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Nick Park and Peter Lord’s ‘Chicken Run’ Turns 25

Four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park is back in the Oscar race with Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, the latest delightful adventure featuring his irresistible stop-motion creations, eccentric inventor Wallace and his melancholy dog Gromit. Co-directed by Park and Merlin Crossingham, this Netflix release is the animated duo’s first screen appearance since the 2008 short A…
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Remembering Visionary Director David Lynch

David Lynch has died at the age of 78. I had the pleasure of meeting the visionary director way back in 1984 to discuss his third feature, the much-maligned adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel Dune, which today has its staunch defenders. (I was frankly bored by Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated 2021 version and find Lynch’s…
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‘Green Border,’ ‘No Other Land’ and ‘Anora’ Are Among 2024’s Best

Thanks to my relatively new perch on the editorial board at Cineaste, I’m getting to see more films a year than ever. (Editing a monthly magazine and website for several decades limited my free time to luxuriate in the three weeks of New York Film Festival press screenings, although I tried to make up for that…
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More Highlights from the 62nd New York Film Festival

The 62nd New York Film Festival ends on October 14, having screened 73 features plus various programs of shorts. I managed to see 28 films over a whirlwind three weeks of press screenings. Here are some highlights, in addition to the films I’ve discussed in previous posts. One of the most haunting and disturbing films…
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New York Film Festival Welcomes Comedies of All Kinds

The annual New York Film Festival has no shortage of exotic, esoteric, and demanding films. But some of the biggest highlights of this year’s event are comedies. Yes, comedies. Raucous comedies. Quirky comedies. Comedy-thrillers. Comedies that double as poignant character studies. But comedies nonetheless. Among the most popular and crowd-pleasing entries at NYFF 62 is…

