One of the few positive things the pandemic has done for movie buffs is left us with an onslaught of leftover 2020 titles held for this year’s fall festival circuit. Case in point: the 59th Annual New York Film Festival.
Most all of the major works by revered world cinema directors—many of which have premiered at other fests already— have some kind of presence at NYFF. From Cannes competition winners, such as Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul‘s mesmerizing “Memoria,” and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” to Venice premieres like Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “Lost Daughter,” and some movie called “Dune,” from one Denis Villeneuve. Frankly, there are so many titles that movies like Sean Baker’s “suitcase pimp” comedy “Red Rocket,” or Mia Hansen-Løve’s meta and long overdue “Bergman Island,” didn’t make the cut this time simply because we’ve covered them in prior previews already, and there’s no shortage of cinematic excitement on the horizon for international film lovers.
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The biggest premiere comes on opening night; Joel Coen unveiling his first solo work as a director, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” starring Denzel Washington and (duh!) Frances McDormand. With longtime composer Carter Burwell recently conveying that Ethan Coen doesn’t “want to make movies anymore,” Coen Brother fans are anxious to see what Joel has cooked up on his own.
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The 59th New York Film Festival runs from September 24 to October 10. We’ve put together a list of 16 of the many, many movies that are screening, one’s cinephiles surely won’t want to miss.
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“C’mon, C’mon”
Far from a loud filmmaker, “20th Century Women” writer/director Mike Mills makes movies that are quietly profound. Lifting a framework similar to Wim Wenders’ “Alice In The Cities,” “Cmon, Cmon,” the Oscar-nominated writer’s latest, stars Joaquin Phoenix as a radio doc journalist. We adored the film out of Telluride, sporting gorgeous black and white cinematography and an evocative score by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of “The National.” “If micro-aggressions are a thing, Mills arguable traffics in micro-traumas: the little disappointments, minor heartbreaks, disillusionment, hurts, and emotional bruises and bumps we sustain each day that affects our self-worth, especially in relation to our children, siblings, spouses, and loved ones.”
“Drive My Car”/“Wheel Of Fortune and Fantasy”
Winning awards from two major film fests this year already (the former at Cannes; the latter, Berlin) Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi seems primed to enter the festival circuit spotlight. Awarded with the Best Screenplay award for adapting Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name, “Drive My Car” is the second recent film to take one of the surrealist author’s lesser works and transmogrify it into a novelistic odyssey (see also: “Burning”). Hamaguchi’s other project, “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” is an anthology film touching on similar themes, and one of our most anticipated movies of the festival.
“The French Dispatch”
It would feel strange if the seemingly quintessential New Yorker film didn’t screen at the Big Apple’s annual hullabaloo. Pairing his usual cinematic precision with playful fanciness, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” finds the deadpan auteur reuniting with most of his regular collaborators (Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, etc) as well as working with a slew of international talent for the first time (actors ranging from Christoph Waltz to Elisabeth Moss and Timothée Chalamet). An anthology throwback to a bygone journalistic era, ‘French Dispatch’ personifies everything Wes Anderson does best. As our rave review put it: Anderson’s cinematic “craft is, even by his exceptional standards, exceptional.”
“Hit the Road”
One of our favorite movies at Cannes that hasn’t been a major discussion point in 2021’s discourse yet compared to films by well-established filmmakers, Panah Panhani’s freshman feature “Hit the Road” is a wonderful work of cinema—“a breath of fresh air and a truly original work that marks him as a talent to watch and raises the bar.” The son of acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi, the movie manages a balance of charm, wit, and sentimentality. Following a family of four on a complex psychological journey, evoking the atmospheric lineage of other regional road-trip movies while injecting new artistic components to the proceedings, “Hit the Road,” melds tradition with the uncertain.
“In Front of Your Face”/“Introduction”
It’s easy to make jokes about the prolific output of Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo but that doesn’t make his banter-heavy, narrative romance mazes any less engaging each time we’re treated to a new spin on his infatuation with Eric Rohmer flicks. Reportedly, “In Front of Your Face,” is Hong’s first movie in some time that was scripted in advance and not predominantly improvised—Lee Hye-young playing an actress who has been living abroad, returning home to reconcile her life choices. Operating in his more playful mode with “Introduction”—a breezy black and white exercise centered around a young man (Shin Seok-ho) aloof in both romantic relationships and establishing professional goals—Hong uses sly reversals to examine poignant social concerns, remaining one of the most consistent film artists we have.
“Parallel Mothers”
Similarly working on a wavelength few reach in their lifetime, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” is another outstanding entry in the Spanish auteur’s incomparable oeuvre. Following up the tremendously moving “Pain & Glory,” (which deservedly garnered Antonio Banderas an Oscar nom), the intimate filmmaker returns to his more feminized expressive roots via a medical, generational melodrama. Reuniting with his longtime muse, it’s “[Penelope] Cruz’s riveting, impossibly empathetic performance that makes deeply moving work of even the story’s most lurid and ludicrous contortions,” reads our review from the Venice Film Festival.
