Jordan Ruimy: Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland, Francis Lee‘s Ammonite, Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe anthology and Gianfranco Rosi‘s Notturno seem to be the hotties of this fall festival season.
HE: Five and a half months ago I wrote that Ammonite sounds like Portrait of a Woman on Fire, Part II. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are powerhouse, of course, but I still feel vaguely underwhelmed.
Ruimy: You know about Notturno?
HE: Sal Notturno, the Brooklyn pizza chain guy?
Ruimy: Hah, no. Copy reads “shot over the course of three years between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, Notturno follows different people from near war zones in the Middle East, trying to start again with their everyday lives.”
HE: What a shitty year this has been so far.
Ruimy: Not just a shitty year but also a cataclysmically bad one for the future of the industry.
HE: Feels like the end of the world. Like everything is crumbling.
Ruimy: Regina King‘s One Night in Miami was added to Venice today. Based on a play by Kemp Powers, pic tells a fictionalized account of an actual February 1964 meeting that happened in a Miami Beach hotel room between Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke, as the group celebrates Clay’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston. Wiki insert: Two days after the 2.25.64 fight Clay announced that he’d joined the “Black Muslims” and adopted the name “Cassius X.” In March 1964 he was renamed Muhammad Ali by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.
HE: That’s the only title that turns me on. It’ll rise or fall depending on Eli Goree‘s performance as Clay and Kingsley Ben Adir‘s as Malcolm X. And on the writing, of course.
Ruimy: And then there’s Mona Fastvold and Casey Affleck‘s The World To Come TIFF was afraid to touch it due to Affleck’s involvement, but it’ll play Venice.
HE: Affleck is the new Polanski?