Following a boffo 2023, the New York Film Festival continues to prove its vitality and wisdom in its advancing age. Returning for its 62nd year, NYFF offers a predictably satisfying selection from the world cinema buffet, running from Friday, September 27th (RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” is the Opening Night feature) until Monday, October 14th (Closing Night: Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”).
With the international festivals (Berlin, Cannes, Venice) in the rear view, NYFF kicks off the fevered home stretch to Oscars, where fifty-four films make their domestic and/or international debut. For the third consecutive year, Buff critics Hector Gonzalez and Kevin Parks are teaming up to cover NYFF, and below, each critic lists his top five most anticipated films.
Kevin Parks’ picks
‘Eephus’ (Dir. Carson Lund)
Boy am I a sucker for any baseball movie, especially come October and definitely when the Mets—who also turn 62 this year!—are actually relevant. Carson Lund’s debut feature is already garnering comparisons to Richard Linklater, whose “Everybody Wants Some!!” (2016) happens to be the last good—maybe great—baseball movie. Amid a festival of brand-name directors, A-listers and big-swing passion projects, “Eephus” is a sleeper which promises swoony visuals (Lund is a seasoned cinematographer) and a dugout full of pathos.
‘Hard Truths’ (Dir. Mike Leigh)
In any year, the release of a new Mike Leigh film is cause to celebrate. Doubly so this year, since “Hard Truths” is Leigh’s first feature in six years (“Peterloo”) and because the peerless humanist auteur has now been at it for six decades. Reuniting with Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Palme d’Or-winning “Secrets and Lies” (1995), this film’s title suggests a return to a familiar milieu of grit, sans glamour, and Leigh once more sets his sights on the macro and the micro. Applying his singularly compassionate yet unsparing gaze on the British working class, Leigh examines Pansy (Jean-Baptiste), whose relentless health problems lead to a spiral of aggression against her family, the medical establishment and the systemic designed to help her.
‘Oh, Canada’ (Dir. Paul Schrader)
A veteran of NYFF and Manhattan resident, Paul Schrader lines up an all-star cast (Jacob Elordi, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli) for his second adaptation of a Russell Banks novel (“Foregone”). Schrader’s last Banks’ adaptation “Affliction” (1998) yielded one of his more searing and memorable films, and the only other Gere collaboration “American Gigolo” (1980) was a rare box-office success for the legendary writer/director/film freak. In a lean 95 minutes, “Oh, Canada” travels from the present to the 1960s and back again, profiling a documentarian (Gere) grappling with regret and the elusive pursuit of closure and purpose as death sprints towards him.
‘Pavements’ (Dir. Alex Ross Perry)
In the spirit of Martin Scorsese’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” (2019)—and possibly Rob Reiner’s “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984)—Alex Ross Perry (“Her Smell”) returns to NYFF for the third time with an a clever, subversive take on the music documentary. A cheeky cocktail of fiction and reality, Perry shows genuine affection for the band Pavement while inviting Jason Schwartzman, Zoe Lister Jones, Tim Heidecker, and others on stage for a rule-breaking love letter to a band whose brand resists standard talking-heads doc treatment.
‘The Room Next Door’ (Dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Almodóvar’s chamberpiece pairs Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as Ingrid and Martha. The twoold friends become roommates, when Martha approaches Ingrid with an offer she can’t—maybe?—refuse. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s trim, tense novel “What Are You Going Through, this is the second Nunez adaptation (“The Friend”) screening at NYFF this year. Almodóvar first full-length feature in English should be yet another profound examination of complex, resolute women on the verge.
Hector Gonzalez’ picks
‘Afternoons of Solitude’ (Dir. Albert Serra)
Although his pretentious behavior has rubbed many film critics and cinemagoers the wrong way (and notably so), Albert Serra is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. His creative and disruptive anti-period pieces have been utterly distinctive and out of touch with the current mold of these pictures released in the past couple of years. His stance in cinema is singular and mostly centered around his creating majestic art pieces. At the same time, the rest is uninteresting to him–except a few other directors who seem fascinated by what he likes about cinema.
