NYFF Make My Dreams Come True

Just a couple of weeks ago I shared the poster and a teaser trailer for Park Chan-wook's new movie No Other Choice starring his ol' pal Byung-hun Lee and I said therein, and I quote, "This movie's premiering at Venice  and I am keeping all of my assorted limbs knotted up in hope that it'll head to NYFF from there." Well unknot me cuz it came true! NYFF just announced their Main Slate this morning for their 2025 edition and Master Park's movie is up in its business -- as are several other movies I am champing at me bit to gnaw right into. So why not a list? Not counting the Opening Night film (which is Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt and so obviously my jam) here are the 10 movies out of the Main Slate that I'm the most anticipating...

My 10 Most Anitipcated NYFF63 Main Slate Movies

No Other Choice -- dir. Park Chan-wook

There's really nothing I can shriek in enthusiasm about this movie that I haven't been shrieking since it was announced. Park Chan-wook is a god, period, the end.

Jay Kelly -- dir. Noah Baumbach

Normally I try to steer clear of George Clooney vehicles but I tend to love Baumbach movies whatever he throws at me and most importantly he got his gal pal Greta Gerwig acting again. Gerwig seals the deal every time. Plus Patrick WIlson, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crudup and Isla Fisher! Also Emily Mortimer co-wrote this! 

The Mastermind -- dir. Kelly Reichardt

Not only is it the never-steers-me-wrong Reichardt behind the camera and not only does the movie star Josh O'Connor but the movie stars Josh o'Connor looking like the raffish lit professor everybody, including the other teachers and parents, are all trying to fuck.

The Secret Agent -- dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho 

Wagner Moura is one of the greatest (and come on, look at the picture, sexiest) on the world stage right now, and his teaming up withthe genius behind Bacurau is white hot shit. Plus Moura won Best Actor at Cannes and Mendonça Filho won Best Director so hopes are obviously big.

Sentimental Value -- dir. Joachim Trier

And speaking of Cannes this follow-up from the director and star of the masterpiece The Worst Person in the World won the Grand Prix at that fest. I will follow these two anywhere, together or seperately, but together tastes best!

Peter Hujar's Day -- dir. Ira Sachs

It's Ben fucking Whishaw playing Peter fucking Hujar -- you think I'm not all over this? Anyway I was extremely annoyed I couldn't see it at Sundance so I'm happy to have been given this second shot, even if I wasted months -- months!!! -- of my life without it. I won't hold it against you, Ben!

Miroirs No. 3 -- Christian Petzold

Since 2012 Christian Petzold has made five straight up masterpieces in a row with Barbara, Phoenix, Transit, Undine, and Afire -- I'm hoping he hasn't broken that streak by daring to make a movie with a title that has more than a single word in it, but I think we might be in safe hands. I mean he's reunited with actress Paula Beer yet again. We're gonna be fine.

The Fence -- dir. Claire Denis

I tend to swing wildly on my opinion of Denis movies, but the main thrust seems to be I like her more recent work while her earlier, typically more lauded works have left me cold. I'm such a maverick! Anyway Denis regular Isaach De Bankolé is her leading man this time, which is always a good sign, but this also co-stars Matt Dillon and Tom Blyth? Mkay.

Rose of Nevada -- dir. Mark Jenkin

Yeah yeah okay it stars Callum Turner and George MacKay

as fisherman, obviously it was gonna make my list. 

That's literally all I know or need to know. Fish me good, fellas!

Landmarks -- dir. Lucrecia Martel

Since The Headless Woman in 2008 

I've been a Lucretia ride-or-die-for-lifer.

Not even reading what this is about. Sign me up.

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Runners-up:  It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi), A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Resurrection (dir. Bi Gan), Romería (dir. Carla Simón), Kontinental ’25 (dir. Radu Jude), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein), Duse (dir. Pietro Marcello)

Just a footnote on the concept of "Runners-up" here -- I literally could have listed every single other movie that didn't make my top ten. The only reason there are runners-up at all is I limited myself to a list of ten. As happens with every NYFF there are titles that come out of nowhere to slam me onto the floor in the best of way, and sometimes the ones I'm most excited about don't totally land. Usually though I always leave NYFF happy, because as I've said before they might not get all of the big exciting world premieres but year after year they do an incredible job curating the movies from around the globe that are the most worth seeing. I love my hometown fest! Click here to buy passes -- general tickets go on sale on September 18th (and earlier for FLC members). The fest runs from September 26 through October 13, 2025. 

