Coltan, short for columbo-tantalite, is an ore containing the metal element tantalum, which due to its resistance to corrosion and high permittivity is used in capacitors essential to the functioning of smartphones, laptops, and other high-tech devices. It is found chiefly in Africa, most abundantly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, where foreign corporations, and the cronies they install in corrupt local governments, rely on local (often child) labor subsisting on poverty wages and working in incredibly unsafe sites, to carry out a program of unsustainable ecological destruction.

Continue reading ‘Neptune Frost’: Saul Williams’ Sci-Fi Musical Is An Afrofuturist Sight To Behold [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Vincent Lindon is the heart of “Titane.” Since French director Julia Ducournau’s provocative new film premiered at Cannes Film Festival, making her the second woman to win the coveted Palme d’Or, similar to her first film “Raw,” it’s developed a near-mythical reputation as one of the wildest films ever. However, this wild movie is also a tender story, one concerning the love and loneliness felt by a mourning father. That father, Vincent, is portrayed by Lindon. 

READ MORE: ‘Titane’: The New Flesh Is Thriving, Living Rent-Free in Julia Ducournau’s F*cked Up Metallica Brain [Cannes Review]

In “Titane,” Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is a well-known, terse showgirl dancing in an automotive showroom.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: Vincent Lindon On Finding Heart In Absurdism, Hating Dancing & Comparing The Wild Film To ‘The Shape Of Water’ [NYFF] at The Playlist.

South Korean film director Hong Sang-soo is cinema’s reigning poet of strained politeness, awkward confrontation, and space-filling chatter. In film after film—there are two Hongs at this year’s New York Film Festival, which is about average for the prolific South Korean—characters meet in the street or on a beach, in restaurants or hotels, and talk about the weather or the food in front of them, in banal and repetitious dialogue.

Continue reading ‘Introduction’ Is Hong Sang-Soo Stripping Down His Artistry To its Simplest, Most Telling Gestures [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

“When I write, I always write about the image first,” explains French director Julia Ducournau. It’s her indelible, singular use of imagery that made her previous film, “Raw,” about a vegetarian who becomes a cannibal, a movie that led to an audience member fainting during a 2016 screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her same magic with the image, when words may come up short, is apparent in her follow-up, the intoxicating love story: “Titane.” 

READ MORE: ‘Titane’: The New Flesh Is Thriving, Living Rent-Free in Julia Ducournau’s F*cked Up Metallica Brain [Cannes Review]

“Titane” is one of those movies where even if someone explained the plot to you, you still wouldn’t be spoiled because seeing is truly believing.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: Julia Ducournau Talks Her Provocative New Film, ‘The Macarena’ & More [NYFF Interview] at The Playlist.

Premiering this week at the New York Film Festival, filmmaker Jane Campion’s mesmerizing neo-Western “The Power Of The Dog” is one of the year’s most anticipated films. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the cruel and fiercely repressed rancher Phil Burbank, it gracefully lays bare the emotion and agony of those living alongside him on a Montana cattle ranch in the 1920s. Through his fraught relationships with brother George (Jesse Plemons), his new wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and her delicate son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Campion’s story builds in force until it accrues the grand, gratifying weight of a Greek tragedy. 

READ MORE: New York Film Festival 2021: The 17 Most Anticipated Films

“I see this film as a departure from my other films, but it’s perhaps a nice bookend to ‘The Piano,’ which is from the feminine perspective,” said Campion during a Friday NYFF press conference in New York.

Continue reading ‘Power Of The Dog’: Jane Campion & The Cast Talk The “Violent Beauty Of The Masculine Myth” [NYFF] at The Playlist.

Let’s get this out of the way out front: Yes, the Romanian film “Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn,” winner of the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlinale, opens with about three and a half minutes of hardcore pornography. Teacher Emilia (Katia Pascariu) and her husband Eugen go at it on digital video, complete with a little light flagellation, porn-informed dirty talk, and unsimulated oral and penetrative intercourse.

Continue reading ‘Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn’ The Golden Bear Winner Delivers The Goods [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Two filmmakers uniquely fascinated with mapping and navigating moments in time, Mia Hansen-Løve and Joachim Trier, know how to pass an hour. And, in fact, their free talk on Monday evening — part of this year’s New York Film Festival, where Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island” and Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” are both Main Slate selections — ran about 20 minutes over its scheduled 60, though attendees packed into the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s 75-capacity Amphitheater didn’t seem to mind.  

“I need so much time to tell a story,” said Hansen-Løve, discussing how the passage of days appears to ebb and flow throughout the seven patiently naturalistic features she’s directed to date, from the coming-of-age story “Goodbye First Love” (2011) to decades-spanning rave-scene drama “Eden” (2014).

Continue reading Mia Hansen-Løve & Joachim Trier Talk Ingmar Bergman, Growing As A Filmmaker & More [NYFF] at The Playlist.

Unfolding like an arthouse version of that joke about what you get when you play a country song backward (you wife, your truck, and your dog come back), Miguel Gomes and Maureen Fazendeiro’s “The Tsugua Diaries” chronicles a fictional 2020 film shoot abandoned due to a COVID protocol breach, in a backward-running narrative. An opening title card reads “Day 22,” and, eventually, a sequence at a time, “The Tsugua Diaries” rewinds to Day 1, the film-within-the-film gets its sound guy back, gets its permits back, and its shared sense of artistic purpose returns…

READ MORE: New York Film Festival 2021: The 17 Most Anticipated Films

With its inward-turned focus and quasi-incestuous relationships, every film shoot is a “bubble” to use the era-appropriate term.

