In Brief: Neon Bull (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

NEON BULL is the story of  a mother, her daughter and three men who transport bulls around Brazil.

That's about it. They travel around and that's it.

Well there's a sport that's essentially organized cow tipping, a sex scene, a hand job for a horse, a woman shaving her privates in the front of a truck and some weird dancing with a horse head rubber mask- and that's about it.

Sadly there isn't much drama which explains why the New Director New Films synopsis talks about the sex scene as being a highlight. And it is, but largely because it's one of the few things that actually happen during the course of the film. Does it lead to anything? Nope the film just fades out after one shot of of one of the characters after that.

To be honest this isn't a bad film but I have no idea what the point is. I could easily have not seen this film and slept an extra two hours.

The film plays tonight and tomorrow at New Directors New Films. For more information and tickets go here.

Weiner (2016) New Directors New Films 2016

What was supposed to be a cinematic portrait of one time Congressman Anthony Weiner's run for the Mayor of New York City, instead turns into something else as Weiner's  misdeeds takes him out of the race as the media goes on a witch hunt.

Surprisingly sympathetic look at Weiner plays as a grand uncomfortable comedy. Weiner comes a cross an a lovable schmo who's mad texting two years before rippled through his campaign. What he's forced to do to remain in the hunt for higher office is at time quite silly. I suspect that the term Operation McDonalds will eventually find it's way in to our lexicon.

What amazed me about the film is that it's clear that the real villain was the media. They wanted to pull Weiner down and they were looking to take him down no matter what. What they found was one of the people Weiner had texted, a 23 year old blackjack dealer who was more than happy to  ride her connection to the story to short term fame and fortune. Nothing happened between them except texts but that didn't stop the media who blew a two year old story out of proportion and made  not telling the exact truth a hanging offense.

Seriously all Weiner did was not tell the paper how many people he texted and so he was vilified. Never mind that his wife had forgiven him. The worst thing they really could hang on him was refusing to answer the same questions they had asked a thousand times before.Or in the case of  the infamous shouting match in a bakery take an exchange where his wife was insulted out of context. Whats amazing is that we realize how wrong the pundits are as experts make grand pronouncements on video clips taken out of context- context WEINER gives

You will hate the news media with a deep passion when the film  is done.

Weiner the man isn't perfect, he is a bit self centered and bit of a twit but if nothing else he's a passionate fighter who seems to really believe in what he says. Watching the film I realized that Weiner would have been an excellent Mayor, certainly much better than the ineffective current one,

I really liked this film a great deal. I love that it revealed the true story of a story we thought we all knew but really didn't. Its a film that will go a long way in correcting an injustice and rehabilitating a reputation

One of the best films at this years New Directors

The film plays tomorrow and Saturday with a regular release later in the year.

For tickets to the New Directors screenings go here.

Happy Hour (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

HAPPY HOUR is the story of four long time friends who find relief from their lives and loves in the occasional meetings they have. In theory the four women reveal everything to each other, but when one of the women is revealed to have held back that is has been seeking a divorce the relationship between the women begins to crack since suddenly the one thing they could count on isn't as solid as they thought.

In doing reading on HAPPY HOUR after watching it I found that there were two things that almost everyone mentioned when seeing the film:

1- That the film runs five hours and seventeen minutes not including intermissions (the film is in three parts)

2- If you don't like films that are all talk stay away because this film is pretty much five hours and seventeen minutes of extended conversations.

The joy for some and the curse for others is that the film really is a series of slices of life and conversations. Things spin out as they would in a real life. There is no rapid jump cuts and or getting right to the point. The characters here talk to as they would making small talk before the important stuff comes in. We get a great deal of shading about their lives as well as the drama. We really get to know them in ways most films running an hour and half never manage.

And at this point I have to make something clear about how I saw the film because I know it very much influenced how I feel about the film. I saw HAPPY HOUR, not at a press screening for New Directors New Films but on the Festival Scope service and I broke the film up as if I was watching three separate films with long breaks in between and it made my feelings for the film very different than I know if I saw this in a theater in one go. The breaks were over night between the first and second part and a couple of hours between the second and third. Even the act of sitting at home and watching things on my laptop changed how I felt because my attention was drawn away from the film.

How is the film?

