The Debut — NYFF Review
With The Debut, Jesse Eisenberg proves he’s a filmmaker who’s only growing sharper, funnier, and more confident with each project. His third feature film might just be his best one yet. It’s a delightful, wildly hilarious, and irresistibly charming musical comedy bolstered by phenomenal performances from Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. It’s like a cross between a Woody Allen movie and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). I’m aware that probably sounds preposterous, but somehow it works, and this is coming from someone who isn’t even a fan of Woody Allen movies. At its core, The Debut is a quirky character study about the desire to be seen and how artistic passion can spiral into self-destructive obsession.
Her Private Hell — Review
It has been a decade since Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon hit theaters. In the time since then, Refn’s heart stopped, and he was considered clinically dead for 25 minutes in 2023. After his near-death experience, he decided to start making movies again, which was the impetus for his new film Her Private Hell.
Even more fascinating is that Hideo Kojima used Refn’s likeness for the character Heartman in his 2019 video game, Death Stranding. Heartman suffers from a condition that makes his heart stop every 21 minutes. It may not be the exact same scenario, but it is such a peculiar coincidence that it feels eerily prophetic. It calls to mind a line from Oscar Wilde’s 1889 essay, The Decay of Lying: “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” With Her Private Hell, however, the relationship between art and life feels truly symbiotic, as Refn draws from his own brush with death and the concept of fatherhood.
Lurker — Video Review
Spoiler-free video review for Alex Russell’s Lurker starring Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Havana Rose Liu, and Sunny Suljic.