@NYFF53 Closing Film: Traveling 'Miles Ahead' and Taking Wild Detours With Don Cheadle

Miles kin: Vincent Wilburn, Jr. (nephew), Cheryl Davis and Erin Davis (children) after the press and industry screening of "Miles Ahead." Photos by Yours Truly.

DON Cheadle and Aaron Sorkin are on the same page in their approach to the biopic.

Both are on the record, emphatically stating their lack of interest in a "cradle-to-grave” treatment.

An approach in the case of "Miles Ahead" that will surely raise hackles among those expecting the expected and grousing about what has been left out. In a work that was never meant to be exhaustive, incidentally.

“It would be done better as a documentary," DC said about that traditional approach to "Miles Ahead" during the press conference after the press and industry screening of the film, which was attended by several MD family members.

The Miles Davis biography, the closing film of the 53rd New York Film Festival, has its world premiere this evening. Not only does DH star as MD, he also directed the film and co-wrote the script.

AS gets a writer's credit on a film about another controversial, visionary cat: the eponymous “Steve Jobs,” the NYFF53 centerpiece ( http://www.bit.ly/1VLtrjv).

The ending of "Miles Ahead" features a modern-day Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, both MD collaborators. In fact, HH arranged the music for "Miles Ahead."

Implied at the end is a perpetuity that pays homage to MD's musical philosophy. It will surely set tongues a-wagging. Note the words on the back of his vest.

Both writers have delivered bios that are anything but linear. In “Miles Ahead, DC uses as a jumping-off point, MD's seclusion in his apartment once upon a time in the 70s, supposedly finishing his next album, the first in a long spell.

He is also agitating to get paid by Columbia Records while being dogged by “Rolling Stone” magazine reporter Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor), a composite character, according to DC.

Do pay attention, because the action in "Miles Ahead" does not take place sequentially. Recall that it is non-linear. A troubled man is looking back on his life, recalling triumphs and regrets.

At any given point, Miles' reminiscences may go back a few weeks, then a couple of decades, then forward a decade.

Now, forward two decades, back one, forward one, back one, back one, forward one and back two and so on.

Producer Pamela Hirsch, Vincent Wilburn, Jr. (nephew), producer Lenore Zerman and Erin Davis (son) after the press and industry screening of 'Miles Ahead."

It's as if someone is on an acid high. Credit to John Axelrad for such scythe-like editing, particularly of the boxing match scene.

Superimposed over the melee is an image of DC as MD playing his horn in a happier time. A beautiful piece of chaos in motion.

Much has been made of the fact that DC looks nothing like MD, except for coloring. Many have wondered how he would pull it off.

Well, DC – a quiet unassuming artist, has nailed MD – a tortured, talented, temperamental artist – with little makeup, a spot-on rasp and massive acting chops. Five or 10 minutes into “Miles Ahead,” DC becomes MD and it's on.

This is what good actors do. They inhabit a character and through some sleight of body only known to them, become the character right before our very eyes.

The result is a wild, sometimes wacky, fantastical thrill ride with a pulsing soundtrack.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 14: Sublime Expressions of Love, Laughter and Loss in 'Heart of a Dog'

Lolabelle is the star of "Heart of a Dog." Photo from "Heart of a Dog" Facebook page.

IT is difficult to watch “Heart of a Dog” and not leave with a smile on your face and a smirk on your heart.

Visual artist, musician, director Laurie Anderson weaves anecdotes about her beloved, rat terrier, Lolabelle,” into observations and reflections on post-911 New York City, growing up as well as sundry other matters.

The film debuts this evening at the 53rd New York Film Festival.

“Heart of a Dog” is at once a visual essay and an epic poem on the level of the Iliad. Indeed, it relies heavily on figures of speech associated with poetry – metaphors, similes, anaologies – to tell a story about love and loss via myriad avenues.

Often in “Heart of a Dog,” LA spends considerable time discussing a seemingly unrelated topic until perhaps midway she connects the dots. It's akin to freefalling on a roller coaster, then at the last minute being swept upward. It is an exhilarating thrill ride.

