrupting power all over today's world as it is specifically about the evil legacy of Indonesia's Suharto.

At the outset the meek, quiet young Rakib, aka "Kib" (Kevin Ardilova) is caretaking a large mansion. A shy fellow, he's happy here, and it annoys him when Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara), the owner, arrives to occupy it. But it's not only his; it's ancestral. Kib's family has served his for generations, and with the boy's father in prison and his brother abroad, he's he only one left to play this subservient role. A general who's just retired from the military, Purna is now turning to politics and running for local mayor. As he moves in on the mansion, his influence infiltrating the whole region, he takes over Kib as well. The two are, from now on, constantly together.

The action feels slow at first. Mubarak is careful to weave in a foundation of atmosphere, which is steamy and dark, embracing and cozy in a creepy way. It's not always good to notice technical details like the cinematography of a film right away, but the work of dp Wojciech Staroń has a dark, tactile beauty one can't help savoring from early on. As one also savors the baroque, complex sets of the looming house and crowded street scenes, the sparing, quietly haunting score and the rich, subtly invasive sound design. And all the while one is watching Pema and Kib as they circle around each other. It wouldn't work unless both actors were compulsively watchable. But they are.

Purna is mounting a political campaign but also has a hydroelectric project, and the latter will displace many local citizens' businesses. Going to meetings and canvassing the area, Purna uses Kib as butler, chauffeur, cook, companion, surrogate son - he has never had a son of his own, only three daughters. He is intimate with Kib, uncomfortably so, with too many touches and moments of leaving hand on shoulder or back just a little too long - and in one unforgettably uncomfortable scene, walking in and manually showering Kib, like a child: he also behaves as if he owns the young man.

In fact he does not know the difference between love, ownership, and exploitation. And yet he flatters the young man with the intimacy he offers, playing chess with him and even cooking for him on occasion. Every gesture is both meaningful and ambiguous, kind and potentially hurtful. Mubarak's control in all this is breathtaking.

Once things are set up, the cut to the chase is rapid. When Kib is driving Purna and backs into a small mosque, Purna has him get out and apologize to complaining locals. This works well enough with the old man's menacing presence: everybody is afraid of him and knows who he is. "Sorry" is "a little word that turns rage into gentleness," says Purna, to explain. Purna gets Kib to track Agus (Yusuf Mahardika), a young man much like himself, who has vandalized one of his campaign posters, and lure him to the mansion to apologize. Kip thinks this will be like the scene at the mosque, but Purna shuts Kib out and beats Agus brutally, leaving him for dead. Agus, of course, was one whose family business will be destroyed by Purna's corrupt hydroelectric project.

By now we are on the edge of our seats, have been so for a while. Every moment is more fraught and scary than the last. Kib is shocked and terrified and says he will resign. But he does not, cannot. His father, in prison, appears spectrally to advise him to stay where he is and enjoy it. That over-intimate shower takes place after the tragedy of Agus. As things have progressed, Kib has already changed rapidly. Being with Purna all the time, he has, stealthily, become him. When Purna gives him a lesson with a precision rifle, Kib shows natural skill. He beams whenever praised by Purna, smokes cigarettes ostentatiously in his presence. and has begun to walk with a swagger.

After the horrific beating, Kip continues to cooperate, but draws inward. That is, the actor Kevin Ardilova does so for us. Through the course of the film he takes us through many subtle changes which we watch for with rapt attention - as we do for the older actor Arswendy Bening Swara's unnerving alternations of charm and menace. When we know what a monster Purna truly is, it's wonderfully creepy to see him playing the jolly family man, or the benevolent leader. Now we know tings are different, and the tension and suspense, building all along, grow greater than ever.

We'll leave things here. The rest, with the skillfully surreal finale, is too good to spoil.

A stunning first film. Enormous thought, wisdom and observation of power at the intimate and collective levels have gone into this. Mubarak has put Indonesian cinema on the map.

Autobiography, 115 mins., debuted at Venice in the Orizonti and Parallel sections, winning the FIPRESCI prize; the film went on to show at Toronto, Hamburg, Busan, and many other festivals, including London, Tokyo, Taipei, and New Directors/New Films in New York, receiving nominations and prizes along the way. Admiring reviews came at the outset from, among others, Jessica Kiang in Variety (" Sleek, Sinuous Thriller Delves Into Indonesia’s Heart of Darkness"), Allan Hunter in ScreenDaily, Damon Wise in Deadline ("A taut and elegantly staged two-hander that transcends regional politics to make a profound comment on the state of the world today"). Autobiography is Indonesia's 2024 Official Oscar Entry.

[Chris Knipp]

NICOLE NEWHAM: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE (2023)



A feminist writer's great fame and later trouble

There is nothing original about the method of this documentary, but it successfully blends archival clips and current talking heads to bring back to awareness a researcher and writer about sexuality of the seventies and eighties who became a famous figure and played a part in the women's movement but now seems relatively forgotten, even though her books remain in print, worldwide.

Hite's first and most famous book, The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, first published in 1976 and republished even today and in many languages, was groundbreaking, made her well off (for a while anyway) and famous, and is listed as around the 30th most widely published book in the world. But things eventually went wrong, hence the "disappearance" of the title.

