Hello Contra Zoom readers. After many overdue months dealing with some issues on my end both at work and in my personal life, I am here with my recap of the films I watched at the New York Film Fest in September. While obviously a lot (though not all of these films) have already been reviewed elsewhere perhaps, I think it’s still useful to read this as a review of the entire film festival going experience as a whole. After all, one of the benefits of film festivals is being able to lock yourself away in a theater for a few hours and watch films back to back, which were often curated by programmers to have throughlines and related themes throughout, as opposed to a mishmash of whatever happens to be on your backlog.
Part 2 – Asian Slice of Life + Oscars Contenders
Part 3 – Exploring Foreign Countries + The Brutalist
Day 4+5 – Exploring Foreign Countries (Oct 7 & 8)
By this point, the festival was well underway and there wasn’t much left in the way of press screenings – most only had a single screening per day, usually related to world premieres late in the festival run. I did take the morning of Monday the 7th off (which I don’t have that many meetings anyway) to watch Brazilian contender I’m Still Here.
And then on the evening of the 8th, I ended up buying my own tickets to watch Caught by the Tides (which I had heard a lot of good things about out of Cannes) and Grand Tour (a potential nominee from Portugal for Best International film). I actually left a work happy hour event early to make it on time. Also shoutout to fellow Death Racer Adele who was in town watching both Caught by the Tides and Grand Tour.
I’m Still Here – Dir Walter Salles
Final Rating: 5/5
There was a joke at this year’s Olympics that online, Filipinos and Brazilians would root for each other’s athletes. After watching I’m Still Here, I think I kind of understand that connection a bit more. Based on the autobiography of author Eunice Paiva, the film follows his mother’s story (played by the impeccable Fernanda Torres) as her father, political dissident Rubens Paiva, disappears at the hands of the military dictatorship of the 60s through 80s.
On one level, the story itself (sadly) isn’t unique in the grand scheme of this kind of setting. Set up the idyllic family life, then the military goes after his father, then the mother needs to hold the family together while trying to get answers as to where he went. And on some level, for this kind of story, the act of not forgetting these horrors of the past is reason enough for being and existing. In the Philippines we would do well to remember the horrors of Martial Law so that we don’t elect those sorts of leaders to enable that sort of thing to happen again (oh wait…). In the same way, I can see why this is the highest grossing Brazilian film post COVID since it touches something in the collective psyche of the country, in the same way that Argentina 1985 did very well in that country.
What really elevates this film though is its execution. Fernanda Torres has been lauded enough, but until she’s more of a sure thing for an Oscar nom, she should continue to receive praise. Being able to carry all those emotions of Eunice Paiva – the anger at the state, the fear for the husband, the strength to support her kids, the exhaustion, the stoicism, the stress, the joy when it comes – is no small feat. She alone is enough of a reason to watch this film. And while I mentioned the actual structure of the film is somewhat predictable, the editing and screenplay don’t let any beat feel rote or perfunctory or overstaying its welcome. Even the depiction of Brazilian life of the time is like a small time capsule is noteworthy. And with the way Western politics has taken a turn toward the right with talk of mobilizing the military against dissidents… perhaps this film is more relevant to the present than we think and all the more urgent to watch.
Caught by the Tides – Dir Jia Zhangke
Final Rating: 4/5
So when I first saw this film, but before the Q&A came on, I had this at a 3 out of 5. Caught by the Tides follows a woman who goes after her lover (who has left her behind so he can try to make his fortune), so she can break up with him for closure. Along the way you see how the region around them has changed due to the effects of China’s modernization, which was interesting to observe, similar to the documentary Ascension from a few years back. However, when I realized during the Q&A that this was actually compiled from unused footage from films Zhangke had shot from over 20 years dating back to 2001, that blew my mind. (The woman playing the lead is his wife and muse Zhao Tao who appears in most of his works, hence the continuity). The fact that he was able to create a cohesive story from this corpus of film, with themes of loneliness in the future versus a bygone communal way of life, or contrasting the energy in this footage against the nature of it being in archive for so many years and compiled during the lockdowns was enough for me to raise it a star.
Grand Tour – Dir Miguel Gomes
Final Rating: 2/5
According to the Q&A Gomes gave afterwards, this film is based on a 1930 travelouge called “The Gentleman in the Parlor” about a 1918 European expat who flees his fiancé by traveling from country to country across Asia – going from Myanmar to Singapore to Vietnam to the Philippines and Japan and China. Throughout the film we are presented narration in the local tongue and shots from life in those countries, going on the “Grand Tour” twice – once from the perspective of the British officer, once from his fiancé.
