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F|f: Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project (John Landis, 2007)

24 October 2007

Veteran Landis cuts together a concert film / television history / talking-heads documentary, as much about the twilight of Sinatra’s Las Vegas as the continuing brilliance of its last star, Don Rickles. Hilarious and indispensable. The Q&A with Rickles, Landis, and critic Kent Jones was the highlight of the NYFF.

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Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project ~ cine Tom Clancey; edit Mark L. Levine; with Rickles, Dave Attell, Ernest Borgnine, Roger Corman, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Larry King, Bob Newhart, Regis Philbin, Sidney Poitier, Martin Scorsese, et. al. ~ screened at the 45th New York Film Festival; airing on HBO beginning December 2.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

F|f: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet, 2007)

A foolproof heist goes wrong and its consequences take over in this intelligent New York thriller from Lumet and screenwriter Kelly Masterson. Pitch perfect, with expert performances from Hoffman and Hawke, it’s too easy to call its good chemistry a return to form. Try a creative explosion. Worth every penny.


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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ~ writ Masterson; cine Ron Fortunato; edit Tom Swartwout; with Hoffman, Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei ~ screened at the 45th New York Film Festival; in theaters October 26.

Photo Caption. Toast of the Town. Hawke and Hoffman as brothers on the skids in Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Photo courtesy of ThinkFilm.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

F|f: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)

19 October 2007

After a stroke, editor Jean-Dominique Bauby can only move his left eye. The first act of Diving Bell convincingly relates the leg-aching frustrations that this real-life situation could produce, well aided by Kaminski’s first-person camerawork. As Bauby recovers, the storytelling becomes less inventive—and Schnabel’s film loses its creative force.

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ~ writ Ronald Harwood, based on the novel by Bauby; cine Janusz Kaminski; edit Juliette Welfling; with Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze and Anne Consigny ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival last week; in theaters November 30.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

FIFTY/FEWER: I Just Didn't Do It (Masayuki Suo, 2007)

10 October 2007

Ryo Kase follows up Letters from Iwo Jima with an exceptional performance here as an accused man engulfed by Japan’s endless courtroom procedure. Suo’s film is itself a unencumbered look at the country’s flawed system—so aggressive that legal drama naturally mixes with Kafka and Beckett. Nice composition throughout.

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I Just Didn't Do It ~ writ Suo; cine Naoki Kayano; edit Junichi Kikuchi; with Kase, Asaka Seto, Kohji Yamamoto, Masako Motai and Kôji Yakusho ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival this week.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

FIFTY/FEWER: Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach, 2007)

05 October 2007

Baumbach delivers another beautifully acted film—particularly by Leigh—about despicable, juvenile, literary parents and their emotionally diverted kids. It is sharply written with flashes of clever detail, but the viewing experience is exactly the same as with The Squid and the Whale. And I feel outside of the joke.

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Margot at the Wedding ~ writ Baumbach; cine Harris Savides; edit Carol Littleton; with Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black and Zane Pais ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival this week, in theaters November 19.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

FIFTY/FEWER: The Romance of Astrée and Céladon (Eric Rohmer, 2007)

04 October 2007

Shot in 4:3 with Ren-faire costuming against pastoral landscapes, the style of Romance is as old-fashioned as its story: the love between 5th-century peasants is twisted by nymphs, druids and that ever-deceptive cross-dressing. When I stopped guessing at Rohmer’s intentions, I survived it. A rough way to watch any movie.

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The Romance of Astrée and Céladon ~ writ Rohmer, based on the novel by Honoré d'Urfé; cine Diane Baratier; edit Mary Stephen; with Andy Gillet, Stéphanie Crayencour, Cécile Cassel and Véronique Reymond ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival this week.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

FIFTY/FEWER: I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007)

03 October 2007


Utter brilliance. Todd Haynes delivers his inventive supposition on Dylan by compartmentalizing the singer’s legend into six characters. Yet, the story is delightfully linear and fully satisfying, with each avatar well realized and Haynes at his stylistic best; documentary and fiction combine, with a nod to Pennebaker’s seminal Don’t Look Back.

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I'm Not There (2007) ~ writ Haynes and Oren Moverman, inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan; cine Edward Lachman; edit Jay Rabinowitz; with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Charlotte Gainsbourg ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival this week, in theaters November 21.

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Outside-the-Word-Count Notes:
~ This is my favorite from the New York Film Festival so far, but I have yet to see the Coens’ No Country for Old Men, Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding, and Satrapi’s Persepolis, among others.
~Speaking of Don't Look Back, that is one of the better (read: just plain awesome) film posters I've seen in awhile.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

FIFTY/FEWER: The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007)

The Darjeeling Limited is stunning in its visual sophistication and control and more serious than Anderson’s past work. The Anderson storyline, however—wealthy siblings reconciling their past against the pervasive spirit of their father—is now fully tired. A film I enjoy looking at more than watching.

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The Darjeeling Limited (2007) ~ writ Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman; cine Robert D. Yeoman; edit Andrew Weisblum; with Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Anjelica Huston ~ the Opening Night selection of the 45th New York Film Festival, in theaters now.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments:

IN FIFTY WORDS OR FEWER: The Man from London (Béla Tarr, 2007)

Painstakingly choreographed and almost impossibly slow-paced, Béla Tarr’s The Man from London is not for everyone. It is, nevertheless, enjoyable movie watching—with stark visual lines and even harder narrative logic that pull you into the story at the same time as the remarkable camera movements invite you to explore.

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The Man from London (2007) ~ writ Tarr and Laszlo Krasznahorkai, based on the book by Georges Simenon; cine Fred Kelemen; edit Anne Hranitzky; with Miroslav Krobot and Tilda Swinton ~ at the 45th New York Film Festival this week.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey » Comments: