Hey all,
Apologies for the brief hiatus. We took a bit of time to get some behind-the-scenes work done w/ programming and to have most of the Hard Light staff visit NYFF, but we’re back and excited for our upcoming slate! This newsletter will give a brief intro to our collaboration with the University of Richmond centered around German cinema before I give some spoiler-free(ish) thoughts on the big releases and hidden gems from NYFF.
Over the next few months, we’ll be attending more film festivals and preparing for the Oscars, so there will be more reviews of new buzzy films blended in with the previews of our upcoming screenings. So even if you can’t make it to our in-person screenings, there will hopefully be something worth reading and sharing in each of our newsletters.
Hard Light Cinema at UR: Focus on German Film Series
After having multiple UR faculty attending our Hard Light screenings, we were approached with the idea of working toward bringing Hard Light to campus. I, Warner, work at the University of Richmond, so it was a match made in heaven. As a pilot program, we’re attaching our programming to a class currently being taught, in this case, a class on German film! The screenings will be a good way to show arthouse classics in a new location and dive into a specific country’s national cinema, rotating with each semester. Because the University of Richmond is a university campus, they recommend signing up for a free visitor’s pass that will allow you to park in their enormous parking lots for each event. You can sign up for a parking pass here and they’ll send it to you.
Wings of Desire (1987) – October 9th
Few films can truly feel transcendental, but Wim Wenders’s poetic masterpiece, Wings of Desire has that claim. Angels wander the world looking for love. Will they find it in the dreamy streets of 80s Berlin where history and archaic arthouse culture are around one corner and a rocking Nick Cave concert is around the next? A true immortal epic, and not just because it has Peter Falk playing himself, Wings of Desire is a film that needs to be seen and felt on the big screen.
We’re excited to bring this one, a true arthouse classic by one of the great international directors, to the city of Richmond. So join us at 7PM on October 9th in Jepson Hall, Room 118 for the beginning of our Hard Light Cinema at UR German Cinema series and prepare to yearn amongst friends.
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) – October 30th
Nosferatu the Vampyre, a Dracula riff that got its beginnings in Weimar Germany, has been adapted multiple times, most recently by horror great Robert Eggers in 2024. Here, in the 1979 adaptation, we watch beauty blended with destruction as plagues and dreams ravage the silver screen in an arthouse horror must-see. Klaus Kinski, of Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo fame, scream queen Isabelle Adjani, from Possession and The Tenant, and Werner Herzog, the prolific and effective master of fiction and documentary, team up for this beloved classic.
You may have seen the story before, but if you haven’t seen this dreary Gothic iteration, knock out that blind spot and join us at 7PM on October 30th at Jepson Hall, Room 118 for a spooky early Halloween showing of this vampire romp.
Phoenix (2014) – November 13th
Phoenix, Christian Petzold’s haunting riff on Vertigo, is the exciting capstone to our Hard Light Cinema at UR: Focus on German Film series. It’s equal parts tender and thrilling as it balances espionage and survival in post-WWII Berlin. One of Nina Hoss’s great collaborations with Petzold, Phoenix tells the story of a former cabaret singer who survived the concentration camps and returned to find those who betrayed her to the Gestapo. With scenes that will move you and keep you on the edge of your seat, Phoenix concludes with one of the 21st century’s great cinematic endings.
So join us at 7PM on November 13th in the Adams Auditorium of Boatwright Library for a spectacular night of excitement and heartache.
NYFF63 Recap and Reviews
A group of Hard Light members and other Richmond friends had the ability to go to NYFF this year to get the inside scoop on upcoming award hopefuls and arthouse films for us to license and bring to Richmond. It was a long and stressful few days where we shared an airbnb and then often split all over the city to see different films. I ended up seeing 10 NYFF films with 9 of them being new releases and the other one being a new restoration of Angel’s Egg. I also caught 7 other movies while in town, but I’ll be skipping reviews of Angel’s Egg and the rep screenings here (though you can follow me on Letterboxd here for reviews of.. everything!).