The Hite Report is a title that echoes The Kinsey Report. Building on Kinsey and Masters and Johnson, Hite sent out thousands of mimeographed questionnaires of which perhaps twenty percent were returned to her. The book looked into female sexuality from individual experience and found much that was not then widely known. It emphasized that vaginal orgasm was a myth and that women got a great deal more pleasure from masturbation than from intercourse. Her soft voiced use of words like "clitoris," "orgasm," and "masturbation" sent out shock waves on natinoal TV. The findings and emphases fit in with feminism and the women's movement. Some men, of course, took no interest or uneasily looked the other way, though they actively took arms or began debunking both Hite and her work only when she began writing about men.

The most interesting and colorful part of the film depicts Hite's early days in New York. She was a graduate student but worked at many jobs. It was the seventies. People who knew her then talk about how she struggled to support herself, especially doing modeling, some very artistic, working with several fine photographers who became close friends; others for James Bond covers and Olivetti became famous. She was never not striking and stylish. She also did some of her sexual study research while working at the Natinal Organization of Women (NOW). So much was going on. She had tremendous drive and focus. There were a number of men in her life and we hear from them now. When she became a success she left her rat-and-roach-infested Central Park West basement apartment and took a beautiful Fifth Avenue ground floor one that she decorated in baroque splendor and lived in with the German classical pianist whom she married. It would be a pretty interesting life even without the groundbreaking writing, the super-bestseller, and the notoriety. Shere Hite is just a striking cultural figure, a biographical goldmine only touched on here, starting with the strawberry blonde red hair and ivory skin and lovely clothes and moving on to the extraordinarily bold, groundbreaking books.

Hite had been deserted early by both parents and raised by grandparents in Florida, and after college there did graduate work at Columbia University, reportedly interested in "the French Revolution, classical music and Balkan farming," which she abandoned, according to her, due to the chauvinism of her male academic supervisors. Her work showed intelligence and high seriousness, which some men disbelieved in due to her beauty and sexiness. She published a number of other books and was a respected contributor to the feminist movement. We hear from some of her close movement associates and friends of the time. We also hear from a number of her boyfriends, who are interesting people. One book in particular, published by Knopf (we hear detailed comments on this débâcle from both her editor and her publicist there), also based on questionnaires, was about male sexuality and male emotional lives, which she found to be lonely and frustrated. This report received many negative reactions, among men at least. The backlash against feminism is underlined here by clip passages about the anti-feminism of the Christian right highlighted by the media dominance of Anita Bryant and the success of an abuser of women like Clarance Thomas getting confirmed for appointment to the Supreme Court, where he spearheads the retro anti-female movement of today.

She was vulnerable to ad hominem criticisms of her seriousness - she had worked as a model and posed nude for Playboy, not behavior deemed fitting for a scholar and researcher. The fact that she was tall, good looking, had dramatic red hair and dressed beautifully may not have brought favor either. ("Living well is the best revenge," but doing so may bring on the vengeful envy of others.) Anyway several generous clips from TV programs on which Hite appeared show her beginning to be ground up by the machine of media. She made the mistake, some think, of entering into debates with her detractors when she should have let her work speak for itself. Some shows, like the long-ago Oprah with an all male audience, is as Jessica Kiang says in her enthusiastic Variety review, "genuinely enraging to watch." TV was never a place where intelligence reigned.

After this plans for a paperback edition were dropped and publishers didn't want to sponsor new books by Hite. Her self esteem had been wounded by crude attacks on her work. It isn't surprising, though sad, that she dropped out and (perhaps inspired by her world-touring musician husband, whom we hear noting about) chose to stop living in the United States altogether, even renouncing American citizenship.

In one short period Hite lost control, not turning up for one interview and angrily walking out of several others on the air. At some point she in fact did disappear, leaving the beautiful Fifth Avenue apartment virtually overnight. Her latter years, when she resurfaces, show her living somewhat sub rosa in England, Germany, and Paris. Though the film doesn't tell us this till the final titles, she renounced her American citizenship in 1995, assumed the German citizenship of her husband, and died in 2020.

Jessica Kiang writes, "You are not alone if you simply can’t stop asking yourself, 'How on earth did I not know about this woman before?'" That is reason for seeing this interesting, sometimes shocking film.

The Disappearance of Shere Hite, 116 mins., debuted at Sundance Jan. 2023, showing at over a dozen other festivals, all domestic, except Amsterdam. US rlease started Nov. 17, 2023. Metacritic rating: 84%.
genuinely enraging to watch

[Chris Knipp]

MY 2022 BEST MOVIES LISTS AS OF 11/27

Best Movies of 2022:
TÁR (Todd Field)
THE FABELMANS( Steven Spielberg)
ARMAGEDDON TIME (James Gray)
AFTERSUN (Charlotte*Wells)
EMILY THE CRIMINAL (John Patton Ford)
THE NORTHMAN (Robert Eggers)
Also liked:
ELVIS (Baz Luhrmann)
TILL (Chinonye Chukwu)

Best Foreign:
HIT THE ROAD (Panah Panahi)
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Joachim Trier)
A HERO (Asghar Farhadi)
LOST ILLUSIONS Xavier Giannoli) 6/22 US limited release
PARIS 13th DISTRICT (Jacques Audiard)
ONE FINE MORNING/UN BEAU JOUR (Mia Hansen-Love) 12/09 US limited release
THE HAPPENING/L'EVENEMENT (Audrey Diwan 2022) US early 2023?
THE BOX/LA CAJA (Lorenzo Vigas)
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (Ruben Östlund)
Also liked:
COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON (5/15/22 Quad Cinema)
CASABLANCA BEATS (9/16/22 IFC center)

