2013 NYFF Gala Screenings Premiere Hollywood's Most Anticipated Movies

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Published on Monday, 14 October 2013 23:12

Written by Jack Angstreich

This year's opening night selection at the New York Film Festival is Paul Greengrass's gripping thriller, Captain Phillips, a docudrama about the kidnapping of an American ship captain by Somali pirates in 2009. This director has cultivated a consistent style at least since his Bloody Sunday, deploying a handheld camera and relying on intensive editing — in many respects his technique is representative of current practice in Hollywood but Greengrass has proven himself to be one of the most adept filmmakers working in this mode and has not yet departed from a high standard. Tom Hanks gives one of his strongest and most satisfying performances to date as the film's hero but the picture as a whole is a triumph of casting with hardly any named stars. Captain Phillips is largely shot in bright daylight and given the digital format's inability to reproduce the high-contrast of film stocks, this decision proves to be something of liability even if the gritty texture that results has a certain consonance with the narrative material.

Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this year's Festival Centerpiece, is a romantic comedy about the travails of a hapless daydreamer as he timidly pursues a co-worker he has a crush on, with the protagonist's daydreams providing a pretext for parodies of contemporary action filmmaking. Based on a classic James Thurber short story — previously filmed in the 1940s with Danny Kaye — this has several very imaginative and beautifully realized comic and visual ideas as well as consistently well-observed dialogue — however, the film too frequently capitulates to clichés, sentimentality and uninspired construction. The actors, on the other hand, are superb, with Stiller himself as the eponymous hero, Kristen Wiig as the object of his affections, and a terrific supporting cast including Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Shirley MacLaine, Patton Oswalt, and Sean Penn.

This year's closing night selection is Spike Jonze's clever, often exhilaratingly creative sci-fi comic romance, Her, about a professional letter-writer — touchingly played by Joaquin Phoenix — who, amazingly, falls in love with his computer operating system, an advanced artificial intelligence, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in one of her best roles to date. The director-writer and his talented cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema — who brilliantly shot the recent version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — achieve one of the most satisfying visual presentations within the digital format to be seen at this festival. (Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin, Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis, Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, and James Gray's The Immigrant were also standouts in this respect, although thus far the recent works of David Fincher as well as Francis Ford Coppola's Tetris seem to remain the gold-standards for digital photography in world cinema at present; however, most of the other films here were evidence that the special requirements of digital have not yet been fully absorbed and mastered even by most of the premier cinematographers — and directors — in the world.) This festival has, unsurprisingly, been graced by copious superior acting and Her is no exception, with wonderful support from Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, and, above all, Rooney Mara. (Brian Cox, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader also memorably contribute in brief, voice-only parts.) Her is certainly a worthwhile entry although it falls a little short of fully exploring the implications of its ingenious premise, suffering slightly in comparison with, for example, with Michel Gondry's (and Charlie Kaufman's) moving and dazzling Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the eccentric sensibility of which Her often recalls. 

To learn more, go tohttp://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/

The 51st New York Film Festival
September 27 – October 13, 2013

The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Napa Valley Film Festival Line-Up, Events Announced

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Published on Monday, 14 October 2013 03:43

Written by Evan Pearson

The 2013 Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) has announced it’s festival lineup along with its special tributes, guests, events, and awards, promising to be a good time to catch some interesting upcoming films, shorter works, and bask in the wonder of it all over some of the best wines that California has to offer. Running from November 13^th - 17^th, the festival spotlights 125 new independent films with celebrity guests and lush events each day and night of the festival. Luncheons, panels, and interactive exhibits will take over over Napa for the festival alongside culinary demonstrations and wine tastings, making this a good opportunity to see independent film while enjoying Napa’s architecture, culinary delights, and exquisitely crafted wine-pairings.

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New Yorker Festival Lineup Announces High-Brow Barrage

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Published on Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:06

Written by Kyle Sittig

The New Yorker Festival has unveiled its 2013 schedule, taking place October 4th-6th. It wouldn’t be claimed by The New Yorker if the lineup didn’t have plenty of intellectually stimulating material, including panels on everything from politics to literature to science.

As part of their Fiction Night, on the festival’s opening night, NYF will include moderated discussions with writers, such as Junot Diaz (Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and Karen Russell (Swamplandia!). A sneak preview of Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix special, Buried Alive. Ansari and Andy Borowitz will have a conversation, following the screening. For the film studies geeks, there will be a Panel entitled First-person Filmmaking: Movies as Modern art, with industry juggernauts Miranda July, Alex Karpovsky, Kenneth Lonergan, and Terence Nance. Michael Shannon, who has recently been acclaimed for his work with Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud), will have a conversation with Burkhard Bilger, followed with a performance from Shannon’s band Corporal.

Saturday’s highlights include a discussion of digital media criticism with Jonathan Franzen and Clay Shirky, called Is Technology Good for Culture? Conversations with relevant celebrities, such as Ethan Hawke and Quentin Tarantino’s new lucky charm Christoph Waltz. On a lighter note, Billy Eichner will host An Evening with Funny or Die, which will provide a variety of sketches and new comedy videos. Saturday also includes a broad range of Panels on a variety of topics, including Hurricane Sandy, Journalism, and Espionage.

NYF’s final day will have Panels on the god particle and the role of television in politics, as well as a talk from James Wood, a conversation with Paul Simon, as well as many tours of famous New York locations. The American debut of Philomena, a new drama starring Judy Dench and Steven Coogan, will accompany a screening of The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations, in the world premiere of a documentary about the children’s lit classic.

As usual, the NYF has a little (or a lot) of something for everyone. For more information and the full schedule, visit newyorker.com/festival.

The New Yorker Festival
October 4th-6th, 2013