The Playlist

'Lincoln' To Get (Not So) Secret Screening At New York Film Festival On Monday

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 4, 2012 1:50 PM
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3 Comments

News

Well, the cat is now out of the bag. The Twittersphere has been speculating for the past day or so about what the New York Film Festival had up their sleeve for their secret screening on Monday. Last year it was a work-in-progress look at Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," and this year too, organizers were hinting that it would be something not quite finished, that would still be a movie no one else has seen. Would it be "Stoker," footage of which was unspooled last night at the festival's tribute for Nicole Kidman? "Django Unchained" perhaps? Or maybe "Promised Land"? Nope. instead it's going to be one of the big Oscar contenders of the year.

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New York Film Festival Reveals First Sneak Peek At Nicole Kidman In 'Stoker'; Plus New U.K. Trailer Arrives

By Rodrigo Perez
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October 4, 2012 11:44 AM
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4 Comments

News

Surprises have been popping up all over the 50th annual New York Film Festival. Perhaps because it's celebrating an important semi-centennial milestone and its beloved chairman Richard Peña is stepping down after 25 years, NYFF is pulling in several riches this year. There's a surprise secret screening on Monday (which could be Fox Searchlight's "Hitchcock" if our guess work is right) and last night a small teaser was unveiled of a highly anticipated 2013 film: Park Chan-Wook's "Stoker."

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NYFF: Lee Daniels Reveals How Oprah Winfrey Rejected 'The Paperboy,' Talks The Down & Dirty Production Logistics

By Gabe Toro
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October 3, 2012 6:49 PM
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3 Comments

Festivals

Murder. Lust. Intrigue. Watersports. Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy" is not your usual festival fare. Screening at the New York Film Festival, however, director Lee Daniels was able to give context to this schizophrenic mystery, based on the Pete Dexter novel about a possibly innocent murderer on Death Row, the journalists tasked with freeing him, and the young man who falls for the inmate's fiancée.

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Podcast: The Playlist Talks Highlights From TIFF, Telluride And NYFF; Plus Armond White: Genuine Contrarion Or Provocateur?

By Erik McClanahan
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October 3, 2012 6:14 PM
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10 Comments

Features

We've decided to double down this week on podcasts to make up for lost chats. Our slate for this week’s show is as follows: a round-up of festival reports from Toronto, Telluride and the beginning of New York Film Festival. Later in the episode, we discuss contrarian film critic Armond White regarding two pieces he recently wrote: one, called "The Battle of The Andersons," in which he claims Paul W.S Anderson is a better filmmaker than Paul Thomas Anderson. And the other, "The Whip and the Fedora," in which he posits "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" is better than "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

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NYFF Review: 'Araf' Stirs & Shocks In Equal Measure

By Gabe Toro
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October 3, 2012 9:57 AM
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2 Comments

Reviews

There isn’t much that can prepare you for the drastic second-half turn of “Araf,” an often-gorgeous drama playing in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival. Evocative and somewhat alien in equal measure, “Araf” takes place in a withered Turkish countryside that might as well be another planet. We see the economic strife through the lava runoff that occurs in the very first shot of the film, lumbering out of a cauldron, spilling out onto the land. Though fairly mundane within the lives of the characters (one of whom is discussing sex in voiceover as the orange-red substance burns all that lies underneath it), it’s an introduction that rivals the eye-opening early shots of Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” though while it was that film’s high point, here it’s an example of a world dying while underdeveloped, neglected, managed and monitored by day laborers barely getting by on their own.

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NYFF Review: Alain Resnais Makes A Delightful Final Film With 'You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!'

By Peter Labuza
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October 2, 2012 11:04 AM
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2 Comments

Reviews

Alain Resnais is no stranger to the absurd. For over fifty years, his films—beginning with “Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” have asked questions through their oblique narratives about the way we think about story, performance, and cinema. But such a serious statement also obscures the pure delight it is to get lost in the filmmaker’s lush imagery and his pure sense of magic. Surrealism can spark at any moment, and never feels unnatural. And in “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!,” the filmmaker’s purported last film, he’s gone to new wild imaginations of delight, a true send off from one generation of cinematic legends to the next.

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NYFF Review: 'Barbara' A Fresh Look Into 1980s Germany, Focusing On Life & Love

By Christopher Bell
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October 1, 2012 12:58 PM
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0 Comments

Reviews

Though maybe a bit too stiff and straight-laced, "Barbara" is a frequently subtle, moderately interesting character study set in a grievous East Germany during the 1980s. What are especially nice are the painstaking ways that director Christian Petzold ("Jerichow," "Dreileben: Beats Being Dead") avoids obvious nods to the time period -- forget drenching the film in some kind of filter as a signifier (a la the once-abused-now-Instagram-friendly sepiatone), the filmmaker even refuses simple explanatory title cards and instead dresses the environment appropriately, offering hints of the current year in the background set pieces and radio programs. This kind of understated nature runs the entire feature; in fact, one of the most intriguing aspects of "Barbara" is the lack of narrative hand-holding, with the lead's main intent remaining a mystery for a good chunk of the movie. There are no twists to spoil, but admittedly, much of the film's pull anchors on its masterful use of low-key storytelling -- take a gander at the next paragraph at your own risk.

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NYFF: Ang Lee, Suraj Sharma & Yann Martel Discuss The Necessity Of Faith In Making 'Life Of Pi'

By Gabe Toro
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September 30, 2012 10:54 AM
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0 Comments

News

As the opening night film for the New York Film Festival, all eyes were on “Life of Pi,” the big-budget studio adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-seller from A-List director Ang Lee. And while some were focused on the spectacle of the film, from the enormous cost and logistical issues of filming to the colorful 3D that frames this story of survival, the one element that drove the filmmakers was the idea of faith.

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NYFF Review: 'Life Of Pi' Is An Inspiring & Visually Stunning Tale Of Faith, Hope & Self-Discovery

By Rodrigo Perez
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September 28, 2012 3:27 PM
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11 Comments

Reviews

Taiwanese-born American film director Ang Lee’s career is difficult to pin down. He’s constructed nuanced and well-crafted dramas of various milieus and textures (from “The Ice Storm,” and “Sense and Sensibility” to the more erotic “Lust/Caution” and “Brokeback Mountain”) and orchestrated films of more action-oriented visual pizzazz and flair as well ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hulk"). Perhaps bridging all of his eclectic interests, Lee configures a lovely and winning formula for the dazzling and emotionally rich “Life Of Pi.”

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NYFF Review: 'Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out' Depicts A Filmmaker In Crisis Mode Overshadowing Her Subject

By Gabe Toro
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September 28, 2012 9:57 AM
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1 Comment

Reviews

In “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” filmmaker Marina Zenovich attempted to shine a light on the darker corners of the Polanski rape case that forced him to flee the country. Its affect was considerable in the public perception of his case, to the point where it was soon reopened by investigators. Unfortunately, that led to a legal reconsideration as well, bringing heat to a longstanding desire from law enforcement officials to bring Polanski to justice. There’s no room for compassionate reconsideration in the world of law enforcement, but Zenovich’s follow-up, “Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out,” suggests that there’s possibly room for deception and corruption.

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