Zodiac Killer Project (2024) First Look 2024

When Charlie Shakleton's plans for a documentary about the Zodiac killings centered around a certain book on the crime are squashed when the rights are withheld, he instead regroups and gives us an explanation of what the film would have been.

This is kind of like an illustrated lecture or illustrated podcast as Shackleton's voice over explains the things we are seeing (I would have used ia shot like this to begin the film). The film is weirdly hypnotic as we fall into his tale trying to make the film and his view of the Zodiac killings.  The result is a film that echoes the work of Patrick Kiellor's Robinson films or the early work of Peter Greenaway, except that this is more or less a straight on documentary.

I was locked into the film during it's run time. Being a  true crime nerd with an interest in the Zodiac case I was intrigued by how Shackleton put it all together. Additionally somewhere in the middle of the film that had this been a conventional film it would have said a great deal less with a great deal more effort.

Definitely worth your time, more so if you are a true crime nut, the ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT is one of the must sees of the First Look Fest.

SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH (2024) First Look 2025

This is an observational look at the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We watch the people try to sort out what was happening, their flight to safety and the damage that resulted.

This is a low key film of just observation. It's a beautifully told film that just shows us what the early days of the war was like.

The trouble is that I can't really review this film. My feelings are much too wrapped up in the fact that I have seen too many other films on the Ukraine war. The film is similar to other films (INTERCEPTED, FREEDOM ON FIRE, RULE OF TWO WALLS, IN THE REARVIEW among others) in looking at the early days of the war. While the film is very good on its own terms, I've seen a few too many films on the early days of the war. 

That said, this is probably the film people should see first.

This is very good and recommended for anyone who is interested in what is happening in Ukraine.

WHEN THE PHONE RANG (2024) First Look Festival 2025

WHEN THE PHONE RANG begins with a undesired call that a young girl’s grandfather has past away. It is the first of a series of events that will alter her life as Yugoslavia dissolves and war breaks out.

Told in a style where events play out in almost tableaus with  little dialog and an observers voice over. It’s a move that keeps us distances as most of the information we are getting is from the narration and not the people on screen. We are being told a story, which is why the images are perfectly chosen.

For me it’s too constructed. I never fully connected, I like to connect to characters on screen on their terms not that of an outside observer. (this is an issue with some documentaries because it becomes clear we are not seeing events as they happen but as the director chooses to portray them.) We never get a real sense what anyone is feeling but we told of their emotions, and thus we are being told what we should be feeling. For me this is a sign the director doesn’t trust the audience.

The Fifth Shot of La Jetée (2024) plays First Look 2025 Friday

Director Dominique Cabrera's cousin sees Chris Marker's LE JETE and becomes convinced that the image is of himself and his parents. This begins a crazy quest to figure out if this was indeed the case and along the way we get a look at the changes in society since the early 1960's, the Algerian war, immigration, film making, photography, Chris Marker and the director's family.

For those who don't know LE JETE is a science fiction short (kind of remade as Terry Gilliam's 12 MONKEYS) about a dystopian future where a man with a vivid memory of his past is part of an experiement to go back in time to change the past to save the future. It's told almost entirely with voice over and stills.

This is a great ride. The quest to find out if this is indeed the directors cousin is a compelling one.  It's a really cool detective story that had me dying to know what happened next. I also enjoyed all of the other threads that are  inside the film as well.

As compelling as the film is, the film has one small problem which will not take away from your enjoyment of the film, and that is I don't know if I need to see it again. Yes I enjoyed it, yes I am whole heartedly recommending it, but I don't know if will require a second viewing because once the story is told and we get to the end, you realize that while the mystery is compelling, the story telling is not. It's a lot of people sitting looking at screens. Its not visually engaing. DOn't get me wrong, I love the film and I highly recommend it, but I don't know if you'll revisit it.

Park (Taman-taman) (2024) First Look 2025

Asri and Hasan meet after work in the park and discuss life and things as the sun goes down.

This film shouldn't work as well as it does. It's a film that is basic a series of long static shots from a good distance away from the film's subjects, but it is so perfectly done the film puts us in the park where we are over hearing a long conversation or series of conversations between two people. We are there just listening to to people discuss life in a film that, for most of it's running time feels like life.(only when the film shifts to the lighted booth does it feel contrived).

The film is a blending of fact and fiction. I would be hard pressed to know what is or isn't real. Yes the set up is essentially fake, but at the same time I couldn't tell you where the lines between fact and fiction are. I was fully focused on the screen the whole time because the discussion was more than just eavsdropping. 

While this may not work for you if you need constant motion on screen, this film is recommended for anyone who wants good discussions.

Nightcap 3/9/25- First Look at MOMI, the home stretch of NYICFF and programmers who lean into the same sort of stories

The Museum of the Moving Images FIRST LOOK Fest starts Thursday at the museum and it's filled will all sorts of off the radar goodies.

The series highlights off the radar films that have a good shot of being the next big thing down the road. The films are a mix of unexpected delights that make you think

As this posts I've seen six of the films and they are all worth a look. As always with this fest my feeling is that I would pick something that tickles your fancy and going with that. This is a fest where so much is good that what I have to say doesn't matter.

For give me for not recommending anything but I haven't seen enough where I can pull one or two out and say "these are the best". They are all worth your time.

For more information on the fest and tickets go here.

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I'm in the final stretch of NYICFF. 

I've seen all but one one of the films I've scheduled. Whatever I don't see I simply couldn't fit into my schedule.

Reviews of HEEBIE JEEBIES, SAVAGES and THE LEGEND OF OCHI will follow shortly.

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I've gotten the slates of a couple of more serious film festivals recently and I'm left scratching my head about the programmers. The reason is that the festivals are programming not just the same filmmakers but the same sort of stories over and over again.

I noticed this when I was looking over the New Directors New Films slate I realized that we are getting the same types of stories over and over again each year. We need a film about growing up, a film about school, a film about growing old, we need something on the Israel Palestine conflict.... The titles are different but there is sameness to the subjects.

Okay I don't think they are using a check list, but because the fests tend to have the same programmers they tend to lean into the same type of stories over and over again. (Or the same filmmakers). This is would be fine but the films chosen tend to follow the same paths and hit the same points. The most exciting films for me are the ones that seem to be something completely different than anything else. I actually turned down two films at First Look because the films seemed to be too close to several other similar films I've seen connected to other festivals.

Perhaps this is all the result of the writes being done by rote or not wanting to spill the beans, but after a few years of being offered similar films again and again there has to be more too it

I know that the festivals will some time err by leaning into things that will put butts in seats (NYFF has explictly said that) but at the same time fests like New Directors New Films should be showing  us a wide variety of stories not just the same ones. I mean they used to run things like THE RAID, ASHKAL GREAT BUDDHA +,  and other atypical tales all through the slate and not just a single film or two. 

I'm not arguing that the fests are programming bad films, they absolutely are not, but they are programming films with stories that look like they are ones we've heard before. How many times do I need to see a coming of age film set in a French school? 

It maybe the up coming fests will shock me, but if so they need to get better people to write up the films, too many of the films seem to be variations on a well worn theme and it's making me gun shy to cover a film once I read it maybe going in to too familiar territory.