This is one where the Q&A actually brought down my opinion of this film. Much like Caught by the Tides, it is a travelogue made up of footage. In this case, Gomes and his team basically traveled through Asia with no script and just filmed what they found interesting, and then later pieced together the story as a reason to string these shots together. While it was interrupted by COVID, with the China portions shot remotely by Airbnb, the intent was to make it so that each person takes something different from the trip, much as we would in a real journey.
For me personally, this unfortunately falls into the trap of mystifying the daily life of people in these countries through the lens of a casual tourist, as opposed to the more authentic experience of someone who lived through it. It felt as if someone came to New York and filmed Times Square and called that the real New York. Obviously as someone Filipino I was paying attention to when they showed Manila, but all we got was basically shots of cockfighting and a guy singing karaoke. Maybe I’m just salty we didn’t get a more robust section but it still feels reductive and like you’re taking the lives of people from these countries and reducing it down to snapshot portraits. While they did try to do some throughlines like showing the puppet traditions across countries, It still felt kind of gross to hear about their approach and that lack of self awareness. Again, contrast that to Caught by the Tides where Zhangke’s feelings about his own country over 20 years is documented in his footage, versus a quick jaunt around the region. Maybe I’m nitpicking here a bit too much but this just wasn’t the film for me.
Day 6 (Oct 12)
The Brutalist – Dir Brady Corbet
Final Rating: 5/5
I originally wasn’t going to be able to watch The Brutalist at NYFF. The press screening was on a day I couldn’t make, and when I went to buy my own tickets for the festival they were all sold out immediately before I got out of the queue. However they were able to open up some additional screenings during encore weekend. I also wasn’t able to get tickets for the first time around but luckily in the NYFF subreddit there were ticket sales going on and I was able to nab a ticket for a 70mm screening!
As I prep for the Oscars Death Race this year, The Brutalist is the film I currently have slated to get the second most nominations (behind Emilia Pérez, which has the advantage by having two songs) based on community sentiment. And frankly, it’s well deserved. Every single aspect of this should be win-competitive in my mind.
Let’s start with the acting. Adrien Brody plays László Tóth,, a Hungarian holocaust survivor and former architect who makes his way to America after the war. He has his own shortcomings – he has his vices including drugs and women (at least the latter only until he learns his wife also survived the camps), but he has a good heart and is a hard worker, if clearly still traumatized by the camps.
As someone who knew Brody predominantly from the more comedic and also more understated Wes Anderson films, the level of emotion here, while also not making a spectacle of it is a revelation. Opposite him we have Guy Pearce as the more ostentatious industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren who is just eating up the scenery whenever given the chance, but also shows his more sinister side as the film goes on. Rounding out the trio of potential winners is Felicity Jones who plays his wife Erzsébet Tóth. While she only shows on screen in the second half really, she more than makes up for her lack of screentime holding her own against both men, while also showing her own character’s development and emotions over the years.
Screenplay and direction wise, it’s hard to believe Corbet would be a first time nominee, and much less he was able to get this done for less than $10M. Direction wise, the scene that really stands out to me is the scene in the first half where László’s cousin kicks him out after a job gone wrong. Just the way the shot was framed, and lit, and edited together gave a sense of dread and despair I wasn’t expecting. Even the opening shots with the upside down statue of liberty screams bold direction, while not being ostentatious. And then screenplay wise, I mean the reveal of how László’s designs meant something to him in the context of being a Holocaust survivor and why he fought so hard for his designs to be the way that they were was an emotional gut punch that I didn’t’ see coming but also was totally and entirely earned.
And how can we not talk about the below the line categories here. Sure we’ve got the aforementioned cinematography already playing into the brutalist/architecture theme, but also how can we not forget that this is a three and a half hour film with an intermission and it feels like it flies by; a testament to masterful editing. Part of that is the score bringing it all together. And of course for a film about an architect, the production design has to be on point.
I haven’t seen every film that is likely to get a Best Picture nominee this year. Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Sing Sing and Nickel Boys are still on my list. However I find it hard to believe that any film will top The Brutalist as my pick for what should be Best Picture. It is the complete package – a story for the ages, best in class acting and direction, the below the line craft and care. As that meme of Martin Scorsese going around this year would say: ABSOLUTE CINEMA!
The following films were seen during the 2024 New York Film Festival.
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