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New York Film Festival · 2018

New York Film Festival 2018

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Programme

30 films · 18 reviews

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Asako I & II

Review preview for Asako I & II

Higashide will no doubt attract most attention, impressive in his ability to inhabit two very different characters, yet it's Karata who is the power at the heart of the film.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Asako is a 21-year-old woman, living in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku who has a free spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and she meets Ryohei. He looks just like her ex-boyfriend Baku, but he has a completely different personality.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Tomoka Shibasaki; Stars: Masahiro Higashide, Erika Karata, Kôji Seto)

Full review

Ash Is Purest White (Jiang Hu Er Nv)

A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.

(Country: China, France, Japan; Year: 2019; Director: Zhangke Jia; Writer: Zhangke Jia; Stars: Tao Zhao, Fan Liao, Xiaogang Feng)

At Eternity's Gate

Review preview for At Eternity's Gate

For those who know and love Van Gogh's work, the effect is hypnotic, a translation of his vision into a new medium.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
The last days of Vincent van Gogh.

(Country: UK, France, US; Year: 2018; Director: Julian Schnabel; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Julian Schnabel; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup, Stella Schnabel, Patrick Chesnais, Victor Pontecorvo, Frank Molinaro, Alan Aubert, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac)

Full review See: Jean-Claude Carrière and Julian Schnabel‪ on‬ paintings, movement and the emotions in At Eternity's Gate

Closing night

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Review preview for The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Scruggs still suffers from the problem that afflicts too many other anthologies - not all the tales come up to the same level in telling the essentially Coen-esque truth over and over.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
An anthology of short films based on a fictional book of “western tales”.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; Writer: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; Stars: Bill Heck, Aesop Aquarian, Charles Ash, E.E. Bell, Katy Bodenhamer, Brian Brown, Richard Bucher, Jackamoe Buzzell, Tyne Daly, Tim DeZarn, Sam Dillon, Ethan Dubin, Stephen R Estler, Bill Foster, James Franco)

Full review See: Interview with Joel Coen and Ethan Coen about the animals in The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs , Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Burning

Review preview for Burning

Lee works the narrative with an ambivalence that borders on the inscrutable

Sunil Chauhan · 3 out of 5
Jong-soo, a part-time worker, bumps into Hae-mi while delivering, who used to live in the same neighborhood. Hae-mi asks him to look after her cat while she's on a trip to Africa.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Lee Chang-dong; Writer: Lee Chang-dong, based on the short story by Haruki Murakami; Stars: Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jong-seo, Steven Yeun)

Full review

Cold War (Zimna Wojna)

Review preview for Cold War

Beautifully shot and articulated.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatally mismatched and yet fatefully condemned to each other.

(Country: Poland, France, United Kingdom; Year: 2018; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Janusz Glowacki, Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Joanna Kulig, Jeanne Balibar, Jacek Rozenek, Agata Kulesza, Cédric Kahn, Martin Budny, Borys Szyc, Tomasz Kot, Philip Lenkowsky, Adam Woronowicz, Adam Ferency, Adam Szyszkowski)

Full review

A Faithful Man (L'Homme fidèle)

Review preview for A Faithful Man

Garrel knows his film is a confection rather than a banquet, so keeps things moving along at a serious clip

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Rom-com love triangle with added kid.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Louis Garrel; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Louis Garrel; Stars: Lily-Rose Depp, Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp, Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta)

Full review See: Louis Garrel and Jean-Claude Carriere on A Faithful Man

A Family Tour

Story of an exiled filmmaker, who can only see her mother in Taiwan.

(Country: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia; Year: 2018; Director: Liang Ying; Writer: Wai Chan, Liang Ying; Stars: Nai An, Zhe Gong, Pete Teo, Tham Xin Yue, Nai An, Zhe Gong, Pete Teo, Tham Xin Yue)

The Favourite

Review preview for The Favourite

The dialogue is irreverent and sharp like a raven's claw.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Two of Queen Anne's acolytes jockey for position.

(Country: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States; Year: 2018; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Writer: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara; Stars: Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Colman, Joe Alwyn, Mark Gatiss, Timothy Innes, John Locke, Isaura Barbé-Brown, Jenny Rainsford, James Smith, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte, Basil Eidenbenz, James Melville, Jack Veal)

Full review See: Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Colman, Joe Alwyn, and Tony McNamara in conversation on The Favourite , Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Opening night

The Flower (La Flor)

Episodic drama telling six stories.

