By: Henry J. Fromage –
I don’t know if I can find a throughline for my NYFF flicks today- perhaps performance and the revealing of self it entails?
751. A Long Winter
Fred Hechinger plays the lead in Andrew Haigh’s latest- a young man with homosexual proclivities, perhaps, but one whose identity questions are more tied up in where he fits in the family dynamics between his somewhat harsh father (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and his free-spirited alcoholic mother (Caitriona Balfe) who just walks off one day with the family dog, just before a Coloradan snowstorm passes through. This is a handsomely mounted, well-acted period piece, as one would well expect from Haigh, but one whose ultimate aims prove elusive. Three Beers.
752. The Debut
Jesse Eisenberg expands his directorial palette with this hilarious comedy about performance and self-actualization that focuses on a just superb Julianne Moore as a suburban housewife who finds new and terrifying horizons when she lucks into a big part in a New Jersey community theater production of a fictional piece Eisenberg gives comedic life to. Moore and Paul Giamatti as her task-driving director are simply magnetic as they tailor this meek woman into more of a star of the stage than perhaps either were prepared for. Two Beers.