A major character in “Heart of a Dog,” a commissioned by Arte, is LA’s narration. Hers is the voice of a raconteur. A light night deejay. Her vocals, backed by a dreamy soundtrack, hypnotize the listener, lulling and pulling her/him in to this wonderland.

Elsewhere, the visual aides and animation – veterinary hospital scenes, New York neighborhoods, ice skaters, hawks flying overhead, document storage facilities – are quite potent, highlighting LA’s skill as a visual artist. Two mediums are at work simultaneously – one a film, the other a shifting/ever-changing painting.

Though a times this mosaic is amorphous, it is never not wonderful. Even as it veers toward the incomprehensible, "Heart of a Dog" gently wills the viewer to tag alone, promising a fascinating discovery.

The most powerful and wonderful imagery of all, however, is of the lovely, loyal, talented Lolabelle.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 13: An Unexpected Goodbye To Chantal Ackerman ('No Home Movie'); Goodbye of Another Kind in 'The Measure of a Man'

The life's work of the late Chantal Akerman revolved around her mother. Photo from Chantal Akerman Facebook page.

Expect a somber tone this evening at the 53rd New York Film Festival, owing to the recent death of director Chantal Akerman.

Her latest film, “No Home Movie,” has its U.S. premiere. CA was expected to appear at the screening.

Now, film critic Amy Taubin will introduce the film, chronicling CA’s conversations with her mother, Natalia, an Auschwitz survivor. Natalia, the subject of virtually all of CA’s work, died last year shortly after “No Home Movie” was completed.

Tonight’s mood will not be aided by Stephane Brize’s “The Measure of a Man (“La Loi du marché”).

Like “Mia Madre (“My Mother,” http://www.ow.ly/SIsbW), another NYFF53 entry, its theme is so universal and au courant that it provides no distraction for viewers looking for escape.

Making its North American debut, “The Measure of a Man” catalogs the perverse experiences of an everyday family man after he is laid off from his longtime job.

Vincent Lindon is brilliant as Thierry, a decent sort who cannot catch a break. One feels his pain in his bewildered countenance and slightly hunched shoulders. His performance is explosive in that it is quiet, controlled, contained. How much more can he take before he explodes or implodes?

Vincent Lindon as Thierry in "The Measure of a Man." Photo from "The Measure of a Man" Facebook page.

Thierry does strike back, however – striking a blow for humanity – when the indignities become too great.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 12: Adulterous Affairs Mark 'In the Shadow of Women'; Reminiscing in 'Don't Blink - Robert Frank'

Robert Frank at work in the laboratory. Photo from "Don't Blink - Robert Frank" Facebook page.


TWO films premiering this evening at the 53rd New York Film Festival concern adultery and a legendary American photographer, respectively

The latest from French director Philippe Garrel is
“In the Shadow of Women.

Meanwhile, frequent Robert Frank collaborator Laura Israel was given unprecedented access to the man in “Don’t Blink –Robert Frank.”

Both directors will stick around after the screening for a Q@A.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 11: Delightful, Insightful, Personal, Professional Scrapbook Moments in ‘Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words’

Ingrid Bergman is a woman with one main passion in "Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words." Photos from Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words Facebook page.

INGRID Bergman. What do you know about the legendary actress if you are, say, under 60?

Are you aware that her parents died when she was young? Likely you never gave a thought about this part of her life. That she loved taking pictures and shooting film, particularly home movies?

There are several generations that know virtually nothing about the Swedish actress beyond her films. After “Casablanca,” it will take a little while for many of a certain age to produce the names of several other titles in rapid succession. Well, fasten your seatbelts, Dear Readers, you’re going on a joyride.

Behind the wheel is "Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words." The Stig Bjorkman documentary premieres this evening at the 53rd New York Film Festival.

It focuses on her childhood, acting career, love affairs. Most tenderly, though, time spent with her children frolicking and generally have a merry good time.

