Tag Archives: nyff 2019

New York Film Festival: Movies coming soon to a theater near you (or your favorite device)

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Of the 48 films screening at this year’s New York Film Festival (Main Slate, Spotlight on Documentary, Special Events) there are 17 that are either released or will be in the next 6 months. That used to mean they were just coming soon to a cinema screen, but now it could mean it will soon be available for you to watch on your favorite device. For those outside NY or LA, you might never get the opportunity to see these movies if it weren’t for streaming. It’s quite the world we’re living in.

One should note that sponsors of this year’s festival are HBO and Netflix.

Netflix had 3 films screening, The Irishman, releasing in select theaters and Netflix November 1st, Marriage Story, releasing December 6th in select theaters and Netflix and Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story whose release date is November 15th on Netflix.

HBO oddly only has one, the documentary, Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn – which I’m really looking forward to seeing. Release date is only for 2020 at this point.

  • Pain and Glory [Main Slate] Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics, 10/14/19, in theaters
  • Parasite [Main Slate] Distributed by: NEON, 10/14/19, in theaters
  • Motherless Brooklyn [Closing Night] Distributed by: Warner Bros, 11/01/19
  • The Irishman [Opening Night] Distributed by: Netflix, 11/01/19
  • A Girl Missing [Main Slate] Distributed by: Film Movement, 11/15/19
  • Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story [Main Slate] Distributed by: Netflix, 11/15/19, on Netflix
  • Varda by Agnès [Main Slate] Distributed by: Janus Films, 11/22/19, at Film Forum & Film at Lincoln Center Nationwide Rollout to Follow
  • College Behind Bars [Spotlight on Documentary] Distributed by: PBS, 11/25/19
  • 63 Up [Spotlight on Documentary] Distributed by: BritBox, 11/27/19
  • Marriage Story [Centerpiece] Distributed by: Netflix, 12/06/19
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire [Main Slate] Distributed by: NEON, 12/06/19
  • Cunningham 3D [Spotlight on Documentary] Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures, 12/13/19
  • The Traitor [Main Slate] Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics, 01/03/20
  • I Was at Home, But… [Main Slate] Distributed by: Cinema Guild, February 2020
  • The Whistlers [Main Slate] Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures, 02/28/20
  • First Cow [Main Slate] Distributed by: A24, 03/06/20
  • Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn [Spotlight on Documentary] Distributed by: HBO Documentary Films, 2020

New York Film Festival Review: ‘The Wild Goose Lake’

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The Wild Goose Lake

  • Diao Yinan
  • 2019
  • China/France
  • 113 minutes
  • Subtitled

U.S. Premiere · 

Small-time mob boss Zhou Zenong (the charismatic Hu Ge) is desperate to stay alive after he mistakenly kills a cop and a dead-or-alive reward is put on his head. Chinese director Diao Yinan deftly keeps multiple characters and chronologies spinning, all the while creating an atmosphere thick with eroticism and danger.

Stylized fight choreography and lush cinematography drive this film firmly into the crime noir genre. While the quick take editing lies somewhere between self-indulgence and brilliance, The Wild Goose Lake is altogether engrossing. An over the top take on territory grievances becomes a backstabbing story of survival and redemption. There is actually very little dialogue for s film of this length but this is another area where the film can shine. The almost immersive sound editing is a transitional heads up. The plot is chaos and greed-driven, inevitably leading to brutal violence. Lead performances are incredibly strong, especially Hu Ge . The Wild Goose Lake is worth the price of entry at this year’s NYFF. This is a film that deserves a top-quality viewing experience on a large screen if you can swing it.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/the-wild-goose-lake/

NYFF 57 review: – Kelly Reichardt’s ‘First Cow’ is a film about male friendship in the early 19th century.

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First Cow

  • Kelly Reichardt
  • 2019
  • USA
  • 122 minutes

New York Premiere ·

Kelly Reichardt once again trains her perceptive and patient eye on the Pacific Northwest, this time evoking an authentically hardscrabble early 19th-century way of life for this tale of a taciturn loner and skilled cook (John Magaro) who has joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, but only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) also seeking his fortune.

Kelly Reichardt has a style all her own. You can pick out a film of hers within the first five minutes of long drawn out, beautifully cinematic shots. First Cow is based on the novel “The Half-Life” by John Raymond who is also a longtime collaborator with Reichardt. The story follows a quiet man called Cookie who is making his way across the Oregan territory with a group of fur trappers. Stumbling upon a clearly educated Chinese immigrant named King Lu, the men become fast friends in uncertain times. This film is essentially about male bonding in a time and environment that is driven by greed and aggression. The kindness and sincerity of our two leads, John Magaro and Orion Lee, bounds off the screen. You believe in their earnest chemistry. With Reichardt’s usual use of natural light and sparse dialogue, we are fully entrenched in the almost uninhabitable world these two men live in. At moments, this feels like a buddy comedy and I do mean that as a complete compliment. Some of the greatest moments in the script occur within the conversations between Cookie and the cow, itself. It must be mentioned the sheer number of wonderfully acted ancillary characters is mind-boggling. Sweet and funny, and bursting with charm, First Cow is something special in its storytelling.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/first-cow/

 

New York Film Festival Review: ‘Sybil’ is chaotic and anything but predictable

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What I really enjoyed about Justine Triet’s ‘Sybil’ is the layered stories that are told in real-time alongside flashbacks. The result leaves you with a feeling of unease. Was it happening now or was she remembering? I got a feeling of confusion that was intriguing and captivating.

Past and present collide in an increasingly complicated and highly entertaining fashion in Justine Triet’s intricate study of the professional and personal masks we wear as we perform our daily lives. Psychotherapist Sibyl (Virginie Efira) abruptly decides to leave her practice to restart her writing career—only to find herself increasingly embroiled in the life of a desperate new patient: Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a movie star dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic affair with her costar, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel), while trying to finish a film shoot under the watchful eye of a demanding director (Toni Erdmann’s Sandra Hüller, splendidly high-strung), who happens to be Igor’s wife. Sybil, negotiating her own past demons, makes the fateful decision to use Margot’s experiences as inspiration for her book, as boundaries of propriety fall one after another. As she proved in her previous film In Bed with Victoria, which also starred the magnificently expressive Efira, Triet is a master at creating heroines of intense complexity, and of maintaining a tricky balance between volatile drama and sly comedy. A Music Box Films release.

There’s nothing simple about this dark comedy/drama, which is what gives it such rich complexity. It’s disorienting at first to figure out what is going on, which seems to mimic Sybil’s current status. Just when you think you know where it’s going, life happens. It’s unpredictable and fascinating.

There are a few tickets left for Saturday at noon, so if you’re looking for something to see that’s worth the ticket, this would be highly recommended. Being in French adds another level of fantastic. https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/sibyl/

I just didn’t like this poster because I still think Sally Field when I hear Sybil, so it makes me think she has multiple personalities.