NYFF: Dea Kulumbegashvili's "Beginning"

by Jason Adams

If you throw a ball, or even better a stick of dynamite, straight up into the air there is a moment of pause, of tranquility, at its peak, before it comes tumbling down. The apogee, as its known, is a fascinating word to me, close as it is to apology -- in my mind I always picture the shrug of the cartoon Coyote as he begins his plummet. Apogee, but whoops here I come. Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's Beginning, as stunning a debut film as any I've seen, lingers in the feeling of that pause -- the world feels suspended, we're light of breath and danger is nigh, but man the view is something.

The film begins and we meet Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili, staggeringly good) and her husband David (Rati Oneli) as they greet parishioners inside their sparse, fresh-smelling new Jehovah's Witness church, and immediately we notice two things. First that the film was filmed in the squarish frame ratio that's become shorthand for art-minded movie-makers looking to quick express claustrophobia -- think First Reformed or The Lighthouse; right away we know that these are people who are stifled by their surroundings...

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The Furniture: Suddenly, Last Summer and the Dawn of Creation

As a special side dish to our ongoing Montgomery Clift Centennial celebration, The Furniture (our series on Production Design) is looking at one of his most fascinating pictures...

by Daniel Walber

Saint Sebastian had to be martyred twice. Violet Venable (Katherine Hepburn) tells his story with a certain vicious pride, lending her own Sebastian a supernatural authority. The saint was shot full of arrows but survived, miracuously, only to be beaten to death with cudgels. The first death has been depicted by countless artists, a hauntingly beautiful and frequently homoerotic image. The second, meanwhile, is unspeakably violent and ugly. It’s almost forgotten, a brutal footnote to a transcendent aesthetic.

Mrs. Venable’s Sebastian, however, gets it in reverse. As is revealed at the end of Suddenly, Last Summer, he was torn limb from limb under the white hot sun of Cabeza de Lobo. And for what crime? In accordance with the aging Hays Code, it appears to be his homosexuality. But beneath this ultra-thin surface lingers something much darker...

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New Oscar Predictions: Supporting Actress

by Nathaniel R

With most of this year's buzziest titles featuring large casts filled with men, and with the general shortage of movies, Supporting Actress is looking much less competitive than usual. At least so far. This is why we're feeling so confident that the one to watch is 12 year old Helena Zengel of the western drama News of the World. It's a large role -- she plays the kidnapped girl that Tom Hanks is out to rescue -- and just last year with Germany's Oscar submission System Crasher, she made international waves receiving a nomination for Best Actress at the European Film Awards. Of course the film might not open. Nothing is certain this season...

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Review: "A Rainy Day in New York"

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s easy to forget just how formidable Woody Allen’s Oscar history is. Not only is he the most-nominated screenwriter, with sixteen bids, he’s also tied for fourth place in the directing category with seven. He won three prizes for Best Original Screenplay, for the three films that earned Best Picture nominations: Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris. Annie Hall of course won the top prize for 1977.

Allen has made nearly fifty films, and by my count, I’ve seen a third of those. A good portion of them are from the last two decades, which is hardly considered his golden period. Of his contemporary pictures, I was most wowed by Match Point, which was a dramatic departure from his typical tone as well as a geographical departure from his beloved New York City. But his most recent, Wonder Wheel, was a dud as the closing night selection for the New York Film Festival back in 2017. Interestingly, Allen has two films premiering this month...

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Monty @ 100: A Hitchcock detour with "I, Confess"

We're watching every Montgomery Clift film for his Centennial. Here's Jason Adams

And so we come to Montgomery Clift's sixth film, and that accursed number of the devil seems appropriate given I speak of Alfred Hitchcock's I, Confess. The Master of Suspense's 1953 drama had the actor slipping into the world's most form-fitting cassock to play a Quebecois priest suspected of murder most foul. The twist in this whodunit is he didn't dun it, but knows who did dun because the guilty party confessed the crime in confessional. A fact Monty's character of Father Logan can't share with the prosecution, given ye damned sacramental seal of confession. It's a trap! Call it The Father Who Knew Too Much and then call it a day.

The marriage of Monty and Hitch was a well-documented rocky ride...

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