Best Documentaries:
DESCENDANT (Margaret Brown)
MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY (Patricio Guzmán)
THE TERRITORY (Alex Pritz)
RETROGRADE (Matthew Heineman)
ALL THAT BREATHES (Shaunak Sen)
Also liked:
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (Laura Poitras)
MR. BACHMAN AND HIS CLASS (Maria Speth)
Notable re-release:
SEPA: EL NUESTRO SEÑOR DE LOS MILAGROS

Need to See:
NO BEARS (Jafar Panahi) - NYFF

Best performances:
AUSTIN BUTLER, ELVIS
AUDREY PLAZA, EMILY THE CRIMINAL
MICHELLE WILLILAMS, THE FABELMANS
GABRIEL LABELLE, THE FABELMANS

Best Unreleased in the US:
THE SALES GIRL (Janchivdorj Sengedor - NYAFF)
BRUNO REIDAL: CONFESSIONS OF A MURDERER (Vincent Le Port)- RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA (FLC)

Wish I'd LIked:
THE BANSHEES OF INISHIRIN (Martin McDonagh)
DECISION TO LEAVE (Park Chan-wook)
FIRE OF LOVE (Sara Dosa)

[Chris Knipp]

RYAN STEVENS HARRIS: MOON GARDEN (2022)


HAVEN LEE HARRIS IN MOON GARDEN

Emma's adventures in nightmare-land

Five-year-old Emma, a cloyingly cute Shirley Temple type (Haven Lee Harris, the director's daughter), lives with her unhappy mom Sara (Augie Duke) and angry dad Alex (Brionne Davis), whose marriage is now understandably on the rocks and who seem to fight lately much of the time. One night, while her parents are having a loud argument, Emma in her upset trips and rolls down the basement stairs, lands at the bottom in a coma - and is swept off into a noisy, frightening, phantasmagoric, but sometimes beautiful landscape of dreams. And we follow her along this path for the rest of the movie, whether we want to or not.

What unfolds of this vision in the bulk of Moon Garden involves a dazzling use of various informal but ingenious bricolage effects and animation techniques (including stop-motion) to depict a child's-eye-view story of purgatory, or something awfully close to it: life dominated by the constant fighting of the child's parents, which the mother tries to escape, but seems unable to]. The multi-media visuals create a series of bizarre, dreamy, melodramatic sequences in glowing colors and constant motion and sound. The eye may delight (or not), but all this effort to unleash surreal images might have been better spent on depicting the actual lives of the parents and the little girl in a subtle and complex way instead of the trite, sentimental frame tale the movie unthinkingly provides us with.

However, realism is not what the filmmakers were in search of, or the kind of storytelling that would somehow show us what apparently is going on: little Emma's struggle to regain consciousness. As the early dialogue announces, daddy is a writer, or at least wants to be, who wishes he could dream in bright colors the way little Emma tells him she does. He is frankly jealous, believing his daughter's vision to represent the font of creativity. "Wish I could dream like that," he says to Emma.. "It'd make writing my book a heck of a lot easier." Moon Garden is a celebration of the vividness of the childish imagination. Hence this is one of those films where the filmmakers are self consciously celebrating themselves - because these beautiful images are, after all, their own creation. But as the comatose imagined vision develops, it can hardly be seen as the product of a such an imagination - or at least one hopes not.

At first (in the dream, apparently), we see the little girl, and hear and glimpse the couple, now embracing, now panicking, and the emergency vehicle coming to take the girl to the hospital. But this morphs more and more into gooey scenes of insectoid monsters and dark, Dantesque, infernal visions at once gorgeous and terrifying. There are sequences of water that alternate between sunny swimming lessons of the girl and her parents at a happier time, and little Emma floating about alone in a muddy, leaf-filled morass surrounded by fencings of pipes. Masked and hairless creatures come and go, while the film ingeniously keeps alive the idea of the child's comatose state and the adults trying to signal to her.

A hyperactive sound design and Michael Deragon's vivid score maintain violent energy, with many crashes and explosions and eccentric fantasy scenes maintaining excitement and melding all together. There are numerous interesting little sequences. An ashen-skinned black gentleman in a mask, for instance, gives Emma a transistor radio that seems a talisman for her: its staticky transmissions represent Emma's shaky effort to connect with her mother's voice. A huge, papier-mâché rhinoceros floats high above. Emma is ordered to clean a horribly dirty and dilapidated bathroom, and she undertakes this overwhelming and disgusting chore cheerfully. What might that mean?

Well-realized though the scenes may be, it becomes harder and harder to see the unfolding images as related to any unified storyline. Sound and image dominate as things of themselves. There is no narrative of the sort created by Louis Carroll, no matter how much Emma's adventure may initially remind us of Alice's. Nor, for that matter, does this fragmented world compare with the equally bizarre and fantastical but more coherent one of Guillermo del Toro. Moon Garden could be seen as frequent editor Ryan Stevens Harris' calling card to do mise-en-scène for somebody else's movie. Harris' well-realized but meandering sequences seem to hover between sophisticated horror film with nightmarish storyline and the pure warped, nightmarish virtually abstract surreality of Phil Tippet's Mad God seen last year on Shudder.

