NYFF51 Cinephiliacs Podcast

by Tony Dayoub

If you want to hear (that's right... hear) my thoughts on a few of the top films I saw at the 51st New York Film Festival, then you should check this out. Peter Labuza of LabuzaMovies had me on this week's Cinephiliacs podcast to discuss some of 2013's top movies, most of which you'll be hearing about come awards time but have yet to be released. It's a wide-ranging conversation which, thanks to Peter's astute questioning, produces some interesting insight into some of the festival's finest films. Download it here or on iTunes.

NYFF51 Review: Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

A black velvet sky full of stars fills the screen. As the credits appear, the distinctive opening chords of rockabilly standard "Funnel of Love" start playing and the stars begin to streak in a clockwise direction. The image dissolves into an overhead shot of the song's 45 spinning clockwise on a turntable. Then a succession of dissolves and each time the camera spins and spirals ("...down, down, down..." as Wanda Jackson sings) closer into Eve (Tilda Swinton), a pale, white-tressed woman dressed in Eastern attire laying on a large bed, and Adam (Tom Hiddleston), a ghostly, raven-haired man splayed across a couch in more recognizable Western clothes, a guitar in hand. This alluring introduction sets the tone for Jim Jarmusch's most mesmerizing film in quite some time, Only Lovers Left Alive.