As you may know, I’m working with Film Society of Lincoln Center and Indiewire to cover the New York Film Festival this year, hence the lack of content lately. But don’t fear, my first piece from NYFF will be going live sometime today or tomorrow, and I’ll post the link when it does. But what have I seen lately?
Song Fang’s directorial debut Memories Look At Me, which was entirely scripted despite being acted by her and her family, playing characters with the names of her and her family, based on her life, takes the style of executive producer Jia Zhang Ke. Lots of long, static takes. Fascinating, but a bit too one-note for me. It felt far more documentary than drama.
Life of Pi, which Ang Lee says is a couple weeks away from being finished, is visually stunning, but a bit heavy handed at the end and terribly written at the beginning. There are terrific sequences, there are bad sequences. As a whole, I couldn’t help but be impressed, albeit with reservations.
Beyond The Hills is not quite as brilliant as 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, but it is still great. More words on this coming soon via Filmlinc.com
Like Someone In Love, the newest Kiarostami, is not my favorite, but then, for a director who makes one masterpiece after another, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. This one is still good. The sound design is fantastic, and another view would really help. Similar to Certified Copy in a lot of ways, but with more scenes in cars a la older Kiarostami.
Holy Motors is, quite simply, glorious. Beautiful, a performance from Denis Levant so good that I legitimately thought somebody else was playing a couple of his characters, reflexive in the most intelligent way, ambitious, and rewards multiple views. Go see it as soon as you possibly can.
Forrest In Focus: Critical Film Reviews 