I had a wonderful experience volunteering at the 59th New York Film Festival - I met a ton of cool people with a similar passion for film, I dutifully sold merch to patrons, and I got to see a lot of cool new films for free! I have nothing but good things to say about the festival and the people there. They even pampered us lowly volunteers with free food and free stuff at the end (I managed to snag a copy of the Criterion Blu-Ray release of When We Were Kings and a poster for Upstream Color)! Below are some scattered thoughts on some of the films I saw, with no real structure to it.
The Tragedy of Macbeth:
The more I think about this film, the less lasting I think it is. Just look at the amount of buzz it's getting post-NYFF. Sure, Denzel Washington and Frances Mcdormand are easy Oscar contenders, but to what extent are the themes represented in Joel Coen's adaptation a departure from the previous adaptations? Why did this need to be made, other than Joel Coen trying his hand at Shakespeare?
Yet, try as he might, he is still incredible without his brother. The difficulty in making a Macbeth adaptation feel more necessary than the others lies in the impossible task of adapting this work that's been adapted in different mediums for centuries. Ultimately, we shouldn't expect anything more than great performances, set design, costumes, the whole works
Vortex:
Reeling from a near-death experience, Gaspar Noé's Vortex is his most mature and toned-down work to date. Instead of bombarding us with flashing lights, extreme violence, or pornography, we're given a drama about an elderly couple in ailing health, which, given its non-traditional structure, feels like Jeanne Dielman when compared to Noé's previous feature-length film Climax.
Either way, you can still tell that it's a Gaspar Noé film -- the split-screen, brutal and pain-staking death imagery, promiscuous drug use and some scattered references to urban violence and decay make this film undeniably exist in the Gaspar universe, but one that takes place at home instead of out on the street where danger lurks. This film proves that danger just as well exists at home, in how we're raised, in our hearts and minds, and the decisions we make. But it also breaks from the Gaspar tradition in that it's not entirely cynical. There are certainly some blunt observations the film makes but ultimately I think it's telling us to enjoy the time we have left, to give your grandparents a call, and that your loving relations matter. I found it really sweet.
Bergman Island:
Who the fuck is Ingmar Bergman?
More seriously, I was enthralled in this one. It's at first a movie that feels like it's about purely vibes, but I loved the way it weaved a second story into this mix. Someone like my brother would call this sort of thing pretentious indie art-house film-nerd Euro-trash, but I found it immensely captivating and satisfying. Probably also wins the Everett award for best film-within-a-film (next to Habeas Corpus from Robert Altman's The Player, of course).
Neptune Frost:
Wonderful to hear Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman speak afterwards, full of insight about the creative process. The film wasn't really for me. It felt more like a visual album, and didn't have much of a plot to dig into. But the costumes and effects were absolutely stunning, and it was great to watch and try to piece together the central metaphor, even if it was a bit too elaborate.
Petite Maman:
My favorite of the festival. I'm officially a Celine Sciamma fan. So minimalist, with so much expressed through the slightest gesture from the characters, a glance from afar, or a hug. The film makes you want to have a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day and imagine the sort of lives your ancestors or parents led when they were little.
The French Dispatch:
Although it's a Wes Anderson movie, where one would expect a pretty uniform style throughout, I was most intrigued by some moments of experimentation - the second story especially, taking place during the May 1968 French student protests, had some shots that were likely inspired by the French New Wave (Anderson made the cast watch five films prior to filming, with a few from this era). Wes Anderson also experiments a bit switching between color and black/white, which was a bit inconsistent and distracting - especially in a film as dense as this one. It doesn't do anything to fix the criticism that the anthology format made this film feel disjointed and difficult to get into. Still, it's nice to see Wes Anderson try some new things, even though I wasn't a big fan of the film as a whole (although, some of the artwork, especially in the ending credits, was absolutely stunning).
Hit The Road:
Delightfully chaotic. A good debut. Not overindulgent, full of great performances -- especially the apple-eating scene near the end -- and a couple of beautiful shots in the last act.