2023 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

The 2023 New York Film Festival is set to begin on September 29th and running through October 15th. This event has served as the first opportunity in the US to preview many of the films that will be vying for attention during the upcoming awards season. The 61st edition of NYFF will be held at Film in Lincoln Center as well as utilizing theaters in all five boroughs of New York City.



The fest will open with "May December", the latest from Todd Hayes based very loosely on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau. Natalie Portman stars as an actress researching to play on-screen a woman (Julianne Moore) that became a tabloid figure years ago when she was a teacher who got romantically involved with her teenage student, now her husband (Charles Melton).



The Centerpiece Selection is "Priscilla" from Sofia Coppola which explores the life of Elvis Presley's teenage bride, Priscilla (Callee Spaeny who won Best Actress at Venice) and her complicated relationship behind closed doors with the "King of Rock & Roll", played here by Jacob Elordi.

And The Closing Night Film will be "Ferrari", Michael Mann's look into the life of the legendary, Italian car manufacturer with Adam Driver portraying Enzo Ferrari. Patrick Dempsey, Jack O'Connell, Shailene Woodley and Penélope Cruz co-star.



Many of the films in the Main Slate have previously been screened in other film festivals but will be making their US or North American premieres at the New York fest. Some of these international films selected include the Turkish drama from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, "About Dry Grasses"; "The Beast", a French drama from Bertrand Bonello based on the Henry James short story; "The Delinquents", Rodrigo Moreno's heist drama set in Argentina; "Evil Does Not Exist", Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's follow-up to his Oscar-winning film, "Drive My Car" and Agnieszka Holland's controversial "Green Border" which details the harrowing story of a Syrian family trying to escape the violence in their home country only to endure further trouble in Poland.





The films in the Spotlight section will showcase some of the season's most anticipated works. This will feature the first animated feature from the acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki in ten years, "The Boy and the Heron"; Steve McQueen's four and a half hour long documentary, "Occupied City" which examines Amsterdam under Nazi occupation during World War II while offering contemporary parallels in the British filmmaker's adopted home; the North American premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos' black & white, silent short film from last year, "Bleat" that features Emma Stone (Lanthimos and Stone's current feature length project together, "Poor Things", which won the Golden Lion after making its premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival, will also be screened in the Main Slate) and Pedro Almodovar's second English language short film, "Strange Way of Life", an unconventional western which will be followed by an in-person conversation with the Spanish filmmaker.



And the Revivals section will feature remastered and restored films from distinguished filmmakers. The fest will feature the world premiere of the restored version of Nancy Savoca's 1993 comedy, "Household Saints" that stars Lili Taylor, Tracey Ullman and Vincent D'Onofrio. "Return to Reason: Short Films by Man Ray" spotlights the celebrated photographer's first foray into filmmaking with these silent shorts accompanied with new music by Jim Jarmusch (the indie filmmaker who designed this year's poster for the fest) and Carter Logan who together are known as the band, SQURL. There will also be screenings of Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant's 1980 directorial debut, "Tell Me a Riddle", Jean Renoir's final feature film from 1947, "The Woman on the Beach" and "La Roue (The Wheel)", a seven hour long 1923 French film from Abel Gance that merged early narrative silent cinema with an experimental style.





For the complete list of films, events and to purchase tickets, please click below:

2023 New York Film Festival

BOTTOMS (2023)

Written by Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott



Directed by Emma Seligman



Where & When: AMC The Grove 14, Los Angeles, CA. September 5, 2023 7:30 PM



"Bottoms" is a teenage, romantic comedy from filmmaker, Emma Seilgman that is very far removed from your standard comedy in this genre. What Seilgman's film delivers is unhinged, extremely dark and features a couple of horny, young lesbians as our unexpected protagonists in this wildly, offbeat story. And while it's not entirely successful, "Bottoms" is a teen comedy that boldly presents queerness as a natural state of being, propelled by an insane, manic energy and off-the-wall laughs.

PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are best friends in high school who happen to be nerdy, unpopular and lesbians. They are both lusting after two of the popular cheerleaders at school who are also best friends: Josie has the hots for Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) while PJ is infatuated with Brittany (Kaia Gerber). After an incident involving an argument between Isabel and her boyfriend, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), the quarterback for the school's football team, a rumor spreads around that PJ and Josie spent the summer in juvenile detention and had beaten up Jeff during this quarrel. Now this didn't actually happen yet none of the participants correct this misinformation especially after the girls are called into the principal's office demanding an explanation for injuring the quarterback (who was never seriously hurt but enjoying the attention).

In order to avoid expulsion, PJ comes up with the excuse they had been practicing in order to start a self-defense club for the girls at school. This leads to a plan to actually start a fight club and after PJ points out this will be a great way for them to meet girls, a reluctant Josie agrees to the crazy idea. With teacher, Mr. G. (former football player, Marshawn Lynch) on board as an advisor, the girls begin teaching female students how to fight. But PJ is disappointed that the girls attending are not attractive enough until Isabel and Brittany show up for lessons.

