Since 1972, New York City’s Film At Lincoln Center and the Museum Of Modern Art have presented a unique annual program highlighting new voices in film. Their joint venture, New Directors/New Films, has featured up-and-coming directors who’ve become major artists, including Chantal Akerman, Gregg Araki, Bong Joon Ho, Charles Burnett, Guillermo del Toro, Nicole Holofcener, Steven Spielberg, Jane Schoenbrun, Wong Kar Wai, and many, many others. Experimentation and innovation is this spring festival’s focus, and no two films are remotely close in style or substance.
This year’s 55th edition of New Directors/New Films offers an exciting lineup from around the world, ranging from quiet family dramas to an absurdist comedy about eating disorders. Running from April 8 to April 19, there are plenty of films to choose from, including Leviticus, a queer coming-of-age horror that was one of the buzziest titles out of Sundance, the time-traveling puzzle Chronovisor, an experimental fractured narrative set in Mexico City’s underground scene called Cold Metal, and the mournful beauty of grief and homesickness in the Tibetan American family of Next Life. After getting a look at some of the movies at the festival, here are the ones we can vouch for:
Maddie’s Secret
Comedian-turned-director John Early’s feature debut Maddie’s Secret is an unconventional comedy that’s both hilariously offbeat and surprisingly tender. Early plays the main character Maddie, in drag, as she takes a chance on her career as an aspiring chef and makes the jump from dishwasher to food influencer through popular cooking videos for her company. But as she’s adapting to the content creation world, the pressure of newfound fame and comments about her weight take a toll, aggravating her bulimia and risking her health. With a dash of John Waters-style camp and a healthy dollop of Todd Haynes and Douglas Sirk-level melodrama, Maddie’s Secret is much deeper than its over-the-top humor suggests. Early commits to capturing Maddie’s struggle to make it in the posh world of influencers in Los Angeles with a sympathetic approach and sharp jokes that skewer both toxic thinness culture and viral fame.
Memory
Vladlena Sandu’s stunning first feature draws heavily from some of cinema’s most celebrated visual stylists to recall her memories of surviving her grandfather’s abuse, the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent wars that destroyed her hometown in Chechnya. To recreate these difficult scenes from her youth, Sandu uses toys, animation, her family’s photo album, younger actresses to stand in for her younger self, and dreamy 16mm footage of the sites in her story—all of which makes for a painful yet playful look back at the trauma her family endured. Memory references Sergei Parajanov‘s intricate use of design and color, Andrei Tarkovsky’s careful use of landscape and time, as well as the dioramas of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny And Alexander. Although her story is a tragic one, it never loses its sense of childlike wonder.
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest
Viv Li’s feature debut Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest bounces between Berlin, New York City, and China as Li explores the world and different forms of connection. Along the way, Li makes humorous observations with friends in New York City, dives into clothing-optional exercises with her friends in Germany, and survives restrained visits with family back home in China. Each visit interrupts the other, as if vacation photos were jumbled in random order, creating a non-narrative journey that’s just as creative as the artist at its center. As director and subject of the film, Li gets vulnerable before the camera, unbottling a millennial identity crisis over culture, sexuality, gender, and belonging. Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest is an unconventional documentary that embraces the awkward nature of finding one’s place in the world and the excitement of a possible connection.
Variations On A Theme
Winner of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s top prize, Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Variations On A Theme is a stirring collection of short stories and observations loosely based on Hettie, Jacobs’ grandmother, and her experience as a goatherd in South Africa. The film stages its vignettes of rural life with a photographer’s precision, filming from a distance to capture both the expanse of Hettie’s outdoor world and the lived-in details of village life. Despite its claim to be based on true stories, Variations On A Theme carries an almost surrealistic quality subtly woven into the tapestry of its weather-beaten fabric. Jacobs and Delmar use their wide canvas to find beauty in unexpected moments.
Erupcja
Pete Ohs’ Erupcja may have caught attention for Charli xcx’s impressive performance as a millennial party girl unsure of what she wants, but the movie is filled with idiosyncratic stylistic choices and a grand cast of lovelorn characters set against the busy concrete city of Warsaw. Bethany (Charli xcx) is at a crossroads in her relationship with Rob, and in a last ditch effort to make sense of things, asks to go to Warsaw, where an old friend brings her to life in a way her partner cannot. The film is a thought-provoking relationship drama that’s more fun-loving than serious, playing with flashes of color and a Polish narrator that seems to hearken back to the freewheeling experimental films from the country. Come for the Charli xcx performance, stay for the millennial relationship anxiety and thoughtful musings on chasing the highs of connection—and whether it’s an attainable metric for long-term love or a sign that things were just not meant to be.
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