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New York Film Festival · 2021

New York Film Festival 2021

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Programme

32 films · 27 reviews

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Ahed's Knee

Review preview for Ahed's Knee

As a whole, it appears way too kinetically ostentatious for its own sake, sadly making it less than the sum of its parts, but there are things to appreciate here.

Nikola Jovic · 3 out of 5
An Israeli filmmaker throws himself in the midst of two battles doomed to fail: one against the death of freedom, the other against the death of a mother.

(Country: France, Israel; Year: 2021; Director: Nadav Lapid; Writer: Nadav Lapid; Stars: Nur Fibak, Avshalom Pollak)

Full review

US premiere

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc)

Review preview for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

At times, the dialogue is well done, scores points. At other times, it felt like we had wandered into a Socratic symposium.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet.

(Country: Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Jude; Writer: Radu Jude; Stars: Tudorel Filimon, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Malai, Ilinca Manolache, Daniela Ionita Marcu, Katia Pascariu, Alexandru Potocean, Nicodim Ungureanu, Andi Vasluianu, Dana Voicu)

Full review See: Jude Uncovered! An almost complete A to Z to Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

US premiere

Benedetta

Review preview for Benedetta

The interplay of the spiritual and the sensual is vital here.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.

(Country: France, Netherlands; Year: 2021; Director: Paul Verhoeven; Writer: David Birke and Paul Verhoeven, based on he book by Judoth C Brown; Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Virginie Efira, Daphne Patakia, Olivier Rabourdin)

Full review See: Benedetta director Paul Verhoeven on religion, nudity and sexuality in Benedetta

North American premiere

Bergman Island

Review preview for Bergman Island

The film unfolds at an easy pace, Hansen-Løve making everything matter of fact and yet beguiling, thereby softening viewers up to accept the fantastic or surreal aspects of the narrative as normal.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An American filmmaking couple retreat to the island for the summer to write screenplays for their upcoming films in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired Bergman. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur against the backdrop of the island's wild landscape.

(Country: France, Sweden, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Mia Hansen-Løve; Writer: Mia Hansen-Løve; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Tim Roth, Vicky Krieps, Anders Danielsen Lie, Joel Spira)

Full review See: Mia Hansen-Løve ‪in conversation on‬ the ghosts of Maya and Bergman Island

A Chiara

Review preview for A Chiara

Full of unspoken pain and resentment, the treasured Chiara carries her father’s sins in his absence as she struggles to decide which course to follow in her own life.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The Guerrasio family and their friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 16-year-old sister Chiara, as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family is in top form. However, everything changes the next day when Claudio disappears...

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Carpignano; Writer: Jonas Carpignano; Stars: Grecia Rotolo, Swamy Rotolo, Silvana Palumbo, Rosa Caccamo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmelo Rotolo)

Full review

Drive My Car (Doraibu Mai Kâ)

Review preview for Drive My Car

Slow to build and with an assembly of characters who are all more complex than they seem on the surface, Drive My Car exemplifies Japan’s growing body of literary cinema.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Nishijima Hidetoshi as a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and takamasa Oe, based on the book by Haruki Murakami; Stars: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Tôko Miura)

Full review

US premiere

The First 54 Years - An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

The Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories has lasted 54 years, and there is seemingly no end in sight. Working with testimonies given by soldiers in the Israeli army, Avi Mograbi provides insights on how a colonialist occupation functions.

(Country: Israel, France, Finland, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Avi Mograbi; Writer: Avi Mograbi; Stars: Zvi Barel, Shlomo Gazit, Avi Mograbi)

Flee

Review preview for Flee

By animating the whole movie, Rasmussen makes the story feel more immersive and of a whole piece.

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built.

(Country: Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen; Writer: Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

Full review

France (On A Half Clear Morning)

Review preview for France

France is a supremely sad film, maybe the saddest Dumont has made in its interplay of the true and the fake.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A TV journalist's career, home life, and psychological stability are shaken after a driving accident.