Seligman first became noticed with her NYU senior-thesis short, "Shiva Baby" which was later selected for the South by Southwest film festival in 2018. The Canadian-born filmmaker later further developed this comedy about a young bisexual Jewish woman (also played by Sennott) who attends a shiva with her parents where her complicated love relationships collide into a feature length film. I will admit I was not a big fan of this film, but I certainly recognized her potential gifts as a director and admired what she accomplished in telling a rarely told story in cinema involving the "B" in the LGBTQ communities.

"Bottoms" began with Seligman and Sennott wanting to create a film that featured queer characters prominently in your standard Hollywood-style comedy. I'm sure there were several films that sparked their imagination, but the clear inspiration behind "Bottoms" seems to be "Heathers", the 1989 cult film that has gone on to become the quintessential dark teen comedy. And while they both share in gleeful, irreverent humor, quirky characters and unexpected bursts of bloody violence, "Bottoms" is not fully formed enough to become memorable in the high school comedy canon. The script by Seligman and Sennott features some emotionally grounded moments in between the weird, zany humor but the writers are just not there yet to make it work together cohesively. At times in the film, some moments are heavy-handed, the pacing is ragged, the jokes are not always sharp and the motivations behind some of the characters are wobbly. And as "Bottoms" progresses to its conclusion, the situations become far more surreal and shockingly brutal, making it feel like we have suddenly entered into another movie.

As a teen comedy, "Bottoms" feels fresh and modern by successfully challenging traditions of the genre and aggressively flipping expectations regarding gender and sexual identity. The film is further elevated by solid performances and a hilarious, edgy vibe. But with a little more work to refine some details, "Bottoms" would have easily shifted from a good to a great comedy.

WINNERS OF THE 2023 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

The 80th annual Venice Film Festival has officially concluded and "Poor Things", Yorgos Lanthimos' fantastical sci-fi black comedy, received the top prize of the Golden Lion. The story involves a young Victorian woman (played by Emma Stone) who is crudely resurrected by a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) who then runs off on a journey where she discovers her womanhood and sexuality. The Greek filmmaker honored his star, Stone, who was unable to attend the fest due to the ongoing actors strike, by dedicating the award to her during his acceptance speech.

The Grand Jury Prize went to "Evil Does Not Exist", Ryusuke Hamaguchi's follow-up to his acclaimed 2021 drama, "Drive My Car". The story is about a man and his young daughter living in a small village outside Tokyo and discovers the plans to disturb the quiet area with a camping development for city dwellers.

Best Director went to Matteo Garrone for his latest, "Io capitano" which tells the story of two young men from Dakar who make their way across Africa in a harrowing journey to Europe. One of the leads of the film, Seydou Sarr won The Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Performance by an Emerging Actor or Actress.

Pablo Larraín and Guillermo Calderón won Best Screenplay for "El Conde (The Count)" with director Larraín's political satire involving the idea that what if the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet never really died because he was a blood-sucking vampire. The film will be available to stream on Netflix beginning September 15th.

Cailee Spaeny received the Best Actress prize for her performance in the title role of "Priscilla", Sofia Coppola's bio-pic on the complicated love affair between the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley and his teenage bride. Peter Sarsgaard won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his work in Michel Franco's "Memory" where he plays a man who reconnects with a fellow student (Jessica Chastain) during their high school reunion that impacts them both in surprising ways.

Here is a partial list of winners of the 2023 Venice Film Festival:

Golden Lion: "Poor Things"
Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: "悪は存在しない (Evil Does Not Exist)"
Special Jury Prize: "Zielona granica (Green Border)"
Silver Lion Best Director: Matteo Garrone, "Io Capitano"



Best Screenplay: Pablo Larrain and Guillermo Calderón, "El Conde (the Count)"
Best Actress: Cailee Spaeny, "Priscilla"
Best Actor: Peter Sarsgaard, "Memory"
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Seydou Sarr, "Io Capitano"
Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film: Lee Hong-Chi, "Love is a Gun"



Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

2023 FALL MOVIE PREVIEW

The summer of "Barbenheimer" has officially come to a close and this unexpected cinematic phenomenon has ended up helping this season become one of the biggest box-office successes of all-time. These two films (that would be Greta Gerwig's colorful fantasia, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer", the dramatic telling of the creation of the atomic bomb from Christopher Nolan, in case you just came out of hibernation) managed to generate a lot of money but also created an exciting buzz that spurred movie attendance, finally bringing people back to theaters which surprisingly spread across the globe.

With the writers and actors on strike, movie production has essentially come to a grinding halt. So, what does this mean for the fall movie season? The studios, still unwilling to negotiate and realizing that they will have no one to promote their expensive investments as well as running out of product to cover next year, have become skittish and decided to delay some planned upcoming releases. The most notable to date is the second part of "Dune" which was supposed to arrive in theaters in November and has been pushed off until next March. So far, no other major fall releases have announced any date changes however it's still early. It's all so unfortunate that a deal has not come together yet, leaving the momentum created this summer to probably just fizzle out if more movies are taken off the schedule. But at this moment, there are plenty of movies arriving in theaters this fall. Here is my list of upcoming films that I am anticipating and hope to actually see over the next four months:


All release dates are subject to change:

"DICKS: THE MUSICAL"

Release date: September 29, 2023

"Dicks: The Musical" is an absurdist musical-comedy based on an Off-Broadway show, "Fucking Identical Twins" by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. In a deranged twist on "The Parent Trap", Sharp and Jackson reprise their roles as two adult business adversaries who discover that they are actually identical twins who were separated when their parents divorced. They decide to switch places in a plot to reunite their parents (Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane) so they can all be a real family once again. Hip-Hop royalty, Megan Thee Stallion co-stars and Larry Charles ("Borat") directs.