When IB’s daughter Isabella Rossellini was diagnosed with scoliosis, this often absent mother took off a couple of years to care for her. She left her first husband Peter for her second husband, Roberto Rossellini. In the process, she was forced to abandon her first daughter, Pia Lindstrom, for a few years.

"Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words" is so intimate, it could be an autobiography if the subject were still alive. Yards of film footage shot by IB herself is a major part of the film.

It also relies on letters to her childhood friends. Further, the intimacy is aided massively because SB had access to IB’s four children. All appear in the film.

"Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words" forms a portrait of a somewhat complicated, but decent woman who follows her dreams, sometimes to the detriment of others. In fact, many have groused about what the film fails to tell, depending on which rumor mill one is sourcing. Her reported myriad affairs with costars is glossed over, critics charge.

The most damning criticism so far has been about her mothering. In short, she is accused of being a bad mother. The basis for this charge is her sometimes long absences from her children when she was shooting a film or performing in the theater.

There are, too, those occasions when she left her children to be with one man or the other. These were things that just weren't done by women in the 50s. Even today, women are held to this double standard.

However, Pia’s own words should silence those standing in furious judgment. “The only thing that I think any of her children feel is that we wished we had more of her.”

Ingrid's girls: Twins Ingrid and Isabella Rossellini and Pia Lindstrom at a premiere of "Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words" in Sweden.

Viewers will wish they had more of "Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words."

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 10:On the Road With 'Microbe and Gasoline' and Loving Every Mile of the Ride; Nothing Really Special About 'Maggie's Plan'

Theo (Theophile Baquet) and Daniel (Ange Dargent) have to avoid trouble on the road in "Microbe & Gasoline. Photos from "Microbe & Gasoline" Facebook page.

WATCHING a coming-of-age-movie is always a tricky proposition. The viewer never knows what s/he is going to get. It can be insultingly shallow, puerile, gross. It can also be intelligent and thoughtful.

Thankfully, Michel Gondry’s “Microbe & Gasoline” (“Microbe et Gasoil”) is the latter. The film has its U.S.
premiere today at the 53rd New York Film Festival.

Microbe/Daniel (Ange Dargent) and Gasoline/Theo (Theophile Baquet) are like a Reese’s peanut butter cup. The whole is greater than its parts. Both are outcasts. Microbe, because he is diminutive compared with his classmates. Gasoline, because he reeks of petrol and is the new kid in school.

In each other they recognize brilliance and a kindred spirit. The boys bond almost instantly.

MG, an Academy Award winner for the screenplay of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” wrote the script. As in that film, in “Microbe & Gasoline” he employs touches of the fantastical.

The boys not only build a car that looks like a small house, they – unbeknownst to their parents – embark on a roadtrip in it. How they avoid an encounter with the police is the stuff of pure fantasy!

Myriad adventures – sad, surreal, funny, potentially dangerous – await.

The best part of the film, however, is the sparkling dialogue between Daniel and Theo when they are building the house-car and when they are riding in it. Here is a buddy film for the intellectual set.

Theo (Theophile Baquet) and Daniel (Ange Dargent) are ready to rock and roll in "Microbe & Gasoline.

MG has said he is drawn to emotions, and they inform much of the conversation between scientific-minded Theo and artistic Daniel who is experiencing existential crises, including puppylove. The young actors take to the dialogue like a duck to water, fiercely owning the words coming out of their mouths. Their exchanges have nuance and depth often lacking in characters their age.

“Microbe & Gasoline” is a coming-of-age film that has wide appeal.

'Maggie's Plan' Doesn't Exactly Grab Me

Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in "Maggie's Plan." Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

IT’S a harmless, offbeat, not particularly interesting romantic comedy set in New York City.

What else to say about “Maggie’s Plan,” the latest from director Rebecca Miller who also wrote the script?

It has its U.S. premiere tonight at the 53rd New York Film Festival.

From an original work by Karen Rinaldi, it stars Greta Gerwig as the title character, winning as a Managing Miss who greets the world with near wide-eyed wonder

Ethan Hawke (John) is credibly clueless as the man volleyed between Maggie and Georgette, a cold, superior, dismissive, self-centered, self-possessed, superstar anthropology professor at Columbia University. She is portrayed by Julianne Moore, speaking in a superfluous, vaguely Eastern European accent.

