In the snappy intro that precedes every movie, the 44th New York Film Festival prides itself on being "demanding, inflexible and insanely selective--remarkably like our audience!" As much as I enjoy the flattery, I couldn't help but wonder if this was actually true, so it's time for another poll:

When it comes to movies, I consider myself...

• Demanding
• Inflexible
• Selective
• Insanely selective
• Insane
• Leave me in peace, I'm on my way to Jackass 2
• View Results

After Monday's triple feature, I caught three more films this week:

The Queen
The festival opens to the public tonight with the premiere of Stephen Frears' terrific drama The Queen, which follows the Royal Family during the days after Diana's deadly accident in 1997. The recently elected Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) tries to navigate tradition and his own Cool Britania publicity instincts, while the public wants to share their grief and the Windsors hole up in their Scottish estate, going "stalking" and worrying about the temperature of their tea.

A highly compelling mixture of taking the piss (James Cromwell as Prince Philip is a riot) and a touching investigation into the burdens of leadership, whether elected by landslide or anointed by God. Helen Mirren’s commanding performance as Elizabeth II is richly rewarding, allowing a multitude of angles for both ridicule and empathy. In remarkable contrast to Sofia Coppola's vapid Marie Antoinette, Frears and writer Peter Morgan invest their story with real insight into the nature of monarchy, its unique golden-cage perspective, and its problems and possible uses in an age of media saturation. More from the press conference from The Reeler and from Filmbrain's Andrew Grant.

Woman on the Beach
Last year's Tale of Cinema didn't win me over, but Hong Sang-soo’s new film, starring Korean TV star Go Hyun-jung, was a delicious surprise. Set in an off-season seaside resort, Woman on the Beach concerns a movie director and several of his girlfriends, vindictive sushi chefs, swollen muscles, and an abandoned dog. At the press conference, Sang-soo turned out to be soft-spoken and gentle. He discussed his practice of working from a twenty-page treatment, shooting the film in sequence and postponing the writing of actual scenes as long as possible. The result of his unique approach is ineffable, hilarious, and true--my favorite film at the festival so far. Woman on the Beach is screening on Saturday and Sunday.

Paprika
Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress) always struck me as overrated, and this new film is no exception. Lacking the preternatural grace of Hayao Miyazaki and the mind-bending concepts of Mamoru Oshii, Kon's excursion into sci-fi is shockingly literal-minded. It's about a prototype device, something called the "DC Mini," that allows people to enter one another's dreams. Much time is spent on making sure everybody in the audience catches the parallels between shared dreams and the movies.

Of course, the device is stolen and hacked, and suddenly no one is safe from a parade of stock surreal sights including circus clowns, endless hallways and creepy dolls that are supposed to create phantasmagoria but come across as faint echoes of better movies, such as sci-fi anime's masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell. (For a truly freaky, eye-popping parade, look no further than Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.) Paprika amounts to unappetizing characters in remarkably flat animation talking epistemological gobble-di-gook. Every now and then, the title heroine appears as some sort of cloud-surfing dream warrior or grows a mermaid's tail. From what I could tell, Paprika scored the NYFF record for walk-outs by insanely inflexible critics. More from Green Cine Daily.

More: Manohla Dargis on the festival sidebar of classic Janus movies, including The 400 Blows, The Rules of the Game, Knife in the Water, and Children of Paradise.

Still coming up: David Lynch's Inland Empire, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, Pedro Almodovar's Volver, Alain Resnais' Private Fears in Public Places, Michael Apted's 49 Up, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain!, Bong Joon-hoo's The Host, and more. The New York Film Festival runs through October 15; you might still be able to score a ticket. [posted by Jürgen]