The 50th New York Film Festival: Barbara, A Quiet Stunner

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—The New York Film Festival officially begins tomorrow, but my first review of the festival went up at The House Next Door yesterday.

I'll let my review of Christian Petzold's Barbara speak for itself; the only thing I'll add is that the more I think about it, the more I kind of love it. It's definitely worth your time and perhaps a bit of your patience; this is a slow burn par excellence, a film requiring active viewing in order to simply get a sense of not only the characters, but the dangerous world in which they reside. For me, though, the quietly stunning payoff was worth the effort.

New York Film Festival 2011: The Loneliest Planet and Dreileben

NEW YORK—

Tonight the New York Film Festival officially gets underway with lavish opening-night gala screenings of Roman Polanski's latest film, Carnage.

I won't be there, being that, even for members, getting into gala screenings at this festival can cost someone up to $50—hardly a cheap proposition! And alas, I had to miss the press screening for it, because this year I'm not taking any days off from work for them; instead, I find myself having to go to morning screenings and arrive to work just a bit late (though don't worry, my boss has so far been totally okay with this, provided I give her advance notice and all).

I have been able to see some other good films playing at the festival so far...and my reviews for two of them are finally up at The House Next Door—those of Julia Loktev's latest film The Loneliest Planet; and Dreileben, a trilogy of made-for-TV German films featuring three different directors offering different perspectives on the same crime. The links for both reviews are embedded on the individual film titles.

So go on, read 'em and then comment, why don'tcha?

There is plenty more to come, of course. "Watch this space," as they say here on the Web...