IDA: My Conversation With Ibrahim Nash'at, Director of 'Hollywoodgate'

Earlier in the year, I spoke with documentary filmmaker Ibrahim Nash'at, who spent a year embedded with the Taliban in Afghanistan right after U.S. forces left the country. The result of that was Hollywoodgate. I was happy recently to be asked by IDA to do a video chat with Nash'at, which allowed us to expand on that earlier conversation. We talked about war and Wiseman. Hope you enjoy.

The Movies That Got Sued Before They Got Released

In honor of this weekend's The People's Joker, I looked at six other films that had to deal with lawsuits before seeing the light of day. Whether it's the State of Massachusetts or Aretha Franklin, sometimes the powers that be have an issue with a movie, and they'll do whatever they can to stop its release. Hope you enjoy.

Venice/Telluride/Toronto 2023: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

Last week when I was at TIFF, I got an email from a friend back in Los Angeles: "I heard Toronto this year hasn't been stellar, but still hope you are having a good time." News travels fast: Indeed, the consensus was that the 48th edition of the festival was not particularly strong, with people blaming different factors. Was it the double strike? Was it that so many of the high-profile Venice entries didn't screen there? Was it that the Toronto world premieres were fairly lackluster? 

I'd say all three were contributing factors. I've been attending TIFF for about 15 years now, give or take a pandemic, and this was the first time that it didn't feel like one-stop shopping for the fall film festivals. All of Us Strangers, The Bikeriders, The Killer, Maestro, The Mission, Poor Things and Priscilla all either played Venice or Telluride (or both) but skipped Toronto. I was lucky enough to see the Telluride premiere Janet Planet ahead of time, and the Venice premiere Gasoline Rainbow, but much of my week in Toronto was spent hearing people lament what wasn't there -- especially after Yorgos Lanthimos' film won the Golden Lion at Venice. 

Still, you're not going to hear me complain. Going to a festival is a privilege, and I'll eventually get to all of the above-mentioned films, as well as others I couldn't fit into my schedule. Plus, it's not as if there weren't great movies to choose from. The below list reflects my rankings of every film that screened at Venice, Telluride or Toronto that I saw, either during the fall or previously. (As usual, choice Sundance, Berlin and Cannes titles show up as well.) Looking down the list, I'd say roughly 80 percent of these films I would categorize as at least "good" or "good enough." And more than half gave me considerable pleasure. As for the Top 10, well, those are absolute keepers, and so are several after that. However you slice it, plenty of excellent films are on our way soon.

A couple caveats about these rankings. I decided to leave off Reality, which played in Telluride, since that's already opened. I also opted not to rank Stop Making Sense, which I already adore beyond all measure, and whose IMAX restoration screening at TIFF only underlined its brilliance. It occurred to me afterward that I caught the Talking Heads concert film in the same IMAX venue that I saw Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids back in 2016. As if I needed more reason to miss Jonathan Demme.

Links lead to individual reviews:

50. Riddle of Fire
49. The Teacher
48. Reptile
47. Pain Hustlers
46. Quiz Lady
45. Pet Shop Days
44. Mother, Couch
43. The Critic
42. Dear Jassi
41. Dicks: The Musical
40. Perfect Days
39. Les Indésirables
38. El Conde
37. Rustin
36. Seven Veils
35. An Endless Sunday
34. Last Summer
33. Cassandro
32. Dumb Money
31. Fingernails
30. Sleep
29. Fair Play
28. In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon
27. American Fiction
26. La Chimera
25. Monster
24. Fallen Leaves
23. Shayda
22. Hit Man
21. The Pigeon Tunnel
20. The Teachers' Lounge
19. Gasoline Rainbow
18. How to Have Sex
17. The Royal Hotel
16. Robot Dreams
15. Together 99
14. The Holdovers
13. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
12. Anatomy of a Fall
11. The Delinquents
10. The Taste of Things
9. The Boy and the Heron
8. The Beast
7. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
5. Here
4. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
3. His Three Daughters
2. Janet Planet
1. The Zone of Interest

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Burning,' 'Suspiria,' Notable New Documentaries and 'Primer'

This week's episode is largely devoted to Lee Chang-dong's wondrous Burning. But I also take a little time to talking about Suspiria ... and Shirkers, On Her Shoulders and Monrovia, Indiana. Then, Will and I go back in time to discuss 2004's Primer. That movie gets better each time I watch it. Hear the whole thing down below.

My Interview With Frederick Wiseman

Sometimes, this job can be pretty great. For MEL, I spoke with the one and only Frederick Wiseman. We discussed his new documentary, Monrovia, Indiana, and we also chatted about retirement and the Grim Reaper. You can read my piece here.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Previewing the Toronto Film Festival

Tomorrow, I leave for the Toronto Film Festival. So on the podcast, Will and I each picked five movies we're very curious about that will be screening there. (That still from above comes from my most-anticipated film, Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris - The New York Public Library.) Then, in our Reboot segment, we take a look back at Good Will Hunting and 11:14. Bad news, everybody: I like neither film. You can hear the whole episode down below.

It's an Honor Never to Be Nominated: The Oscar Overlooked

For Playboy, I made a list of 10 great actors, filmmakers or composers who have never been nominated for an Oscar. This is an embarrassing collection of talent that's never gotten its due from the Academy. You can read my appreciation of folks like Jim Carrey right here.

'National Gallery' Review

I've sung the praises of Frederick Wiseman before, but the man keeps making great movies. His latest is National Gallery. It may be a notch below other high-water marks like At Berkeley and Boxing Gym, but it's plenty enthralling. I review the documentary, which investigates the inner-workings of London's National Gallery museum, for Paste.

'At Berkeley' Review

I wasn't alone at the Toronto Film Festival in being incredibly excited to see At Berkeley, the latest documentary from Frederick Wiseman. There, of course, was one problem: It's four hours long, which is pretty hard to schedule when you're stacked with other screenings during the day. Because I couldn't resist, though, I actually watched the first 30 minutes of At Berkeley before I had to go to an assigned screening. I loved what I saw. Now, I've seen the whole thing; it's quite, quite good. If you're going to the New York Film Festival, do try to check it out on Saturday if you can. My review is up at Screen International.

The Greats: Frederick Wiseman

Most people wouldn't recognize the face (or maybe even the name) of Frederick Wiseman, but he's one of the world's best documentary filmmakers. And at age 83, he remains prolific: His latest, At Berkeley, will be playing Toronto and just screened at Venice. If you haven't heard of the man -- or even if you have -- I hope you enjoy my tribute to him over at Paste.