“Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold”
Synopsis: Across more than 50 years of essays, novels, screenplays, and criticism, Joan Didion has been a premier chronicler of the ebb and flow of America’s cultural and political tides with observations on her personal — and our own — upheavals, downturns, life changes, and states of mind.
What You Need To Know: Few writers have been as influential as the magnificent and masterful Joan Didion. After gaining fame from her reporting and essays, Didion fashioned herself into a cultural touchstone and forged one of the most impressive careers of any living literary figure. But alongside her adventures, was the tragic death of her husband and daughter in the span of a year, a trauma she somehow managed to sculpt into some of her most insightful and moving writing. Aside of herself being a fascinating and private character, Didion’s life has always seemed wildly gripping, and thus worth examining. The unknown quantity here is director Griffin Dunne, whose career behind the camera has been — to put it nicely — lackluster (as a director he’s probably best known for “Movie 43,” which, unlike its title suggests, is nothing like a movie). He is, however, the notoriously press-shy Didion’s nephew, which will hopefully offer a level of intimacy that others might not have been afforded.
“Arthur Miller: Writer”
Cast: Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Kushner
Synopsis: Rebecca Miller, the daughter of Arthur Miller, crafts a deeply personal portrait of her father, one of the great American playwrights, and the things that destroyed him: the Red Scare and the death of his one-time wife, Marilyn Monroe.
What You Need To Know: The mere prospect of a documentary about Arthur Miller by his documentary-filmmaker daughter has sold our ticket simply on the premise of the intimacy. But word so far about the film, which premiered at Telluride, has been mostly glowing. Not only does Rebecca Miller dive into the devastating personal life of her father over the course of 25-years (!) of interviews prior to his 2005 death, but in the process she manages to craft a portrait of the fragility of the human spirit. The film, then, more or less fills in the emotional reality of a personal life that has been thoroughly excavated by the public — especially when Miller was married to the gravitational force that was Monroe.
“Wonderstruck”
Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds
Synopsis: A boy in 1977 runs away to New York after the death of his mother and a girl in 1927 runs away to meet her idol, and their lives begin to be mysteriously connected.
What You Need To Know: Admittedly, we paused when we found out Todd Haynes (a Playlist favorite) was adapting a YA novel, but sometimes you just gotta have faith. Haynes, after all, has rarely let us down, and, more often, he has blown us away. While some consider him to be a provocative, subversive filmmaker, labeling him as such misses so much of the beauty and nuance that he invests in his wildly tender and luscious films. In truth he is one of the most balanced and rounded filmmakers working today and any new film from him is one we eagerly await. And “Wonderstruck” is no different. While it doesn’t hit the highs of his magnificent “Carol” (our 4th favorite movie of 2015), our B+ review out of Cannes said, “Haynes has made a lovely wish-fulfillment movie, and you do not have to believe it, to be struck by wonder.” Plus, this trailer has done nothing but whet our appetite for Haynes’ latest.
“The Florida Project”
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of despairing poverty, a young girl and her friends find magic and a sense of adventure rummaging through a depleted neighborhood while her mother spirals down into a bottomless pit of financial distress.
What You Need to Know: Sean Baker devastated audiences with the incredibly poignant “Tangerine” back in 2015. Now, the 46 -year-old director follows up his breakout success with 2017 Cannes Film Festival darling “The Florida Project — a film that we at The Playlist awarded an “A” grade for being “an intensely felt palimpsest of joy and despair,” one that unearths true “hidden treasure” in the midst of a deeply-felt display of poverty.
Honorable Mentions
There’s not just screenings in New York, the dialogues and conversations the festival hosts are hot tickets too. This year’s highlight’s include: a masterclass talk between the legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (“Apocalypse Now“) and equally-venerable DP Ed Lachman (“Carol“); conversations with Richard Linklater and Kate Winslet; and a secretive “special evening with” Ava DuVernay that includes guests the festival hasn’t shared yet. Other films of note include “Three Music Films” by actor/director Mathieu Amalric,” the Bob Dylan doc, “Trouble No More” (focusing on his “reborn” 1980s period), “Mrs. Hyde” with Isabelle Huppert, and Robin Campillo‘s celebrated gay rights drama, “BPM (Beats Per Minute).”
Additional movies to watch are Lucrecia Martel‘s “Zama,” Claire Denis‘ “Let the Sun Shine In,” two Hong Sang-soo pictures (“On the Beach at Night Alone” and “The Day After“), Alain Gomis‘ “Félicité,” Agnès Varda‘s “Faces Places,” and “BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat.” There’s also a terrific Revivals section, featuring films by Jean-Pierre Melville, Andrei Tarkovsky and more. Here’s the Full lineup: the Main Slate, Documentaries, Special Events and Talks. There is literally something for everyone.
— Rodrigo Perez, Will Ashton, Lena Wilson, Eli Fine, Gary Garrison, Kyle Kohner.
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