“Smooth Talk“
The revivals section of NYFF often brings back classics you know and love (see Wong Kar Wai’s“In The Mood For Love” this year), but they also bring back gems people have totally forgotten. One of those is Joyce Chopra’s 1985 film “Smooth Talk” which features 18-year-old Laura Dern in her first lead role. Loosely based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 1966 short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” which was in turn inspired by the infamous 1964 Tucson murders committed by Charles Schmid, the film won the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize in 1986 (Chopra was already an established documentarian who started her career as an apprentice to pioneer documentary filmmakers D. A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock). Dern stars as a teenager who spends her summer days moping around the house and exploring her sexuality in the Northern California suburbs. But the thrills and innocence of youth are forever shaded by the predatory behavior of an older man named Arnold Friend (Treat Williams). Co-starring Mary Kay Place and Levon Helm, “Smooth Talk” is a classic about manipulation and creepy seduction. Even better, the new 4K restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection, so you can bet this one is arriving on DVD/Blu in 2021. – RP
“Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue”
China’s foremost documentary and narrative filmmaker when it comes to capturing and chronicling the evolving change of contemporary cityscapes, Jia Zhangke brings his latest doc “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue” to the fest. Assembling a trio of writers in the Shanxi province, where the director was brought up, Jia’s new film seeks to honor the late writer Ma Feng, the movie weaving a series of testaments reflecting on how cultural and living standards changed over time as a result of the 1950s social revolution. Told in 18 chapters strung together through a number of expressive interludes, ‘Swimming’ is the second documentary being unveiled in the West by the deservedly acclaimed filmmaker this year. Shifting his focus from the dark underbelly of a globalized crime found in a project like last year’s “Ash Is Pure Is White,” or the recent “A Touch of Sin” the world-renowned auteur’s newest tells a wide-ranging, discursive story that touches upon movements in literature, the experiences of farmers and intellectuals, and urban versus rural living. – AB
“Time”
Making huge waves at this past Sundance, Garrett Bradley’s documentary “Time” sounds like that rare sort of filmmaking gem that only comes along every once in a while. Chronicling an exhausting 21-year effort by Louisiana citizen, Fox Rich, to exonerate her husband from his 60-year robbery sentence, Bradley’s film comprises decades-old, home movie footage that Rich compiled over her tiresome campaign period, intercut with newly shot black and white material, evoking a sense of timelessness even as we feel time passing inexorably. At once an intimate portrait of a struggling mother of six and a sharp examination of Black incarceration in America, Bradley’s doc is a tough, yet intricate look at the strength required to keep on fighting against an establishment that’s entirely against you, when it seems all control has been taken out of life’s hands. Displaying an impressive stylistic sense, seamlessly injected full of essential social commentary, “Time” has turned many’s attention to Bradley’s creative talents, compelling us to closely watch where her promising career goes next. – AB
“The Woman Who Ran”
Playing with character through structure as per usual, South Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s newest tickling charmer, “The Woman Who Ran” is broken into three sections that are threaded together. Starring Hong’s partner and nowadays frequent collaborator, Kim Minhee (“The Handmaiden”) as Gamhee, a woman who takes a trip without her husband for the first time in a long time, traveling to see a couple of her friends, and also bumping into another on by happenstance. One of the best filmmakers in the game when it comes to scripting and staging deceptively layered dialog exchanges, often between extremely close individuals caught in self-perpetuating patterns. His newest includes a friendly argument over stray cats, building to what promises to be a hilarious set-piece. The writer/director who churns out movies faster than just about anyone, continuing to find fresh angles on everyday conversations that manage to remain blissful while examining the emotional proclivity prone to go hand in hand with the social idiosyncrasies that can lead us to go round in circles. – AB
Honorable Mention
Well, there’s plenty more to see, both in NYFF’s main slate, Spotlight, the revivals section, and the more experimental and innovative Currents section. But some highlights you’ll be interested in include Pedro Almodovar‘s new short, “The Human Voice,” starring Tilda Swinton which we reviewed in Venice, the aforementioned 4k restoration of Wong Kar Wai‘s romantic masterpiece “In The Mood For Love,” the Spike Lee-directed concert doc “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” (which we reviewed at TIFF) and “Hopper/Welles,” an unearthed conversation between film legends Dennis Hopper and “Citizen Kane” filmmaker Orson Welles (reviewed in Venice). That plus much much more. NYFF kicks off today, September 17, and runs until October 11. Have a great festival and don’t forget if you’re in North America, you don’t actually need to be in New York this year and can purchase virtual screening tickets to most of these films.