The undisputed kings of kinetic, adrenaline-rush cinema that unfolds at the heart-stopping pace of a New York minute, Josh and Benny Safdie have been keeping audiences on the edge of their seats (and on the verge of a panic attack) for over a decade with whirlwind character studies like UNCUT GEMS, GOOD TIME, and HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, the brothers sit down to discuss everything from how their father’s love of film shaped their upbringing (and made Dustin Hoffman a surrogate screen dad) to their deep-cut-heavy list of the best New York movies (there’s a lot). The films they’ve chosen to present include slice-of-life gems from Mike Leigh (MEANTIME) and Billy Woodberry (BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS); a gritty thriller from Elaine May (MIKEY AND NICKY); and self-reflexive revelations from Krzysztof Kieślowski (CAMERA BUFF) and Jafar Panahi (THE MIRROR), all of which reflect the abiding humanism that courses through the duo’s own work.
The directors of UNCUT GEMS and GOOD TIME discuss their favorite cinematic fathers, the all-time best New York movies, and why they consider filmmaking inherently pathological.
Directed by Jules Dassin • 1948 • United States
Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
“There are eight million stories in the Naked City,” as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin a...
Directed by Elaine May • 1976 • United States
Elaine May crafted a gangster film like no other in the nocturnal odyssey MIKEY AND NICKY, capitalizing on the chemistry between frequent collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk by casting them together as small-time mobsters whose lifelong re...
Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski • 1979 • Poland
A reflexive meditation on art and documentary and a key film in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s career, CAMERA BUFF follows a factory worker's growing obsession with filmmaking after he captures the birth of his daughter on his new 8 mm camera.
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 1984 • United States
Starring Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore, Angela Burnett
Scripted and shot by Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry’s slice-of-life revelation is a key masterpiece of the LA Rebellion, the black independent-cinema renaissance that emerged from UCLA’s film...
Directed by Mike Leigh • 1984 • United Kingdom
Starring Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Gary Oldman
A slow-burning depiction of economic degradation in Thatcher’s England, Mike Leigh’s MEANTIME is the culmination of the writer-director’s pioneering work in television. Unemployment is rampant in London’s...
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1990 • Iran
Starring Hossein Sabzian, Abolfazi Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah
Internationally revered Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has created some of the most inventive and transcendent cinema of the past thirty years, and CLOSE-UP is his most radical, brilliant...
Directed by Jafar Panahi • 1997 • Iran
Starring Mina Mohammad Khani, Aida Mohammadkhani, Kazem Mojdehi
Iranian master Jafar Panahi explores the interplay of imagination and reality in this slyly inventive meta-film marvel. When her mother is late to pick her up from school, first grader Mina (Mi...
