S.T. VanAirsdale from MovieLine had total faith in Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn:
“It almost wouldnât be the New York Film Festival these days without Michelle Williams, whose My Week With Marilyn marks the actressâs fourth effort in five years to grace Manhattanâs venerated fall-movie showcase. Itâs inarguably her highest-profile work to splash down here â a world premiere debuting in the festivalâs prestigious Centerpiece slot, glowing with awards-season ambition and hinging almost entirely on Williamsâs risky interpretation of Marilyn Monroe. But come on: Weâre talking about Michelle Williams here. Of course she pulled it off. My Week with Marilyn succeeds as a loving movie about movie love â the lightness of its bliss, the heartache of its illusions.”
Steve Dollar from GreenCine raved about the Nikkatsu Centennial:
“Programs like the 37-title Nikkatsu retrospectiveâevocatively billed as “Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses”âcan feel practically revolutionary. The series, which celebrates the Japanese movie factory's centennial, runs through Oct. 16 and boasts a ton of classics. The sidebar is peppered with nearly impossible to see rediscoveries: early silent films like 1927's A Diary of Chuji's Travels and harshly realistic World War II dramas like Mud and Soldiers. Nikkatsu shifted into independent production in 1954, leaving behind such propaganda to reflect the influence of Western pop culture, allowing its directors an extraordinary range of creative freedom to manufacture taboo-busting eye candy.”
indieWIRE's Oliver Lyttelton spoke about Steve McQueen's Shame:
“Itâs no surprise considering how spectacularly good his feature debut âHungerâ was, but Steve McQueenâs âShameâ has marched through Venice, Telluride and Toronto, winning more and more fans along the way. And while thereâs a few months yet to come, weâre almost certain that itâll appear high up on a number of year-end lists of Playlist staffers come the end of 2011. Reteaming the British director with his âHungerâ star Michael Fassbender, along with âAn Educationâ Oscar-nominee Carey Mulligan, itâs an immaculately made, firmly controlled, no-holds-barred look at the life of a lonely thirtysomething who seeks solace in a string of anonymous sexual encounters. After its festival triumphs so far, it screened a few days ago at the New York Film Festival, an appropriate bow for a film one of the best Big Apple movies in a long while.”
indieWIRE's Eric Kohn lauded experimental festival “Views from the Avant-Garde“:
â'There are some situations that leave you utterly speechless,â says one of the committed performers in Wim Wendersâ fine 3-D dance movie âPina,â screening this week at the New York Film Festival. But that could just as easily apply to the other 3-D event at this yearâs festival, the transcendent âUpendingâ playing in the Views from the Avant Garde sidebar, not to mention many of the other outstanding works that screened on Friday to kick off the program.”
Sara Hemrajani from The Film Pilgram praised the performances in Martha Marcy May Marlene:
“Given the challenge of being the sole focal point and main lead, Olsen does a brilliant job. Her face conveys every flicker of emotion and she subtly maintains an onscreen presence in spite of the sparse dialogue. And In the thankless role of Patrick, the cultâs patriarch, John Hawkes is superb. Sinewy and dressed grungy jeans, he is simultaneously compassionate, menacing and creepy. With his mellow voice and firm stare, he brainwashes people into forgetting reality and indoctrinates others into his twisted family.”