NYFF: Steve McQueen's "Mangrove"

by Jason Adams

Well we knew the party couldn't last forever -- it's 2020 after all, and there's serious work to be done. Last week the New York Film Festival officially opened with Lovers Rock, the second part of Steve McQueen's five-part "Small Axe" series of films all set within the same West Indian community in London where McQueen grew up (and which are set to air on the BBC and Amazon starting at the end of November) -- Lovers Rock, which I reviewed at this link, was set over the course of a single night, a single party, and reveled in tactility and sound, in the moment; it allowed its characters to lose themselves in song and sex and joy. Tonight the NYFF rewinds back us to premiere Small Axe's first part, titled Mangrove and based on the famous legal battle of 1970 involving the so-dubbed "Mangrove Nine," a group of local activists who were wrongly accused of inciting a riot by a corrupt and racist police department.

So no, no big party here -- this one's a courtroom drama. And a rip-roaring one at that... Although it takes its time becoming exactly that...

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NYFF Review: Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland"

by Murtada Elfadl

You know you are not watching just any old prestige drama when a film throws in a shot of its lead character - played by a 2-time Oscar winner - defecating a mere three minutes into its running time. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland is a film concerned with the concrete realities of life. Things that might seem mundane or unmentionable but take up a big part of everyday life. How a woman carves a small place on earth to sleep, eat, work and yes defecate. 

Fern (Frances McDormand), having lost her work and home when the factory that employed her in a now-defunct company town closed, refurbishes her old van and sets out in the vastness of the American West to find seasonal work. She rests when she can, deals with the elements and makes tentative attempts to find a community among the older itinerant people she meets. They exchange DIY tips for survival, share stories and sometimes companionship. But mostly Fern is stubbornly on her own. She is grieving her husband, town and job. Combating her constant grief by constantly moving...

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NYFF Doc Corner: Frederick Wiseman's 'City Hall'

By Glenn Dunks

The idea of ‘seeing ourselves’ on screen relates most often to race and sexuality, which is fair enough. Rarely is it spoken about in terms of occupation. But one of the my most unexpected experiences this past week was watching Frederick Wiseman’s latest institutional observatory documentary City Hall and seeing my other non-film life as a public servant on screen for four and a half hours.

The world of stakeholder meetings and budget discussions, community functions and office dynamics is more often than not the world of comedy (Working Dog’s Utopia being the best, if you ask me). But here Wiseman captures the daily grind and ticking realities of what goes into making a city—in this case Boston—keep moving with steely realism and refinement...

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Showbiz History: Mohican's Opening, Cary's Outing, Audrey's Marriage

7 random things that happened on this day, September 25th, in showbiz history...

1936 Another reminder that inappropriate racial casting has been with us always and not just for the common and commonly excoriated practices of yellowface or blackface. Ramona opened on this day in movie theaters, a romantic drama starring Loretta Young as a girl who doesn't know she's bi-racial and Don Ameche as the Native American hired hand that she falls for. 

1953 The Actress, a movie about future Oscar winner Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) WRITTEN BY Ruth Gordon (with Jean Simmons playing her) opens in movie theaters. Spencer Tracy will win the Golden Globe for his performance as her father.

Audrey Hepburn, Last of the Mohicans, Chevy Chase vs Cary Grant and more after the jump...

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NYFF: Pedro & Tilda & "The Human Voice"

by Nathaniel R

Green. Black. And of course, glorious Red. These are just some of the bold colors worn by Tilda, hanging not just from her body in a true fashion parade, but spilling from her tight mouth. Pedro Almodóvar's first English language project, The Human Voice (2020), a swift 30 minute monodrama "freely" based on Jean Cocteau's play, makes perfectly expected use of Tilda's much-celebrated fashion iconicity. More crucially it doesn't forget her acting gift. The actress repays the auteur with primal colors of jealously, nihilism, and fury in her line readings...

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