Three weeks into the New York Film Festival, it's easy to feel a little like Alex from A Clockwork Orange--eyes held open by metal clamps and force-fed movies past the point where it's possible to make it sense of it all. But given the quality of films at this year's festival, it would be ungrateful to complain--many of them are bound to end up on our year-end best-of lists. There's one more week of screenings, and then we'll begin the long hard climb toward another awards season.

The week started bright and early on Sunday morning with one of the first North American screenings of David Lynch's majestically freaky Inland Empire, and on Monday, Marcy took up some of the slack and brought bad news from Poison Friends, a French film about writing, academia and friendship that she deemed "pompous and blind to reality." Read Marcy's full review.

Volver
Already lauded at Cannes and San Sebastian, Pedro Almodovar's latest is an appropriately Almodovarian celebration of womanhood that's as bright, involving, and bursting with life as any of the director's best work. In the central role, Penelope Cruz turns into a goddess of cinema, all cleavage and hoop earrings, connecting three generations of women played by a cast of wonderful actresses: Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, and Yohana Cobo. In Volver, all men are useless swine, and the women feed, protect, and console each other. When they're happy, they sing. Almodovar dances between tragedy and comedy so elegantly that you hardly notice that you're laughing through your tears. We'll have a full-length review closer to the November 3 release date. Check back later this weekend for video footage from the press conference with the glamorous Pedro Almodovar and the even more glamorous Penelope Cruz.

49 UP
Michael Apted's ongoing documentary experiment is never less than fascinating. Since 1964, when they were just seven years old, Apted has been interviewing the same group of Londoners every seven years to track their lives. But the thing that nobody seems willing to say is that the biographical sketches that emerge--endless variations of the outer shapes of people's lives, summaries of jobs, marriages, divorces, kids, grandkids--are actually more depressing than revealing. It's interesting as far as every day portrait of life goes, and the odd ones out (like hobo-turned-politician Neal) are certainly the most compelling, but even Apted's most generous collaborators allow him to get only so close. By the time we get a sense of all that they’re not telling us, we’re off to catch up with the next person. As a result, Apted's subjects feel strangely less real than more fully realized fictional characters. A lesson in the limits of "reality" filmmaking. 49 UP is opening in theaters today.

The Host
Bong Joon-ho’s record-breaking monster movie--already the highest-grossing Korean film ever made--strikes a perfect balance between broad social satire, oddball comedy, and honest-to-god horror thrills. Thanks to Americans who blithely pollute the Han river, an amphibious mutant creature with fearsome mandibles and a prehensile tail haunts the sewers of Seoul. The creature is designed by Weta workshop of Lord of the Rings fame, but the family that has to fight it is 100% Korean, a bunch of ramen-selling “losers” (Bong) who are prone to screwing up just when it matters most. Their adversaries include not just the carnivorous amphibian but backstabbing salarymen and untrustworthy government agencies. In Bong’s hands, simple character-building moments of respite between monster attacks turn into gems of droll humor and genuine sadness. It’s all beautifully shot with some breathtaking directorial flourishes, the plot isn't chained to Hollywood conventions, and the biohazard theme allows for swipes at SARS and American hubris. Tentative release date is January 29, 2007.

Still coming up: Johnny To's Triad Election, Nikolaus Geyrhalter's Our Daily Bread, Tahani Rached's These Girls, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Climates, and press conferences for Pan's Labyrinth and Marie Antoinette.

Opening this week: Shortbus, Little Children, 49 Up, and Yong-Man Kim's 1/3.

_{Images © Sony Pictures Classics and Magnolia Pictures.}