NYFF: "Barbara" Cold War Slow Burn

Michael C. here with another dispatch from the New York Film Festival. This time it’s Barbara, Germany’s submission to the Foreign Language Oscar race. 

When you read as many movie reviews as I do you begin to pick up on certain code words critics will occasionally use, not unlike the way a real estate agent will describe an apartment as “cozy” instead of  “so small you have to open a window to use the microwave.” The reviews for Christian Petzold’s Barbara, for example, will no doubt refer to its “deliberate pacing” or its “slow-burning tension”. They will praise the admirable “subtlety” of the storytelling. All of these descriptors are accurate, no question, but they also dance around a simple blunt truth, which is that for long stretches Barbara is more than a bit boring.

Critics are forbidden to come right out and say this. First, because it makes the writer sound like he or she has zero attention span and wishes the film had more car chases and velociraptor attacks, and second, because the word is so damning it essentially negates the rest of the review. Might as well post the words DON’T SEE THIS in “Man Walks On Moon” sized letters if you are going to bring the word boring into the discussion.

In point of fact, Barbara is quite a good film...

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"Inconceivable!" ~ a Princess Bride Reunion for NYFF

Hot off the presses! And given our wee Carol Kane tangent recently, we'll have fun storming this castle...

The director and cast of the adventure comedy classic The Princess Bride (1987), including Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes, Carol Kane, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon and Robin Wright, will reunite for a 25th anniversary special screening and Q & A at the 50th New York Film Festival on Tuesday October 2nd at 8:00 PM! Tickets will undoubtedly go fast for this one.

Oscar Trivia: It's worth noting that the Academy's bias against "light" movies can often cast them in an unflattering light historically. The Princess Bride only enjoyed one nomination -- a Best Original Song nomination at that -- in its year. It didn't even get a screenplay nomination which seems to strain all belief in hindsight. 1987's Oscar favorites were far from an anti-populist crop (Two Best Picture nominees, the wondrous Moonstruck, which definitely holds up in 2012, and the thriller Fatal Attraction were both blockbuster hits and Broadcast News was a major success, too) it's arguably The Princess Bride that remains 1987's most universally beloved film.

Miracle Max (Billy Crystal) and his wife (Carol Kane) in The Princess Bride (1987)

Does it make your top ten list from 1987? It made mine.

NYFF: "Hyde Park On Hudson" Historical Oscar Fluff

Michael C here with my first dispatch from the 50th New York Film Festival. First up is one of the Fall's two big president-starring prestige pictures.

Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson is a perfect example of that particular type of high-end, finely crafted period piece that hits theaters every autumn on its way to an Oscar nomination for Costume Design. These titles exist to provide awards voters with two hours of comfort food nostalgia wrapped in a thin packaging of historical significance. In recent years this subgenre has provided us with films like Finding Neverland, Mrs. Henderson Presents, and My Week With Marilyn. This year it’s Hyde Park on the Hudson, a film on the low end of this particular style. To call it a dud would be too harsh - kinder to say that it’s a missed opportunity.

The story is narrated by Daisy (Laura Linney), FDR’s devoted mistress as well as his fifth or sixth cousin, depending on how you count. Their courtship leads to the presidential handjob scene that America was undoubtedly clamoring for, (ball’s in your court Lincoln) presented in a montage that verges on the unintentionally hilarious in the extent to which it goes to remain tastefully inoffensive. Think close-ups of wild flowers while the sound of FDR’s limo a-rockin’ is heard off-screen.

The set up: With the threat of World War II looming, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) have embarked on the first ever journey to America by British royalty in the hopes a meeting with Franklin Roosevelt (Bill Murray) at his upstate New York getaway can persuade the Americans to intervene. Other major players in the story include FDR’s busybody mother (Elizabeth Wilson), his stalwart assistant (Elizabeth Marvel) and the brash and outspoken Eleanor Roosevelt (Olivia Williams) who has little patience for the pomp and etiquette of royalty. All her bows are unmistakably sarcastic.

Of course, the main attraction here is Murray...

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A Whiff of TIFF

As you may have heard on Twitter, it looks like I'll be attending the last four days of the Toronto International Film Festival (i.e. the time when most of the journos have gone home) due to a very last minute window of time and my standard impulse control problems ("But... moviessssss! I must ?!!")

I love TIFF and I haven't been in way too long. So I'm winging it which is not the best way to approach one of the biggest and bestest festivals in the world but we do what we can do in the way that we can do it. If you want to help The Film Experience be on sounder financial footing next year, and help Nathaniel maybe get to Cannes or Telluride for the first time  (I can dream!) please consider the subscription donation in the right hand side bar. If everyone who loved this site spent the price of a cup of coffee on the blog every month, the world would open up to us like an oyster. No... not like an oyster... 

Amir, who covered the festival for us last year, will be doing a bit more this year and I'll pick up the baton in a week for the last few days.  (My regular podcast mate Nick Davis (first timer!) is going, too. TFE friend / podcast mate Katey Rich, and yours truly, will arrive next week.) Then, almost as soon as I return to New York, Michael Cusumano (of "Burning Questions" fame) and I will start covering the 50th annual New York Film Festival (NYFF) for you. Sound good?

TIFF's opening day features an all star live reading of the American Beauty screenplay which we really wish we coulda been there for given that Christina Hendricks is doing Annette Bening's part. The opening film is Rian Johnson's time travel head scratcher LOOPER which is already winning positive reviews, omg!you-gotta-see-this type buzz and even some playful tweetdowns like this...

Are you excited that festival season is here? Which films are you most desperate to have in front of your eyeballs right this second?

'Til Link Do Us Part

The Film Doctor usually finds interesting angles. For Hope Springs he interviewed his signifant other on the depiction of marital turmoil and therapy therein.
Final Girl this one is for you horror fans, a funny mashup of The Human Centipede with slasher icons.
The Playlist 15 new stills from P.T. Anderson's long awaited scientology drama The Master
Coming Soon Life of Pi will open the New York Film Festival and...
Awards Daily Flight will close it. (Will Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington and Ang Lee all be returning to Oscar's good graces?)

In Contention You've probably read Guy Lodge's Sight & Sound top ten list by now but in case you haven't it's interesting from top to bottom. Somehow I hadn't completely registered that Guy shared my love of Colorogy. So much green and red happening here!
Guardian so Jennifer Aniston is engaged and there's a whole new round of false romcom press narratives happening
NYT interesting observations on the trainwreck spectacle of online confessional blogging
AV Club Jodie Foster to direct a female-led mob drama on Showtime. Interesting... but I sure wish she'd rediscover her love of bigscreen acting instead. There are a lot of directors who are good at helming TV series. There are very few actors who can be Jodie Foster on the bigscreen.
/Film lately I actually forgot Ron Howard existed but they've reminded me that he is making a movie with Chris Hemsworth and the adorable Daniel Brühl called Rush
Film Junkie has behind the scenes photos from 12 Years a Slave 
Pajiba on 8 memorable marital fights on TV