NYFF 63: Pedro Pinho's "I Only Rest In the Storm" is a Portuguese must-watch

by Cláudio Alves

Today, in Portugal, the country celebrated 115 years since the monarchy fell and its first Republic came into being. Across the Atlantic, at the New York Film Festival, there was another celebration of sorts as Pedro Pinho's I Only Rest In the Storm had its North American premiere. This three-and-a-half-hour oddball drama cum political comedy is one of the best Portuguese films of the season, drunk with playfulness and an audacious spirit to the point of euphoria. At Cannes, Cleo Diára won the Best Actress prize from the Un Certain Regard section, a well-deserved honor for what feels like a star-making turn. At its best, her work suggests an anticolonial variation on the Old Hollywood screwball heroine, complete with constant outfit changes, a barnburner of a monologue, and a starring role in the cinematic year's most entrancing sex scene…

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NYFF 63: Rose Byrne sinks her teeth into Mary Bronstein's "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"

by Cláudio Alves

No mother is ever good enough. Not according to her children, nor to extended family, friends, nosy neighbors, presumptuous strangers. Not in the collective imagination of society at large and, above all else, herself. It might not seem like it, considering all the dubious looks and insulting concerns thrown her way, but she is her own worst critic. Others try their best, but there will never be a harshest judge than mother. Hell, she's prosecutor, accused and accuser, key witness and vengeful jury all wrapped into one in a trial that might sound like a pity party but is closer to a circus of fire and fury and self-loathing. 

Just ask Linda, the ever-aggrieved lead of Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, played by Rose Byrne as a woman under the influence and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And who can blame her for being such a mess? There's a hole in her daughter's stomach and a hole in her ceiling…

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NYFF 63: "Dry Leaf" is the dawn of the low-res epic poem

by Cláudio Alves

Alexandre Koberidze shot the most beautiful film of the year on a 2008 Sony Ericsson. That may sound like a hopelessly provocative hot take, the sort of dishonest hyperbole one flourishes in hopes of garnering attention, gasps of shock, mayhap the reputation of an iconoclast walking to the beat of their own drum. And yet, I come to you with utmost sincerity to say that Dry Leaf is beautiful indeed, the sort of film whose splendor makes me reconsider how I approach the art form itself and my own pre-conceived notions of what constitutes a valuable cinematic image. At a time when 4K restorations are all the rage, and large formats are back in style to the point of fetishistic fervor, the Georgian director best known for What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? has gone in the opposite direction and created a three-hour 240p masterpiece…

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NYFF 63: "Peter Hujar's Day" ponders portraiture

by Cláudio Alves

The subject of many recent retrospectives, republishing projects, biographical and speculative analyses, Peter Hujar was among the queer creatives who, in the second half of the 20th century, helped define what we understand as the New York art scene. A portrait photographer, his oeuvre can be considered in dialogue with that of Mapplethorpe and Wojnarowicz, among others. And like those men, he died young, a victim of the AIDS crisis. Almost thirteen years before that end, Hujar sat down with his friend, Linda Rosenkrantz, and recalled the previous day in detail, allowing himself to be recorded for a work she was developing. Her book was never realized, but in 2019, a typewritten record of Hujar's testimony showed up in the Morgan Library archives.

Director Ira Sachs read the published transcripts while filming Passages, getting the idea to dramatize the material. The result is Peter Hujar's Day, a conversation piece where Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall breathe life into what remains of that long afternoon shared between two portraitists…

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TIFF 50: A star is born in "The Little Sister"

by Cláudio Alves

Like The Sun Rises on Us All in Venice, The Little Sister suffered quite a bit of backlash after its lead actress won Cannes' highest honor. And like Xin Zhilei, Nadia Melliti is an eminently deserving victor, unfairly maligned by the online badmouthing and stan nonsense that reached a boiling point as Jennifer Lawrence left the Croisette empty-handed. Indeed, hers is one of the year's most captivating performances, a complex and tender portrait that feels all the more special when one remembers this was Melliti's debut. As she did in previous efforts behind the camera, Hafsia Herzi has proven herself prodigious at directing actors, turning The Little Sister into a must-watch for anyone who values such artistry and the wonders of character-based drama…

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