On a simple good and bad scale, its good, but really long. I'm suspect that I would have liked it more had I been in an isolation chamber with the film and not in my home.  I don't think I would have ever been one to wax poetic, as some have done, about the various wondrous things that the film does on all sorts of literary like levels but it's a good film.

To be honest the simplicity of this review is in direct response to most of the reviews I read that went on and on about all of the wonderful intellectual things the film did. I found them insightful but I didn't really come away with any sense of how the film was emotionally. They all loved the ideas but no one really said if the film moved them or made them feel anything. I found it odd that a film that is very much about human connection didn't inspire much human connection with the reviewers. They never said how it made them feel other than to say it didn't feel long.

Is this film for you?

That would depend on if you like films that slowly reveal life through conversation. For me it was something I enjoyed this one time through but I know I'll never revisit the film again because it's length and my lack of connection to parts of it makes it a film I doubt I'll ever have the urge or time to see again.

HAPPY HOUR plays this weekend at New Directors New Films.

Demon (2015) New Director New Films 2016

Groom meet spirit

When Peter aka "Python", goes to Poland to marry the sister of his best friend he moves into the old and some what abandoned farm once inhabited by his bride's grandparents. All seems well until an accident with an earth mover exposes a skeleton.  The discovery sets in motion a series of strange occurrences as the Peter becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead girl who refuses to believe she has died.

Based on a play called The Clinging the film is essentially one long set piece set at a wedding which becomes more and more weird as the supernatural intrudes more and more. I jokingly refer to the film as My Big Fat Possessed Polish Wedding, and in a weird way it really is. Its a big wedding in Poland that goes horribly wrong. Its a film that would have me thinking twice about having a wedding in the Polish country side.

This is a film that is filled with tension and a couple of chills. Things are the just right mount of off to keep you on the edge of your seat. It balances the strangeness with the oddness of a wedding. They are not normal parties and people behave oddly to the point it takes a while and some extreme behavior before anyone know anything is wrong.

Its also a film filled with humor as the oddness of the situation is played straight enough that we see the humor inherent in trying to cover up a far from normal event.. Rarely have I laughed at a horror film as much as this one. Hell I laughed more than I have at most horror comedies. The best part of the humor is it is organic and it doesn't seem out of place. It comes when you can't hwlp but laugh and it never comes at the expense of the tension.

The real story here is Itay Tiran as Peter. An amazing physical and vocal performance you'll get a good way into the film before it hits you that you are seeing one of those truly great performances that is in a film much too small to get an actor an Oscar. Yea it's nice to give Leonardo Di Caprio an Oscar for his a test big blockbuster, but at the same time people like Itay Tiran is doing things that put most recent Oscar winners to shame.

I absolutely love 99% of the film and if the film didn't insist on ending on a much too enigmatic note I would probably have put the film on my best of the year list, but things are a tad too unexplained with the political allegory becoming a tad too obvious.

Reservations or no this is one of the best films at this year's New Directors

The film plays Saturday and Sunday and is highly recommended. For tickets and more information go here.

In Brief: A non review of In The Last Days of the City (2016) NDNF 2016 (March 26)

Started in 2007 and shooting was completed in 2010 right before the Arab Spring upended everything.  The editing was then put on hold for three years before director Tamer El Said went back to shape the material.

The film concerns a film director struggling to make a film that reveals the life of Cairo, his city, just as it physically and socially is undergoing an upheaval.. As he tries to figure out what to do friends send him material from around the world

Deeply meditative work is going to either thrill you or bore you. Personally I was torn about the film, since I loved a great deal of it, it looks great, it has all sorts of great ideas kicking around, the trouble was that ten minutes in I knew I was in the wrong head space to see this film. Knowing I had one shot at the film I stayed with it despite knowing it was the wrong time to see and truly meet the film head on.

While I can't rightly review the film I can say without fear that this is a film you really must see. There is something about it that haunts you, even if you are like me and not in the right place for it. A heady mix of ideas and gorgeous images this is the perfect film for those who want more than just entertainment,  And be prepared to have a conversation after the film.

The film plays March 26 and 27. For tickets and more information go here.

Eldorado XXI (2016) NDNF 2016

This is a portrait of La Rinconada in the Peruvian Andes, the highest-elevation permanent human settlement in the world. Told in long takes with voice over narration this film is going to enthrall a certain audience while the rest of us are going to be falling asleep.

