Podcast: Wonder Wheel, Wonderstruck, BPM, and Last Flag Flying

Nathaniel welcomes NYFF buddies and regular TFE voices Jose Solis and Murtada Elfadl to talk highlights from the fest, some of which are in theaters now! 

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Intro, NYFF, and The Mountain Between Us tangent
02:50 Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston in Last Flag Flying
07:00 Mixed feelings on Wonderstruck
14:30 Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake
22:10 The Rider, Western, Lady Bird - a year of great female directors
30:00 France's BPM (Beats Per Minute)
34:21 Thelma, Faces Places
41:00 Wrapping up

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

NYFF Highlights

"Wonderstruck" and "Mudbound"

Lynn Lee continuing our Middleburg Film Festival adventure

Dee Rees and Mudbound cast earlier this year. © Daniel Bergeron

It’s always a little weird to attend a talk with a director before seeing the film they’re being interviewed about.  That’s what happened with Mudbound, which concluded a day that began with a very engaging conversation between director Dee Rees and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and festival founder Sheila Johnson’s presentation of the 2017 “Visionary” award to Rees.  Rees was charming, articulate, and impressively self-possessed, and had many interesting comments on the directorial choices she made in Mudbound, which I wasn’t sure whether I should keep in mind or set aside while watching the film that night.  Rees made clear that she resists being pigeonholed as a director of color, female director, or female director of color, an aversion reflected in her somewhat bland mantra “let excellence be the standard.”  At the same time, she agreed that the current system is structurally biased against prioritizing excellence and needs to be opened up...

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NYFF Lineup: Call me by your florida project, Meyerowitz

The New York Film Festival's 55th edition begins on September 28th and runs through the first two weeks of October. This year they're super hooked on France (not that there's anything wrong with that) and their longstanding compulsion to screen every single thing that the prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-Soo has ever shot results in him hogging 2 of the 25 slots. Predicting a Hong Sang-Soo at NYFF is like saying "Woody Allen is filming an untitled new project this year"... it's always true so you will always be prophetic. 

Joachim Trier's THELMA - will it be Norway's Oscar submission?

The results of the NYFF lineup are helpful when planning your Toronto festival because many of the titles overlap. If it's showing at NYFF I try to avoid it in Toronto knowing I can see it in just two weeks time. But in some cases the need to shove something in your eyeballs will be too great to wait. 

How many of the foreign titles after the jump will be Oscar submissions this season? I'm guessing at least a few with the most likely being Sweden's The Square and Norway's Thelma. Other possibilities are Argentina's Zama (though Argentina often has several options), Finland's The Other Side of Hope (Finland's sole nomination comes from this director) and Poland's Spoor (two of Agnieszka Holland's previous movies have received an Oscar nomination, Europa Europa in screenplay and In Darkness for foreign language film).

The lineup is after the jump... 

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"Wonderstruck" is NYFF's Centerpiece Selection

Chris here. Todd Haynes's Carol follow-up, the genre mash-up Wonderstruck has been one of our most anticipated here at The Film Experience for some time, naturally. While the film got a mixed reception at Cannes and came up empty handed for prizes, that's not enough to dampen our excitement. Haynes reunited with Julianne Moore? Of course we're there! But the film just landed a prime spot on the fall festival circuit - Wonderstruck will be the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival.

Festival hounds will remember that this spot went to 20th Century Women's world premiere last year - so let's hope the film is as beloved in these parts as that film. But will it capture Oscar's attentions more than that small film? Haynes hasn't had much luck on the big prizes, so we bet Wonderstuck could at least register below the line as his previous films have. Despite the muted Cannes reactions, one of the most universally praised elements of the film was the performance of young deaf actress Millicent Simmonds - could she be the next youngster to steal Oscar's hearts? 

Wonderstruck play's NYFF afew weeks before opening October 20. Tell us what has you most excited about the film!

Cannes Days 2-4: "Wonderstruck" and More

by Nathaniel R

One of our all time favorite movie couples reunited: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes

After the fiasco of that opening press conference and the typical "underwhelmed" response to the opening night film, happier news. The first full day of screenings brought us news of Todd Haynes Wonderstruck which reunites one of the world's greatest auteurs with his earliest muse Julianne Moore, and other reportedly fine films. Read on for more!

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