Continue reading ‘The Tsugua Diaries’: Miguel Gomes & Maureen Fazendeiro Deconstruct Filmmaking In A Meta-Arthouse ‘Tenet’ [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Whenever Frances McDormand brought up the notion of her husband and frequent collaborator Joel Coendirecting her in her dream role of Lady Macbeth, he demurred – bluntly. “He said absolutely not,” she recalled; “I had no interested in theater,” he explained, and that was that. 

READ MORE: ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’: Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand Are Fearless In Joel Coen’s Bleak, But Thrilling Adaptation [NYFF Review]

“Doing something on the stage where there’s one sort of visual metaphor for the whole thing, which is a stage set, and that’s what you’re looking at – that’s not the way my brain works,” Coen said.

Continue reading Joel Coen & The ‘Tragedy of Macbeth’ Cast On Adapting Shakespeare, Streaming Services, & More [NYFF] at The Playlist.

The plot for “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” adapted from William Shakespeare’s classic play, is almost too familiar to waste space for explanation. Even so, the basic premise sees Lord Macbeth (Denzel Washington), a well-respected soldier, spurred by three witches’ prophecy and the aspirations of his wife, the Machiavellian Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand), transfixed by an ambition for the Scottish crown.

Continue reading ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’: Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand Are Fearless In Joel Coen’s Bleak, But Thrilling Adaptation [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Just as the witches anticipate Macbeth’s arrival at their heath, so too do audiences await the world premiere of Joel Coen‘s “The Tragedy Of Macbeth” at the New York Film Festival later this week. The new film debuts on the opening night of the festival’s 59th iteration; there’s nothing quite like a gloomy tale of murder, madness, and corruption to kick off proceedings.

Continue reading ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’ Trailer: Something Wicked This Way Comes For Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand On Dec 25 at The Playlist.

One of the few positive things the pandemic has done for movie buffs is left us with an onslaught of leftover 2020 titles held for this year’s fall festival circuit. Case in point: the 59th Annual New York Film Festival. 

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Exclusive Trailer: Take A Peek At The Acclaimed Films Coming To The Upcoming Event

Most all of the major works by revered world cinema directors—many of which have premiered at other fests already— have some kind of presence at NYFF.

Continue reading New York Film Festival 2021: The 17 Most Anticipated Films at The Playlist.

We are mere days away from the opening night of the 59th New York Film Festival. And in honor of NYFF kicking off, we have an exclusive look at the trailer for the upcoming event.

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Adds ‘Dune,’ ‘French Dispatch’ & Mike Mills’ ‘C’mon, Cmon’ With Joaquin Phoenix & More

This year’s NYFF is jam-packed with some of the best cinema of 2021, featuring dozens of amazing films from around the world, including some highly anticipated world premieres.

Continue reading NYFF 2021 Exclusive Trailer: Take A Peek At The Acclaimed Films Coming To The Upcoming Event at The Playlist.

Every year, the New York Film Festival welcomes “the season’s most anticipated and significant films” to take part in its Spotlight section. And though 2021 has been a really odd year (much like 2020) for the film industry, the Spotlight section for this year is truly stacked with some great picks.

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Full Slate Includes ‘Benedetta’, ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ ‘Memoria’ & More

According to NYFF, this year’s Spotlight section includes highly-anticipated films such as Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle,” Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Charlotte Gainsbourg’s “Jane By Charlotte,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter,” Marco Bellocchio’s “Marx Can Wait,” Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket,” and more.

Continue reading NYFF 2021 Adds ‘Dune,’ ‘French Dispatch’ & Mike Mills’ ‘C’mon, Cmon’ With Joaquin Phoenix & More at The Playlist.

While probably the two biggest announcements at this year’s New York Film Festival have already been announced, with the premieres of Joel Coen’s “Tragedy of Macbeth” on Opening Night and Pedro Almodovar’s “Parallel Mothers” closing out the event, it appears the folks at NYFF still had some tricks up their sleeves as we now know the full lineup for the fall festival.

Continue reading NYFF 2021 Full Slate Includes ‘Benedetta’, ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ ‘Memoria’ & More at The Playlist.

The 59th edition of New York Film Festival is taking shape and today Film at Lincoln Center announced Pedro Almodóvar’s latest drama “Parallel Mothers“ starring Penélope Cruz, as the Closing Night selection of the festival. “Parallel Mothers” will make its North American premiere on October 8 at Alice Tully Hall. Sony Pictures Classics will release “Parallel Mothers” in theaters on December 24.

Continue reading Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Parallel Mothers’ Will Close The 59th New York Film Festival at The Playlist.

Following news of the 2021 Venice Film Festival line-up, announced yesterday morning and including Jane Campion‘s “The Power Of The Dog” as a world premiere, Film at Lincoln Center announces Campion’s latest as the Centerpiece selection for the 59th New York Film Festival, making its New York premiere at Alice Tully Hall on October 1. Take a first look at the movie below.

Continue reading Jane Campion’s ‘The Power Of The Dog’ Will Premiere As New York Film Festival’s Centerpiece Movie at The Playlist.

Without a doubt, one of the biggest films coming later this year is the highly-anticipated drama, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Not only does it feature the debut of filmmaker Joel Coen as a singular director (Ethan Coen is not attached), but it has one of the strongest casts of 2021, led by Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. This film has Oscar written all over it, right?

Continue reading ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’ First Look: Joel Coen’s Film Starring Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand To Premiere At NYFF at The Playlist.