I doubt that Eldorado XXI is going to get many play dates. Its cinematic aesthetic of pointing a camera and letting life happen is a tough one to endure.

This is not because the images are terrible, they are in fact quite beautiful, rather it’s that director Salome Lamas insists on holding the shot for way too long. How long is too long? Consider that most of the first 60 minutes consists of a single 50 minute shot of men walking in and out of a mine. We simply watch for an hour as men go in and out of the mine. Occasionally we get some voice over talk about life but mostly its men walking to and fro, the camera staring straight ahead not moving. After that the film settles down and we get an exploration of life within the small town, but at the same time the camera simply sits and records events. While the shots are not held for 50 minutes they still can go on too long.

Beautiful to look at film is very much a documentary of the sort where the director picks their shot and then lets the camera record.It harkens back to the days  when Andy Warhol would film someone sleeping for 8 hours or the Empire State Building for a day. Eldorado XXI is much more a film to be screened in an museum rather than in a movie theater. This is a film whose audience is going to be small simply because it is way outside the box of contemporary documentary filmmaking. Life happens before us and if you are a big fan of that you are going to love this film (and a recent film that is going to play in Europe of 10 hours of paint drying -seriously). If you don't you're either going to fall asleep (I struggled mightily to stay awake during the film) or you're going to gnaw your leg off if you just don't get up and walk out.

If you like this sort of thing go for it. If you don't either don't go or if you must bring a pillow. (Personally this is a film to have on a wall playing silently as a moving picture.)

Far be it for me to judge but this film was grossly mis-programmed at New Directors. This film belongs more at the New York Film Festival’s experimental side bar or more to likely at the upcoming Art of the Real series where the documentary film is pushed to its limits. Here the film is very likely to engender lots of walk outs and snoring.

The film plays March 22 and 23. For tickets and more information go here.

In Brief: Life After Life (2016) New Directors New Films 2016

After a brief verbal fight a son runs away from his father in pursuit of a hare. When he returns a short time later he has been possessed by the spirit of his dead mother. The spirit tell the father that she will leave if he will move the tree that sits in front of their now abandoned home. Why should he move the tree? So that he will remember the past when he sees it.

Jia Zhangke produces Zhang Hanyi's magical realistic tale of  spirits walking among us. Set in a desolate landscape of rural China the film ponders existence and the absurdity of life. Its a film seemingly set on another planet or some post apocalyptic earth with everything somewhere past run down and life going on because it would seem this is where we life.

Told in long takes, and usually from a distance it's clear that this world is one that is just outside of our grasp. It's a place where spirits come back, some times briefly as in the case of the returned wife and mother , and in other cases as new lives such as the parents who have been reborn as animals. We are there to observe and not take part.

I'm not sure what I think of the film. I love the look of the film and I love how that look greats a real sense of mood and sense of place. I am intrigued by some of the philosophy of the film, but at the same time there is a deliberatness to it all that kept me the wrong sort of distanced. I could see director Hanyi's wheels spinning and I got the sense that he was just off screen moving the pieces around. I don't think it makes it a bad film, it just keeps it from being the great film that some of the reviews coming out of Berlin had it pegged as.

Worth a look.

LIFE AFTER LIFE plays later today and tomorrow at New Director New Films. For more information and tickets go here.

NDNF Shorts: LE PARK and ISABELLA MORRA

LE PARK
A drifting walk through an abandoned amusement park where the only people we see are the abandoned youth as frozen and seemingly discarded as the rides. The only sound we hear is that of recorded voices coming from off screen.

Trippy film is an interesting meditation on the things we throw away or discard. The visual style is the interesting thing here with the constantly moving camera sucking us into the proceedings. Definitely one to see on a big screen.

ISABELLA MORRA
Children in a housing project play and interact. Some talk to each other. Others we hear in voice over.

Interesting to a point before it gets real tedious .

Kaili Blues (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

This is a  kind of plotless film follows a doctor around  as he tends the sick, recites poetry and in stunning set piece makes a forty minute trip into the country in a single take as he goes to find he missing nephew he suspect his brother may have sold.