As a Letterbox'd commenter says, Moon Garden is derivative to the point of exhaustion, and being shot on expired 35mm stock can't be the main selling point of a film. There need to be more interesting characters and a solider story, and less treacly emotional content. But as with Mad God, the filmmaker seems to be so wholly absorbed into the intricate physicality of his sequences - this is what makes them fascinating - that he really can't be bothered with the larger picture of a narrative arc. People who like this kind of film are like children: a film for them is like a series of delightful baubles, bright shiny things that dazzle, and for them that's enough. (I found the YouTube reviewers "Spoiler Alert" helpful.)

Moon Garden, 93 mins., debuted at the Dances with Wolves and Micheaux festivals in Los Angeles and the Motor City Nightmares fest in Detroit in June and July 2022. Its US theatrical release distributed by Oscillooscope begins with IFC Center in NYC May 19, 2023.

[Chris Knipp]

NY ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL - RECOMMENDED FILMS
Here are some films recommended by Richard Gray of Reel Bits.com. He sayhs "there's alwas so much to watch." You said it, Richard.

"The New York Asian Film Festival remains one of the highlights of the festival calendar. Now in its 22nd edition, the collaboration between the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center returns from 14-30 July this year.

"Opening with Lee Won-suk’s KILLING ROMANCE, the program contains a whopping 78 films from Hong Kong, Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These include Kazuyoshi Kumakiri #MANHOLE, featured on the festival poster, and the international premiere of Lee Byeong-heon’s DREAM as the centerpiece."

Mountain Woman (Takeshi Fukunaga, Japan 2023)
This director's Ainu Mosir came along as part of a slow wave of recognition of Japan’s Ainu peoples, delivers more visual poetry about outsiders with a unique blend of quiet contemplation and breathtakingly inevitable outcomes. If his previous work looked at cultural identity through the coming of age story structure, then here he applies his naturalistic lens to a period setting. Read our full review.

Art College 1994 (Liu Jian, China 2023)
Set in China in the 1990s, this animated film takes a look at youth featuring a group of art students. What is art? Ponder that during the incredibly measured pace of this highly detailed Chinese animated film from Liu Jian. Disarmingly wry and insightfully funny. At others, it feels almost documentary in nature. Read our full review.

December (Anshul Chauhan, India 2023)
We’ve been following Anshul Chauhan for a few years now, especially the excellent Kontora (2019) from a few years ago, along with his more recent short film Leo’s Return (2021), which was another superb character study. So, a new feature film from the director is something to get excited about. This one follows the psychological trauma of a person fighting for a reduction of her prison sentence seven years after murdering a classmate.

Egoist (Daishi Matsunaga, Japan)
One of the LGBTQIA+ films tagged in this year’s program and director Daishi Matsunaga’s film is playing in New York following it’s German premiere at Nippon Connection in June. Based on the autobiographical novel by Makoto Takayama, it follows two young men who start a passionate affair following a workout session — although that relationship is soon put to the test.

Okiku and the World (Junji Sakamoto, Japan)
Following its world premiere at IFFR earlier this year, Junji Sakamoto’s crisp black and white film about two people working as “manure men” in this Edo Period jidaigeki. Already getting terrific reviews, film critic Mark Schilling calls this “a model of how to inventively and feelingly revive a core genre riddled with formulas and conventions.”

Phantom (South Korea)
Lee Hae-young, who was the director behind the superior 2018 thriller Believer, returns with a spy drama is set in 1933 Korea, during Japanese colonial rule, and features a cast of Korean stars — Sol Kyung-Gu, Lee Ha-Nee, Park So-Dam, Kim Dong-Hee, and Seo Hyun-Woo to name a few — speaking almost entirely in Japanese.

In Broad Daylight (Hong Kong)
Coming from Hong Kong, director Lawrence Kan bases his latest thriller on true events. Starring Jennifer Yu as a reporter, this very topical film follows a news agency who investigates abuse at a nursing home.

A-Town Boyz (US)
One of the films that looks at this Asian diaspora around the world, this US documentary focuses on three young men who are involved in Atlanta’s vibrant hip-hop scene: Harrison “Vickz” Kim, Eugene Chung, and Jamy “Bizzy” Long. Director Eunice Lau’s film enjoys its world premiere at NYAFF this year.

Gaga (Taiwan)
One of the rare looks at Indigenous Taiwanese communities in this Golden Horse winning film from director Laha Mebow and a cast of non-professional actors. The title, which refers to the spiritual traditions of the Indigenous Tayal people, gives audiences a look at the tensions that exist between First Nations traditions and modern practices to this day in Taiwan.

Redemption with Life
As part of the Filmmaker in Focus on director Zhang Wei section, NYAFF presents the world premiere of his latest outing. NYAFF describes the film, which follows a motorcycle club, as “a dark meditation on capitalistic corruption in which classic codes of honor and loyalty are put to the ultimate test.”

NYAFF Narrative Shorts Animation Showcase - Animation 2023
Yes, it’s a little bit of a cheat putting in a showcase of 10 films as the eleventh entry on this list, but where else will you find such a terrific set of animated shorts from across Asia? From the world premiere of Kong Son-hee’s BORDRLINE (South Korea) to Masashi Kawamura brand new film HIDARI (Japan), these span the realms of experimental fringes to the potential next big thing. Don’t miss them.

