New York Film Festival 2018 (forum)

[Chris Knipp]

I agree Wildlife is a very fine film. I think, though, that you are wrong to dismiss the Coens' output so summarily (there is great variety in their work) and you underrate The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, especially the penultimate episode, "The Gal Who Got Rattled," which everybody likes and has tenderness, great attention to period, and fine acting before its dark finale.

Just found Mike D'Angelo's two tweets on Buster. First:

Mixed on BUSTER SCRUGGS but "The Gal Who Got Rattled" is my film of the year. Just note-perfect.

Then he says something I was thinking, how Bill Heck stands out.

Is it just me or is this Bill Heck fellow in BUSTER SCRUGGS very quietly sensational? Last time I felt such a strong star-is-born feeling was Mackenzie Davis (also opposite Zoe Kazan, come to think of it).

Heck plays the wagon train leader Billy Knapp who becomes the heroine's would-be savior and suitor. There is nothing cold or nihilistic about that sequence. It's sweet, and a treatise on old-fashioned manners and decency. Sometimes angry and bitter artists (Jonathan Swift, for instance) harbor a passionate tenderness and caring. Would you call Samuel Beckett nihilistic? If so, you'd be wrong.

Many including Justin Chang seconded D'Angelo's tweet in praise of Bill Heck. Might be good also to listen to Film Comment's podcast on this film.

It is necessary to see The Other Side and the documentary about it before saying anything, and you're not kidding when you say kids may miss many references, adults too. They have immense fun in the documentary with elaborate references and recollections and asides. After all this, I don't know if I like Orson Welles after all. Of course I do, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with him, and you can see why he had trouble getting his movies financed, or finished. He had to be grand (studio) but he was too indie, he didn't fit. Should write about these for the NYFF coverage but it's a lot to take on.