Presented in the New York Film Festival’s Currents section, a complement to the main-slate selection that traces “a more complete picture of contemporary cinema with an emphasis on new and innovative forms and voices,” as per the programmers, all three films covered in this dispatch sit curiously between narrative and documentary traditions, challenging our ability … Read more
Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho tells us the origins of his love for motion pictures, developed in the city of Recife at theaters like the Veneza and Sao Luiz. Though these cinemas were closed over time and converted into different spaces with new people and memories, the ghosts of the films of the director’s youth … Read more
This year at the New York Film Festival, there were quite a few features that explored the complexity of loneliness and the need for familial and romantic love. Set against lush backgrounds full of grass, trees and various greenery, these films transported us to a quieter place and time—a place for pondering relationships and wondering … Read more
Korine’s vision of the future of cinema follows an assassin (Jordi Mollà) who seemingly spends most of his day repeating his inner monologue, assuring the audience that he’s “the world’s greatest assassin,” opining about how difficult his life is, and how he just wants to come home to his hot wife and kids. On a … Read more
Spanish director Víctor Erice has only a few feature films to his name, but each one is an expertly measured exercise of the medium. His latest, “Close Your Eyes” is both a tribute to cinema and a reckoning with lost time and relationships. Like his politically charged classic “The Spirit of the Beehive,” released 50 … Read more
Ryosuke Hamaguchi’s provocatively titled “Evil Does Not Exist” (102 minutes) taught me a word I’d never heard before: glamping. I don’t know if the term really exists in present-day Japan or if Hamaguchi made it up for his film, but it’s a contraction of “glamorous camping,” a practice whereby wealthy urbanites go to the country … Read more