This is a film I admire this film more than like. A stunning calling card for everyone involved This is one of those films where everyone talks about the virtuosity of the filmmaking rather than the plot. I say this as someone who read more than a handful of review for the film and everyone talked about the forty minute single take that takes up most of the second half. Its a stunning achievement but at the same time it's the sort of thing we are very aware is happening.

You'll notice that I haven't said a hell of a lot about the plot and the characters and that's because I really don't have anything to say. While the performances are fine, the actor actually inhabit the characters so well the film seems its like a documentary at times, they really aren't given anything memorable to do beyond be in sequences where director Bi Gan and his cinematographer Tianxing Wang create camera moves and images that will take your breath away. Don't get me wrong the film is never boring, but it's more the sort of thing where you're going to come out pondering how they did that rather than how the characters moved you.

Definitely worth seeing especially if you are seeing this on a big screen, the film plays March 21 and 23rd at New Directors New Films. For more information and tickets go here.

The Apostate (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

Federico Veiroj's bone dry satire and comedic probing of matters of faith, belief and hypocrisy  will play differently depending on your feelings toward this style of humor.

The film begins with Gonzalo Tamayo attempting to get his baptismal certificate so that he can begin the process of officially breaking with the Catholic Church. Tomayo  feels that if he breaks with the church he can get down to living his own life, but that may not be completely possible since he's weaved himself a complicated life that may not be so easy to escape

Looking like a deranged Oscar Isaac Álvaro Ogalla plays Tamayo with  stoic glare that would make Buster Keaton proud. His expression doesn't seem to change much he just looks at what is happening around him with a detached sense of reality. The character is based upon Ogalla's own experiences and there are times where you can feel reality creeping into it all.

The film is full of ideas expressed through voice over inner monologs or heady discussions between characters and it helps to illustrate some of the craziness that is lurking with in the Church. Its a film that is so full of ideas that you may want to have dinner planned afterward so you can talk about the film for a bit before jumping into the next thing.

If it was purely an intellectual exercise I would recommend this film highly but the film is full of humor and it's often incredibly bone dry. This is the sort of film where there are times you know there is a joke being told you just are too parched to laugh. It doesn't help that Ogalla's expression never changes, and it gets confusing because I frequently found jokes whizzing by my head without me flinching."Oh yea that was funny" I thought as I pondered where the laughs or smiles were.

On the other hand I know this film worked better for some people who like their humor like they like their martinis, bone dry.

THE APOSTATE played last night and again tonight. For tickets and more information can be found here.

Neither Heaven Nor Earth aka Wakhan Front (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

(Note: the films title was changed after this review was written from WAKHAN FRONT  to NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH.) 

NATO soldiers fighting in Afghanistan find that there is something much more terrifying then the Taliban in THE WAKHAN FRONT a military horror film about things that go bump in the night.

Not long after witnessing a night time ritual on a mountain side soldiers begin to disappear. Whipped into a frenzy the soldiers are sure that the Taliban is behind it, but they soon find out that whatever is out in the dark isn't taking sides and their enemy is losing men as well.

Another film in a long line of military horror films (THE BUNKER, THE TRENCH, THE OUTPOST, GP 506) where the unknown proves to be much more dangerous than the enemy. Here the evil is such that merely stepping away for a minute to pee will result in a man disappearing. Its a scary thought that the soldiers can't seem to fully comprehend.

WAKHAN FRONT is a mixed bag film. Its a very tense story that kind of peters out toward the end. Blame writer director Clément Cogitore who has more on his mind than just scaring the bejesus out of his audience. Cogitore strives a bit too hard to tweak the allegories that can be found all through a story like this rather than going or the fright nerve. There are no real scares in this film, and that would be fine I've run across a number of really good horror films that did that, but they held you knotted to the end, here things kind of peter out and the tension dribbles away, even if the unease remains on a low level.

To be honest I know I'm coming at the film from the wrong perspective- the film's French title is NI LE CIEL NI LA TERRE which roughly translates as a Neither Heaven nor Hell, which is a soldier natural state. Clearly the film is supposed to be a grand allegory about the state of soldiers in war, and Afghanistan in particular. It's obviously only using horror movie tropes to reveal the thematic elements. But for me the allegory is the least interesting thing here. Yes we have metaphysical questions and existential quandaries but they don't break any new ground here.

