New York Film Festival 2022

[Chris Knipp]

STARS AT NOON (Claire Denis 2022)

Resetting a Denis Johnson novel set in Nicaragua in the Eighties to the present, early pandemic time, Claire Denis makes this film feel richly erotic, dangerous, and atmospheric, but loses some of the political logic. Anglophone critics have not liked this. But it won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
When it comes out in France in May 2023 local critics may appreciate the sensuality more. The fuzzy plot and long run-time began to pall during the last of the 135 minutes, but this . With Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn. Now available on Hulu.

[Chris Knipp]

THE INSPECTION (Elegance Bratton 2022)

Autobiographical feature about Marine boot camp for a Black gay man escaping from ten years living on the street after his mother kicked him out for being gay. Flawed but powerful debut. It debuted at Toronto but was featured as the Closing Night film at the NYFF. Now in theaters. Metascore 73%.

[Chris Knipp]

THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER (Joanna Hogg 2022)

Some call it lightweight, a "minor" work by the director, a "slow cinema" drag. Yes it is uneventful and slow but I found it devastating, its use of one remarkable, long-time-collaborator actress, Tilda Swinton, to play both the filmmaker and her aging mother who go on a trip to a hotel in Wales, a building long remembered, to celebrate a birthday, a brilliant and haunting ploy whose meanings resonate long after.

[Chris Knipp]

ONE FINE MORNING/UN BEAU MATIN (Mia Hansen-Løve 2022)

A beautiful film, one of the director's finest. A young woman (Léa Seydoux, dressed down and never better), whose husband has died, raising a small child, dealing with the disintegration of her scholar father (Pascal Greggory) from neurodegenerative disease, has a passionate affair with a married man (Melvil Poupaud, also fine). Highly recommended. US release Friday Dec. 9, Sony Picture Classics.

[Chris Knipp]

EO (Jerzy Skolimowski 2022)

The saga of the life of a donkey inspired by the 84-year-old Polish director's emotional reaction when he saw Robert Bresson's AU HAZARD BALTHAZAR was introduced in Competition at Cannes and has met with accolades. (A dissenting view.)

[Chris Knipp]

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (Laura Poitras 2022)

Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, this documentary is an epic collaboration with noted snapshot aesthetic photographer Nan Goldin that depicts her life, her art, and her campaign against the Sackler family whose Purdue Pharma produced OcyContin, the forerunner of the opioid epidemic and to which she was at one time addicted. Her organization P.A.I.N.Sackler staged a series of museum happenings aimed at stopping public art spaces from accepting donations from the Sackler family or displaying the Sackler name. They have had success. Was Centerpiece Film of the 60th NYFF Oct. 3. Now in limited US theatrical release.

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritic ratings of NYFF 2022 Films and links to reviews

(Updated Feb. 7 2023: many tweaks up and down since first compiled. Still look forward to seeing ENYS MEN, PACIFICATION, NO BEARS, and SHOWING UP. Also have not seen: TRENQUE LAQUEN, UNREST, STONEWALLING, WALKUP. Did see ALCARRÀS, but chose not to write a review.)

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 (Now 92%)

“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%feofreturn to

[Chris Knipp]

See a Letterboxd interview with Elegance Bratton (director of Closing Night film THE INSPECTION) by Adesola Thomas HERE. Bratton learned that his was the first Black film and first debut film to be so honored by the NYFF.