Omen (2023) New Directors New Films 2024

Young man returns to Africa with his pregnant wife in order to reconnect with his family and his heritage. 

Wonderful cinematic journey is one of the great finds of last year’s Cannes.  I was absolutely delighted by this film which not only showed me a part of life I never knew, but did so in such away that made me want to lean in and know more. What an absolutely amazing visual experiences I’ve seen this year. Mixing the real world with a spiritual one this is a film that walks in the shadows between worlds for an experience that deepens the story of man returning to his old world.

It has been a several days since I saw the film and I am still replaying sections of it in my mind. I desperately want to see the film again, preferably on a big screen, where I can really let the film take me on its trip instead of being distance from the shock and awe of it’s wonders.

You need to see this film, especially if you love films that are unique cinematic visions.

Highly recommended.

Coconut Head Generation (2023) NDNF 2023

This is more a marker than a straight review. 

I managed to see COCONUT HEAD GENERATION today. It's a look at the 20 somethings in Nigeria attending the university there who are much more connected to the world and what is happening than their parents and society gives them credit for. The film is an excellent observational look at the students and their lives. 

It is very recommended if you get a chance to see it.

Tommy Guns (2022) plays NDNF 2023 today and opens April 12

A group of soldiers during the Portuguese occupation of Angola find that things are turning against them and that their efforts to retreat of a place of safety have put them into danger.

Allegorical exploration of occupation starts off as a straightforward tale of how occupiers and colonizers interact with the indigenous population and then takes a turn toward the nightmare as the film becomes more like a horror film with surreal touches.

I like a lot of TOMMY GUNS. There is a great deal to be said about the craft of the film and some of it’s nightmarish sequences get under you skin more than many straight horror films. The problem for me is that the film is trying very hard to make a point  and trying even harder to shock. The moment half an hour in when a soldier prays and then just shoots the woman he was, with while unexpected, felt like it was there just to get a rise out of the audience. The idea of taking the goods of a country and the leaving it dead was a bit too heavy handed for my tastes.

Still TOMMY GUNS packs a punch and is worth a look.

ARNOLD IS A MODEL STUDENT (2022) NDNF 2023

A young man returning from the US finds that is integration back into the Thai school system difficult. The schools, run with an iron fist, make it ripe for cheating because it’s an easier way to avoid the grief inflicted upon them

Dark comedy is a bracing commentary not only on the Thai school system but also the rise of authority in the world. It’s a troubling look at the way things are done in order to get the best results.

While very well made, the film is a bit too mannered in the telling for my taste and I never fully connected emotionally.

That said  this is worth a look if it interests you,

Autobiography (2022) NDNF2023

Youngman gets a job as the driver of a retired general and ends up going down a dark path as the general’s run for mayor sends him into unexpected directions.

Slow moving meditation on Indonesian society and how it has been corrupted. It’s a dark political drama that makes you think about how the evil of some men corrupts everyone around them.

A slow meditative film AUTOBIOGRAPHY is strong an mood. It’s a film that gets under your skin and makes you feel uncomfortable. There but for the grace of god this could have been any of us.

Worth a look

Safe Place (2023) NDNF 2023

SAFE PLACE is 24 hours in the life of a fragmenting family in the wake of one members attempted suicide.

Based on the director’s own life the film is a trip into the lives of a bunch of very real people. We are watching the moment following a terrible event and watching what happens as it all plays out.  Since it is a film of the moment, there is no effort to go back and explain any of the back story. We are simply watching the characters as they live their lives. Back stories are not needed since they are living their lives.

A beautifully acted and made film I suspect that the film is going to want more details then we get. People want details on either side of the events in a film and SAFE PLACE doesn’t give them. That’s both a strength in that it makes it all real, and a weakness since there were a couple of times I wish I knew a bit more to have things connect to me emotionally.

Quibble aside this is worth a look for anyone wanting a heady lived in Drama

Have you Seen This Woman (2023) NDNF2023

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN begins with a news broadcast that talks about a missing woman, the film then shifts to tell the stories of a one woman in three different situations.

