October 16, 2019
FISH TANK
DescriptionDescription Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK deepens her exploration of the British working class on view in her Oscar-winning 2003 short film, WASP, and in her 2006 Cannes Jury Prize-winning feature debut, RED ROAD. Even more, Arnold's new film (marking her second win of Cannes' Jury Prize), evokes the social realist tradition and influence of the...
October 16, 2019
FIRST OF ALL, FELICIA (FELICIA INAINTE DE TOATE)
DescriptionDescription In a collaboration unique in Romania's burgeoning cinema, Rozvon Radulescu (from Romania) and Melissa de Roof (from the Nether lands) hove co-written and directed a simple yet rich story confined to a single day It downs for Felicia (Ozono Oancea) with expectations that her sister will drive her to the Bucharest airport for her...
October 16, 2019
EVERYBODY’S FINE
DescriptionDescription Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 classic STANNO TUTTI BENE told the story of a widower who, lonely during the holidays, embarked upon a tour of Italy to visit his children (who, appropriately in this bittersweet melodrama, were all named far Italian opera characters) Kirk Jones (WAKING NED) transplants the film to contemporary America, where extended families,...
October 16, 2019
EVERYONE ELSE (ALLE ANDEREN)
DescriptionDescription The couple experiencing a mutuaI crack -up has long been a staple of film - Antonioni, Bergman and Chabrol, to name only a few, have mode it a central topic of their art -- but it's always an exciting event to see such a well-explored theme reinvigorated with the kind of freshness that the...
October 16, 2019
DICK CHENEY IN A COLD, DARK CELL
DescriptionDescription Experimental collage artist Jim Finn returns to AFI FEST with his new, wishful rumination on our former vice president.
October 16, 2019
EASIER WITH PRACTICE
DescriptionDescription Based on David Rothbart's autobiographical article for GQ magazine, Kyle Patrick Alvarez's debut feature follows young author Davy (an excellent Brian Geraghty) as he embarks, skeptical brother in tow, on a book tour for his self-published collection of short stories. In a motel one night, he receives a call from a complete stranger. What...
October 16, 2019
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH (NANJING! NANJING!)
DescriptionDescription Lu Chuan's essential epic, exquisitely photographed in black and white by Cau Yu, re-creates the atrocities committed by the Japanese army during its occupation of Nanking in December 1937 Lu begins with a ferocious bottle sequence, with the lost Chinese soldiers desperately attempting to hold back the invaders, then refocuses the story on a...
October 16, 2019
LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET (LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L’OPÉRA DE PARIS)
DescriptionDescription Frederick Wiseman has devoted the past four decades to studying institutions, making classics such as HIGH SCHOOL 11968), LAW AND ORDER 11969) and PUBLIC HOUSING 11997) He resists simple interpretations of his work. "If I could summarize it in 25 words," he says, "I shouldn't make the movie." His typical working method is to...
October 16, 2019
CASTRO
DescriptionDescription From the unforgettable opening moments, featuring a goggle of characters dashing about the streets of Buenos Aires as if their lives depended on it, Alejo Moguillonsky's sneaky, frantic film pounces on the viewer with a giddy energy This cockeyed semi-comedy's unlikely basis is Samuel Beckett's 1938 novel Murphy, but it preserves only the book's...
October 16, 2019
THE CITIZENS
DescriptionDescription Kevin Jerome Everson's unprecedented body of work about the African-American experience in America is beautifully encapsulated in this trio of films THE CITIZENS features a young Muhammad Ali - more a father than a boxer LEAD offers a beautiful expression of work, and THE SIMPLE ANTENNAE does the some for play.
