New York Film Festival 2018
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NYFF 2018 Critic’s Notebook 3: Ash is Purest White, Three Faces
For otherwise underinformed viewers like myself, one of the functions of watching Jia Zhangke’s movies in real time as they came out was pedagogical: because I don’t read the news enough, I’m not sure I would have known about the construction of the Three Gorges Dam otherwise, let alone developed a visceral understanding of its impact. It was Jia’s extended project, in narrative and nonfiction films made during its construction, to continually integrate footage documenting the destruction of houses where some 1.4 million people lived, the subsequent flooding of valley living areas and the fallout from residents’ displacement. These images […]
by Vadim Rizov on Oct 3, 2018 -
NYFF 2018 Critic’s Notebook 2: Grass, Hotel by the River
Hong Sang-soo has long been an NYFF staple; last year they showed two of his three works for 2017. I didn’t write about the one that didn’t make it in, Claire’s Camera, which is a) by far the most uncomplicatedly funny/breezy thing he’s made in a while b) nearly made me jump out of my seat with an insert cut. I can’t remember now what the cut was to; the point is, in the extremely limited visual language Hong’s codified over time, the one-time use of previously off-limits but otherwise totally normal devices really gets viewer attention. This is, of course, on some […]
by Vadim Rizov on Oct 2, 2018 -
NYFF 2018 Critic’s Notebook 1: Monrovia, Indiana, American Dharma
It’s fitting that the first two films I saw at NYFF after returning from TIFF were Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana and Errol Morris’s American Dharma. It’s not that you never hear Our 45th President’s name in Canada (given that we’re at Twitter war with them or whatever the status is), but it doesn’t come up as much; to return to two movies that wrestle with Trump’s America was very much a “welcome home, whether you like it or not” moment. Monrovia is a highlight among Wiseman’s recent work, while Dharma continues what’s basically been a decade-plus downward spiral for Morris; nonetheless, the two pair […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 30, 2018 -
Twelve Recommended Films and Events to See at the 2018 New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival opens tonight with Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite and, over its three weeks, presents its usual assuredly-curated selection of highlights from the current festival season as well as number of strong filmmaker conversations, new media pieces and experimental films. Sidestepping most of obvious titles, here are twelve picks to dig-out from the current lineup. Ray & Liz. Richard Billingham’s directorial debut Ray & Liz expands on photographs he took of his alcoholic parents. Movies about alcoholics aren’t hard to come by; shot in elegant academy-ratio 16mm, Billingham’s contribution is notable for possibly being the quietest, least […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 28, 2018
