Reviews
New York Film Festival 2011 - Critic's Choice
October 18th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. His critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts—begin here.
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "The Artist"
October 18th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "Footnote"
October 13th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "A Dangerous Method"
October 11th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
Casting His Bell
Personal documentary maker Nedžad Begović intermixes images and sound from his cell phone in "Mobitel (A Cell Phone Movie)."
October 4th, 2011 | Courtney Sheehan
The premise sounds like either a miracle or a gimmick: thousands of hours of visual and audio footage off a cell phone turned into a meaningful personal documentary. Yet Bosnian filmmaker Nedžad Begović's Mobitel (A Cell Phone Movie) manages to make cell phones ring like they're centuries old.
Bosnian filmmaker Nedžad Begović has a knack for taking his own life as a point of departure for films that end up being about much more. And he’s not shy about his intent or the company he wants to keep.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "A Separation"
October 1st, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "Corpo celeste"
October 1st, 2011 | Kurt BrokawThe Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
NYFF Critic's Choice - "The Turin Horse"
October 1st, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic, Kurt Brokaw, is viewing the entire main slate of the 49th New York Film Festival, showing at Lincoln Center September 30-October 16th. Below is one of his critic’s choices—from among 27 feature films plus numerous ‘special event’ features, masterworks, “views from the avant garde” and shorts.
Governments Behaving Badly
Kurt Brokaw salutes two new dramas: Jim Loach’s penetrating history of English children deported to Australia, and Cristian Mungiu’s tales of muddled Romanian life under Ceausescu.
August 19th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
"In the emerging wave of new Romanian cinema, the misery index runs high," writes Brokaw. Cristian Mungiu and company's collection of light but critical vignettes in Tales from the Golden Age pairs well with the Emily Watson-powered drama, Oranges and Sunshine, which Brokaw suggests prompted two Prime Ministers to beg pardon for their governments' wrongdoing.
Oranges and Sunshine
(Jim Loach. 2011. England/Australia. 105 min.)
Summer Doc Reviews: Caves, Cowboys and Coke
Senior film critic Kurt Brokaw reviews three recent documentaries: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Buck, and Hit So Hard.
July 28th, 2011 | Kurt Brokaw
A new landscape for Herzog, natural horsemanship by a legendary whisperer, and indie rock percussion and recovery by a woman who has done a lot of living. Kurt Brokaw gives his take on three docs playing this summer: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Buck, and Hit So Hard: The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
(Werner Herzog. 2010. France/Canada/USA/UK/Germany. 90 min.)
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