<\/p>\n
Sentimental Value<\/p>\n
If just to take stock of what all is going on in the world at the moment, international film festivals are a good way to keep afloat, to make a list of things hopefully coming down the pike over the next year, and to stay focused on how other cultures and nations have dealt with chaos and strife. Following my recent sojourn to New York City, here\u2019s some of the best of the fall 2025 film festivals \u2014 focused mainly on the New York Film Festival, but also including NewFest and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival for this installment.<\/p>\n
From ‘Stiller & Meara’ to ‘Mister Scorsese,’ here\u2019s a sampling from this year\u2019s NYFF, NewFest and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival \u2014 with more to come<\/p>\n
If you\u00a0saw The Worst Person in the World back in 2021, just know that director Joachim Trier and star Renate Reinsve are back \u2014 along with Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd \u2014 with one of the best films I\u2019ve seen all year, Sentimental Value (at the Belcourt Nov. 21). The film centers on two daughters of an acclaimed filmmaker on the back end of his career, and how they process a new script he\u2019s written that aims to clear up some family history \u2014 and also obfuscate other aspects. It\u2019s essential viewing, with so many outstanding performances that you can almost feel overwhelmed by what all it\u2019s giving you, and I want to see it again as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
When it (hopefully) comes to acknowledging works of art that directly address retribution and reconciliation toward those who enabled corruption and cruelty, Jafar Panahi\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or-winning It Was Just an Accident (at the Belcourt Nov. 14) is going to be an essential part of the discussion. With a concept that would work in any number of genres, it asks how you would react if you\u2019d found the person who had institutionally assaulted you, and more so who you could trust to be sure. Unbelievably tense, fascinating in its revelations of how society works, morally sound in a way that shakes the viewer, and with a jaw-dropper of an ending, this is not to be missed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Drunken Noodles<\/p>\n
Knowing nothing about Lucio Castro\u2019s Drunken Noodles (except having loved the writer-director\u2019s 2019 film End of the Century), I found it to be one of the most pleasant surprises across the multiple film festivals making up this overview\/catalog. It springs from both artist Sal Salandra\u2019s bawdy embroidery and a very \u201970s sense of magical liberation. Art student Adnan (Laith Khalifeh) finds himself amid a series of episodic adventures (m\u00e9nage \u00e0 Doordash, witnessing interpretive faun dance, sexy chronoskimming, teleporting trees) \u2014 the kind that result from having a healthy sense of curiosity and a willingness to experience mystical possibilities, however they may surface. Humorous and horny in equal measure, Drunken Noodles is the kind of queer art that (while it\u2019s still legal) feels timeless and playful \u2014 a testament to the magical places the baser instincts can lead us.<\/p>\n
Equally surprising was the new divorce-core classic The Love That Remains, a wry and earthy Icelandic portrait of a family navigating the aftereffects of a marriage in dissolution that is never afraid to find the humorous in the wrenching (and vice versa). It feels real, but not in the way that some family dramas aim to grind the viewer into a fine paste. Writer-director Hlynur P\u00e1lmason (Godland) is not afraid to let things get weirder as they go along (much like life), and Saga Gar\u00f0arsd\u00f3ttir grounds literal kitchen-sink realism and fanciful freakouts alike in a great performance that feels inhabited in a way that sweeps you along for quite a wild ride.<\/p>\n