Tag: pff35

PFF35 Day Two: Highest 2 Lowest

Credit: NEON

Some of the year’s best and one of the worst.

I had penciled down today as a tentative 5 Film Day, depending on whether I could get to the final screening in time after this one let out. One thing I always forget when scheduling is accounting for bumpers and introductions, not to mention delaying things so people can get seated. That’s always meant a certain degree of fluidity and with the rain today and incoming I wouldn’t be surprised if I call it early again. Luckily it stopped after the last one today because hoo boy.

The Assassin(s) (Hur Jin-ho): B+

JFK if the thesis were not only plausible but maybe what actually happened (along with being way less homophobic). I’ll admit there’s a lot of moving parts going along, and it would’ve helped if I had a better grasp on Korean history, especially in the dictatorship period. Taken as a mixture of Journalism Procedural and Police Procedural, it works like gangbusters. Occasionally blunt and speechifying but it works like gangbusters as entertainment, and you know I love seeing Big Chunky Technology.

Rehersals For A Revolution (Pegah Ahangarani): A-

Kind of film that can really sneak up on you in ways that I don’t think I really want to spoil. Suffice to say I was unprepared for it to get pulled into the present and it’s bracing the way it functions as both a memoir, history of revolutions, and an ongoing portrait of resistence. Ahangarani uses the wear and tear of the archival material to fantastic effect, and the jump in quality serves as the perfect marker for time passing, while her narration is poetic without trying too hard. Perhaps the most surprising companion piece to Digger, in terms of a filmmaker asking themselves why they’re making a film, and the audience why they’re watching it, what is this all for. Answers that question in a really lovely way.

Paper Tiger (James Gray): A-

I suspect Adam Driver is going to get most of the attention and justifiably so (Miles Teller ain’t too bad either). But no one should be sleeping on Scarlett Johansen, who pulls off a piece of physical acting that’s quite astonishing to witness. At times it feels a little like Gray is straining to bridge her story with the main one involving an engineer getting too involved in the particulars of his shady business partners, but in the end it coalesces into a story about family, sacrifice, of knowing when your time is near and what you’re gonna do about it. New York itself features once again, period detail standing out just subtly enough and lending an atmosphere of coming change. Devastating, but maybe one I’ll need to dig in more since I’ve only seen Ad Astra.

Club Kid (Jordan Firstman): D

Went into this one practically cutting open my sternum and pulling out my ribs in order to keep my heart open; the premise had always sounded a bit corny and like many of the extremely online, I found Firstman fairly annoying from time to time. So please trust me when I say that I tried so hard to meet it on its terms and might’ve actually fled the theater had it not 1) been completely sold out and 2) lack the Mike D’Angelo Walk Out ability. I concur with Adam Nayman on finding it reactionary: specifically, I find it reactionary in a way that feels like Firstman throwing his community and possibly his extended friend circle under the bus in a cheap bid for respectability points and Serious Artist credentials. Yes, I might’ve taken issue with some of the plot even if I’d liked it more. It’s not the most sturdy, nor are the characters particularly well drawn or defined. But there’s something rancid in the idea of having a guy who – as far as we know – is a complete Gold Star Gay somehow having sex with a woman that results in a child (if it wasn’t rape). There’s also numerous cheap shots taken throughout, whether it be jokes for the gays or the way the camera frames the club as inherently scary or dangerous due to all the drugs and the sex and whatnot. Somewhere in there I could see a movie in there I’d maybe even love, but I find it rich that someone who talked as much public shit about Heated Rivalry went on to make a movie about 10x more geared towards a straight audience down to barely even showing any explicit sex or nudity except in the most leering terms. Reggie Absolom innocent, Diego Calva innocent, Colleen Camp innocent.

PFF35 Day One: A Slow Start

Easing into things on opening night.

Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Usually I’ve tried to see two films on opening (at least since Black Dog and September 5) but unfortunately this year, the schedule didn’t quite work out for Never After Dark, which I’ve been quite curious about and should be coming to Shudder eventually. I would’ve seen You Can See Everything if they had a showing today before 4; expect that to come at least some time next week if I find an opening, because otherwise I’m gonna get spoiled. For this one, you’ll get something I saw weeks earlier but is technically still an opening night:

The Only Living Pickpocket In New York (dir. Noah Segan): B

A film I’d heard about from some festival or another but hadn’t much looked into beyond buzz for John Tuturro (who is quite good). The beginning scenes – with their “day in the life” qualities – were quite compelling, so I was a little disappointed when it stopped being so episodic and instead became much more plot based revolving around a typical MacGuffin stolen from the Mafia. Props should be given to Segan – in his second directorial effort after Blood Ties, which I also saw – for not turning this into Uncut Gems, but it never feels substantial enough in either story or theme to really generate ardor (it’s well shot with a nice score, and at least a couple neat editing choices, one near the end). Tuturro is fantastic as you’d expect, and one late breaking scene with him and Tatiana Maslany basically justified the whole affair. Nice enough time, but not really anything revelatory.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: A-

Saw this way before the fest but since it’s included in the official lineup – albeit as a pre-screening – I’m throwing it in here along with my director interview for Joysauce. One of the year’s best: stylish, with action scenes that really make you feel the impacts and Mahershala Ali absolutely owning the screen in ways Kevin Feige should be ashamed of. But it’s also one of the few American films that really takes Islam seriously in terms of the belief, and I loved the contrast between Latif’s strict adherenece and Pastor Hwan’s (a wonderful John Cho) anti-porn crusades. Not to mention the fact that the story is basically just a guy trying to find milk for his infant daughter and forced to deal with a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t concern him, that’s always fun. I have a feeling Amazon’s bungled this release yet again, so I highly recommend getting to it in theaters now, and again when it inevitably comes to Prime streaming. I would totally watch it again without five watermarks on my laptop.