While I’m not sure if this all hangs together HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN still packs a big punch in the gut thanks to  Ksenija Marinkovićgiving one of the great performances of the year. Bleeding out every emotion under the sun Ksenija Marinković doesn’t give a performance so much as full inhabits the life of the woman we see on screen. Everything is there, every thought and every emotion is expressed in every look and gesture. This is as full bodied a performance as they come-one need only watch the rave sequence if you want to understand just how f-ing magnificent a performance can be. What an absolute sin that Oscar and the other awards will probably not take notice of it.

For me Ksenija Marinković is the reason you NEED to see this film.  It’s so good I simply have nothing else I can say about the film, even if it speaks volumes about how women, especially older women are seen, or not, by society.

One of the great finds of this years NDNF.

Mutt (2023) NDNF 2023

Fena, a trans man living in New York City has a trying 24 hour period. His ex-boyfriend from before his transition reappears, his half sister wants to spend time with him and his father is coming in from out of town.

I really like MUTT a great deal. Its a solid drama with good cast. Lio Mehiel is great as Fena. They are on screen for the entire film and they carry the film on their back. While the rest of the cast is just as good, Mehiel is the one doing the heavy lifting and is the reason that we remain fixed at what is transpiring on the screen.

If there is any weakness in the film it is the single day construction. While setting the film in a single 24 hour period drives the film, X,Y and Z have to happen so Fena can pick up his dad, it creates a sense of artificiality. We know everything will be resolved by the fade out because the structure that the script is using requires things to end in closure. 

Reservation about the structure aside the film still moved me. Yes it's artificial at times, but Mehiel is so damn good that they carry the film and your emotions to a misty conclusion.

Recommended.

THE MAIDEN (2022) New Directors New Films 2023

Destined to be divisive, THE MAIDEN is film you are either going to love or hate. The story of a young man dealing with the unexpected death of his friend, this is the very epitome of inde art film.

Shot on 16mm with long takes and long silences this is a film you either connect with or squirm in your seat. It’s a film where everything is so low key as to be under our feet. Things don’t always instantly register with the death that flicks in motion the last hundred minutes being a “wait what?” moment. The boys walk up a hill in the twilight, there is a scream as a train passes,(and passes, and passes) as the survivor just stands there. Several moments and shots  later we see him crying, and only then do we realize what happened (I mean he doesn't react to the death). It doesn’t have a strong narrative thread. Much of this is simply people wandering around as if we get moments in a life, but while there is an order to them they reality don’t connect, or they didn’t for me.

I suspect that the film wants to say something about banality of life but I’m not sure if that’s here.  There is only banality and not life.

I suspect that fans of art films, especially low budget ones that are from the slow cinema genre will eat this up, but I think everyone else will find this hundred and twenty minutes long feature hundred minutes too long.

Chile 76 (2022) NDNF 2023

 

In the early days of the Pinochet regime a well to do older woman is asked by the local priest to help him with a criminal he is hiding. He tells her that he is nobody important, however she soon learns that he is a wanted member of the opposition.

This is a very good film that ponders how people who aren't paying attention to what is happening in their country can be shocked awake when reality comes to call.  Director  Manuela Martelli's first feature is a film that dazzles the soul. It is a film that is not only a killer political drama but also a beautifully made film.

I suspect all the other reviews will talk about the politics and the drama so I'm going to talk about the filmmaking. Martelli's shifts the look of the film as we go from real to a more fractured and surreal look as the film goes on. The camera becomes unsteady as our heroine's world fragments. Late in the film when some bad things happen she has a conversation  framed in mirrors so that in the center we have the people talking and in side mirrors there are singular versions of each person as if they are outside themselves.

Colors reinforce everything that is going on. Drops of paint appear like blood droplets on a shoe. The mixing of red icing makes the skin crawl as it becomes a sea of blood. All through the film color quietly and not so quietly underlines the emotion.

This film is a that gets under your skin and makes you feel uneasy. It is a dire warning to what may happen in country if fascists are allowed to seize control.

Ashkal (2022) NDNF 2023

 

ASHKAL is one of the moodiest suspenseful films I’ve seen in a while. Set in and around a part of Tunis that was set to be a thriving new part of the city, construction stopped when the revolution came. As things begin to shift toward work starting again the body of someone burned alive is found in the abandoned area.  Police seem to think it’s suicide until more bodies are found.