I’ll be reviewing a couple of films in order of universal appeal/perceived quality. I had a fantastic time with Jay Kelly, but I won’t put it first because my screening was obviously a stacked deck (more on that to come).
Sentimental Value – dir. Joachim Trier
My parents are about to finish paying off their 30 year old lease on my childhood home. I’m 27, so it’s the only place I’ve ever known as home. Not only does it have the entire history of my siblings and I, but my mom grew up just a few blocks away and knew someone who lived there, so she played in its bedrooms and backyard, planted a time capsule in the back yard, met my dad just three houses down, etc.
Nobody has said it yet, but none of my siblings or I want to spend our whole lives in smalltown Arkansas. When the day comes, saying goodbye to that house will be heartbreaking.
Though I have a good relationship with my family, this movie really worked for me. It’s about an artistic father played by Stellan Skarsgård with a hampered relationship with his daughters due to both physical and emotional absence over the years. Renate Reinsve, playing one of the daughters, is in a similar mode to the one she was in for The Worst Person in the World: precise in their characterization but messy, chaotic, and a bit deeper than originally anticipated. Most of the supporting cast rocks (we even get Cory Michael Smith from May December fame stealing a scene or two), but I particularly liked the relationship between Reinsve and Elle Fanning. It’s a little Persona mixed with (ironically) May December as representation inches closer to realization. The film wants to be a Bergman family drama, and the good news is that with Trier at the helm, it gets pretty dang close. I think, depending on how it gets campaigned, it has a fantastic chance at Int’l Feature, a good chance at Best Picture/Screenplay, and, if Stellan qualifies, good odds at Best Supporting Actor. Highly recommend, and if you’re planning to go to VAFF, this would probably be my choice as the objectively best film for that dreaded Friday night Sophie’s Choice.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – dir. Mary Bronstein
Back when this was the surprise hit of Sundance, I was a bit stunned. It’s a.. Sundance anxiety/horror film from a no-name director that somehow got Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, and A$AP Rocky that is this year’s A Real Pain with Oscar aspirations? A quick further glance suggests that Mary Bronstein was writing and directing from personal experience. Bronstein comes from the NYC mumblecore scene where she met her husband Ronald Bronstein, of Frownland and Safdie Brothers fame, as an actor. She took time off to parent and is returning with this Safdie-inspired parenting horror film that truly will scare most from even considering having children.
The film consists of Rose Byrne and Christian Slater caring for their child who, due to an eating disorder, requires constant care. Slater’s job has him traveling so Byrne takes up the mantle as a full-time mom and a full-time therapist. As if parenting and working wasn’t enough, their apartment suffers from a pipe bursting, so they’re living out of a local motel from hell that literally has Ivy Wolk as the night staff. The film never goes full Eraserhead and feels very Safdie-ish: complicated character makes mistakes as the audience groans and squirms with anxiety for the runtime. It tends to come in waves as you see the bad decision coming in the distance and have time to mentally prepare before the catastrophe happens (hello, hamster!) and then get a short rest to recover before the next breakdown. Balancing between Uncut Gems and The Awakening, the film explores the relationship of the mother in modern society while gambling with stakes much larger than the outcome of a 2000s basketball game.
Rose Byrne is the real star, channeling her form from the Apple TV show Physical, as she conquers the screen with comedy, anxiety, and terror–often simultaneously. She got the only standing ovation that I saw at NYFF after the movie, so I do think there will be enough critical love to earn her a Best Actress nomination. Conan and A$AP Rocky both are effective in limited roles; I hesitate to think they got enough screen-time for supporting performances, but I think Conan has an outside chance. Otherwise, I would say this film has an outside chance at a Best Picture lineup (but it could be a weaker year) and a decent chance at Original Screenplay.
Jay Kelly – dir. Noah Baumbach
I’m sorry, all. Despite my love for obscure movies in the Taiwanese New Wave or Tarkovsky, I also do love me a White Person movie like the cinema of Albert Brooks, Noah Baumbach, and Nicole Holofcener. I was emotionally prepared to like this movie, but boy was the NYFF screening the best possible way to watch the movie, so there’s not a great way to be subjective about the film.