And that is the problem here, the film, despite being good on it's own terms, WAKHAN FRONT is far from exceptional. While the film would score on technical levels over some of the horror films I mentioned above, it doesn't quite break any new ground and in it's way simply repeats themes we've seen in those other, better horror films. Forgive me but I kind of lost the real connection when I started to say out loud what the next bit was going to be and I was right. If you are a horror film fan you are going to have seen this film before. If on the other hand you haven't seen any of the horror films above I suspect you're going to be rapturous.

WAKHAN FRONT plays at New Directors New Films on March 19th and 20th.  For tickets and more information go here

Under the Shadow (2015) New Directors New Films 2016

The opening night film for New Directors New Films is a horror film from Iran. UNDER THE SHADOW garnered good word of mouth earlier in the year and seemed to poised to be another GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE and continue the recent trend of horror films opening NDNF. Sadly the film is not up to the earlier films and leaves you wondering not so much why the film the was picked for the festival, rather why it was picked as the opening film.

Set during the Iran Iraq was of 1980 to 1988 the film concerns a mother and her daughter living in Tehran. As the film opens a perfect storm of negative activity is hitting- her ability to go back to school is stopped because of her youthful political activity, her husband has been called up and Iraq is sending missiles to attack the cities of Iran. As things become complicated her daughter is suddenly afraid of djinns, the result of what she was told by a weird little boy sent to live with his relatives. Things escalate as the young girl begins seeing weird figures and bombs begin dropping.

This is a good little horror film that is trying to be about more than just the scares. Set in a world where going outside without a head wrap would get a woman beaten and thrown in jail (something threatened to our heroine when she runs in terror into the street) the film is very much interested in exploring the politics of life in Iran during the period of the war. As political film it’s an interesting look at a society that was demonized in America for decades. It’s great to see that despite all the restrictions the people really weren’t monsters (not that I ever thought they were).

As a horror film it’s a mixed bag. Taking a leisurely pace before things really getting going the film never really generates enough tension to sustain the chills. Worse the horror follows typical horror patterns and if you know your horror you’ll know what happens….

That said the film generates two great scares and a third really good one that will literally have you tingling. Seriously after one cheap jump scare with a loud noise there are two others that freaked me out despite knowing that something was going to happen. A third had me muttering that was just wrong (in a good way).

The problem is that despite the great scares the film isn’t all that scary. As I said you can guess where this is going. And then of course the whole notion of Djinn are rather alien to Western audiences who don’t really know what they are. The closest things most know are the Genie in ALADDIN. It’s not the same thing, and it hurts the film because we don’t know what we are supposed to be afraid of.

Worse the film doesn’t end, it stops leaving the door wide open for a sequel.

This is an okay horror film, but what the hell is it doing as the opening film of New Directors is completely beyond me. I mean after getting it right the last two years with BABADOOK and GIRL WALKS HOME this is a huge let down.

For tickets and more information go here

Nakom (2016) New Directors New Films 2016

I could talk about how this film was co-directed by two women, how the film is the first filmed in Kusaal language or how it was shot on location over four months with a cast of non-actors. I could talk about a lot of things to make this review longer or to distract you from themain point, but I'm not going to do any of that. I'm simply going to say that this is one of the best films I've ever seen at a New Directors New Films festival.

The Nakom of the title is a village that Iddrisu returns to after his father's sudden death in a motorcycle accident. the plan is to bury his father and then return to school, but it doesn't go that way. The family is deeply in debt and unless he helps the family make it to harvest the family may have no future.

Yes, we've been here before. Yes, there probably isn't anything new here, but damn this film transcends the plot you've seen before to become something that is one of the treasures of the film year. And for all the talk of the basic plot being something we've seen before the ending, isn't and it packs a real punch.

Why does the film work as well as it does?

To start of with the music by Daby Balde. Simple themes drift through the film filling in emotion where needed. Its never over done and it beautifully compliments the emotion of the scenes. Actually the music often acts as bridges between scenes and it helps keep the magic flowing.

The second thing the film has is the cinematography. Not only do the images look beautiful and awe inspiring but they give the film a real sense of place. We are in Nakom and the fields around it. The house all feel real and lived in. This is more than filming in real places but it feels as though it's filming real lives.