All three work in academia, actually.

Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore in "Maggie's Plan."

Maggie’s plan: return John to Georgette. He left the latter – the mother of his first two children – for the former because he was not getting enough love, support and understanding. Maggie’s wants no more of him because after he gives her a child he seems to have no more LSU.

It is this quagmire and GG's performance that are the only interesting aspects of the film, saving it from utter tedium. An honorable mention is that Maggie is not cast in the role of homewrecker; John gets and deserves that dubious honor.

Maggie’s plan initially works, then sputters, backfires and finally rights itself. All and sundry return to co-parenting.

The end, thankfully.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

@NYFF53 Day 8: In ‘Where To Invade Next’ Michael Moore Goes Gallivanting, Reclaiming American Ideas That Are Making Others Great

Michael Moore goes flag-planting in "Where to Invade Next. Photo courtesy of Dog Eat Dog Films.

IN searching for flowers instead of leaves, Michael Moore travels mainly across Europe to ascertain where to invade next.

“Where To Invade Next,” having its U.S. premiere tonight at the 53rd New York Film Festival, is also his latest documentary. The title has to be an intentional misnomer. The provocative filmmaker had to know that most minds were going to go in the direction of war.

In this scathing, surprisingly coherent and often funny indictment of U.S. public policy, MM travels to country after country where the government has embraced with a great degree of success ideas (flowers) that originated in our great nation.

Ideas and ideals that we have abandoned in the name of the almighty U.S. dollar to the detriment of our country and culture. Ideas and ideals he’d like to bring back, inspiring MM to plant the American flag in these lands – the invasion, if you will.

It’s a crying shame.

The Fins credit the U.S. in part for the success of their education system. Norway borrowed a leaf from our constitution in not imposing cruel and usual punishment on its citizens, the prison population included.

Killers roam free on the prison grounds, which could be mistaken for a country club. They have flatscreen televisions, well-stocked and well-maintained libraries.

Prison guards are not armed. Prisoners handle sharp objects such as knives. They retain their voting rights. Killers, rapists, robbers – scum, right? The goal is to reform, not enslave the individual.

Iceland, the first country in the world to democratically elect a female head of state, was inspired by our example of a women’s liberation movement several decades before. Numerous countries adopted our May Day, a day that workers have off unlike here.

On and on it goes. Though "Where to Invade Next" is MM's most lighthearted doc, it is also the most troubling, for it reveals a multitude of our sins. Occasionally, MM allows public officials, public servants, students and ordinary citizens to look into his camera and tell us what they really think about our policies.

Talking points include the criminalization (just say no) of drugs, how to educate our children (enough already with all of that homework and standardized testing) and how we must treat each other humanely; adopt a posture of "we" instead of "me."

Anticipating the critics who will rightly point out that he only focuses on a lone good aspect of these countries, MM emphatically stated that this is the job of their respective citizenry and journalists since he isn't well-versed about the problems of other nations.

He is, he asserted, telling an American story. One he managed without filming a single frame on American soil, he revealed during the press conference after the press and industry screening of the film. (See videos throughout this article).

As a country we have much to do and much to answer for “Where To Invade Next” posits – from the aforesaid, to the state of our education system from pre-K through higher education, to the rise of the food industrial complex, to the pitiful state of the American worker.

What in tarnation are we getting right, Yours Truly, asked MM? Surely, the Michigan native will be taken to task, too, for only airing our national shortcomings. Well, there is rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop and massive cereal choices.

Seriously, Michael, is that all?

“We elected Barack Obama over John McCain. That was a good idea, I think," he said to applause. "That saved us a little bit.”

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

NYFF53 Day 4: Any and Everything Goes in ‘The Forbidden Room’; ‘Mountains May Depart,’ or When Capitalism First Knocked in China

A scene from "The Forbidden Room." Photo from "The Forbidden Room" Facebook page.