The movie revolves around acting superstar Jay Kelly played fittingly by George Clooney in a “I promise this is a character and not just me” performance. In an attempt to earn back his daughters’ affections (there were a LOT of parent-child films at NYFF this year), he travels and contemplates his life before an upcoming film festival where he’s getting a tribute. The film is a little Millennium Actress, a little The Driver, with a lot of Wild Strawberries and The Swimmer mixed in (and not just because there are some physical resemblances between Burt Lancaster and George Clooney). Naturally, I loved this movie and the ending took my breath away. Then the credits rolled and Baumbach, Clooney, Sandler, Dern, Pat Wilson, Riley Keough, and Billy Crudup all came on stage, and I was in the second row, so it was really an unbelievable night. Baumbach typically works for me (Frances Ha was a grad school fav and Marriage Story tends to break me) but this feels like one of his better films. I put it this low in the rankings though because I know I saw it under ideal circumstances and after seeing a lot of its influences. Clooney for Best Leading Actor nom feels like a lock while Sandler has… a chance at Best Supporting Actor. I heard a lot of buzz leading in, but his role is pretty understated as “sweet affable guy” so his best chance is as a “career award” like Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Maybe in screenplay; probably in Best Score.
Sirāt – dir. Oliver Laxe
An objectively hilarious and “fun” watching experience that was somewhat ruined by the Q&A. I had heard that Sirāt was akin to Sorcerer so I was prepared for an anxiety-riddled van ride around the country. I knew it had rave music, so I was excited to see it in theaters late at night, so it would keep me awake. Otherwise? Going in completely blind. Good decision because this movie goes places that few movies dare to tread.
It’s very Sorcerer-inspired and a little Hardcore-pilled as it revolves around a protective father and son trying to “rescue” a daughter who ran away to join in raves in the middle of Morocco. It quickly becomes apparent though that the daughter may not want to leave this scene and there may be reasons that the daughter ran away in the first place. The father, played by Sergi Lopez, and son, played by Bruno Nunez, join the ravers when conflict breaks out and follow them in their van in the hunt for their family member. The movies takes some wild turns throughout, and I’m going to protect your innocence and recommend watching it for yourself, but I will prime the pump and pique your interest by saying there was a scene in the middle that made the older couple in front of me cry for 20+ minutes and made the guy next to me sit mouth agape for 4-5 minutes. It truly was an unbelievable film that had my group of the theater squirming and laughing in disbelief. What soured me on the film a bit is the director in the Q&A was a bit… pretentious and r/kino. He said his goal was to make Mad Max: Fury Road meets Sorcerer and he claimed that Tarkovsky was a huge influence, which, I don’t see it folks. That confidence matched with a weird spiel where he said something about loving countries where people wear turbans (?) and I was a lost, but the movie is worth the watch despite his comments. If you need other votes of confidence, Paul Schrader hated it (Lewis heard him coming out of the theater) because he didn’t understand raves, and Ari Aster thought it was great.
I don’t think it’ll win Int’l Feature but it may get a nom (VAFF will show me the real contenders), but I think this thing has a real chance in Best Score if it qualifies as original, because the music often carries this thing, dragging and limping, to the finish-line.
I’ll sprinkle in some more reviews of the new Linklater duo, the new Mark Jenkin, the new Radu Jude Dracula film which is a TRIP, and the new Tsai film over the next few weeks (or you can check my Letterboxd for an abbreviated review), but this newsletter is already a bit cumbersome. I hope to see some of you at the upcoming screenings (or at VAFF which Hard Light is excited to cover professionally this year). Catch ya later.
What’s Up Next?
Oct 9th: Wings of Desire at 7PM at University of Richmond.
Oct 22nd: Babylon at 7:30 at the ICA at VCU.
Oct 30th: Nosferatu the Vampyre at University of Richmond.
Hard Light Cinema 