The 49th annual New York Film Festival drew to a close last night with screenings of The Descendants, the new (and rather wonderful) comedy/drama from director Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election, About Schmidt). Its centerpiece performance is a magnificent, nuanced turn by George Clooney, but there’s another one well worth mentioning: that of Shailene Woodley, the heretofore-unknown-to-your-author actor (she apparently co-stars on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, whatever the hell that is) who plays his 17-year-old daughter Alexandra. Woodley appears in nearly as much of the picture as Clooney, in a role just a complicated and difficult as his, and in scene after scene, she just nails it. Woodley’s complex (and relatively unsung, thus far anyway) performance puts a final spotlight on perhaps the most encouraging trend at this year’s NYFF: a rich assortment of extraordinary female performances.
1. Here’s your first look at the teaser trailer for Joss Whedon’s highly-anticipated adaptation of The Avengers. Unfortunately for fans, it doesn’t contain any new footage that we haven’t already seen before.
2. “At it’s core, it is the most expensive and creative Film History 101 course of all time.” – The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg reacts to an unfinished version of Martin Scorsese’s children’s movie Hugo, which screened last night at the New York Film Festival.
3. If you loved Paris Is Burning, then you’ll be excited to hear that writer W. Merritt Johnson (In Treatment, Temple Grandin) is teaming up with Precious director Lee Daniels on a new dramatic series for Showtime that looks at New York City’s underground drag ball scene. [via Vulture]
4. Law enforcement officers in Hungary seized “85 functioning weapons” from a warehouse in Budapest that were going to be used in the filming of Brad Pitt‘s zombie movie World War Z, and it’s not really clear what will happen with them now. [via ArtsBeat]
5. A post-pregnancy January Jones has returned to the set of Mad Men. Check out some photos of Betty Draper Francis rocking a surprisinly frumpy house dress here.
We don’t generally find ourselves getting worked up about film festival announcements, but reading this Variety item about additions to this year’s New York Film Festival line-up, we nearly did a spit take. You see, NYFF has announced plans to do a handful of anniversary screenings — including The Royal Tenenbaums and what we consider to be Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, Spirited Away. Because they came out ten years ago. In 2001. If this makes you feel old, we’re right there with you. Continue to freak yourself out with a list of 20 more seemingly recent movies that actually premiered a decade ago after the jump.
Mother knows best in Bong Joon-ho’s sinuous, first-rate whodunit, the South Korean director’s first feature since The Host in 2006.
Exquisitely played by Kim Hye-ja (an actress who spent decades in Korean minds as a TV mother), the title character coddles her unpredictable idiot of a son as if the 27-year-old were 7. They eat and even sleep beside each other until, one hazy night, he’s charged with the brutal murder of a poor high-school floozy. With her maternal instinct in overdrive, Mother conducts a town-wide probe to exonerate her child, leading to Hitchcockian suspense and a Pandora’s Box of repressed secrets.
In Michael Haneke’s latestfilm, The White Ribbon, a series of mysteriously random acts of violence disturb a small and puritanical Northern German village on the eve of World War I. We never get a satisfying explanation of their origin because Haneke is more interested in how people react in the face of fear and uses this setting to offer a glimpse into the formative years of the generation who would grow up to form the Nazi party. For nearly two and a half hours, he demands the utmost attention from his audience, providing subtle clues hidden inside seemingly banal dialogue, long and expansively bleak shots, and acting that appears flat. Emblematic? Sure, but this Palme d’Or winner takes a toll on the viewer. Read More »
Ramin Bahrani‘s lovely 18-minute whirlwind, Plastic Bag documents the existential and eye-opening afterlife of a poster-child for pollution. It is voiced by Werner Herzog. The Bavarian auteur — who has been in the blogosphere of late with a new, $1450-priced seminar called the Rogue Film School — lends his familiar brogue to the plain-brown plastic as it goes from the checkout line into its “Maker’s” life.
The “Maker,” as Herzog refers to her throughout, appears to never have heard of other sorts of bags (zip-lock, canvas, so on) and she re-uses our protagonist to hold lunch, tennis balls, ice, and even dog food. Read More »
There are always films that people can’t stop talking about long before a festival begins. At this year’s New York Film Festival, Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist (screening this weekend) has such an honor. After a packed showing at Cannes that shut out many members of the press, those who saw it couldn’t stop talking and blogging about how, well, revolting it is. Read More »
Tonight, the 47th NYFF opens its grand lineup with Wild Grass, a rapturous flight of fancy by 87-year-old French master Alain Resnais. Venerated the world over for his deconstructive, narrative-be-damned opuses Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad, Resnais’ latest tale of romantic obsession is based on Christian Gailly’s novel The Incident, but takes off on the inspiriting belief that “after the cinema, nothing surprises you. Everything is possible.” And, oui, he directs with such-minded freedom — totally, tenderly, tragically. Read More »