I find it hard to discuss ASHKAL because as good as the vast majority of this film is, and it is stunning filmmaking, how I react, and how you react should you see it, hinges on the final minutes of the film. You are either going to accept the ending or shake your head and walk away. Personally, I’m not a fan. Yes the filmmaking results in a spectacular sequence but I’m not sure if it works in context.

And sadly, because I don’t dare give anything away, I can’t say anything more.

While I have reservations, I still recommend ASHKAL, especially to the long-time readers of Unseen who want to see films that do something different, wondrous and magical even if they don’t stick the landing.

ALMOST ENTIRELY A SLIGHT DISASTER (2022) NDNF 2023

A group of people wander around Istanbul in search of love and friendship.

Deadpan comedy/drama is a frequently amusing look at life in Turkey. Made with a very mannered style the film is not going to connect to those who can’t click with it’s view of the world, but those who like their humor dry this film is going to be like mana from heaven

Worth a look.

Face Of The Jellyfish (2023) NDNF 2023

A short time after waking up with a swollen face a young woman wakes up to find her appearance has changed and doctors are at a loss to explain what happened or why.

Low key surreal film about identity and who we are- the person inside or the person outside. It’s an interesting trip that gets your mind going.

While I like the film a great deal some of the film feels a bit stretched as if the film was struggling to add a few more minutes to make this a saleable feature film (it only runs 75 minutes). I kept thinking this would be truly great a couple of minutes shorted.

Quibble aside this is a wonderfully off beat film and is definitely worth a look.

Gush (2022) New Directors New Films 2023

Video artist Fox Maxy cuts together clips from the last ten years to make a 71 minute experimental headache.

Playing like a random bunch of video clips with a couple of really loose through lines I don't know what I'm supposed to make of this. I don't mean that to suggest that the film is beyond me but rather this reminds me of the video programs and DVDs that were circulating in the late 1990's and early 2000's and I have a DVD case full of.  They were great when the editor/director managed to build up something from the sound and images, but they were painful when they didn't. 

GUSH never pulls it together. It's too scattershot with a frequently annoying soundtrack that makes connection impossible. Normally I regret not seeing films on the big screen but the ability to control the volume made it possible for me to get to the end of the film.

This is  an art instalation you'd watch for five minutes in a gallery or museum before moving on, except here you can't leave.

Unless you are heavily into experimental films give this one a pass

Disco Boy (2023) NDNF 2023

DISCO BOY is not so much a narrative as a calling card for director Franz Rogowski. The film is a the story of two soldiers, one who travels across Europe to join the French Foreign Legion and the other  a Nigerian villager fighting an insurgency. They then have their paths cross at a disco. I’m not sure what the point of it all is. Yes it looks good, but beyond the craft of the film the film left me pondering : Why are you telling me this story? I’m not certain.

Not bad  but it doesn’t add up to much.

MAPUTO NAKUZANDZA (2023) NDNF 2023

 

From dusk to dawn in Maputo the capital city of Mozambique

One part narrative and one part documentary MAPUTO NAKUZANDZA is the course of a day compressed into an hour. It’s a film largely without dialog with the only sounds being that of the actual settings and the non-stop stream of a local radio station. The narrative threads are loose as we watch several people go through their day.

This is a very nice little film. .While it doesn’t break any new ground it is a wonderful window into a place most of us have never been and probably never go. I was intrigued. Actually when the film was done I wanted to go back in and see the arc of everyone’s lives again knowing the where and hows of all that transpired.

If you like quiet meditations on life this film is for you

Astrakan (2022) NDNF 2023

This is the story of Samuel who is taken in by a foster family. They have taken him in because doing so gives them extra money. Samuel is a broken child. His mother is gone to an uncertain fate and his father was killed by the police. He is prone to violent outbursts. There are some bright spots, such as the girl next door who seems attracted to him. But things are not always smooth and there is no certainty for the stoic young man.

