NewFest · 2019
20 films · 18 reviews
Clements discovers a story that is diverse, inclusive and profoundly optimistic.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Alexis Clements; Writer: Alexis Clements, Ali Cotterill)
Itself an important contribution to lesbian history, the film uses photographs and snippets of archive material to bring viewers closer to the human stories that came close to being lost.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Megan Rossman; Stars: Deborah Edel, Paula Grant, Maxine Wolfe, Shawnta Smith-Cruz, Colette Montoya-Sloan)
There are fine performances throughout and the two leads are both excellent.
(Country: Philippines; Year: 2018; Director: Samantha Lee; Writer: Samantha Lee; Stars: Gabby Padilla, Zar Donato, Beauty Gonzalez, Cielo Aquino)
There's a heavy helping of genre clichés in Brad Michael Elmore's pacy, energetic teen thriller, but he succeeds very effectively in updating the old stories for a modern audience.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Brad Michael Elmore; Writer: Brad Michael Elmore; Stars: Diana Hopper, Zolee Griggs, Nicole Maines, MC Gainey)
Whatever you expected to happen is not about to do so.
(Country: Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Spain; Year: 2019; Director: Santiago Loza; Writer: Santiago Loza)
Everything hinges on Blane's performance. Open and emotional and in-your-face as it is, there's more depth there than first meets the eye.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Mark Blane, Ben Mankoff; Writer: Mark Blane, Ben Mankoff; Stars: Mark Blane, Patricia Richardson, Jeanine Serralles, Peter Y. Kim, Lucy DeVito, Joseph Seuffert, Matthew Shear)
Lisa Zi Xiang's astutely written début uses the familiar formula of a multi-generation family saga as a launchpad for thematic and structural experiment.
(Country: China, Spain; Year: 2019; Director: Lisa Zi Xiang; Writer: Lisa Zi Xiang; Stars: Naren Hua, Nan Ji, Naren Hua, Nan Ji)
There's a sense of joy around the kids' participation that has at least as much to do with their parents.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Megan Wennberg; Stars: Nemis Quinn Mélançon Golden, Bracken Hanke, Dominique Hanke, Stephen Hirst, Megan Wennberg)
Jonathan is an ideal subject because he's completely open to the world.
(Country: Germany, Israel; Year: 2018; Director: Tomer Heymann)
With its light touch, candid camera approach, this documentary gets under the skin of the issue.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Matt Kliegman)
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Daniel Nolasco; Stars: Dom Barbubo, Dom PC)
Taking its time and drifting lightly from one scene to another, this beautifully composed film really gets under the skin of its subjects, who seem marvellously at ease with the camera.
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Theodore Collatos, Carolina Monnerat; Stars: Luana Muniz, Luana Muniz)
Frankly, it's refreshing to see any film that features women having a good time at fan conventions without wearing Princess Leia slave girl outfits.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Gabrielle Zilkha; Stars: Angelica Ross, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Gloria Calderon Kellett & Mike Royce, Ilene Chaiken, Lucy Lawless, Tanya Saracho)
Particularly intriguing here is the overlap between hentai and art.
(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2019; Director: Graham Kolbeins; Stars: Atsushi Matsuda, Aya Kamikawa, Chiga Ogawa, Fumino Sugiyama, Gengoroh Tagame, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Leslie Kee, Nogi Sumiko, Tomato Hatakeno, Vivienne Sato)
Varón brings depth to a character who could easily have been annoying.
(Year: 2019; Director: Ruth Caudeli; Writer: Ruth Caudeli, Silvia Varón; Stars: Silvia Varón, Ximena Rodríguez, Alejandra Lara, Tatiana Rentería, Diana Wiswell, Andrés Jiménez, Lorena Castellanos, Justin Vahala Gina Medina)
There's a comedy of misunderstanding underlying all this as well as more overt comedy as the friends banter with one another and are forced to deal with some of the consequences of their hypocrisy.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Mike Doyle; Writer: Mike Doyle; Stars: Michelle Buteau, Scott Evans, Augustus Prew, Zoe Chao, Colin Donnell, Patricia Clarkson, John Doman)
What the film does well is to quickly set aside the simple conflict stemming from Matthias' prejudice and make room for other kinds of character development.
(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Cédric le Gallo, Maxime Govare; Writer: Romain Choay, Maxime Govare, Cédric Le Gallo; Stars: Alban Lenoir, David Baiot, Felix Martinez, Geofrey Couët, Michaël Abiteboul, Nicolas Gob, Pierre Samuel, Roland Menou, Romain Brau, Romain Lancry)
Stunningly beautiful cinematography dominates a film in which the dialogue is sparse.
(Country: Russia; Year: 2019; Director: Viatcheslav Kopturevskiy; Writer: Viatcheslav Kopturevskiy; Stars: Ilya Shubochkin, Anastasiya Voskresenskaya)
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: James Sweeney; Stars: Betsy Brandt, James Sweeney, Katie Findlay, Randall Park)
Rodrigo Bellott, who adapted the film from his own play, employs multiple layers of fiction to explore themes around loss, rejection, redemption and that deep human longing to understand what's going on inside the minds of those we love.
(Country: Bolivia, US; Year: 2019; Director: Rodrigo Bello; Writer: Rodrigo Bello; Stars: Fernando Barbosa, Oscar Martinez, Rossy de Palma)
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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