Artificial (c) NEON
The New York Film Festival ended yesterday, and if we judge it as a preview of what might get Academy Award nominations, this year’s edition seems to be a success as almost every film I saw was good enough to get nominations. Here are some quick reviews and the hopefuls’ Oscar chances.
Film: Artificial
In Cinemas December 25
One the big world premieres of the festival was Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, which focused on the creator of OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov) and how CEO Sam Altman (Andrew Garfield) has exploited it without sufficient guardrails or ethical concerns. The film was originally produced by Amazon, but they dropped it because of conflicts with the company’s own investments with AI, and is now being released by NEON. It certainly is a wake-up call for us laypeople, which may be too late to stop how AI is taking over our lives. The script by Simon Rich makes it all digestible, but also rather unexciting and clinical, so Guadagnino’s frenetic direction and the higher-pitch acting style of the cast seems to add some urgency. Borisov, who was good in Anora, plays Ilya as a robotic Mark Zuckerberg with (thankfully) some ethical and moral compass, while Garfield might win his first Oscar as the always eager-to-please Altman with an obsessive need to succeed and get rich. Mark Rylance and Monica Barbaro have good moments as Ilya’s confidants. Unfortunately, Ike Barinholtz believes that crinkling his brow is all it takes to become Elon Musk, which, in the hands of a more dramatic actor, might have provided a fascinating meeting of the megalomaniacs between Altman and Musk. Still, this will be the talk of the Oscar season.
Possible Love (c) Netflix
Film: Possible Love
In Cinemas October 23, Streaming on Netflix Nov 6
Although beloved by the film community, Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s austere films have never been embraced by the Oscars. This could change with Possible Love, his most accessible film, which deals with the budding friendship between a well-to-do couple and a working class one. Expanding on his theme of disparity between the haves and the haves-nots in his brilliant 2018 film, Burning, Possible Love plays it safer but still cuts deep with the unfair inequity that was also explored in fellow Korean directors Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and, of course, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) was part of a massive lay-off at the factory, in which, as the film begins, is at the memorial service of a fellow worker who committed suicide. Also there is Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), an aspiring filmmaker who wants to make a documentary about Korea’s blue-collar workers. Thinking Ho-seok would be the perfect subject for her film, she begins a friendship with his wife Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon, as excellent here as she was in her Best Actress Cannes win for Lee’s 2007’s Secret Sunshine). It is through Mi-ok’s eyes we witness the jealousy and envy she has for Ye-ji’s life, especially her handsome and rich businessman husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). At almost three hours, Possible Love may feel daunting, but it’s the perfect introduction to Lee’s languid but always biting narrative. And if there’s any justice, not only will it get a Best International Feature nom, but Lee gets his first Best Director nod and Jeon Do-yeon enters the Best Actress Oscar conversation.
Fjord (c) NEON
Film: Fjord
In Cinemas
This year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival went to Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, his second after winning in 2007 for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Day.,” Fjord stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a deeply religious couple who move from Romania to Norway with their five children. When the teachers at the school see bruises on one of the daughter’s face and back, they call child services after she admits her parents are physical in their punishment. The problem is that the kids speak Romanian, the school speaks Norwegian and their only common language is English, so something might have been lost in translation. The policy is to believe and protect children, so they are placed in foster homes, which horrifies the parents, especially since their youngest is a newborn, still being breast-fed. Based on a real case, the fate of the children heads to court as church members protest, saying the parents are being targeted for their beliefs. Mungiu treats both sides as valid but also alarming, focusing on the government possibly overstepping boundaries with such rigid policies, but also a family using religion as an excuse for violence. I found this all absorbing, even though some critics believe this glorifies the MAGA-style “trad family” movement. My one problem is that one major question was never asked of the daughter, neither by social service nor the parents: “Where did the bruises come from?” That would make Fjord a shorter movie, but at least more competent. Sure to be on the Oscar Long List of International Features nominees.
