Authors — Howard Feinstein
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Tickled: The Farewell Party
Such a rare thrill to see films with seniors who have credible back stories and channel a lifetime of experience toward the resolution of whatever issues they currently face. The lead characters in The Farewell Party, a delightfully dark Israeli comedy (perhaps adorable tragicomedy is more on point), are full-blooded humans, not vampiric nasties or one-dimensional goody two shoes. They converse with delight and share their joys, but they also threaten, backbite, and blackmail. Each has attachments, with ups and downs — not so different from young people, as it turns out. At about the halfway point, a group of […]
by Howard Feinstein on May 21, 2015 -
Specimens: Collin Schiffli’s Animals
This extra-rewarding if occasionally trying film opens with a slow-gaited nocturnal entrance into an ER. Going into and out of hospitals is a hazard of the trade — of the work, in fact — of the habit for young lovers Bobbie (Kim Shaw, destined for the big time) and Jude (David Dastmalchian), fully committed addicts whose survival depends on the luck of the draw: carrying through scams, or being scammed themselves. They are caught up in a vicious cycle. Most of the time, they come out relatively lucky: In spite of some bad eggs — my gosh, some of the […]
by Howard Feinstein on May 15, 2015 -
The Tainted Veil: Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill
The soldiers can barely agree to disagree. They are primarily ex-pilots but a few video gamers have recently thrown into this mix that operates drone strikes from the safety of temporary metal trailers on a military base outside the rhinestone city of Las Vegas. The year is 2010; the U.S. drone program is at a new high. Some of these armchair warriors have increasingly strong feelings against the manner in which drones are deployed in places like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Waziristan; others feel that anything goes to keep America safe following the events of 9/11; and a couple are practical […]
by Howard Feinstein on May 14, 2015 -
Hallowed Grounds: Days of Grace
“Fate depends on a soccer ball?” Is it possible distributors were discouraged from pursuing the U.S. release of guaranteed cult sensation Days of Grace after hearing such a trite voice-over line? It has been four years since Mexican director Everardo Gout’s marvelous marriage of art and kinesthesis premiered to fine reviews in a midnight slot out of competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Admittedly naïve about the business end of the industry, I’m aghast that this magnificent power surge of a movie, driven by a zapping vector only occasionally slowed for (sometimes literally) pregnant pauses, has taken so long to […]
by Howard Feinstein on May 4, 2015 -
Georgian on My Mind: Tangerines
A four-hander of a chamber play shot quickly in a single location in the lush, mountainous Georgian region of Guria, Zaza Urushadze’s Tangerines was a surprise nominee for best foreign language film at the Oscars. The Georgian director’s third feature is meticulously crafted. Composer Nias Diasamidze’s repetitive sad strings are appropriate for a story where winning is implausible. Ongoing slight, smooth camera movements reframe relationships and offset the threat of stasis. Urushadze and ace DP Rein Kotov go for strong, contrasting lighting effects not only for their beauty in this widescreen picture, but as another weapon against inertia. Small and dynamic […]
by Howard Feinstein on Apr 17, 2015 -
The Wizard of Odds: John Maclean’s Slow West
A trio of black musicians performs a Congolese song in a desolate area inhabited by relentless bounty hunters, surviving Native Americans, and individuals — enterprising or on-the-lam — seeking reinvention in the anonymous open frontier. A finely-choreographed triangular shootout puts both a general store and a starving family of German immigrants out of commission. Set in Colorado in 1870, five years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox ended the Civil War, Slow West is positively — in every sense of the word — disconcerting. Which is precisely Scottish filmmaker John Maclean’s ballsy aim. Wildly but meticulously blurring the boundaries between genres, […]
by Howard Feinstein on Apr 16, 2015 -
Sibling Riflery: Black Souls e eccezionale
“You’re dressed like a shepherd!” Driving around Milan, middle-aged Luigi Carbone (an unrecognizable Marco Leonardi, of Like Water for Chocolate fame) affectionately disparages his 20-year-old nephew, Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), before planting him in a job in his own industry. The only child has fled a Calabrian farm and the father who runs it, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane, master of fluctuating facial tics), who is Luigi’s oldest brother. Leo hopes for an exciting and lucrative life better tailored to his needs than herding: working with Luigi, his idol, Uncle Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), and their childhood pal and staunch ally, Nicola (Stefano Priolo). […]
by Howard Feinstein on Apr 9, 2015 -
Words and All: New Directors/New Films (II)
Hej hej JJ If doomsday scenarios compromised by persistent protagonists were the common denominator among the finest in week one of the back-loaded New Directors/New Films, the second week’s standouts hail successful rebounds. Entropy, smugness, resignation, and delusional security make way for palpable commitment, be it political, psychological, or emotional. The shared backdrop is the guarded, mine-ridden sphere of male bonding, more often than not inside restrictive institutions — a pair of bromances that take place within military bases and their outposts; a boy-gang dystopic chiller that revises the conventional sleepaway-school movie — but also within the split psyche of a […]
by Howard Feinstein on Mar 24, 2015 -
Dogged: An Initial Five Picks from New Directors/New Films
A hat tip to former telecritic Richard Roeper for his prescient 2003 book of silly lists called 10 Sure Signs a Movie Character is Doomed, and to the egghead resident who left a tattered copy on the giveaway table next to my building’s mailboxes. After many years and glib phrases covering New Directors/New Films — to my mind the most beguiling annual movie event in New York — I could not for the life of me figure out how to even begin another review. Now in its 44th edition, ND/NF is a showcase for the work of emerging talent carefully curated by […]
by Howard Feinstein on Mar 18, 2015 -
Meta Hairy: David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows
Unlike dopamine-inducing mood enhancers, the opening sequence of unique hybrid It Follows aims for atmosphere, not climax — though that, too, will come. It is cinematic foreplay, simultaneously tease and microcosm. Over the span of several minutes, David Robert Mitchell succinctly anticipates not only the plotline of the narrative, but also its themes and infrastructure. He privileges ambience over character development even more in this genre-bending teen/horror movie than he did in 2010’s Myth of the American Sleepover, the film about growing pains and friendship among youth in suburban Detroit that put him on the radar of film scene machers. Myth was primarily […]
by Howard Feinstein on Mar 12, 2015
