Last Day NYFF50: 'Flight’ Brings It to a Close

“YOU’LL never have to buy another drink for the rest of your life,” a friend (John Goodman) assures “Whit” (Denzel Washington).

For about 15 minutes that looks to be true for commercial pilot William “Whit” Whitaker who safely lands a malfunctioning airplane, saving many lives in the process. He’s an immediate hero with all of the media buzz and other trappings – that is until an investigation begins into a part of his past that calls into question his judgment.

Not only are those drinks drying up – and drinking is the last thing Whit wishes to do at the moment – prison may be in his future unless his innocence can be proved. Once praised, he is now being pilloried, until such time that an “all clear” from a review board can restore his good name and hero status. (See trailer above)

This is the premise of “Flight.” It makes its world premiere tonight as the closing film of the 50th New York Film Festival. It opens in wide release in North America on 2 Nov. and continues to rollout across the world through late February 2013.

“Flight” has been getting notice for a few reasons. First, it is the first collaboration between DW and director Robert Zemeckis. Second, it is RZ’s return to the action-thriller format since “What Lies Beneath” and “Cast Away,” both from 2000.

Around NYFF50, “Flight” has produced quiet grumbles. For purists, it and others are further evidence of how commercial the festival is becoming, particularly with the departure this year of the Film Society of Lincoln Center programming director Richard Pena. The society organizes NYFF.

“Are you kidding – “Not Fade Away,” sneered one critic who did not wish to be identified in referencing the festival centerpiece directed by David Chase. He is best known for the HBO series, “The Sopranos.” Festival-opener NYFF “Life of Pi,” received tepid reviews from many, especially those who accused it of having religious undertones. That latter assertion, notwithstanding, the film is plodding. The sequences set in the present have an unreal quality and wasted the talents of Irrfan Khan.

For better or worse, “Flight” is a competent-enough film. It will likely do good business at the world box office, pleasing its producers and proving to detractors its unsuitability for certain venues on the film festival circuit.

… Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/ to learn more about the 50th New York Film Festival, including show times and ticket information.

50th NYFF Opens With Ang Lee's ‘Life of Pi’

YOU’RE literally in the middle of nowhere. You are lost a sea, the only survivor of a shipwreck.

Well, not exactly. There is another, that would just as soon have you for dinner as look at you. Not a cannibal, but a Bengal tiger. Somehow – rather surprisingly – you become allies on a whirlwind adventure. It is “Life of Pi.”

Based on the best-selling novel and directed by Ang Lee, “Life of Pi” opens the 50th New York Film Festival today. (See trailer above.) NYFF50 funs through 14 Oct. and closes with Robert Zemeckis’ “Flight.”

In “Flight,” Denzel Washington heads an ensemble cast as a pilot who does not have a Chesley Sullenberger experience after he safely lands his plane. He is accused of having alcohol in his system and faces jail time if the charges stick. (See trailer below.)


NYFF50 is an an ambitious (and uncharacteristically commercial) program, including 32 films in its “Main Slate,” a good number of which arrive at New York award winners from other festivals. On tap, too, are returning features such as “HBO Films Directors Dialogues, which is “Inside the Actors Studio,” except with directors.

Rival gangs prove to be a challenge for a bad cop in "Outrage Beyond." Photo courtesy of Celluloid Dreams.

Among those talking about process and inspiration are Abbas Kiarostami (“Like Someone in Love”) and David Chase of “The Sopranos” fame, whose feature film debut, “Not Fade Away,” is NYFF50’s “Centerpiece” selection. The film follows a group of friends in 1964 New Jersey that forms a rock band.

A good companion piece to "Directors Dialogues" is “On Cinema,” described as NYFF’s master class. For the first time, two directors, Brian De Palma and Noah Baumbach, share the stage. In addition to shoptalk will be film clips and an audience Q&A.


Always a popular feature of NYFF is the “Masterworks” series. This latest installment boasts a restored version of Laurence Olivier’s “Richard III” (1965), a screening of Pierre Chenal’s “Native Son” (1951). The “Native Son” screening will be followed by a discussion with Edgardo Krebs and journalist Stanley Crouch. Also among the 17 films in the series is the world premiere of a new version of “The Rolling Stones – Charlie Is my Darling – Ireland 1965” (1966/2012) from Peter Whitehead.

Richard Wright and Gloria Madison in "Native Son." Photo courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Among new stuff is the Midnight Movies” series of three suspense-thrillers. “The Bay” from Barry Levinson and Oren Peli involves giant insects. In Peter Strickland’s “Berberian Sound Studio,” a sound engineer is not certain whether the horror he hears is real or make-believe. A rogue cop and his intervention in clan warfare continues in Takeshi Kitano’s “Outrage Beyond,” a sequel to “Outrage.”

Another newbie is NYFF Convergence, a two-day (29 and 30 Sept.) transmedia conference that will bring together practitioners that employ multiple mediums simultaneously to tell a lone story. NYFF Convergence Panels include “Novels in New Forms (30 Sept.). Here, authors discuss the tablet computer as yet another storyteller. The audience as a character is the subject of the Workshop, “You’re Such a Character:  New Roles for Audiences in Storytelling" (30 Sept.).

In the Immersive Experiences component of NYFF Convergence, hipsters and dinosaurs are at odds on phones, the Internet and a card game in the film, McCarren Park, Parts 1 and 2. The conversation also turns to how to create a film for very little and getting noticed without a huge outlay of marketing cash (29 Sept.).

In the Film Society of Lincoln Center's ongoing effort to make NYFF as open as possible, it also offers a number of events – mainly talks and panel discussions – that are free and open to the public. Likely to attract a crowd will be Lee Daniels (“The Paperboy,” “Precious”) when he holds court at the Apple Store in Soho.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/ to learn more about the 50th New York Film Festival, including show times and ticket information.