But Serra is always determined to provide something new to the table. And with “Afternoons of Solitude,” he wants to do that more than before. Since 2019, he said he will deliver the best film about bullfighters in cinema history. Although that may be his ego talking, I am pretty sure that Serra is indeed capable of doing such, so (apart from being a big fan of his work) I am highly anticipating his latest project, screening at the festival in the Spotlight section.
‘The Brutalist’ (Dir. Brady Corbet)
Noted as the best cinematic treat for cinephiles and the winner of the ‘Best Director Prize’ at this year’s Biennale, “The Brutalist” (screening in the Main Slate at the festival) has been in everybody’s eyes since it was revealed how it was shot. VistaVision 70mm print, weighing over three hundred pounds, is impressive and has not been used since Marlon Brando’s 1961 Western, “One Eyed Jacks.” It is a cinematic relic that very few filmmakers will ever get the chance to use in their careers.
If somebody were going to get the opportunity to do so, Brady Corbet, who has impressed critics vastly with his previous two features (“Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux”), would be the best choice imaginable. Continuing his string of biographies on fictional important figures, Corbet’s “The Brutalist” is not only using old school camera techniques with VistaVision but also crafting an epic that emulates those of the past–recalling the weight of brio and verve of “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Ten Commandments,” the many others that were made in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. If you are a film lover, how can you not be excited about this? Projects like this rarely get made, and if the worldwide critical acclaim is correct, we might be in the presence of a project that will be studied for many years after its release.
‘Hellraiser’ (Dir. Clive Barker)
“Hellraiser” is, in my books, not only one of the best horror films of the 1980s but also a near masterpiece about identity, lust, and pleasure through a sense of wonderment and disgust. Clive Barker adapts his novella, “The Hellbound Heart,” most devilishly and cruelly that it gets under the viewer’s skin. Since the first time I saw it, I fell in love with the freaky, bondage, and carnal creations that Barker offered, emulating what I admire most from horror cinema: big ideas, well-defined characters, giant frights, and palpable bloody creations.
The franchise has gone to rust, except for “Hellbound: Hellraiser 2.” But the original lives forever in many’s minds, bodies, and souls. And now, “Hellraiser” is receiving a new restoration at this year’s New York Film Festival. I was pleasantly surprised that a movie like Hellraiser would screen at a festival that does not play many horror or genre flicks in its slate. Well… at least not to this degree of madness. So, I will make “Hellraiser” one of my priorities because I love it and because of the strange yet welcomed addition to the festival’s Revivals selections.
‘Grand Tour’ (Dir. Miguel Gomes)
Miguel Gomes is an underrated director and is not well known outside of film critics and consumers of international cinema. But those who have seen his work know that Gomes is a unique talent that provides a magical touch to each project he decides to do. Whether it is his “Arabian Knights” trilogy or his lockdown picture “Tsugua Diaries,” the Portuguese filmmaker always seems to impress in his blend of fictional and documentary footage–reality and dreams blending to create a beautiful parallel between the magic of cinema and human connection.
His latest film, “Grand Tour” (screening at the festival’s Main Slate and winner of the ‘Best Director prize’ at Cannes), is no different, although he seems to pull more tricks up his sleeves. Monochrome mixed with color. Old-school sets combined with documentary footage similar to Chris Marker’s “Sans Soleil.” Just by reading the description, you already sense the beauty behind his work. I missed this one at Cannes and have wanted to see this one since then. Now I have the chance and could not be more excited to catch it at the festival.
‘Scénarios’ (and ‘Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario’) (Dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
One of the most legendary filmmakers in cinema history and co-creator of the influential French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, passed away two years ago via assisted suicide. It took us all by surprise. Although some didn’t like his work or didn’t enjoy his works post the 1970s, every cinephile was left heartbroken. That same year, he released “Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’” (which screened at that year’s NYFF). And we all thought that was his unprecedented farewell to us all.
However, then news broke that he did one last shot, which Godard finished the day before he passed away. “Scénarios” (accompanied by “Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario,” screening at the Spotlight section at the festival) is his “our revoir,” the official goodbye from him to us, delivered as a final warning to our declining society. One is a makeshift short similar to “The Image Book’s” style, and the other is the behind-the-scenes creation of that piece of work. This is the best watch for everybody attending the festival, whether or not you love Godard’s work.
NYFF 62 runs from September 27th – October 14th. Follow The Movie Buff for news, updates, reviews, and more.