[Chris Knipp]

Art College 1994
Liu Jian 2023 China 118 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Loosely based on filmmaker Liu Jian’s own experiences at the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts, this consistently compelling masterwork proves that art school students are just about the same everywhere.
Showtimes
July 16
7:30 PM
The Cord of Life
The Cord of Life
Qiao Sixue 2022 China 96 minutes Mongolian with English subtitles
New York Premiere

A folktronica musician and his Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother set off on a quixotic quest across the magnificent vistas of the steppes, stopping along the way to embrace the wondrous culture of their roots.
Showtimes
July 25
3:30 PM
Empty Nest
Empty Nest
Zhang Wei 2020 China 81 minutes
North American Premiere · Q&A with Zhang Wei

A charismatic salesman rekindles an elderly woman’s belief in love and happiness in this poignant tale of love and the search for meaning in the twilight years of life.
Showtimes
July 23
3:30 PM
Factory Boss
Factory Boss
Zhang Wei 2014 China 100 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
Sharp and thought-provoking, Factory Boss offers a rare glimpse into the lives of those caught in the crossfire of progress and profit.
Showtimes
July 22
12:00 PM
Flaming Cloud
Flaming Cloud
Liu Siyi 2023 China 107 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
World Premiere · Q&A with Liu Siyi

Director Liu Siyi’s stunning feature debut, a live-action spin on the classic fairy tale paradigm, is an exquisite homage to the Disney movies and Chinese folklore that her generation grew up on.
Showtimes
July 29
4:00 PM
Redemption with Life
Redemption with Life
Zhang Wei 2023 China 100 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
World Premiere

In the latest feature from NYAFF’s Filmmaker in Focus, Zhang Wei, a majestic motorcycle club snakes its way along a glorious Tibetan highway before a nested series of flashbacks reveals the plight that brought them on their profound journey.
Showtimes
July 28
3:30 PM
The Rib (Director’s Cut)
The Rib (Director’s Cut)
Zhang Wei 2018 China 143 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
Q&A with Zhang Wei

This breakthrough film, about a 32-year-old man trying to undergo reassignment surgery, illustrates the intense stigma and obstacles that the LGBT community must face in China, offering an inside look at both the marginalized and those who condemn them.
Showtimes
July 22
7:00 PM
A Woman
A Woman
Wang Chao 2022 China 118 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere

A factory worker in Mao’s China tows the party line on the surface, but in her personal life she extolls the virtues of resilience and resistance against institutionalized sexism and oppression. Wang Chao’s adaptation of Zhang Xiuzhen’s novel is told in sweeping episodes that eloquently describe the hidden hardships of the era.
Showtimes
July 23
1:00 PM
Hong Kong
A Light Never Goes Out
A Light Never Goes Out
Anastasia Tsang 2022 Hong Kong 103 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
US Premiere · Q&A with Anastasia Tsang

A recent widow teams up with the young apprentice of her husband, one of Hong Kong’s premier neon sign artisans, to complete his magnum opus in this nostalgic paean to Hong Kong’s irrepressibly bright and vibrant spirit.
Showtimes
July 25
6:00 PM
Back Home
Back Home
Nate Ki 2023 Hong Kong 120 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
World Premiere · Q&A with Nate Ki and Anson Kong

In this hallucinogenic horror opus, a young man who can see ghosts returns to his childhood home and is trapped in a waking nightmare.
Showtimes
July 25
9:00 PM
Everyphone Everywhere
Everyphone Everywhere
Amos Why 2023 Hong Kong 91 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Director Amos Why (Far, Far Away, NYAFF 2022) brings his wry playfulness with narrative structure and media formalism to this pointed satire of postmodern communication and its resultant technological fallout.
Showtimes
July 20
3:30 PM
In Broad Daylight
In Broad Daylight
Lawrence Kan 2023 Hong Kong 106 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Lawrence Kan

Based on real events, this hard-hitting exposé of systematic failure and institutionalized corruption is a clarion call for compassion and respect without prejudice.
Showtimes
July 20
5:45 PM
Mad Fate
Mad Fate
Soi Cheang 2023 Hong Kong 108 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Set in a surreal city of hookers, mystics, and psychopaths, Mad Fate is a crazed, morally complex addition to classic Cantonese mean-streets noir.
Showtimes
July 22
2:15 PM
Nomad (Director’s Cut)
Nomad (Director’s Cut)
Patrick Tam 1982 Hong Kong 94 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
East Coast Premiere · New 4K Restoration

Four attractive souls, equal parts rich and working class, form a tragic romantic bond of ennui, anomie, absurdity, love, and violence in (Wong Kar Wai mentor) Patrick Tam’s genre-defying Hong Kong New Wave watershed.
Showtimes
July 21
3:45 PM
The Sunny Side of the Street
The Sunny Side of the Street
Lau Kok-rui 2022 Hong Kong, Malaysia 111 minutes Cantonese, Urdu with English subtitles
New York Premiere

After a fit of road rage gone south, Yat, a cantankerous cabbie with a checkered past, finds himself embroiled in the fate of a young Pakistani asylum-seeker. These two lost souls find they have more in common than they thought as they form a strong bond on a path of redemption paved with corruption and despair.
Showtimes
July 17
3:30 PM
Vital Signs
Vital Signs
Cheuk Wan-chi 2023 Hong Kong 100 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Cheuk Wan-chi & Louis Koo

