ON
THE ROAD WITH THE 2007 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL--FROM DARJEELING TO
TEXAS TO IRAQ TO PARANOID PARK
A FEW OF THE FILMS SHOWN
AT THE 45TH EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. FOR ADDITIONAL
DETAILS, VISIT www.filmlinc.com
OPENING NIGHT
 THE
DARJEELING LIMITED:
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Amara
Karan, Waris Ahluwalia, Irfan Khan, Barbet Schroeder, Camilla Rutherford,
Bill Murray, Natalie Portman (Directed
by Wes Anderson; Written by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason
Schwartzman; Fox Searchlight) A trio of emotionally addled, highly
competitive American siblings (Owen Wilson, Adrien BRody, Jason
Schwartzman) still grieve--each in his own way--for their charismatic
father one year after his death. In an attempt to heal spiritual
wounds and repair severed brotherly bonds, they decide to choo-choo
across India together. Their oddball stop-offs in remote villages
and on parched stretches of desert are fueled by an abundant supply
of pain killers and exotic cough syrup. If you’ve seen this
auteur's inimitably topsy-turvy “Bottle Rocket,” “Rushmore,”
“The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with
Steve Zissou,” you surely know what to expect from the latest
Andersonian odyssey. To
read A. O. Scott's New York Times review of "The Darjeeling
Limited," click here; for
the trailer, click
here. Now playing in theaters
CENTERPIECE
 NO
COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin,
Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Tess Harper, Stephen
Root, Barry Corbin (Directed by Joel Coen; Written by Joel and Ethan
Coen; Paramount Vantage and Miramax Films) It’s 1980, and
somewhere in a wild, rough region of Texas, a young Vietnam vet
named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes to an abrupt halt in his
early-morning hunt for antelope. What stops Llewelyn is the discovery
of a bundle of heroin, a suitcase containing two million dollars,
and several bloody corpses. And what Llewelyn does is this: he takes
the money and runs, followed closely by deranged drug dealer Anton
Chigurh (Javier Bardem). If this man-on-the-run has any hope for
survival, it rests with Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a smart,
stubborn World War II vet who’s convinced the world has gone
bonkers. This adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel sounds
chilling and oddball enough to stand beside such Coen Brothers shockers
as “Blood Simple,” “Miller’s Crossing,”
“Fargo” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”
To read the Variety review of "No Country for Old Men,"
click here. To read
the Variety review of "No Country for Old Men," click
here; for the trailer, click
here. Now playing in theaters
CLOSING NIGHT
 PERSEPOLIS:
(Voices of Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux,
Simon Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes Benites, Gabrielle Lopes, Fraancois
Jerosme, Arie Elmaleh; Written and directed by Vincent Paronnaud
and Marjane Satrapi; Sony Pictures Classics) Since this is an animated
feature based upon writer/director Marjane Satrapi’s graphic
novel about her coming-of-age in Iran, and since it employs the
voices of such pretty people as Catherine Deneuve and her daughter,
Chiara Mastroianni, you might assume “Persepolis” is
a lyrical recollection of sweet, dreamy adolescence. But you’d
be wrong. It is instead an unsparing depiction of the oppression
of young women during the Islamic Revolution in 1970s Iran, focusing
on the suffering of the sensitive, spirited Marjane under militant
male domination. Eventually, her parents arrange her journey to
a different form of discrimination in Europe and finally she returns
to her home, only to find a land that is unbearably alien to her.
Disney this is not. Opens in theaters on 12/25/07
ALSO
UNREELED
 4
MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS:
Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean, Luminita
Gheorghiu, Adi Carauleanu (Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu;
IFC Films) It’s 1987 in Bucharest, and a college student,
with the help of her roommate, tracks down a man whose line of business
is performing illegal abortions. What the pregnant woman and her
friend do not bargain for is the abortionist’s demand for
more money than previously agreed upon, as well as his insistence
that they submit to his cold-blooded rape. And so it went during
the brutal Ceausescu regime. Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's
harrowing drama won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Festival.
For the Variety review
of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," click
here.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS
YOU’RE DEAD: Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Rosemary Harris,
Brian F. O’Byrne, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Michael Shannon (Directed
by Sidney Lumet; Written by Kelly Masterson; ThinkFilm) If you’re
so strapped for cash that masterminding a robbery seems your best
solution, doesn’t it make perfect sense to target your Mom
and Pop’s jewelry shop, thereby keeping things more or less
in the family? That’s the shaky rationale of Andy (Philip
Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), the desperate brothers
in this thriller from Sidney Lumet. If “Devil” turns
out to be classier and more complex than it sounds, it will probably
be because the 83-year-old Lumet--whose meticulous studies of people
accussed of breaking the law include “12 Angry Men,”
“Fail Safe,” “The Anderson Tapes,” “The
Offence,” “Serpico,” “Murder on the Orient
Express,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Prince of
the City,” “The Verdict,” “Gloria”
and “Find Me Guilty”--has not lost the knack for making
celluloid crime pay. Now playing in
theaters
THE
DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY: Mathieu Almaric, Jean-Pierre
Cassel, Emmanuelle Seigner (Directed by Julian Schnabel; Written
by Ronald Harwood; Focus Features) It makes perfect sense that Jean-Dominique
Bauby’s stunning book, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,"
should carry the subtitle of "A Memoir of Life in Death.”
Bauby, a dynamic, articulate, happily married father of two, was
the widely admired editor-in chief of France’s Elle Magazine
in 1995 when, at the age of 44, he suffered a stroke that left him
in a coma for 20 days. It was assumed that he would never again
share thoughts and impressions with his loved ones and former colleagues.
