NYFF: 10 Movies We Screened at the New York Film Festival
IMDb Editor Arno K. offers up quick takes on 10 movies he screened at the historically rainy 2023 New York Film Festival.
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- DirectorYorgos LanthimosStarsEmma StoneMark RuffaloWillem DafoeAn account of the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.'Poor Things' is its own liberation movement, and the film's creators, cast, and tinkerers deserve all the accolades they will attract throughout awards season. I'd like to call attention to anyone who loved the series "Penny Dreadful"; in particular, Billie Piper's portrayal of Lily Frankenstein. I didn't think I'd ever need to see someone else's take on a woman brought back to life by a maker with dubious intentions. Emma Stone's performance stands tall next to Piper's, and I hope it inspires writers and directors to make couture for her after they observe the heroic woman she co-created with Yorgos Lanthimos. And Mark Ruffalo, I mean, I was already in love, and I will probably turn off the Oscars if he doesn't win for Best Supporting Actor.
- DirectorTodd HaynesStarsNatalie PortmanChris TenzisCharles MeltonTwenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.Why haven't Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore faced off on screen before? Because the movie probably wouldn't have been so perverse and satisfying as Todd Haynes' deviation from the tabloid relationship between teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and student Vili Fualaau. The turn this script takes is so wicked, you might go off on the actor whose character abandons her humanity if you were to encounter her in real life. But it's also funny. Even the score wants you to laugh now and then, a regular reminder that you've consensually stepped into the world of Haynes' newest weepie.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsCailee SpaenyJacob ElordiAri CohenWhen teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.Any frustration I felt toward Sofia Coppola's conventionally made biopic was rooted in the fact that Priscilla Presley's actual life with Elvis Presley gradually confined her to a jumpsuit straitjacket. From the moment they meet during his army stint, through their marriage and ultimate divorce, Jacob Elordi dominates the scenes with flashes of menace for what felt like too long — and jeez, is he good. Meanwhile, Cailee Spaeny is coltish, terrified, and barely audible at times. I forgot SHE left him, and when that moment comes, Coppola's filmmaking dovetails with Spaeny's performance and I remembered who the movie is named after. Plus, we get a break from Elvis songs in the soundtrack.
- DirectorSean Price WilliamsStarsJack IrvTalia RyderElla RubinA picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S undertaken by Lillian, a high school senior from South Carolina. She gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C.A runaway gets a series of glimpses of a true domestic threat — the heterosexual American male at large — in this survivalist folk tale best suited for people who are unconcerned about a story completely coming together as the credits roll. I'm going to become a Talia Ryder completist because I love how she outfoxed Simon Rex and the other sick men who dot the landscape she covers in a brief respite from her nowhere life back home. The unfinished movie within the movie made by Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy O. Harris deserves a Criterion release, and I can't even with Jacob Elordi, again!
- DirectorAndrew HaighStarsAndrew ScottPaul MescalCarter John GroutA screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with his downstairs neighbor while discovering a mysterious new way to heal from losing his parents 30 years ago.Everything you are wearing will become a kerchief and the one-time Hot Priest will earn a Best Actor Oscar nomination in writer/director Andrew Haigh's loose adaptation of the novel by Taichi Yamada. Take that heartbreaking monologue from Elio's father in 'Call Me by Your Name' and turn it into a ghost story about retconning your family history, and you have the bones of 'All of Us Strangers.' But also include Paul Mescal as a troubled and loving soul desperate to connect with a similarly effed up Andrew Scott. Bear hugs for Haigh for abandoning straightforward storytelling.
- DirectorBradley CooperStarsCarey MulliganBradley CooperMatt BomerThis love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.You have to be nitpicky to not be pulled under by 'Maestro,' which is for-sure overly manipulative and a touch unsteady as Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan move through the first act. Cooper is in game-show host mode and Mulligan sounds as if she's from, like, Delaware, but as they age and smoke and the problems of fame and their marriage mature, their performances lock in (and his prosthetics settle into place). The movie might come in second for total Oscar nominations this year, though I wouldn't expect a redemptive Best Director nomination for Cooper, who was unfairly blanked for the honor for 'A Star Is Born.'
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsGlen PowellAdria ArjonaAustin AmelioA professor moonlighting as a hit man of sorts for his city police department, descends into dangerous, dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his services.When the yolk finally breaks on Richard Linklater's version of an action-comedy, Adria Arjona's character becomes less of a male fantasy and the story begins to fully deliver. Glen Powell earns and deserves the attention here as star and co-writer, and it's his most thoroughly entertaining collaboration with Linklater to date. Points to Austin Amelio and Retta as well. Double points to the montage where Powell appears as a range of hit men archetypes and also Patrick Bateman for some reason. In an alt cinematic universe there’s a companion movie, a Linklater relationship drama between Powell and Molly Bernard, who plays his ex.
- DirectorHarmony KorineStarsJordi MollàTravis ScottJoshua TilleyIn this sensual experimental elegy by Harmony Korine, spellbinding infrared photography evokes a dreamlike portrait of a tormented assassin.A while back, Harmony Korine founded the collective EDGLRD to experiment in a world between gaming and film. 'Aggro Dr1ft' is its initial public offering, along with a series of much-more-compelling oil paintings inspired by his unwatchable movie that no gamer would ever sit through. Absolutely I would have listened to Korine for 80 minutes if he chose to sit in front of a festival audience and go off on topics ranging from hyper masculinity, class conflict, and our collective cultural brain rot. But his movie isn't as good as the worst Travis Scott video, the musician featured in the movie who, like Korine, seems to be speaking more fluently in new mediums — not the one he's best known for.
- DirectorGarth DavisStarsSaoirse RonanPaul MescalAaron PierreHen and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior's family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal.There's an at-home audience for this sci-fi nervous breakdown set in 2065 with a barebones setting that lets Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal get to work. For me it existed in a world similar to 'Melancholia' made by a Lars von Trier disciple who wants to present a dilemma about the future of AI. I'll protect the story device (or machine) that causes this broken couple to think about what their respective futures' should look like as humankind is trying to set up colonies in space. I'm curious if I would have been more interested in this movie if there were an alt ending that sent me down subreddit rabbit holes, but I kept checking my phone instead.
- DirectorPierre CretonStarsAntoine PirottePierre CretonGrégory GadeboisFollows Pierre-Joseph, a student of horticulture, whose intercourse with his mentors and botany teacher leads to an original fusion of science, sex, and meditation.I'd heard about this queer drama from the Cannes circuit, and its reviews have bugged me to bits. Connection and consensual sex between gay men of different generations is not taboo, and it's not merely a rite of passage. Pierre Creton is an artist and farmer who puts aspects of his sexual being on display here with blunt dialogue and naturalistic settings. If he ever decides to focus a narrative (not a suggestion or requirement) he would attract a wider audience similar to that of his contemporaries Alain Guiraudie and François Ozon. On its own, 'A Prince' is a masterwork made by a person who knows that all we are and all we have experienced returns to the earth in time.