Tender Loving Care (c) Bleecker Street
Film: Tender Loving Care
In Cinemas December 4
Actress Kate O’Flynn recently won an Emmy for playing Patricia, the oddly antisocial New England mayor’s assistant in Widow’s Bay —and most fans of the show were surprised to find out she’s British. She now stars in Mike Leigh’s latest (and possibly last) film, Tender Loving Care, as an outwardly cheerful, children’s social worker, Amy, who at the start of the movie has finally dumped her loser boyfriend and moved back in with her best friend Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson), also a social worker, but for adults. Although happy for her freedom and this sisterhood escape, Amy has to face the fact that she may never find the right man, settle down and have babies, which she knows will upset her elderly parents, Birdie (Marion Bailey) and Geoff (Paul Jesson). But both she and Rose are also dealing with bureaucratic red tape and dwindling funding for social services, so much so that they can’t do anything for the people they are assigned to help. Leigh is very sharp with his snapshot of the welfare of the lower class—and I was thinking the film would be an indictment of the government’s inability to help the helpless since, as one character tartly reminds us, Margaret Thatcher. But then a health scare in Amy’s family turns the film focus to how some people are lucky to have family provide Tender Loving Care when times get tough. If this is Leigh’s last film, it will be a gentle capper to a career that includes such masterpieces as Topsy Turvy, Secrets & Lies and Naked. The way Leigh makes his films is to work with a group of actors to create characters before shaping a plot around them. The actors here are excellent, with the popular O’Flynn being the obvious stand-out to possibly get some Oscar love, but veteran Bailey is both stoic and heartbreaking as Amy’s mother. Leigh’s screenplay will also most likely get a nomination.
Misty Green (c) A24
Film: Misty Green
In Cinemas
Misty Green is Chris Rock’s fourth movie as a director, and it may be his most assured and serious film. So, it’s a bit of a letdown that the film’s trajectory for the titular character gets muddled and filled with clichés by the third act. Until then, the movie focuses on the most stressful week in the life of Misty Green (a starmaking performance by Brit Rosalind Eleazar), an Emmy Award-winning actress who has hit hard times after burning too many bridges in Hollywood, which her friend describes as living the life of a Lil Wayne song. She has to move out of her beautiful apartment, she has been reduced to auditioning via self-tape for stereotypically black women roles (i.e., drug addicted hoes) and her clinically bipolar brother (Daniel Kaluuya) unexpectedly returns to her life. But there does seem to be a silver lining when she bumps into Jordan Green (no relation), a director, played by Rock himself, with whom she once worked on a film she was fired from. Jordan is (oddly) directing a new version of Dreamgirls, and Misty would be perfect for the role of Deena Jones (everyone keeps calling her the lead, which is total Effie White erasure). Can she keep things together enough to audition for a role that could turn her fate around? Misty feels to me like a variation of Pam Grier’s fierce but vulnerable performance as Jackie Brown, who thankfully had enough smarts to break out from all the bad luck that had befallen her. Unfortunately, as things start to look up for Misty Green, Rock reduces her fate to the same type of racist and sexist stereotypes he satirized earlier. The film is populated with wonderful actors like Topher Grace, Tracie Thoms, Adam Driver and Anna Kendrick, but it truly is Eleazar, even with the film’s tonal shift, who is a force of nature, that most people will be buzzing about.
Iron Boy (c) Sony Pictures Classics
Film: Iron Boy
Opens in Cinemas January 22, 2027
The first film I saw of the festival was probably the least well-known. French director Louis Clichy has worked on some Pixar films, but for Iron Boy, his first solo film, he decided against computer animation for a more traditionally hand-drawn option. The film, which is not a prequel to any Robert Downey Jr. movie, is a memory journey of young Christophe, who is in grade school and wants to help on the family farm with his father and older brother. But something strange is happening to him. In one of the best animated sequences of the film, Christophe’s head occasionally tilts, making him fall, when walking, biking or on the farm’s tractor. He is diagnosed with a misaligned spine, which requires him to wear an iron brace for the foreseeable future. His anger soon gets misdirected to his family, especially his father, whose own anger spills out as he’s also dealing with financial problems. What finally gets Christophe out of his own head is a serendipitous meeting with the church organist who decides to take him on as his apprentice and teach him music. (I cosign the film’s theme of art as a healing force.) The French voice cast is universally excellent, so if given the choice, opt for the original language as the film’s aesthetics is definitely colored with that sensibility. Iron Boy could get some Oscar love if Sony Pictures Classics decides to push it for Best Animated Feature this year.
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