(Country: France, Italy, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Bruno Dumont; Writer: Bruno Dumont; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, Gaëtan Amiel, Jewad Zemmar, Marc Bettinelli)

Full review

US premiere

Futura

Review preview for Futura

The reflections and insights are many.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A portrait of Italy observed through the eyes of teenagers who talk about the places they live in and imagine themselves, torn between the opportunities that surround them, the dream of what they want to become, the fear of failing, the trials they hope to overcome.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)

Full review

US premiere

The Girl And The Spider (Das Mädchen und die Spinne)

Review preview for The Girl And The Spider

The Zürchers carefully construct their web of relationships, showing how a small vibration somewhere can lead to unexpected consequences elsewhere.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Tensions ebb and flow as a young woman moves apartment.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; Writer: Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; Stars: Henriette Confurius, André Hennicke, Sabine Timoteo, Ursina Lardi, Liliane Amuat, Birte Schnöink, Dorian Heiniger, Dagna Litzenberger-Vinet, Flurin Giger, Ivan Georgiev, Lea Draeger, Margherita Schoch, Ella Gfeller, Yuna Andres, Philippe Schuler)

Full review See: Silvan Zürcher and Ramon Zürcher in conversation on The Girl And The Spider and fairy tales

US premiere

Hit The Road

Review preview for Hit The Road

Panahi and his actors shift through emotions so smoothly, you barely notice them until they have immersed you.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Drama based around a road trip in a borrowed car.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Panah Panahi; Writer: Panah Panahi; Stars: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar)

Full review

US premiere

Il Buco

Review preview for Il Buco

The group of speleologists in Il Buco are housed in the storage room of a church, a sublime decision by the filmmakers that gives Berta ample opportunity to visually connect the scientists of the early Sixties with the splendour of Renaissance paintings.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Drama based on the true adventures of a group of young speleologists who in 1961 descended into a hole in the mountains of Calabria to explore what was then the third-deepest known cave on Earth.

(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Michelangelo Frammartino; Writer: Michelangelo Frammartino, Giovanna Giuliani; Stars: Paolo Cossi, Jacopo Elia, Denise Trombin, Mila Costi, Carlos José Crespo, Leonardo Larocca, Angelo Spadaro, Nicola Lanza, Antonio Lanza, Claudia Candusso)

Full review See: Michelangelo Frammartino in conversation on Il Buco (The Hole), Renato Berta, Marco Serrecchia, and Giovanna Giuliani

Introduction (Inteurodeoksyeon)

A young man tries to find his way in the world in the face of his parents' desires.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2021; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Shin Seokho, Park Miso, Kim Minhee)

North American premiere

In Front Of Your Face

After years of living abroad, a middle-aged former actress returns to South Korea to reconnect with her past.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2021; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Cho Yunhee, Lee Hye-yeong, Kwon Hae-hyo)

North American premiere

Memoria

Review preview for Memoria

For all the talk of hermetical storytelling, this might be his least hermetic and most approachable movie to date.

Nikola Jovic · 4 out of 5
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance.

(Country: Colombia, Mexico, France, UK, Thailand, Germany, China, Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Writer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Stars: Tilda Swinton, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego, Daniel Toro)

Full review

US premiere

Neptune Frost

Review preview for Neptune Frost

Set in a futuristic Rwanda, the themes are as old as the hills - with colonialism, identity and self-determination chief among them.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The love story between an African intersex runaway and a coltan miner, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union.

(Country: US, France, Rwanda; Year: 2021; Director: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; Writer: Saul Williams; Stars: Eliane Umuhire, Eliane Umuhire)

Full review

US premiere

Întregalde

Review preview for Întregalde

This pleasant, thrilling watch shows Muntean is capable of making great cinema in some of the starkest places.

Georgiana Musat · 4 out of 5
A group of people on a humanitarian mission arrive in a remote area of Transylvania to offer the inhabitants various goods, but when they try to help a disorientated local, things take a turn for the worse.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Muntean; Writer: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu; Stars: Maria Popistasu, Ilona Brezoianu, Alex Bogdan)

Full review

US premiere

Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)

Review preview for Parallel Mothers

Milena Smit is a relative newcomer. This is only her second feature and she has real presence.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Two women, a generation apart, find themselves inextricably linked by their brief time together in a maternity ward, bound by a secret with ties to a deep trauma in Spanish history.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2021; Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Writer: Pedro Almodóvar; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Rossy de Palma, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Daniela Santiago, Milena Smit, Julieta Serrano, Israel Elejalde, Adelfa Calvo, Inma Ochoa, José Javier Domínguez, Carmen Flores, Trinidad Iglesias)

Full review

North American premiere. Closing gala

Passing

Review preview for Passing

The role is a gift for Negga, who has always evinced considerable talent but has not previously had the chance to demonstrate her abilities to this extent.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Two African-American women who can "pass" as white choose to live on opposite sides of the colour line in 1929 New York in an exploration of racial and gender identity, performance, obsession and repression.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Rebecca Hall; Writer: Rebecca Hall, Nella Larsen; Stars: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp)

Full review

Petite Maman

Review preview for Petite Maman

The autumn setting fits it perfectly, because although this is the change of the year as things die back for winter, it is also blazing with colour and hopefulness.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Something magical happens to a young girl after the death of her grandma.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Céline Sciamma; Writer: Céline Sciamma; Stars: Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margot Abascal,)

Full review

The Power Of The Dog

Review preview for The Power Of The Dog

Campion treats the material with such well-mannered reverence that you begin to wish that not just the characters, but she too, would loosen up a bit.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A widow and her son are tormented by her new husband’s sullen and bullying brother.

