NYFF: Aquarius team wows again with "Bacurau"

by Jason Adams

You think you know somebody. You think you've got it all figured out. You think you sit down to a movie at the New York Film Festival you're gonna see something respectable -- something serious and challenging. But hyper-violent revenge westerns? Those are for Toronto. 

Well Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles' film Bacurau already played Toronto, and now it is playing NYFF, and it somehow splits the difference -- it's somehow an ass-blistering revenge fable with exploding heads, while also being a deadly serious story of an indigenous community terrorized by big business interests. It is, quite simply, the sort of movie we'll look back on from the future -- assuming there is a future -- and say, "Yup, that got it just right..."

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The New Classics - The Florida Project

Michael C. here. When I started this column I made a rule that anything less than two years old was too recent. So for the season finale let's go with a first round draft pic. 

Sean Baker and Willem Dafoe on the set of The Florida Project

Scene: Child Predator
There’s nothing that he can do about it. That’s the guiding principle that drives Willem Dafoe’s Bobby throughout Sean Baker’s heart-rending The Florida Project. He maintains the boundaries he needs to keep up the pretense that he is operating a motel and not a lilac-colored homeless shelter, but we can intuit that he would help more if he could. It’s all in the unnecessary helping of kindness and humor around the edges when he’s laying down the law... 

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Elle, Angelina, and somebunny we worship

How had I never seen... "Three Days of the Condor" or "The Parallax View"?

In this new series, members of Team Film Experience watch and share their reactions to classic films they’ve never seen. 

by Lynn Lee

The 1970s may have been a great era for cinema, but they were a pretty lousy time for faith in the great American experiment.  Between the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, the Church Committee reports, and of course Watergate, there were seemingly endless reasons to suspect the U.S. government and other institutions meant to serve and protect the public were instead covering up all manner of malfeasance—and that they might be watching you if they thought you were a threat.  This generalized paranoia found fertile ground in Hollywood, leading to a spate of conspiracy thrillers of varying quality and goofiness.

Until last month, the only one of these films I’d seen was All the President’s Men (unless you count Chinatown and Network, which I’d argue you could).  But something about the social and political tensions of today made these movies seem especially current again.  So it seemed like a good occasion to watch two of the most famous examples of the genre: Three Days of the Condor (1975) and A Parallax View (1974)...

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September. It's a Wrap

September was surely the fastest month of the year. Over in a flash and though we were just getting the hang of our new schedule (temporary corporate gig on the side for financial survival reasons) and posting was lighter than usual, we’re aiming for a more typically robust October.

Highlights of September
Remembering Jean Seberg - Mark offers up a primer before Seberg arrives
"Over the Rainbow" - a beautiful episode of Soundtracking to celebrate Judy
Reader Writes: Kris in Telluride - Let us know if you’d like to send a guest post!
The Irishman Jason reviews Marty's buzzy mafia epic
TIFF Awards - Chris & Nathaniel wrap up their coverage with personal kudos
How Had I Never Seen... M - a new series kicks off in which team members watch something classic that they've never before seen
I Am Love - Michael eats shrimp with Tilda for "The New Classics"
On Becoming a God in Central Florida have you watched Kiki's new series?
Horror Actressing Amy Irving in Carrie

Most Discussed Articles
She Had Oscar Buzz - Elie talks Kirsten, Scarlett, Emily and othes waiting on their first nomination
Celebrating JLo - Murtada wants to know what you think about when you think of the Hustlers star?

Coming in October: Joker, Pain & Glory, Parasite, Maleficent Mistress of Evil, Gemini Man, Celebrating the 2019 Honorary Oscar winners (Lynch, Davis, Wermuller, and Studi), and something spooky for the holidays TBD