Pics of the Day

While we (impatiently) wait for Plainclothes, the 90s-set gay drama starring Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey to hit theaters -- although my waiting is probably less impatient than your waiting since I have already seen the movie thanks to Sundance, and reviewed it right here -- that movie's leading man Tom Blyth, who is excellent in it, has news of his next project to share. Specifically some photos he took in Senegal where he just finished shooting Claire Denis' next one titled The Cry of the Guards. It also stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Matt Dillon, and Isaach De Bankolé, and here's how Variety describes it: "The story unfolds over the course of one night near a construction site in Senegal, where a group of workers are confronted by a man seeking justice for his brother’s death at the site." Sounds like a Claire Denis movie! Anyway post-Plainclothes I'll be following Blyth pretty much anywhere but a Claire Denis movie isn't a hard sell at all. Hit the jump for a few more of his photos...

Punch-Drunk Druggies Cross Delancey

Criterion Announcement Day sneaked up on us again -- and it was technically three days ago! They're late even and I didn't notice. Gosh it's almost like there are distracting things happening in the world? Well let's not focus on those, and instead focus on the movies that Criterion is releasing onto 4K blu-ray this upcoming February of the year 2025... yeah we're especially going to need some distractions right then I wager. Argh. Anyway! Criterion! First up is Gus Van Sant's 1989 druggie drama Drugstore Cowboy starring a very pretty Matt Dillon alongside Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and James Le Gros. Oh and William S. Burroughs! He's in this too. I haven't seen this movie in a very very long time (like at least twenty years) so it's definitely due a revisit -- I have a feeling I'll have grown to appreciate it more because I was never that much of a fan but it feels like a movie I'll get more now than I did when I was younger. 

Next up we have a pair of movies I've never seen -- Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear from 1987 starring Peter Sellers and Molly Ringwald (wtf) and Joan Macklin Silver's 1988 romance Crossing Delancey with  Amy Irving torn between two fellas in late-80s Manhattan. The Godard sounds bonkers; the JMS sounds sweet and perfect for a Saturday afternoon, and I am excited to watch them both. 

Then we've got three more movies (big month, February) which I have seen before -- there's Nicolas Roeg's brilliant 1970 film Performance with  James Fox and Mick Jagger, there's Guillermo Del Toro's first film Cronos getting a 4K upgrade, and there's Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love also doing the same. Love all three of those -- PDL was my favorite PTA movie for a long time but I can safely say that Phantom Thread has replaced it now. But I also haven't re-watched it in several years since every time I do think about it I think about how it shreds my nerves and I move on to another movie since whose nerves have needed extra shredding lately? Certainly not mine! 

Synecdoche By Wes

See? I told you I would pop back in here over the holiday! I didn't lie, for once. Feel free to throw confetti in my face the next time you see me. Anyway I am here, over a holiday, to direct you toward a piece I'm proud of -- for Mashable I wrote about Wes Anderson's telescopically structured Asteroid City, and how that structure helps triple underline its big beating beautiful heart, click here to read it. I really dig this movie in case that's not clear by now -- this is the second piece I wrote about it, including my Pajiba review which you can read here. I hope you've all gone to see it for yourselves by now -- the big screen really is the best way to experience Wes' methodical aesthetic minutiae -- but if you're waiting for home for whatever reason the blu-ray is on sale already, right here. But it's not out until New Years Eve so, you know, prepare to wait.

Asteroid Straight Ahead

The teaser poster for Wes Anderson's next movie Asteroid City -- as it says right there on the teaser poster! -- has arrived! So I guess we can surmise from the image there that this is going to be Wes putting his particular stamp on Southwestern U.S. culture -- the whole Route 66 roadside-motel Area 51 thing. Kind of like when Tim Burton took to the deserts for Mars Attacks, is what I am picturing. Anyway no way am I listing off every name there on the poster but it's the usual assortment of Wes actors. Excited to see Hong Chau up in there, though! Supposedly we'll get the first trailer tomorrow. And the best news of all is that it's out in June! June 16th to be exact. Mark them calendars!

Wild Things At 25

It only seems in keeping with the moment that I use the sleaziest possible gif from the movie to introduce my piece upon it (and yes this moment is even sleazier than Kevin Bacon's dong, if you ask me) -- John McNaughton's sleazeterpiece Wild Things turned 25 this week and I wrote up some thoughts on the movie for Mashable -- click here to read them! I love this movie more than I love champagne on my titties. It has everything. Champagne on titties! Kevin Bacon's dong! Theresa fuckin' Russell! That is literally my definition of everything. Anyway I need to add that if you can you should watch this movie via the 4K disc that Arrow dropped last year -- it looks amazing. I'm not 100% one of those film-over-digital people but movies like this look tremendously elevated thanks to being shot on film. I mean LOOK at this drop-dead gorgeous title card:

A Note of Programming

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Don't ask me why I'm illustrating this post with the above gif of Matt Dillon's crotch in The Outsiders. It's inappropriate given the serious circumstances but it makes me feel better looking at it and feeling better's what I need right now, so there we go. I've got to head out of town unexpectedly, family stuff, and I'm gonna be gone until just about Tuesday. I would say "See You Next Tuesday" but I've already done the Matt Dillon's crotch thing, I'm skating on thin ice as is. Bye.

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