by Jason Osiason

In one of the best years of the New York Film Festival I’ve had the privilege of attending, here were my standout favorites:

She Said: Maria Schrader’s (of TV’s Unorthodox fame) directorial debut delivers a riveting blend of thorough and revelatory reporting surrounded by a stirringly emotional story of two journalistic superheroes taking down one of Hollywood’s most feared and powerful men, Harvey Weinstein. What separates She Said from movies of the same genre is its ability to blend potentially dry material and instead make it both enthralling and moving for all audiences. It all leads to an ending we all know is coming as it’s based on actual events, but with Maria Schrader’s miraculous ability to build on-screen tension and catharsis using the tools of imagery in zoom techniques and building up a frame, as well as some defining razor-sharp editing left me emotionally paralyzed in my seat as it cut to the credits. There are minor fumbles along the way; most in particular were Ashley Judd’s much-unneeded inclusion playing herself with crippling lines of dialogue that felt too self-congratulatory and tonally adjunct to the rest of the movie. The performances in She Said are across the board stellar, especially a tough-as-nails Carey Mulligan, a commanding Samantha Morton, and Andre Braugher doing some of his best work in years. [B+]

Armageddon Time. James Gray’s poignant autobiographical portrait of the privileged realities of growing up in 1980s New York is a refreshing commentary on capitalism, friendship, white privilege, and navigating the challenges that arise in pursuing your artistic dreams. The picture is a gorgeous, intimate affair featuring richly textured characters as you’re immediately immersed in the Graff family’s familial issues. It then takes a long, hard, uncompromising look at the American reality as the picture switches focus to the post-segregation time in America when racism is still alive and still holds familiarity to today’s times. While the film is a 1980s period piece from director James Gray, the sense of familial bond and youthful friendship is something anyone can relate to. It also makes a fascinating contrast to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans as both feature a formative snapshot of the directors’ lives in their artistic pursuits as Gray’s child stands in Paul, whose skills with drawing aspire to be a great artist. The parents in the film use their newfound power and privilege to set their children up for success, but inserting them into a more affluent environment aspires to the wrong principles. Ultimately, the film may differ from what transcends James Gray to his long-awaited mainstream success as the film is a bit too personal to a fault. Still, it is a successful and endearing story about growing up and all the exhilaration and affliction that entails. [B+]

Bones And All: Luca Guadagnino’s tragic Cannibal Romance is a stunning work of compassion and pain, perhaps my film of the year. Taylor Russell portrays a young teen Cannibal named Maren who’s accustomed to life on the run and never learning from the many close calls with her cannibalistic desires throughout her life, forcing her anguished single father to make this nearly impossible decision to continue on the run for the remainder of their lives or abandon her after all hope of change is lost. Taylor Russell proves she can be a reserved powerhouse of incredible depth. Chalamet proves that his Call Me By Your Name performance was no fluke in his role of Lee, a fellow eater who cracked the code to manage his cannibalistic lifestyle despite his brutal upbringing at home with an abusive father and a sister he feels inertly responsible for. It’s Chalamet’s most tender and sincere performance to date. The film also features dynamic performances from Mark Rylance as the main antagonist. He develops an immediate obsession with Russell’s Maren and shares his sinister wisdom on who and what she is and the malformed necessities to survive while hidden from the world. You also have an unrecognizable Michael Stuhlbarg conveying the meaning of the film’s title and director alongside filmmaker David Gordon Green sneaking in as a cannibal groupie feels fitting that feels like he’s picking at himself for being an actor for a change. Bones and All brilliantly uses the cannibal genre to journey the wonder of life without a compass—no sense of who we are as we explore romance, trauma, and our uncertain beginnings through Maren’s eyes. Bones and All is a rewarding and generous movie with enough mythology to define an entire genre. [A]

Stars at Noon: Claire Denis is a bit of a chameleon director. With a long, revered, yet underrated career behind her, she is brilliant at tackling multiple genres yet superbly crafting unforgettable movies in ways no director living is today. Here, Denis sets a thriller and romance movie against a backdrop of political unrest in Nicaragua between a stranded journalist doing whatever means necessary to survive and a petrochemicals consultant who may not be telling the whole truth about his identity. The movie is extraordinary, about unquestioningly trusting someone you have never met and how they strengthen individuals. Margaret Qualley continues to prove she is the most outstanding and promising actress of her generation. I was impressed by how commanding Joe Alwyn is as this enigmatic love interest. I also appreciated how it further used the weather and thermal lighting to contextualize the sensuality and eroticism between the lead actors. A new layer to Denis’ films is a solid improvisational comedy, with one scene featuring John C. Reilly that brings a slice of fun that plays against all the rules of a movie with such a dreamy and noirish tone yet works thanks to Denis’ stunt casting like it’s a missing puzzle piece. Filmmaker Benny Safdie also delivers an American federal agent that brings almost as much-needed levity and laughter as Reilly’s single scene. Hate or love it, Stars at Noon is brilliant, delirious, and absurd all at once but feels nothing short of visionary. [B+]

