NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2024 (Apr. 3-Apr. 14)

[Chris Knipp]

ALL, OR NOTHING AT ALL (Jiajun "Oscar" Zhang 20223)


Chinese director Zhang and his Korean collaborator writer Pyun join are reunited for this feature debut following a widely admired short called If You See Her, Say Hello. A style emerges here of blurred boundaries, rule-breaking narratives and use of odd lenses like cell phones and surveillance cameras to experiment with parallel stories told with lush, almost abstract closeups and overwhelming ambient sound, following on a similar timeline and in identical places. This is a dreamy exploration of a place, the Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai.

All, or Nothing at All, 124 mins., in Mandarin and Shanghainese, debuted at Tallinn Black Nights (Estonia), Nov. 2023. Screened for this review as part of of Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA's New Directors/New Films series (Apr. 3-13, 2024). Showtimes:
Thursday, April 11
8:30pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
Friday, April 12
5:45pm, MoMA T2 (Q&A with Jiajun "Oscar" Zhang)

[Chris Knipp]

THE DAY I MET YOU (André Novais Oliveira 2023)

The filmmaker's penchant for the everyday triumphs in this study of two ordinary educational employees, a librarian and a schoolteacher,who bond on the day when one of them gets fireed. Very much in keeping with the same director's ND/NF 2018's Long Way Home/Temperada,

The Day I Met You/O dia que te conheci, 71 mins. Olveira's third feature after his 2015 She Comes Back on Thursday (debuted at Rotterdam and Marseille) and the 2018 Long Way Home/Temporada (debuted at Locarno) debuted at Entrevues Belfort, wining the grand prize. It was screened for this review as part of the Apr. 3-14, 2024 FLC-MoMA New Directors/New Films series. Showtimes:
Saturday, April 6
12:30pm, MoMA T2
Sunday, April 7
6:30pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater

[Chris Knipp]

GRACE (Ilya Povolotsky 2023)

A father and daughter travel around almost wordlessly over vast prts of remote Russia in a road picture that has echoes of Tarkovsky.

Grace/Blazh, 119 mins., debuted at Cannes May 2023; screened for this review as part of the Apr. 3-14, 2024 FLC-MoMA New Directors/New Films series. Showtimes:
Tuesday, April 9
8:30pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater
Wednesday, April 10
5:45pm, MoMA T2

[Chris Knipp]

A GOOD PLACE/EIN SCHÖNER ORT (Katharina Huber 2023)

A vaguely apocalyptic sci-fi film. Fans of German cinematic oddity may be interested.

A Good Place/Ein schöner ort,, 108 mins., in German, English, and Italian, debuted at Locarno Aug. 9, 2023. Screened for this review as part of the Apr. 3-14, 2024 New Directors/New Films series at MoMA and FLC. Showtimes::
Thursday, April 4
8:15pm, MoMA T2 (Q&A with Katharina Huber)
Sunday, April 7
1:00pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Katharina Huber)

[Chris Knipp]

OF LIVING WITHOUT ILLUSION (Katharina Lüdin 2023)


Of Living without Illusion explores a dry, neurotic world. Viewers, especially German-speaking ones, may relate to the neuroticism (and the dryness) because it is presented with intelligence and clarity and is, unfortunately, the way people do sometimes behave. Someone asked on Letterboxd why the first Lesbian relationship in a German film has to be such a dysfunctional one.

Of LIving Without Illusion/Und dass man ohne Täuschung zu leben vermag, 110 mins., debuted at Locarno Aug. 10, 2023, and was screened for this review as part of the Apr. 3-14, 2024 joint MoMA/FLC New Directors/New Films series. Showtimes:
Sunday, April 7
3:45pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater
Monday, April 8
5:45pm, MoMA T2