(Country: UK, Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand; Year: 2021; Director: Jane Campion; Writer: Jane Campion, Thomas Savage; Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy,)

Full review

Centrepiece gala

Prayers For The Stolen (Noche De Fuego)

Review preview for Prayers For The Stolen

By delving into fiction, Huezo is able to focus on the impact of this crisis on individual human lives.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Life in a town at war seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2021; Director: Tatiana Huezo; Writer: Tatiana Huezo; Stars: Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo, Olivia Lagunas)

Full review

The Souvenir: Part II

Review preview for The Souvenir: Part II

Hogg has always had an eye for architectural as well as emotional spaces and we see it here, as she floods the large rooms of Julie's parents' home with light, so that she almost seems to be paling out of them, which, coupled with her often silent reactions as others babble around her makes it seem as though she is the one who might be the ghost.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Harris Dickinson, Jack McMullen, Richard Ayoade, Joe Alwyn, Charlie Heaton, Ariane Labed, Alice McMillan, Amber Anderson, Tosin Cole, Frankie Wilson, Jaygann Ayeh, Gala Botero, Grace Hancock)

Full review See: Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne make a splash in Cannes with The Souvenir: Part II

North American premiere

Titane

Review preview for Titane

The audience laughed at times that were not meant to be that kind of funny, a primate exhalation of surprise and relief.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A dancer becomes pregnant after having sex with a car.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Julia Ducournau; Writer: Julia Ducournau; Stars: Vincent Lindon, Nathalie Boyer, Dominique Frot, Anaïs Fabre)

Full review

US premiere

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

Shakespearean tragedy of a man and his wife who are undone by ambition.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Joel Coen; Writer: Joel Coen, William Shakespeare; Stars: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Brian Thompson, Ralph Ineson)

World premiere. Opening gala

Unclenching The Fists

A young woman struggles to break free from her over-controlling father in a mining town in the mountains.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Kira Kovalenko)

The Velvet Underground

Review preview for The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground will restore your belief in documentaries!

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Cinematic collage that is as much about New York of the period as it is about the rise and fall of the seminal band.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Todd Haynes; Writer: Todd Haynes; Stars: Lou Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison)

Full review See: Interview with Ed Lachman about Todd Haynes, Christine Vachon, and shooting the interviews for The Velvet Underground , Ed Lachman in conversation on Songs For Drella, Lou Reed, John Cale, and The Velvet Underground

Vortex

Review preview for Vortex

The most restrained and yet audacious, unadorned and still intelligent picture the Argentinian auteur has made.

Levan Tskhovrebadze · 4 out of 5
Drama focused on a handful of dark days in the lives of an elderly couple in Paris.

(Country: France, Belgium, Monaco; Year: 2021; Director: Gaspar Noé; Writer: Gaspar Noé; Stars: Dario Argento, Alex Lutz, Françoise Lebrun)

Full review See: Gaspar Noé interview about Vortex

What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? (Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt?)

Review preview for What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?

Digression builds upon detour, which piles charmingly onto excursion, sometimes lifted, sometimes pushed and always shaped by a score that also roams freely in its influences.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A couple who fall in love at first sight, wake the next day with different appearances and struggle to find one another.

(Country: Germany, Georgia; Year: 2021; Director: Alexandre Koberidze; Stars: Irina Chelidze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Ani Karseladze, Giorgi Ambroladze)

Full review See: Alexandre Koberidze in conversation on What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? and folktales

North American premiere

Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)

Review preview for Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy

The Japanese filmmaker guides his actors as if they were just learning emotions, creating an impression of awkwardness.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 4 out of 5
An unexpected love triangle, a failed honey trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Stars: Kotone Furukawa, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Fusako Urabe)

Full review

US premiere

The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

Review preview for The Worst Person In The World

There is a lingering, half blossomed melancholy that lies underneath the often very funny, fast-paced moments of quotidian chaos.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

(Country: Norway, France, Sweden; Year: 2021; Director: Joachim Trier; Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Renate Reinsve, Herbert Nordrum)

Full review

US premiere