Film: Reviews and Previews of Some of the Films at the 64th Annual New York Film Festival, Which Starts This Weekend

(c) The Interested Bystander 

Do you smell it? It’s in the air. New York City intelligentsia are descending on the Upper West Side to see all the buzzy films from auteur directors or some projected Oscar nominees for later this year. It’s always fun to be in the lobby of the many theaters in the Film at Lincoln Center complex (as well as select theaters in the other boroughs, like at BAM and MoMI) hearing people’s reaction to films they’ve already seen and the ones they’re looking forward to. 

Like most film festivals, New York screenings always have long lines of people either seeing a film or hoping to get the seat of a ticket holder who cancels. The films chosen by the FLC crew, with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim this year include many of the top titles shown at other festivals, and a couple of world premieres like the Centerpiece Film, Behemoth, directed by Tony Gilroy and starring Pedro Pascal, and Closing Night Film’s 14th, the documentary follow-up to 13th by Ava DuVernay, about how the 14th Amendment affects African-Americans. 

Theater Reviews: David Greenspan Shines in a Revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love”; Sarah Jones Expertly Examines “Who Hurt You, America?”; and a Fearless (and Naked) Actor Tackles the “Classic Penguin” Oeuvre of Books

The Invention of Love (c) Paul Lutvak

Theater: The Invention of Love 
At TheaterLab 

The Invention of Love is the late Tom Stoppard’s only play with a gay theme, and when it opened on Broadway in 2001, it got a respectable run as well as Tony Awards for the actors (Richard Easton and Robert Sean Leonard) playing the younger and older versions of its main character, poet A. E. Housman. When the play begins, Housman has died, and befitting a classicist scholar, he is traveling the river Styx towards Hades. Stoppard’s play lost the Tony Award that year to David Auburn’s Proof, which coincidentally was revived this year. So, having the chance to revisit both plays, I came to the same conclusion I had 25 years ago: The Invention of Love is the better written play while Proof is more emotionally resonant. Invention has Stoppard’s typical intellectually elliptical dialogue and themes, but it would have benefited from a demonstration of the love in its title and less of the theoretical, poetic analysis of it. In the new barebones, but very intimate, production at TheaterLab, enjoyably directed by Zachary Elkind, Stoppard’s witty conversations really take center stage, making the audience swim in early 19th century British discourse on classic literature with a good five-minutes spent on the placement of a comma. 

The Interested Bystander’s Oscar Predictions: September 2026

La Bola Negra (c) Netflix

As we head out of the Fall Film Festivals, the awards chatter has begun, and the big question is if Christopher Nolan and repeat his success with Oppenheimer with his box office champ, The Odyssey. As of right now, there is no film as big as that summer hit coming for the rest of the year (I don’t think Avengers: Doomsday will make it to Best Picture), but there’s a chance for Dune: Part Three, the conclusion to Denis Villeneuve’s successful trilogy. Or will a smaller movie take Oscar glory, like Festival hits like All of a Sudden, La Bola Negra and Being Heumann (whose director Siân Heder’s last film, CODA was one of those smaller films that captured Oscars’ heart). The only sure thing is John Williams will be nominated for his last score for a Steven Spielberg movie, Disclosure Day. After that, anything goes. 

Here are my early predictions of who I think might have a chance for Oscars next year. A third of these will be gone from my list come December when the frontrunners start to pull ahead. Enjoy. 

Film Reviews: This Week, “Practical Magic” Is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Family Trauma, “Hope” Is a Thing with Claws and “The Uprising” Is a Historical Recreation of Collective Anger

Practical Magic 2 (c) Warner Bros Pictures

Film: Practical Magic 2 
In Cinemas 

I don’t remember the original 1998 Practical Magic that well, but don’t worry, the sequel will do its best to remind you with many callbacks meant to make fans coo: “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson and songs by witchy icon Stevie Nicks are on the soundtrack, people blow candles on and an unlucky bloke gets hit by a car. And just like that, we are back with the Owens sisters. Sally (Sandra Bullock) is just trying to live a simple life as a librarian, who, like Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, has turned off the witchy force inside her, and while Gillian (Nicole Kidman) is still doing some practical magic, she has promised not to tell Sally’s daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), that not only are they from a family of witches, they are also cursed to have anyone they fall in love with die. That last tidbit really should have been revealed as Kylie has fallen in love with her classmate (Xolo Maridueña), and when something bad happens, she feels betrayed and takes matters into her own hands as a novice witch with an evil spells book, straight out of Marvel's WandaVision. If there’s a reason for this film to exist, it is to see the two lead actresses (as well as Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as their aunts) giving great women-supporting-women vibe. But, nothing else really works, including a lot of corny dialogue that falls flat or people doing silly things for the plot to work, including Kylie just announcing she has a cursed book in her possession. The humor is also awkward, such as a running joke with Gillian and Sally having big suitcases to lug around. Would they even pack if they’re rushing to save Kylie from danger? Yet, this is still a comforting warm sweater of a film, directed by Susanne Bier, reuniting with her Bird Box star, and when the plot isn’t butting in, it’s just nice to see everyone in that house again. The best addition to the cast is Lee Pace as a British professor with an interest in witches, but even he has some of the silliest things to say, including one bit about molecules that is painful. Also, please watch this film at AMC Theaters so you can watch the promo where Kidman talks about cinema being a place for magic before she performs some of her own.