Selects
FEBRUARY 17-27 2014 PUBLIC SCREENINGS


MARCH 19-30 2014 PUBLIC SCREENINGS

Rating New Directors/New Films 2014; comments on Film Comment Selects

Though New Directors features some provocative and radical new work, some of the films, the best, were straightforward dramas that had resonance with our times of worry, paranoia, and economic and environmental crisis. Top marks to the two Romanian features, The Japanese Dog (Jurgiu ), the story of a father devastated by flood reunited with his expatriate son, and Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Gruzsnetczki ), a tale of Eighties intellectual repression, which are not groundbreaking in technique but simply well-made and relevant films. A sparkling Chinese debut was Trap Street (Qu), a romance with a nod to government oppression. The Israeli Youth (Shoval) is a kidnapping thriller full of economic and job desperation. The Italian Salvo (Grassadonia, Piazza), with impressive performances and virtuoso technique rings changes on the mafia thriller, blending in a doomed romance and exalted spaghetti western style, another strong debut. There were a couple of powerful documentaries: Return to Homs (Derki), following young Syrian rebels up so close the filmmaker risked his life constantly, is an absolute must-see; We Come As Friends is another important statement about the exploitation of Africa, South Sudan this time, but not as coherent as Hubert Sauper's earlier Darwin's Nightmare.

Other New Directors films were certainly worth seeking out, such as Ayoade's The Double, a polished Brazil knockoff, but not as great and warm as Submarine; Obvious Child (Robbespierre) is a successful US female comedy; Salvation Army (Taïa) is a beautifully stark, pioneering gay film from Morocco. And there are many other more radical titles of interest for various reasons that are what give the series its depth and character.

This is still a great series and it was a great pleasure and an honor to be able to watch every one of the feature-length selections. Special thanks to John Wildman FSLC Senior Publicist and David Ninh Publicist for all their help in covering the series and keeping it running so smoothly; to all the staff at the Film Society and MoMA; to Glenn Raucher of the Film Society, Theater Manager, who keeps the theaters providing world class screening quality.

I liked the Film Comment Selects titles I chose, Felony (Saville), Me & You (Bertolucci), Cherchez Hortense (Bonitzer), Our Sunhi (Hong), but can't list "best of" this series because as before, it was impossible to sample a large enough chunk of the more eclectic and chronologically free-ranging series.

Links to my ND/NF and FCS reviews on FILMLEAF:

20,000 Days on Earth (Ian Forsyth, Jane Pollard 2013)--ND/NF
Badadook, The (Jennifer Kent 2014)--ND/NF
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus 2013)--ND/NF
Cherchez Hortense (Pascal Bonitzer 2012)--FCS
Dear White People (Justin Simien 2014)--ND/NF
Double, The (Richard Ayoade 2013)--ND/NF
Felony (Matthew Saville 2013)--FCS
Fish & Cat (Shahram Mokri 2013)--ND/NF
Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, A (Ana Lily Anirpour 2013)--ND/NF
Japanese Dog, The (Tudor Cristian Jurgiu 2014)--ND/NF
Me and You/Io e te (Bernardo Bertolucci 2013)--FCS
Mouton/Sheep (Gilles Deroo, Mariane Pistone 2013)--ND/NF
Obvious Child (Gillian Robbespierre 2013)--ND/NF
Of Horses and Men (Benedickt Erlingsson 2013)--ND/NF
Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo 2013)--FCS
Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Andrei Gruzsnetczki 2014)--ND/NF
Return to Homs (Talal Derki 2013)--ND/NF
Salvation Army/L'Armée du salut (Abdellah Taïa 2013)--ND/NF
Salvo (Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza 2013)--ND/NF
She's Lost Control (Anja Marquardt 2014)--ND/NF
Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, A (Ben Rivers, Ben Russell 2013)
Stop the Pounding Heart (Robert Minervini 2013)--ND/NF
Story of Fear/Historia del miedo (2013)--ND/NF
Story of My Death/Historia de meva mort (Albert Serra 2013)--ND/NF
Strange Little Cat, The/Merkwürdige Kätzchen, Das (Ramon Zürcher 2013)--ND/NF
To Kill a Man (Alejandro Fernándo Almendras 2013)--ND/NFTrap Street/Shuiyin jie (Vivian Qu 2013)--ND/NF
Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, The (Jessica Orneck 2014)--ND/NF
We Come As Friends (Hupert Sauper 2014)--ND/NF
Youth (Tom Shoval 2013)--ND/NF

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.