Category: Film Appreciation
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New York and the Movies—An Enduring Combination
In the pantheon of movie greats, there’s one star that has outlasted all others, lending spectacular support to everyone from Charlie Chaplin and Gene Kelly to Barbra Streisand and Robert De Niro. That star is New York City, the endlessly photogenic locale of countless movies since the silent era. The list of New York-set films…
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A Film from 1961 Leads My 2023 Ten Best List
I said it back in March, and I’ll say it again: The best film of 2023 was made in 1961. It’s baffling that Dino Risi’s masterly Una Vita Difficile was never released in America until this year, but there you go. (More details below.) That’s not to say there weren’t many exceptional new films this year. My…
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New York Film Festival Spotlights Iconic Men—and Their Long-Suffering Partners
It’s probably a coincidence, but a recurring theme has emerged at this year’s New York Film Festival: iconic men and their long-suffering female partners. Three films focus on famous, larger-than-life males, but with equal weight given, story-wise, to the women who put up (or don’t) with their titanic, self-aggrandizing egos. For the first half of…
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Agnieszka Holland’s Masterly ‘Green Border’ Is a Devastating Portrait of Poland’s Refugee Crisis
Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border is more than a movie—it’s a soul-shaking experience. It may be the most important and eye-opening film playing at the 61st New York Film Festival—in fact, I’d call it one of the most important films of this decade. Holland, the veteran Polish director of Europa Europa, Washington Square and other fine films, was spurred by the…
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The 61st New York Film Festival Is a Robust Showcase of Award Contenders
Every September I contract a severe case of Fear Of Missing Out, as word filters in from the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Fortunately, my hometown New York Film Festival nabs many of the buzzy titles from those fests, so my FOMO is short-lived. The 2023 NYFF would have been a starry one if…
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‘Lord of the Ants’ and ‘Strangeness’ Are Two Highlights at Lincoln Center’s Annual ‘Open Roads’ Italian Series
Every spring, Film at Lincoln Center’s “Open Roads” series brings proof that Italian cinema is alive and well. The 22nd edition, running June 1-8, presents 11 new Italian features, plus a three-film salute to director Mario Martone. The opening-night selection is Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird, adapted from the decades-spanning, Strega Prize-winning novel by Sandro Veronisi and…