Showing Up: After teasing a new comedic side in her previous feature, First Cow, Kelly Reichardt, this time, gives us a downright delightful, discomforting comedy about a chronically overworked artist via her trademark gentle and intensely visual sensibilities. It also features a great Fabelmans reunion for Michelle Williams and Judd Hirsch! The film is mostly without a plot as it navigates the imbalanced life of Williams’ character’s day-to-day as she sets to open a new art show. It features dysfunctional family members and co-workers bringing her stress, and her uncompromising yet aloof landlord by Hong Chau (a fantastic performance), bringing her up to a boiling point. You think we’re being set up for some meltdown, but Reichardt subverts those expectations and prefers less negative outcomes. Sometimes, life may feel like it’s collapsing down on you, and there may be speedbumps, but as long as you’re surrounded by people who ultimately care, you will still prevail. [B+]

TÁR: Todd Field’s second film, and first since 2006, is a rather Kubrickian affair. Field plays with the fly-on-the-wall cinematic style and has fun with it by handing you the keys to the psyche of composer Lydia Tár, one of the greatest composers that never lived, as her world comes crashing down in the aftermath of her greatest successes and unbeknownst joining the ranks of cancel culture as her reign of power is coming to an end. The movie is so transfixing, superbly crafted, and inviting that you initially think you’re watching the film backward. Blanchett is as good as you heard, and it features a one-take lecture scene at Julliard that will be burned into my brain and is probably one of the best scenes you’ll see all year. It’s uniquely structured and straightforward yet paced in a foreboding nature. Nina Hoss and Noémie Merlant bring rich love interest characters central to the cancel culture theme as they’re also part of their career and are dealt with surprising nuance. It also brings forth a moral dilemma: Can we ethically consume art and be viewed in the context of the artist? This is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year, and the type of auteur cinema we got pre-pandemic is the perfect watercooler movie to dissect further the more times you watch. [A-]

Master Gardener: Paul Schrader’s latest focuses on a former Neo-Nazi gang assassin (played by Joel Egerton), bringing an ideology that gardening is a space to cleanse your soul and believe in a better tomorrow. A unique bond he develops with one of his pupils and proteges disrupts his prolonged hiatus from his criminal ways. The stronger their bond matures, the more genuinely shocking and unexpected narrative pillars Schrader is willing to explore. Edgerton portrays a master gardener at a southern botanical garden in Louisiana with a subtle racial undertone that hints that this garden palace that once was a plantation did the exact opposite. There are no significant antagonists, but developments from romantic entanglements inspire the violence that Egerton’s character swore away. A showdown ensues but ends in a surprisingly tender and satisfyingly happy way that we deserve from Schrader’s trilogy, which has previously met more tragic turns. [B]

White Noise: Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo was said to be impossible to adapt into a feature, but the impossible was achieved. What we get is a thrilling, goofy, and genre-juggling epic. It transforms the existential fear of death into a darkly funny and familial exploration. It’s also a movie about so much, such as the boredom we face in a loveless marriage, a toxic event threatening their lives, filmed with the technical proficiency of Steven Spielberg, and the obsessive nature one would have if a Jewish character dedicated their livelihood to the study of Adolf Hitler. Baumbach is so visceral and unleashed with a hyper-stylized end credits sequence for the ages featuring LCD Soundsystem that demands you to remain in your seat. It also features an incredible score, a dazzlingly unexpected visual style, and a never-better Adam Driver performance. [A-]

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: Renowned artist and lifelong activist Nan Goldin’s life story, featuring her own political and social struggle during both the AIDS and opioid crises, is a profoundly moving, painful, necessary, and brilliant documentary about the unbelievable life and work of renowned photographer Nan Goldin intertwined with her awe-inspiring activism toward the opioid crisis. Goldin is a quirky personality so internally affected by addiction and how it’s infected her entire livelihood in the artspace that inspires her to lead the charge take on art as the whole world as the make of these drugs is greedily benefiting and showcasing everyday art in museums and galleries. This documentary is an excellent reminder that we have an impact on making change and what art inspires us to do. [A-]