And when he did finally awake, the only part of his body that appeared
to be functioning was his left eye. Soon, however, with the blink
of that eye, he was able to make it understood that his brain had
not been impaired. Amazingly, a system was devised by his family
and friends whereby he would blink when a particular letter of the
alphabet was read aloud to him. From there, it was a matter of his
forming words, structuring sentences and conveying the complex,
passionate ideas and images that filled his mind and then shape
them into a unique manuscript. Bauby died in 1998, just two days
after the publication of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”
It was thought that Johnny Depp, who worked with director Julian
Schnabel in "Before Night Falls," would tackle the challenging
role of Bauby, but that plan fell through. So Depp's loss is Mathieu
Almaric's gain. To
read about more new biopics, click here;
for the Variety review of "The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly," click here.
Opens in theaters on 12/19/07
 I’M
NOT THERE: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus
Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Julianne
Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michelle Williams (Directed by Todd
Haynes; The Weinstein Company) Did you ever have the feeling that
there’s something baffling, if not downright bizarre, about
legendary music man Bob Dylan? Well, the mystery may soon be cleared
up in this brazen biopic. Who's been handed the task of acting (and
singing) like Dylan in all of his shifting complexity? As it turns
out, it took at least five men and one woman to rise to the challenge:
Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Marcus
Carl Franklin and, yes, a notably curly-topped Cate Blanchett. The
women in Dylan’s life are played by Julianne Moore, Charlotte
Gainsbourg and Michelle Williams (Heath Ledger’s wife in “Brokeback
Mountain” and in real life). Director Todd Haynes, who worked
wonders with Julianne Moore in “Safe” and “Far
From Heaven,” will undoubtedly keep all of these heavyweight
performers blowin’ eloquently in the wind. To
read about many more new biopics, click here.
Opens in theaters on 11/21/07
 MARGOT
AT THE WEDDING: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh,
Jack Black, John Turturro, Ciaran Hinds, Barbara Turner (Written
and directed by Noah Baumbach; Paramount Classics) “The Squid
and the Whale” was one of the sharpest, funniest and most
moving films of 2005, and it should have won at least one Oscar--maybe
for Best Original Screenplay, for which Noah Baumbach was nominated.
Unlike the dysfunctional Brooklyn family examined in “The
Squid and the Whale,” the two sisters (Nicole Kidman and Jennifer
Jason Leigh) and one husband-to-be (Jack Black) in writer-director
Baumbach’s follow-up film dwell in upstate New York. But surely
they will be at least a little bit dysfunctional. Incidentally,
filmmaker Baumbach and actress Leigh are husband and wife in real
life, and Barbara Turner is Jennifer's mom. So I guess that makes
them a functional family. To
read the Variety review of "Margot at the Wedding,"
click here; for Guy Flatley's 2000
interview with Jack Black, click
here. Now playing in theaters
MARRIED LIFE:
Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams,
David Richmond-Peck (Directed by Ira Sachs; Written by Ira Sachs
and Oren Moverman; Focus Features) Almost without exception, divorces
are messy and extremely painful--especially for the spouse being
dumped. Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) has flipped for Kay, a hot little
number (Rachel McAdams), who is prettier and, yes, younger
than his wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson). Being a sensitive guy, Harry
dreads hurting poor old Pat. So he decides to kill her instead.
Then the situation gets complicated, thanks to the maneuvers of
a close friend of Harry’s (Pierce Brosnan), a cad who wouldn’t
know the first thing about keeping his hands off a woman, any woman.
Writer-director Ira Sachs, who won the Grand Jury prize at the 2005
Sundance Festival, adapted this dark comedy from British author
John Bingham’s “Five Roundabouts to Heaven.” Opens
in theaters on 2/22/08
 PARANOID
PARK: Gabe Nevins, Jake Miller, Taylor Momsen, Lauren
McKinney, Daniel Lui (Written and directed by Gus Van Sant) More
than any other contemporary filmmaker, Gus Van Sant seems obsessed
with telling tales of men, for the most part very young men, who
are saddled with mind-blowing stress. Sometimes they are innocent
victims of an unjust society; sometimes they are total weirdos waiting
for the right moment to pounce; and sometimes they are a blend of
the two. To see what we mean, think about the troubled males at
the center of Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My
Own Private Idaho,” “To Die For,” “Good
Will Hunting,” “Gerry,” “Elephant”
and even the remake of Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” Soon
you will be able to think about still another Van Sant study of
a boy in bad shape. This time it’s Alex (Gabe Nevins), a restless,
16-year-old skateboarder who, without bothering to buy a ticket,
hops aboard a train headed for Paranoid Park, a Portland hangout
for alienated street kids. Somewhere in transit, Alex is spotted
and pursued by a billy-club-wielding security cop. Without thinking,
Alex swiftly turns his skateboard into a lethal weapon, thereby
dumping his stalker on the fast track to eternity. The rest of Van
Sant’s story, based on the novel by Blake Nelson, may best
be described as a quirky, child-friendly American spin on Dostoevsky’s
“Crime and Punishment.” Opening
date to be announced
REDACTED:
Kel O’Neill, Ty Jones, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Izzy Diaz,
Rob Devaney, Patrick Carroll (Written and directed by Brian De Palma;
Magnolia Pictures) In 1989, director Brian De Palma shocked audiences
with “Casualties of War,” an uncompromising drama written
by David Rabe, who based his screenplay on a New Yorker article
by Daniel Lang. The true story, starring Sean Penn and Michael J.
Fox, focused on four GIs who kidnap a Vietnamese woman, rape her,
and then stab her to death. The war this time takes place in Iraq,
and, once again, the events detailed by De Palma in “Redacted”
are based on a horrific true story--the rape and murder of an Iraqi
teenager and three members of her family by four GIs. Opens
in theaters on 12/14/07
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