THE SYNDROME

The New York Film Festival starts today and I've come up with a guide to the fest's potentially best offerings, for your convenience, in order of importance:

1) Voy a Explotar (I'm Gonna Explode)
Dir. Gerardo Naranjo



Gerardo Naranjo proves that Mexican film is here to stay with this movie about a congressman's son who enters his school talent show and attempts to publicly commit suicide. After he bungles his performance he joins the lone audience member who clapped on a journey in a jacked car. This could be 2008's Y Tu Mamá También -- just a little more misanthropic.

2) Hunger
Dir. Steve McQueen



This pic is a must, not because its director's name recalls a certain well-known actor in The Great Escape but because its director is a celebrated fine artist who now has a Camera d'Or to his name, courtesy of Cannes. The film covers prison life and the hunger strike that was a watershed moment in the life of an antihero. Tough but brilliant.

3) Un Cont de Noël (A Christmas Tale)
Dir. Arnaud Despleschin



The casting in this French ensemble comedy seems unbelievable but it's Catherine Deneuve who inspires the most excitement. In this holiday story she plays the mother with a terminal illness, but I doubt this is The Family Stone Redux; It's Catherine Deneuve. Look out also for Quantum of Solace's Mathieu Amalric and the smouldering Mr. Melvil Poupaud.

4) Che
Dir. Steven Soderbergh



Sometimes it seems like Steven is showing off. Che is definitely an epic feat. For one thing, the film is a whopping 268 minutes long -- so long it'll screen at the fest with a half-hour intermission in the middle. We'd tell you to skip it, but it happens to have an award-winning lead performance going for it. Thank heaven for Benicio Del Toro.

5) Entre Les Murs (The Class)
Dir. Laurent Cantet



Sometimes meaning gets lost during the translation of film titles. "Entre les murs" literally means "between the walls" and is the name of Laurent Cantet's contemporary, realistic piece on multi-ethnic youth in Paris, based on a novel by François Bégaudeau. