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

[Chris Knipp]

LIST OF THE FEATURES
All, or Nothing at All dir. Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry dir. Elene Naveriani
Blaga’s Lessons dir. Stephan Komandarev
Cu Li Never Cries dir. Pham Ngoc Lân
The Day I Met You dir. André Novais Oliveira
A Different Man dir. Aaron Schimberg
Dreaming & Dying dir. Nelson Yeo
Exhibiting Forgiveness dir. Titus Kaphar
Explanation for Everything dir. Gábor Reisz
Foremost By Night dir. Víctor Iriarte
Good One dir. India Donaldson
A Good Place dir. Katharina Huber
Grace dir. Ilya Povolotsky
Hesitation Wound dir. Selman Nacar
Intercepted dir. Oksana Karpovych
A Journey in Spring dir. Wang Ping-Wen, Peng Tzu-Hui
Lost Country dir. Vladimir Perišić
Malu dir. Pedro Freire
Meezan dir. Shahab Mihandoust
Of Living Without Illusion dir. Katharina Lüdin
Omen dir. Baloji
Otro Sol dir. Francisco Rodríguez Teare
The Permanent Picture dir. Laura Ferrés
The Rim dir. Alberto Gracia
Stress Positions dir. Theda Hammel

[Chris Knipp]

MALU (Pedro Freire 2024)

Brazilian film, theatre and TV director, writer and producer Pedro Freire's first feature length film is a striking dramatization of the last days of his actress mother as a woman in wild and memorable decline. In the lead role the actress Yara de Novaes is a wonder to watch at work and the closing scenes are very fine.

Screened for this review as part of New Directors/New Films (Apr. 3-14, 2024), MoMA and FLC. Showtimes:
Thursday, April 11
8:15pm, MoMA T2
Saturday, April 13
3:00pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater

[Chris Knipp]

New Directors/New Films 2024, April 3-14, begins on Wednesday.

[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)