Anne Hathaway is getting Oscar buzz for her edgy performance as a recovering addict who returns home for her sister's wedding in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. The cast also includes Rosemarie Dewitt and Debra Winger in a rare appearance.
With his two-part epic about the iconic revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Steven Soderbergh circumvents the genre's pitfalls: his Che is free of cliche and achieves a degree of emphatic insight and sharp characterization that deserves to be called revolutionary. Read Jürgen's review of Che.
More from the 46th New York Film Festival:
"No loitering here!" the signs around the dilapidated porno theater declare, but there's an awful lot of loitering in Brillante Mendoza's Serbis, along with fighting, chasing, lying, worrying, and baby-making. Set almost exclusively inside the cavernous building's staircases, hallways, back rooms, and darkened screening hall, the film encompasses a single day in the life of the sprawling Filipino family who runs and inhabits the theater.
There are boils and blowjobs, goats on the run, thieves, hustlers, little boys with lipstick, and a grandmother who is suing her husband for infidelity. Through some emphatic magic of cinema, what should be sordid and revolting (and apparently shocked critics in Cannes) somehow becomes inviting. Like the streets that surround the theater, Serbis teems with life. [Jürgen] ***
More from Sukhdev Sandhu, Daniel Kasman, Glenn Kenny, and David Hudson, and a video interview with Brillante Mendoza (part 2, part 3). Serbis screens at the 46th New York Film Festival on Sunday, October 12.
From Kazahkstan, an austere adaptation of Anna Karenina that stays true to the plot but jettisons all of the passion. Hearts are broken, women are adored and abandoned, suicides attempted and executed, but for a story in which love motivates everything, director Darezhan Omirbaev casts an oddly cold and distant eye.
Yet somehow, Chouga manages to stay intriguing, in part because of unique choices -- a sudden pan to the window sill, undue attention paid to a son's video game and the falling snow -- and a luminous lead performance by Ainur Turgambaeva. [Jürgen] ***
More at The Auteurs' Notebook. Chouga screens on Saturday, October 11 at the 46th New York Film Festival.
The title may suggest a thriller, but Catalan director Jaime Rosales's film belongs to that genre only in the widest possible sense. Yes, somebody eventually gets killed, but that's just about the only thing that can be said with certainty.
Bullet in the Head has only one line of dialogue; the rest of the film follows a bearded protagonist around with a very long lens that observes him buying a newspaper, drinking coffee, having sex, and crossing the border into France. Conversations are drowned out by ambient noise, leaving us with a feature-length version of the mysterious moments when Scarlett whispers in Bill Murray's ear and Daniel threatens Eli after the baptism.
Are they talking about money? Love? Murder? Once I started actively participating, Bullet in the Head became a mildly interesting game at the very edges of narrative, only ever just barely providing enough substance to keep me involved. It's bound to sorely test the patience of anyone who isn't willing to supply their own answers. [Jürgen] **
Bullet in the Head screens at the 46th New York Film Festival on Sunday, October 12. More from Alison Willmore and Daniel Kasman.
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