An allegorical and at times cold tale ASTRAKAN is a tough film to love. It's a film that dwells in the same cruel world of Todd Solondz's films. While I like the characters and the craft, the narrative is at times much too obtuse for its own good. For example, there is little sense of any time frame. The film is also very coy about what happens at times. Things are not said for a chunk of the film and then in a ten-minute sequence set to classical music at the end of the film fills in some details. It’s a sequence that in some ways I liked and in others I didn’t because we didn’t need to know some of what we are shown.(we didn’t need to have the abuse more concretely spelled out).

While exceedingly well made and beautifully acted I never fully warmed to the film. To me the film was trying too hard to be about something with the result it never felt alive.

Worth a look for the craft but expect to be chilled.

PETROL (2022)New Directors New Films 2023

Eva is a film student working on her latest film meets a performance artist and becomes intrigued. They eventually move in together but what exactly is going on?

If you want answers to what is going on stay away from PETROL. Not only doesn’t it give any answers, it also defies genre. At times it looks like a drama. At other times it’s a horror film. It uses the tropes of a lot of different genres but doesn’t fit into any of them.  This is a head trip of a film that will haunt you for days afterward as the kinks in the tale of two women force you to reconsider what you thought you saw over and over again in the days after you see it.

All of the reviews I read after seeing the film in the hope of finding clarity mentioned the back of the head mirror shot, but the truth is that’s the showiest moment in the film. The truth of the matter is the whole things is just off in the best sort of a way. The film looks like a Euro thriller from the 1970’s but clearly isn’t. You have shots that in a different film would signify horror or something else, but here within the narrative they have no easily assignable meaning. PETROL is like looking at a world like our own but two steps to the left. There isn’t anything specifically wrong but we know we aren’t home.

I can't explain it, and I'm not going to try. You just have to buy a ticket and take a ride.

What a joy it is to watch a film that treats its audience like an adult and refuse to dumb down its tale. This is the best sort of cinematic storytelling because it stays with you and opens up new ways of seeing the world.

Three weeks since I saw the film I still don’t have answers, only a burning desire to see the film yet again in order to make another go at sorting out the deeper meaning of it all.

Easily one of the best and most enjoyable films at this year’s New Directors New Films and 2023 as well.

The New Directors New Films 2023 Curtain Raiser

New Directors New Films (NDNF) the annual merging of The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center starts this week and any film lover worth their salt must make an effort to go.  Highlighting the work of new and up and coming filmmakers the festival is the place to get in on people who in a year or two are going to be huge in world cinema.

I have been going to the festival for longer than I have been doing Unseen Films and it’s always been an eye opener. What I love about the festival is it shows a large number of films that you may not get to have a chance to see for a while if you don’t go now. I wade in and try and see as many as I can simply because I don’t know when I’ll get to see them again. This is not a knock it’s more that with the craziness of film distribution it may take several months or more before the films circle back. Also sometimes people don’t notice the gem that is sitting right in front of them until a filmmakers next film hits and suddenly everyone is scrambling to circle back. I don’t want to circle back, I want to be in on the ground floor which is why I aim to see everything, it never happens but I try.

I should point out that the festival  tends to  run more towards the more serious, arty films then mainstream hits, but then again it has been known to throw in a curve ball or two over the years, RAID 2, the classic martial arts film made it’s NYC debut here.  While there are no films as crazy as that this year, there are plenty of good ones. I mention this because you shouldn’t be going into the festival to see the next Hollywood hit, but instead really good, really diverse films that are not typical.

As this posts I’ve seen almost 20 of the features.  I hope to have a few more under my belt before I’m done. This being NDNF I liked some more than others, but as I say every year I’m thrilled by getting to chance to see such unHollywood films in concentration. My advice is that if something looks interesting based on the write up go see it. Odds are you will like what looks great to you.

For me the best of the films I’ve seen so far are the following:

MUTT- the Closing Night film is 24 hours in the life of a trans man leading up to his father flying into town. Outside of it being too neat in sorting many things out it still is a great film.
CHILE 76-political thriller about a hidden dissident is a dire warning about not keeping your eyes open.
PETROL- magnificent cinematic film that refuses to give answers about a woman and her roommate
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN - Ksenija Marinkovic gives a performance for the ages as woman who experiences 3 different realities. Oscar needs to give this performance a nomination.

 Seriously go check the schedule and buy some tickets you won’t be disappointed. For the schedule, list of films and such go here.