MAN, what a trip!

“The Forbidden Room” from Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson is a mind-numbing ride through a fragmented world of absurd silliness. It premieres tonight at the 53rd New York Film Festival.

“The Forbidden Room” is also wonderfully coherent in an incoherent way. A patchwork of old, discarded silent and sound films as well as other found objects, it veers wildly and widely from men trapped underwater in a submarine to a woman captured by a bunch of savage men.

The damsel’s salvation, it initially appears, is in the hands of lumberjacks. It is perhaps the lumberjack leader who turns up out of nowhere in the aforementioned submarine.

Think of “The Forbidden Room” as stream-of-consciousness writing.

Elsewhere, a man illustrates how to bathe. A young woman is gifted a homely, two-headed Janus by her intended. She is not pleased. And other oddities ...

“It thrills me to get cheap-ass effects up there that other people might embrace,” co-director GM almost cooed during a press conference after a press and industry screening of the film. “The Forbidden Room” came about, GM, gave the room to know, as a proof that a film can be created from the flotsam and jetsam of the Internet.

The directors have made a treasure out of their foraging and trashing about. “The Forbidden Room” is a piece of brilliant, controlled chaos.

Also today, in its U.S. premiere, is Jia Zhangke’s “Mountains May Depart.”

It is China 1999. The Internet is arriving. Mobile phones, too. The Chinese are enjoying new-found freedoms. Dancing to their own tune and generally expressing themselves in heretofore unseen ways.

Capitalism is coming. Many are embracing this new god. Those who don’t are left behind – sometimes forgotten. But capitalism has a cost, of course. Much can be lost in the quest for Dollar.

“Mountains May Depart” makes these points in mainly subtle, but sure ways. It is a cautionary tale about discarding one’s past and identity for an uncertain future.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.

NYFF53 Opening Day: Papal Visit Delays ‘The Walk’ But Not ‘The Truth Box’ and Other Tales

Don Cheadle as Miles Davis in "Miles Ahead." Photo from "Miles Ahead" Facebook page.

NO mincing words. You are a liar. Now, tell the truth.

That is what participants will be asked to do when they step into “The Truth Box,” a travelling, truth-telling booth that is part of a larger project called “The (Dis)Honesty Project.”

The Truth Box is one of the hottest tickets today, the first day of the 53rd New York Film Festival, which features other installations in its Convergence category, as well as some classic films. All are free today, "Free Friday. The last day of NYFF53 is 11 Oct.

In The Truth Box, participants are invited (challenged?) to simply be honest about a previous lie. Collaborators behavioral scientist Dan Ariely and director Yael Melamede began The Truth Box and other parts of “The (Dis)Honesty Project” as an exploration of the negative societal impacts of dishonesty.

It is somehow fitting that such an installation opens during the visit of Pope Francis. The papal visit is also responsible for the delay in presenting the festival’s opening film. No doubt, the Holy Father would like to hear from any number of people from the confines of a truth box.

This opening day is one of the few in NYFF history that the opening film will not be shown. The world premiere of Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk” begins at 6 p.m. on Saturday (26 Sept.).

“The Walk” recounts the run-up to and that actual death-defying, high-wire feat of Philippe Petit's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center some 40 years ago. It is shown in 3D and is said to have the ability to cause nausea in some viewers.

Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert in "Drums Along the Mohawk." Archive photo.

The NYFF53 closer is a film about another New York-based, real-life episode that unfolded in the 70s. In "Miles Ahead," which has its world premiere on 10 Oct., Don Cheadle wears three hats as director, actor (titular character) and writer to capture an angst-ridden period in the life of trumpeter Miles Davis.

Elsewhere under Convergence, where stories are told across platforms and are largely interactive, is “Temping” from Michael Rau. It seems to present a portrait of machines replacing man (or woman, in this case). Actuary Sarah Jane is on vacation and “performing” her duties are a PC, laser printer and other office equipment.

Also playing on NYFF53 opening day is a series of classic films, including “Wild River,” “Drums Along the Mohawk” and “All that Jazz.”

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.