Joe Blessing, Author at The Playlist

‘You Resemble Me’: A Devastating Portrayal Of Personal Trauma & Social Alienation [Venice Review]

September 9, 2021 11:47 am

A devastating portrayal of how personal trauma and social alienation can lead to national tragedy, “You Resemble Me” attempts to look beyond the sensationalized headlines to find the humanity in Hasna Aït Boul...

Giving Life to a Lost Community in ‘Three Minutes – A Lengthening’ [Venice Review]

Joe Blessing

September 4, 2021 5:04 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

A poetic meditation on film, history, and loss, “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” gives a glimpse into a lost world and then unpacks just how much can be learned from that brief fragment. While on a grand ...

‘Azor’: Andreas Fontana’s Debut Is A Fascinating Look At Wealth & Power Through Conversation [ND/NF Review]

Joe Blessing

May 14, 2021 2:01 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

The story of a Swiss banker traveling Argentina during the junta, “Azor” takes place in the cloistered world of private banking. A world one is often born into, with special codes of conduct and dialect,...

‘Liborio’: Nino Martínez Sosa’s Debut Is A Moving Drama About Belief [ND/NF Review]

Joe Blessing

May 14, 2021 11:27 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

“Liborio” invites viewers to the birth of a religion and asks them if they would believe. Based on a historical figure, albeit one with the dimensions of a folk hero, “Liborio” is set in the countryside o...

‘Bipolar’: A Lobster-Loving Road Trip across China [ND/NF Review]

Joe Blessing

May 10, 2021 4:17 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Road movies prime their audience to expect the unexpected – part of the point of the genre is for the protagonist’s expectations to be thwarted and for their journey to take a few extra twists and turns along ...

‘Aleph’: A Borges-Inspired Odyssey Around the Globe [ND/NF Review]

Joe Blessing

May 7, 2021 3:18 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

A consummate man of letters, Jorge Luis Borges frequently receives the vague honorific of being a ‘writer’s writer,” often a fancy way of saying that his work is too complicated to adapt to film. Borges’ fasci...

‘The Truffle Hunters’: A Beautiful, Immersive Search For Flavor In The Forests Of Italy [NYFF Review]

Joe Blessing

October 8, 2020 11:40 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

“The Truffle Hunters” takes viewers deep in the forests of Northern Italy to watch as elderly men and their indispensable dogs participate in the tradition of sniffing out the elusive white Alba truffle. Belo...

‘Smooth Talk’ & The Dark Side Of Attraction: Unpacking Female Perspectives In The Laura Dern-Starring Overlooked ’85 Classic [NYFF]

Joe Blessing

September 27, 2020 9:00 am

Festivals, Interviews, News, Reviews

As Hollywood tries to balance the enormous gender disparity among directors, many critics and audiences are looking back with added respect on past works of female filmmakers, trying to reframe traditional not...

‘The Tango Of The Widower’: Nightmares Come To Life In Raúl Ruiz’s Rediscovered First Film [NYFF Review]

Joe Blessing

September 23, 2020 11:48 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

With the indispensable aid of his widow and collaborator Valeria Sarmiento, the prolific Raúl Ruiz has given the world another film from beyond the grave. That might seem strange for some directors, but this ...

Director Steve McQueen & Cast Discuss ‘Lover’s Rock’: “An Image of Freedom” [NYFF]

Joe Blessing

September 18, 2020 12:54 pm

Interviews, News

Like most aspects of life, the New York Film Festival looks a little different this year, switching to a mostly virtual format in light of the pandemic. While this will limit the chances for the film community...

Author Joe Blessing