"FOE"

Release date: October 6, 2023

Based on the novel by Iain Reid (who co-wrote the screenplay with the director, Garth Davis), "Foe" is an intense sci-fi drama set in the not-so-distant future where Junior (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Henrietta (Saoirse Ronan) are visited on their remote farm by Terrance (Aaron Pierre) who represents an aerospace corporation. He has come with an offer for Junior to work in their large space station for a couple of years. However, this invitation is extended only for him, leaving Henrietta behind in the care of a bio-mechanical duplicate of Junior while he is away.



"KILLER OF THE FLOWER MOON"

Release date: October 20, 2023

After a splashy premiere at Cannes in May, "Killer of the Flower Moon", the latest from the legendary filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, will finally reach theaters. This epic drama is an adaptation of the fact-based novel by David Grann that tells this 1920's-set story of several Osage Indians in Oklahoma discovering oil on their lands, making them very wealthy. However, this doesn't sit well with the White people running the administration in the area. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a war veteran in desperate need of employment, goes to his uncle (Robert DeNiro) looking for a job. After getting work as a taxi driver, Ernest is lured by his uncle into a plot to steal land and money from the Indians. But he becomes further conflicted when he falls in love with Mollie (Lily Gladstone) who is Osage.



"THE HOLDOVERS"

Release date: October 27, 2023

In the dramatic comedy, "The Holdovers", the director, Alexander Payne's welcome return to feature films following the lukewarm reception to his 2017 sci-fi comedy, "Downsizing", a "holdover" is a college student who is unable to return to their homes during Christmas break. Paul Giamatti (who reteams with Payne for the first time since their popular 2004 road trip comedy, "Sideways") plays a much-disliked teacher who is assigned to watching these kids and runs into particular trouble with one student (Dominic Sessa). Da'Vine Joy Randolph also stars as the school's head cook who is struggling with her own personal issues.




"RUSTIN"

Release date: November 3, 2023

"Rustin" puts a long overdue spotlight on the unheralded man who helped organize the March on Washington Movements and worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. The celebrated stage director turned filmmaker, George C. Wolfe takes on the story of Bayard Rustin (played by Colman Domingo), a highly influential civil rights activist who promoted nonviolent civil resistance. But his not-so-secret homosexuality would create problems for him, particularly in his advisory role with King on the 1963 March on Washington, leaving some people concerned how this association could negatively impact the movement. Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Audra McDonald co-star.



"THE KILLER"

Release date: November 10, 2023

Following his stiff, Hollywood bio-pic, "Mank" three years ago, David Fincher has returned to the genre he has become best associated with: the psychological thriller. "The Killer" has the director taking on a French graphic novel and putting his distinctive spin on a familiar story involving a hired assassin who is being hunted down after failing an assignment following an existential crisis. But what makes this film even more intriguing is the return to the big screen of Michael Fassbender who plays the hit-man (the Irish-German actor will also appear in Taika Watiti's sports-comedy, "Next Goal Wins" out in November). Tilda Swinton co-stars.



"NAPOLEON"

Release date: November 22, 2023

Napoleon Bonaparte was a military commander in the 18th century who during the French revolution rose to prominence to become an influential political leader. His story will be told in a big budget, English-language, Hollywood epic from acclaimed director, Ridley Scott. With Oscar-winner, Joaquin Phoenix as the Emperor, "Napoleon" will examine his rise to power and his obsessive love with Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby), a widow who was first his mistress before quickly becoming Empress of the French.



"THE COLOR PURPLE"

Release date: December 25, 2023

"The Color Purple", Alice Walker's harrowing yet moving novel about a young girl's coming-of-age and overcoming heart-wrenching obstacles she faced, has come a long way since it was first published in 1982. It was first adapted into a critically acclaimed, 1985 box-office hit film by Steven Spielberg that made stars out of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Twenty years later, a musical was created of Walker's story that ran on Broadway for three years. Then a stripped-down, more enthusiastically received revival came back to New York ten years later. Now we this musical that has been filmed with Spielberg, Winfrey and Quincy Jones (who did the musical score for the 1985 movie) returning as producers and Blitz Bazawule directing this version of "The Color Purple". Fantasia Barrino (the American Idol winner making her film debut assumed the role in the original Broadway production) plays Celie; Danielle Brooks (who did the role in the 2015 revival) will play Sofia and Taraji P. Henson appears as singer Shug Avery. Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Aunjanue Ellis, Halle Bailey, H.E.R. and Ciara rounds out the cast.