The 52nd New York Film Festival (NYFF) has opened with 17 days of exciting world premieres, award winners from Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, retrospective screenings, spotlights on emerging filmmakers, panels, galas and much more! Join us here MoviefiedNYC, as we bring you our daily selection of the one film playing today that we think you shouldn’t miss. Happy NYFF!
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Arielle Holmes and Caleb Landry Jones |
Heaven Knows What
Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014
USA | Format: DCP | 94 minutes
U.S. Premiere
Q&A with directors Josh & Benny Safdie at both screenings, actors Arielle Holmes and Caleb Landry Jones on October 2
Harley (Arielle Holmes) is madly in love with Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones). She’s sure he loves her just as much, if only he could express it. Both of them are heroin addicts, kids who pretend to be heavy-metal rockers but spend their time scuffling, arguing, and preying on each other as they wander around New York looking for a fix and the chump change to pay for it. The script, based on a Holmes’s memoir and written by the Safdies with Ronald Bronstein, is a miracle of economy. Sean Price Williams’s cinematography expresses the clouded vision of kids who can’t imagine how invisible they are to the New Yorkers who take their homes and jobs for granted. And the Safdie Brothers, in their toughest and richest movie, direct a cast composed largely of first-time actors so that they disappear into their characters, horrify us, and break our hearts.
Series: NYFF52 Main Slate
Venue: Walter Reade Theater, Alice Tully Hall