And of course there is the cast. Yes things can be bumpy and imperfect, but at the same time there is a rawness that makes it more real. And at the center is Jacob Ayanaba as Iddrisu. He may very well be the find of the year. He has a naturalness and an ease on screen that only the truly great actors have. More importantly he makes you believe what he is doing. For me the moment that sold him, and made me want him to be discovered by Hollywood was the sequence where he is carrying his father's body for burial. Watch how the strong man slips and becomes the grieving son. Its all in the eyes,

As I said above this is one of the best films I've seen at a New Directors New Films over the last seven or eight years.

A must see.

For tickets and more information go here.

New Directors New Films starts this week some suggestions of what to see and one to avoid

New Directors New Film the annual tag team death match pitting the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center against all comers starts this week with the New York Premiere of UNDER THE SHADOW. It will then move on for the next 11 days highlighting some notable films from filmmakers in the early part of the careers.

NDNF is a prestigious festival that has highlighted some truly great films over the year. In the past Oscar contenders like THEEB and GOODNIGHT MOMMY as well as A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, BABADOOK,  THE ACT OF KILLING, UPSTREAM COLOR and STORIES WE TELL all started here. That said the festival is highly eclectic and more times than not you get whiplash trying to see how the films fit together as a festival. Its also a festival that is very hit or miss with some years being one gem after another while other years you’ll want to forget most of the films that have screened. (I know that will not win me friends with the programmers but it’s absolutely true)

This year is a good year. I’ve seen about fourteen of the features and several of the shorts and for the most part all of the films are good. While I like the films to differing degrees I found that there is only one I would say avoid at all costs. This is a year that you really will want to wade into and try some of the offerings because they are worth your time.

NAKOM is one of the best films I've ever seen at New Directors. I've been going for eight or nine years and it's one of the few ones that I've seen at the festival has ever really blown me away. My luck tends to be see the truly great stuff after the festival. Not this time, this time I've found the gem. See this film.

UNDER THE SHADOW is the opening film and it's an okay horror film. A review is coming but I'm mentioning it now because despite my reservations it has three scares that left me tingling in ways that few horror films ever have.

I highly recommend the documentary WEINER about Anthony Weiner's run for Mayor of New York. It was a run that ended when the media decided to destroy the man because he wouldn't name names in a scandal two years dead and because it could. It will not resurrect the man's career but it will make you realize just how bad the news outlets are

Also recommended is DEMON a poorly named film from Poland about a spirit who takes over a groom at a wedding. More thriller than horror film, its a film filled with humor, romance and real character. It has one of the truly great performances of by an actor you'll ever see and is a wonderful piece of filmmaking.

I would like to suggest that if you have any interest in the five hour and seventeen minute HAPPY HOUR you make an effort to see it at the festival (and at Lincoln Center which has more comfortable seats). Yes I know the film is a butt buster but at the same time this is a film that plays best when you can get lost in it. It’s a film that’s all conversation and your reaction will be more positive if you can focus on it and it’s nuances and not get distracted

And at the risk of annoying the powers that run New Directors I now give you a word of warning about ELDORADO XXI. This gorgeous looking documentary about life in the highest settlement in the world is told through a series of long static takes. Normally I wouldn’t say anything until the review runs except that 50 of the films first 60 minutes is a single unmoving long take of men walking in and out of a mine with some occasional voice over. I know some of you will find it hypnotic, but I guess most are going to have a hard time with its nailed to the floor, static nature. I had a hard time remaining awake and it poisoned the rest of the film, which is very good, for me. I can argue why it was done, but I at the same time I would argue that it's a gamble that comes up empty since it’s going to turn off a large chunk of the audience. If you found Warhols’s Empire State Building or Sleep films rapturous go for it. Everyone else may want to stay away. (This should have been in the Art of the Real or the New York Film Festival's experimental section where it would have kicked ass with it's proper audience)

Lastly I did see PLEASE KILL ME and I am not going to review the film. I am going to say that I agree with a friend who said his thought during most of the film was to chant the name of the film in the hope that the gods would take pity and end the pain. I also agree that the films final shot is fantastic, but it belongs in a film that it at least watchable. Where NAKOM is one of the best films I've ever seen at New Directors, PLEASE KILL ME is one of the worst.