(Year: 2018; Director: Mariano Llinás)

Grass (Pullipdeul)

A woman people watches in a cafe.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Kim Min-hee, Kee Joobong)

Happy As Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice)

Review preview for Happy As Lazzaro

Newcomer Tardiolo is splendid in the lead.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young nobleman asks a peasant to help fake his own kidnapping.

(Country: Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Nicoletta Braschi, Sergi López, Alba Rohrwacher, Natalino Balasso, Tommaso Ragno, Adriano Tardiolo, Luca Chikovani, Leonardo Nigro, Agnese Graziani, Ettore Scarpa, Carlo Massimino, Gala Othero Winter, Nicoletta Braschi, Sergi López, Alba Rohrwacher)

Full review See: Alice Rohrwacher in conversation on Italo Calvino, Astrid Lindgren, folktale magic and the casting for Happy As Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) , Alice Rohrwacher in conversation on Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice) before The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art

Her Smell

The leader of an alt-rock band struggles with her demons.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Alex Ross Perry; Writer: Alex Ross Perry; Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, Ashley Benson, Dylan Gelula, Amber Heard, Eric Stoltz, Virginia Madsen, Eka Darville, Lindsay Burdge, Keith Poulson, Jeremy Sample, Alexis Krauss)

High Life

Deep space drama.

(Country: Germany, France, UK, Poland, Canada, US; Year: 2018; Director: Claire Denis; Writer: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Geoff Cox, Nick Laird; Stars: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, Mia Goth, Lars Eidinger, Agata Buzek, Claire Tran, Ewan Mitchell, Gloria Obianyo, Victor Banerjee, Jessie Ross, Juliette Picollot, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin)

Hotel By The River

Two tales intersect at a riverside hotel.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Ki Joo-Bong Ki, Kim Min-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, Song Seon-mi, Yoo Joon-Sang Yoo)

If Beale Street Could Talk

Review preview for If Beale Street Could Talk

A powerful condemnation of endemic and structural racism, a sweet love story and, at a technical level, a beautifully produced film, If Beale Street Could Talk has much to recommend it.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A pregnant woman tries to prove her lover's innocence.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Barry Jenkins; Writer: Barry Jenkins, based on the novel by James Baldwin; Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Diego Luna, Finn Wittrock, Ed Skrein, Emily Rios, Pedro Pascal, Brian Tyree Henry)

Full review

The Image Book (Le Livre D'Image, The Picture Book)

Review preview for The Image Book

Elusively impenetrable stuff that only loosely can be described as cinema.

Richard Mowe · 1 out of 5
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Writer: Jean-Luc Godard)

Full review

In My Room

Review preview for In My Room

Patrick Orth's cinematography gives this a beguiling warmth but it's really Löw's performance that makes it work.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A bored man suddenly realises that everyone around him has disappeared and he isn't sure what happened.

(Country: Germany, Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Ulrich Köhler; Writer: Ulrich Köhler; Stars: Hans Löw, Elena Radonicich, Antonia Putiloff)

Full review

Long Day's Journey Into Night

A man is haunted by regret as the past and present weave together.

(Country: China; Year: 2018; Director: Bi Gan; Writer: Bi Gan; Stars: Sylvia Chang, Chen Yongzhong Chen, Jue Huang)

Monrovia, Indiana

Documentary look at the small town of the title.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Frederick Wiseman)

Non-Fiction (Doubles vies)

Review preview for Non-Fiction

In Assayas's smashingly sad comedy of manners, shoes drop left and right.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A drama about the hopelessly intertwined world of publishing.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche, Vincent Macaigne, Christa Théret, Nora Hamzawi, Pascal Greggory, Laurent Poitrenaux, Sigrid Bouaziz, Lionel Dray, Nicolas Bouchaud, Antoine Reinartz, Aurélia Petit, Thierry de Peretti, Violaine Gillibert, Jean-Luc Vincent)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Private Life