This buddy mentor-mentee story is imbued with pathos set against the backdrop of harrowing thrill-a-minute emergency rescue operations. Louis Koo shines as the stoic yet soft-hearted ambulanceman supreme, who must face his own painful past while literally breaking his back to provide a good future for his charmingly precocious young daughter.
Showtimes
July 19
8:30 PM
The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell
The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell
Herman Yau 2023 Hong Kong 100 minutes Cantonese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Intro by Louis Koo

Genre maestro Herman Yau follows his highly successful showstopper The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (NYAFF 2019) with this even more hyperbolic and gritty entry in the gonzo super-cops vs. crazy crooks series.
Showtimes
July 20
8:30 PM
Japan
Presented with the support of the Japan Foundation

#Manhole
#Manhole
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri 2023 Japan 99 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
East Coast Premiere

A young executive is stuck in a desolate manhole amidst a driving downpour armed only with a trusty cell phone in this fantastical edge-of-your-seat thriller.
Showtimes
July 16
10:00 PM
December
December
Anshul Chauhan 2022 Japan 99 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Anshul Chauhan & Shogen

This riveting courtroom drama, written and directed by non-Japanese, wrestles with the controversial imprisonment of juvenile offenders and the gray areas of Japan’s criminal justice system, where the conviction rate is 99%.
Showtimes
July 24
6:00 PM
Egoist
Egoist
Daishi Matsunaga 2023 Japan 120 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
New York Premiere · Q&A with Daishi Matsunaga and Ryohei Suzuki

A poignant story of love, loss, self-sacrifice, and discovery, Daishi Matsunaga’s heralded new film is inspired by the seminal semi-autobiographical novel by Makoto Takayama.
Showtimes
July 15
8:30 PM
Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home
Takumi Saitoh 2023 Japan 113 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Takumi Saitoh

A young family moves into a new house but the claustrophobic basement that controls the always-perfect temperature will soon ominously reflect all of their collective nightmares….
Showtimes
July 27
9:00 PM
A Hundred Flowers
A Hundred Flowers
Genki Kawamura 2022 Japan 104 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
New York Premiere

Genki Kawamura, a best-selling author (If Cats Disappeared From the World) and star producer (on anime mega-hits like Belle, Weathering With You, and Your Name) makes a poetic and visually stunning feature debut, adapted from his own novel.
Showtimes
July 16
12:15 PM
In Her Room
In Her Room
Chihiro Ito 2022 Japan 136 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Chihiro Ito & Satoru Iguchi

There are mysteries nested inside mysteries in this otherworldly erotic film, the directorial debut of veteran screenwriter Chihiro Ito (Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, Spring Snow), adapted from her own novel.
Showtimes
July 28
6:00 PM
Mayhem Girls
Mayhem Girls
Shinichi Fujita 2022 Japan 98 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
International Premiere

A small gaggle of previously unassociated high school girls, centered around the humbly charismatic Mizuho, form a tight-knit clique when their typically adolescent hormonal changes are suddenly manifested by… supernatural powers!
Showtimes
July 26
4:00 PM
Motherhood
Motherhood
Ryuichi Hiroki 2022 Japan 116 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
US Premiere

The details behind two generations of fraught mother-daughter relationships unfold following a news item about a 17-year-old girl’s attempted suicide. This intense psychodrama of emotional blackmail and betrayal has stirring twists and turns aplenty.
Showtimes
July 18
3:15 PM
Mountain Woman
Mountain Woman
Takeshi Fukunaga 2022 Japan/USA 100 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Takeshi Fukunaga

A rural woman whose village is in its second year of a devastating famine quest for survival gradually transforms into a journey to self-actualization in this haunting 18th-century-set tale of resilience in the face of harsh discrimination.
Showtimes
July 24
9:00 PM
Okiku and the World
Okiku and the World
Junji Sakamoto 2023 Japan 90 minutes Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Junji Sakamoto

This audacious, aesthetically brilliant new Edo-era period drama about two “manure men” who collect waste from outhouses achieves a perfect blend of potty humor, cutting social commentary, and budding romance.
Showtimes
July 16
2:30 PM
Kazakhstan
Mountain Onion
Mountain Onion
Eldar Shibanov 2022 Kazakhstan 90 minutes Russian, Kazakh, Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Eldar Shibanov

Director Eldar Shibanov looks to the eyes of children for a wryly imaginative satire of adult foibles, filling his deceptively quotidian Kazakh boondocks with lively oddballs as colorful as their quirky costumes and other random devices.
Showtimes
July 29
1:30 PM
Malaysia
Abang Adik
Abang Adik
Jin Ong 2023 Malaysia 115 minutes Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Sign Language with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Jin Ong

The bond of two undocumented orphans is tested when one’s pent-up aggression leads to an unspeakable act. This remarkable award-winning debut offers a rare glimpse into Malaysian street life.
Showtimes
July 29
6:45 PM
Philippines
I Love You, Beksman
I Love You, Beksman
Percival Intalan 2022 Philippines 107 minutes Filipino with English subtitles
North American Premiere

When fashionably androgynous salon worker Dalia falls for a gorgeous beauty pageant contestant the truth finally comes out: He’s a straight guy with a queer eye! This brilliant riff on Romeo and Juliet wears campy corniness on its self-aware pop-art sleeve.
Showtimes
July 22
4:30 PM
12 Weeks
12 Weeks
Anna Isabelle Matutina 2023 Phillipines 105 minutes Filipino, English with English subtitles
International Premiere · Q&A with Anna Isabelle Matutina