Do yourself a favor and go see a film (Just not PLEASE KILL ME) because snide remarks aside this is one of the best years at New Directors in a long while.

For tickets and more information go here.

Nightcap: Spring Festival Season is about to take over the world-literally plus Randi's links

The Spring Film Festival season is getting ready to bloom. No matter where you are there are fests to delight you and tickets are going on sale…

The Dallas Film Festival runs April 14 to 24th and it has a super line up including Johnnie To's OFFICE and WEINER on the disgraced politician Online ticket sales will be available for Dallas Film Society members beginning Monday, March 21 at DallasFilm.org, and will open to the public on Thursday, March 24. The physical Prekindle Box Office at Mockingbird Station will open on Thursday, March 31
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Tasmania’s Stranger With My Face International Film Festival will return for its fourth edition from April 14-17, 2016.  All the information on this genre festival can be found here.
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New Directors New Films starts March 16th. This annual retrospective films from New Directors is the place to see what maybe the next big thing. I'll have a ton of coverage starting next weekend (I've seen about 15 films already). I just want to say tickets are on sale so go buy some tickets. Information can be found here.
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Tribeca has announced its first round of films and it looks great with new stuff from Sion Sono and Ben Wheatley among others. More is due to be announced Tuesday. There is no schedule announced but keep watching their site (and this one for more details). Individual tickets aren’t on sale yet but there are ticket packages.
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Kino is one of the best festivals in New York. It is also probably one of the most over looked. The over looked part is something even we at Unseen are guilty of despite covering it over the last three years.

Kino is quite simply the best place to see great films from Germany. Actually just great films period. I say that because I cannot I all honesty remember a single film that wasn’t good. That’s an amazing thing. The festival has bounced around the calendar the last couple of years but it seems to have landed right in April for good.

As of right now I’m not sure how much coverage we’re going to provide, it overlaps with the run up for Tribeca, but in all honesty you don’t need me to tell you what to see with Kino, it’s all good (No really sight unseen I’m telling you it is) so go see a film or six.

Tickets and more details are here.
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Lincoln Center is running every film that Sam Peckinpah ever directed.The series is called Bring me the Head of Sam Peckinpah Its all here from first to last. If you’re fan of the man who is best known for reinventing on screen violence with THE WILD BUNCH or if you don’ know the man’s work its time to go and see his films on the big screen. Actually this is the perfect time to cleanse your palate of the idea of Sam and violence. He had more going on than blood. Actually if you’ve never seen his smaller films (ie not WILD BUNCH or STRAW DOGS) see any or all of the others because the effect of seeing them will alter what you think of him.

The series runs the end of the month and early April and tickets can be had here.
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The annual look at documentary films that are something more than just documentaries, THE ART OF THE REAL is coming in April to Lincoln Center. They announced all the titles on Friday and all of the information is here. I have a long stack of films in the pile to watch so expect lots of coverage.
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For those in Australia MONSTER FEST is coming in November. Yes I know thats a long way off but we are looking to cover it. Right now submissions are being accepted. For details go here

Can't make the fests? Keep reading because with luck we'll make you feel like you are there even if you're not.
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And this week Rendez-Vous With French Cinema continues at Lincoln Center and we'll finally start dropping reviews
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I’ve been asked by a friend to mention that the  Cynthia Nixon headed JAMES WHITE is hitting DVD and home video on March 22

I have not seen the film but I’ve heard that Nixon’s performance makes the film a must see. Look for a review closer to time.
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As this posts I may have seen my last film for the New York International Children’s Film Festival. I have a ticket for LITTLE DOOR GODS for next weekend but conflicts are rising up so that may not happen. I hope to pick up more films the last weekend (the 19th and 20th) if my schedule remains clear, so there maybe more coming…

…But if not I have to say this has been the best year so far. They really kicked ass. –If you’re free the next two weeks go see something.
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And now Randi’s links

The most influential surf film ever
WHy doesn't Hollywood like Mexican films?
The Meaning of THE SCREAM
The quest to solve You Tubes strangest mysteries
Shackleton's reading list
Predator vs Marines 360
Deadpool marketing
on SPOTLIGHT
Pete Docter on INSIDE OUT
Lil Bub interviewed
21 JUMPSTREET meets MEN IN BLACK