Just a reminder that Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Dear Comrades! (Neon), winner of the 2020’s Venice Film festival Special Jury Prize, will begin to appear later this month. A virtual Film Forum booking begins on 12.25; other viewing opportunities will presumably follow in close order. Excerpt of HE review, posted on 9.13.20: “Yesterday Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Dear Comrades … Read more
6:45 pm Update: Forget Oscar handicapping, including my own. Forget the always reasonable and perceptive award-season handicapping by THR‘s Scott Feinberg. And extra-double-triple forget the Gold Derby whores and the bizarre insular world of Clayton “Variety ass-smooch” Davis. For here, on the basis of quality alone, are the best films of ’21 so far. Plus … Read more
Congrats all around but especially to the Best Director-nominated Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell and the ten-nominations-fortified Mank, not to mention surprise Best Director nominee Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round) and the Best Supporting Actor nom handed to Judas and the Black Messiah‘s LaKeith Stanfield (yes!)…and to HE fave Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) for Best … Read more
12:25 pm: Kelly Reichardt‘s First Cow, a commendable if vaguely irritating period drama set in 1820s Oregon, has won the NYFCC’s Best Film award. If this isn’t the most “what planet are these guys living on?” NYFCC award yet, I’d like to know what is. For decades an occasionally offbeat NYFCC trophy signified something highly … Read more
You can tell a lot about a person if you know their favorite films. Or can you? Here, randomly listed, are mine: 1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, d: Milos Forman 2. Ida, d: Pavel Pawlikovski 3. Amour, d: Michael Haneke 4. Come and See, d: Elem Klimov 5. Schindler’s List, d: Steven Spielberg … Read more
Yesterday Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Dear Comrades (Dorohgie Tovarischi) won the Venice Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize. With Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland and Michael Franco‘s New Order taking the Golden and Silver Lion prizes, Konchalovsky’s film, an emotionally intense capturing of the 1962 Novocherkassk massacre, basically came in third. I didn’t see Franco’s film, but it my humble … Read more