The refreshingly multidimensional characters and complex interpersonal relationships in director Anna Isabelle Matutina’s bold debut cover all the points and counterpoints of the sensitive issue of abortion.
Showtimes
July 26
6:15 PM
Where Is the Lie?
Where Is the Lie?
Quark Henares 2023 Philippines 85 minutes Filipino, English with English subtitles
New York Premiere · Q&A with Quark Henares, EJ Jallorina & Royce Cabrera

This vibrantly Gen Z-skewing film with a humorous and hard-hitting script based on a real-life incident in the Philippines focuses on the charming, lovelorn target of a vile cyberbully (a star-making performance by luminous trans woman EJ Jallorina).
Showtimes
July 22
10:15 PM
Singapore
Geylang
Geylang
Boi Kwong 2022 Singapore 87 minutes Mandarin, Hokkien, English with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Boi Kwong & Jason Ho

A beautiful young prostitute’s sudden disappearance leads her foul-mouthed pimp, ragamuffin boyfriend, and a local lawyer on a gore-filled wild goose chase in this wild pop-art genre joyride.
Showtimes
July 21
6:00 PM
South Korea
Co-presented with Korean Cultural Center New York

Bear Man
Bear Man
Park Sung-kwang 2023 South Korea 97 minutes Korean with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Park Sung-woong is dazzling in two roles — as an embarrassingly goofy bear cub/man-child and a steely, well-dressed hit man — in this boisterous comedy.
Showtimes
July 19
3:30 PM
Dream
Dream
Lee Byeong-heon 2023 South Korea 125 minutes Korean with English subtitles
Centerpiece Film · International Premiere · Q&A with Lee Byeong-heon

A virtuoso soccer player (Park Seo-jun) and cynical producer (K-pop megastar IU) form a national football team made up of homeless individuals in acclaimed director Lee Byeong-heon’s highly anticipated blockbuster.
Showtimes
July 17
6:00 PM
Greenhouse
Greenhouse
Lee Sol-hui 2022 South Korea 100 minutes Korean with English subtitles
North American Premiere

This striking feature debut is a gripping slow-burn drama-cum-thriller about a caretaker for a disabled elderly couple coping with her own psychological troubles.
Showtimes
July 27
6:30 PM
Hail to Hell
Hail to Hell
Lim Oh-jeong 2022 South Korea 109 minutes Korean with English subtitles
North American Premiere

In this tar-black comedy, Na-mi and Sun-woo’s suicide pact is abruptly foiled when they find out that the bully who led them to this sorry fate is living happily ever after, far from their sleepy town.
Showtimes
July 29
9:30 PM
The Host
The Host
Bong Joon Ho 2006 South Korea 119 minutes Korean and English with English subtitles
This screening takes place on July 21 at 9pm in Damrosch Park

A young girl's family does everything in its power to rescue her from the clutches of a giant amphibious mutant—rendered as alternately chaotic, lethal, and clumsy—that has emerged from the Han River in Bong’s masterful monster movie. This film screens as part of Lincoln Center's Korean Arts Week.
Showtimes
July 21
9:00 PM
Killing Romance
Killing Romance
Lee Won-suk 2023 South Korea 106 minutes Korean with English subtitles
Opening Night Film · North American Premiere · Q&A on July 14 with Lee Won-suk & Lee Sun-kyun · Q&A on July 30 with Lee Won-suk, Gong Myoung, Lee Hanee & Lee Sun-kyun

A comic fantasia about a former superstar actress trapped in a toxic marriage with an egomaniacal tycoon, Killing Romance rounds up unforgettable performances that power up an electroshock of a tale, dancing between a love story, a musical, a murder plot, and a million things in between.
Showtimes
July 14
7:00 PM
July 30
1:30 PM
Phantom
Phantom
Lee Hae-young 2023 South Korea 133 minutes Korean and Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Lee Hanee

One of South Korea’s biggest hits of 2023, this brilliantly lensed, action-packed spy drama is set in 1933 Korea, during Japanese colonial rule, and features a cast of Korean stars speaking almost entirely in Japanese.
Showtimes
July 30
4:15 PM
Rebound
Rebound
Chang Hang-jun 2023 South Korea 120 minutes Korean with English subtitles
New York Premiere · Intro & Q&A with director Chang Hang-jun, Kim Taek, Jeong Jin-woon & Billy Acumen

Transcending the sports genre and eschewing the pitfalls of easy sentiment and melodrama, Chang Hang-jun’s Rebound elevates its premise with a singularly rousing screenplay, co-written by Kwon Sung-hui (The Spy Gone North, As One) and Kim Eun-hee (Netflix’s Kingdom).
Showtimes
July 15
5:30 PM
A Tour Guide
A Tour Guide
Kwak Eun-mi 2023 South Korea 94 minutes Korean with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Kwak Eun-mi

Han-young, a North Korean defector, gets a license to guide Chinese tourists thanks to the language skills she acquired as a refugee in China. She works diligently but faces many challenges, from coworker rivalry to assimilation, all while desperately searching for her missing brother.
Showtimes
July 19
6:00 PM
Taiwan
Co-presented with the support of Taipei Cultural Center in New York

The Abandoned
The Abandoned
Tseng Ying-ting 2022 Taiwan 128 minutes Mandarin, Taiwanese, Thai with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Tseng Ying-ting

