New York Film Festival 2022

[Chris Knipp]

SHE SAID (Maria Schrader 2022)

The story of the New York Times investigation of Harvey Weinstein's long history of sexual abuse of young women and payoffs to keep them quiet is an essential one. German director Maria Schrader's film about it unfortunately turns out to be rather repetitious and flat.

[Chris Knipp]

BONES AND ALL (Luca Guadagnino 2022)

Newcomer Taylor Russell and skinny heartthrob Timothée Chalamet play teen cannibals, lonely and in love, roaming the country and feeding on human flesh. Somehow the director makes them real and sympathetic.

(Now in theaters since Nov. 18; also posted in General Film Forum.)

[Chris Knipp]

THE NOVELIST'S FILM 소설가의 영화 (Hong Sang-soo 2022)

Probably mainly for Hong completists, but you never know: a straightforward but well-populated little tale in black and white with a dash of final color about how an artist might escape a dry spell by turning to another medium.

[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.