A New York couple desperate for a baby enlist the help of the husband's niece.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Tamara Jenkins; Writer: Tamara Jenkins; Stars: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Emily Robinson, Molly Shannon, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Kayli Carter, Desmin Borges, Tracee Chimo, Mandela Bellamy, Francesca Root-Dodson, Lizzy DeClement, Amy Russ, Samantha Buck, Marmee Regine Cosico, Abigail Friend)

Ray & Liz (Ray And Liz)

Review preview for Ray & Liz

Billingham's consideration calls for empathy rather than condemnation.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Drama about a dysfunctional family.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Richard Billingham; Writer: Richard Billingham; Stars: Michelle Bonnard, Tony Way, Ella Smith, Justin Salinger, Sam Gittins, James Eeles, Andrew Jefferson-Tierney, James Hinton, Michelle Bonnard, Tony Way, Ella Smith, Justin Salinger, Sam Gittins, James Eeles, Andrew Jefferson-Tierney)

Full review

Roma

Review preview for Roma

We are at a point where the wonders of earth and an awe in regards to nature cannot be shown often enough.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Chronicle of a middle-class family in the 1970s.

(Country: Mexico, United States; Year: 2018; Director: Alfonso Cuarón; Writer: Alfonso Cuarón; Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Marco Graf, Daniela Demesa, Nancy García García, Verónica García, Andy Cortés, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza, Latin Lover, Zarela Lizbeth Chinolla Arellano, José Luis López Gómez)

Full review See: Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Centrepiece gala

Shoplifters

Review preview for Shoplifters

Some may be dissuaded by the painstaking pace yet the tone manages to be both humorous and heart-rending at the same time.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find on the street.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Stars: Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Mayu Matsuoka)

Full review

Sorry Angel (Plaire, Aimer Et Courir Vite)

Review preview for Sorry Angel

Honoré handles the strands with considerable agility and admirable lack of cliché or sentimentality employing camerawork that is clean and uncluttered.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Two gay men struggle with love in the shadow of mortality.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Christophe Honore; Writer: Christophe Honore; Stars: Pierre Deladonchamps, Vincent Lacoste, Denis Podalydès)

Full review See: Christophe Honoré on sex in the Nineties, nudity, seduction and desire in Sorry Angel

Three Faces

The interwoven stories of three Iranian actresses.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2018; Director: Jafar Panahi)

Too Late To Die Young

Drama about youngsters in an isolated community preparing for New Year, as Chile makes its transition to democracy.

(Country: Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Qatar; Year: 2018; Director: Dominga Sotomayor Castillo; Writer: Dominga Sotomayor Castillo; Stars: Demian Hernández, Antar Machado, Magdalena Tótoro, Matías Oviedo, Andrés Aliaga, Antonia Zegers, Alejandro Goic, Eyal Meyer, Mercedes Mujica, Gabriel Cañas, Michael Silva, Demian Hernández, Antar Machado, Magdalena Tótoro, Matías Oviedo)

Transit

Review preview for Transit

Time and place hold both no and every meaning in Christian Petzold's latest film.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Georg flees to Marseilles to escape the German army. Assuming a false identity, he tries to obtain passage on a ship bound for Mexico. But then he meets Marie and his plans change.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2018; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold, baesd on the novel by Anna Seghers; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Sebastian Hülk, Emilie de Preissac, Antoine Oppenheim, Louison Tresallet, Justus von Dohnányi, Alex Brendemühl, Trystan Pütter, Ronald Kukulies)

Full review See: Franz Rogowski ‪in conversation on‬ controlling his breath, a space for the imagination, the images and colours in Transit, and his work at the Kammerspiele , Christian Petzold ‪in conversation on‬ Franz Rogowski, a memory, an identity and the language in Transit , Christian Petzold ‪in conversation on‬ Alex Brendemühl and George Romero in Transit, author Anna Seghers, Isabelle Huppert and Claude Chabrol , Franz Rogowski ‪in conversation on‬ Christian Petzold's Transit and The State We Are In

Wildlife

Review preview for Wildlife

Landscape and music and everyday objects are used to splendid effect.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A portrait of a family in crisis.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Paul Dano; Writer: Paul Dano, Richard Ford, Zoe Kazan; Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, Bill Camp, Lexi Anastasia, Zoe Margaret Colletti, Travis W Bruyer, Mollie Milligan, JR Hatchett, Darryl Cox, Kami King, Cate Jones, Blaine Maye, Laurie Cummings, John Walpole)

Full review