A down-on-her-luck police detective uncovers the work of a vicious serial killer targeting illegal migrant workers in this transcendently insightful examination of the human psyche.
Showtimes
July 26
9:00 PM
Bad Education
Bad Education
Kai Ko 2023 Taiwan 77 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Taking over from his mentor Giddens Ko, Kai Ko delivers a kinetic (and often laugh-out-loud-against-our-better-judgment) delineation of good and evil with turbulent high stakes.
Showtimes
July 15
12:30 PM
Eye of the Storm
Eye of the Storm
Lin Chun-Yang 2023 Taiwan 118 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
International Premiere

Eye of the Storm is a gripping and poignant hospital thriller that explores the power of empathy and human resilience in the face of despair.
Showtimes
July 27
3:30 PM
Gaga
Gaga
Laha Mebow 2022 Taiwan 111 minutes Atayal, Mandarin, Taiwanese, English with English subtitles
East Coast Premiere · Q&A with Laha Mebow

Imbued with divinely tragicomic undertones, Gaga’s deceptively simple story allows the audience to bask in the glory of the Atayal tribe's unique culture and effervescent personalities.
Showtimes
July 18
8:30 PM
Marry My Dead Body
Marry My Dead Body
Cheng Wei-hao 2022 Taiwan 130 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
East Coast Premiere

A bit of folk magic lands a wannabe supercop betrothed to the ghost of a gay man who forces him to make a much needed attitude adjustment while also helping him solve a major drug case. This is full-throttle fun and high-voltage action all the way—and a much-needed sendup of homophobia.
Showtimes
July 17
9:00 PM
Miss Shampoo
Miss Shampoo
Giddens Ko 2023 Taiwan 116 minutes Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Star auteur Giddens Ko adapts one of his own wild short stories into a raunchy gangster-romcom mash-up about a fledgling hair dresser who inadvertently saves the life of a gang boss, who falls for her.
Showtimes
July 23
6:00 PM
Thailand
Faces of Anne
Faces of Anne
Rasiguet Sookkarn, Kongdej Jaturanrasmee 2022 Thailand 116 minutes Thai with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Rasiguet Sookkarn

Anne wakes up on a strange island oppressed by scary caretakers and given a mission of survival against blood-crazed pagan demons in this surreal odyssey about all that it means to be a woman in the modern world.
Showtimes
July 28
9:15 PM
Kitty the Killer
Kitty the Killer
Lee Thongkham 2023 Thailand 120 minutes Thai with English subtitles
International Premiere · Q&A with Lee Thongkham & Vithaya Pansringarm

Built on comic book logic with its tongue firmly in cheek, this anarchic action-comedy is a rousing pastiche of Asian genre film tropes and references exuberantly topped off with a riotous Thai sense of humor for a rollicking good time.
Showtimes
July 21
8:30 PM
You & Me & Me
You & Me & Me
Wanweaw Hongvivatana, Weawwan Hongvivatana 2023 Thailand 121 minutes Thai with English subtitles
North American Premiere · Q&A with Weawwan Hongvivatana, Wanweaw Hongvivatana & Thitiya Jirapornsilp

This charmingly insightful directorial debut by real-life twins Weawwan and Wanweaw Hongvivatana puts a buoyantly ironic spin on summer romance.
Showtimes
July 15
2:30 PM
Vietnam
Glorious Ashes
Glorious Ashes
Bui Thac Chuyên 2022 Vietnam, France, Singapore 117 minutes Vietnamese with English subtitles
North American Premiere

Profound and lyrical, the first film in over a decade from cinematic poet Bui Thac Chuyen (Adrift) spins a mesmerizing tale of life, love, loneliness, and pyromania in yesteryear’s Mekong Delta.
Showtimes
July 16
5:00 PM
Diasporic Cinema
A-Town Boyz
A-Town Boyz
Eunice Lau 2023 USA 72 minutes English
World Premiere · Q&A with Eunice Lau

This edgy documentary focusing on three young men in Atlanta’s vibrant hip-hop scene is an illuminating time capsule of the immigrant struggle juxtaposed with cultural trends and socio-economic needs.
Showtimes
July 23
8:30 PM
The Effects of Lying
The Effects of Lying
Isher Sahota 2023 U.K. 85 minutes English
North American Premiere · Q&A with Aizzah Fatima, Isher Sahota & Jon Tarcy

With a smashing cast, the majority of whom just happen to be British Asian, The Effects of Lying cleverly milks the universal truisms of family dysfunction for both philosophical reflection and savage laughs galore.
Showtimes
July 18
6:00 PM
Shorts Programs
Narrative Shorts Showcase – Animation
Narrative Shorts Showcase – Animation
Various Directors 2022-2023 Various 119 minutes
A showcase of animated shorts from South Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, and the United States.
Showtimes
July 21
1:15 PM
Narrative Shorts Showcase – Live Action
Narrative Shorts Showcase – Live Action
Various Directors 2022-2023 155 minutes
A showcase of live-action shorts from China, South Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Japan, and the United States.
Showtimes
July 14
3:30 PM
Closing Night Film - To Be Announced!
Closing Night Film
Closing Night Film
2023
World Premiere

NYAFF Closing Night will conclude this year’s festival with a fabulous awards ceremony and the world premiere of a new all-star family-friendly animation blockbuster, to be revealed in a future announcement.
Showtimes
July 30
7:45 PM
Talks
All talks are free to NYAFF ticket and pass holders.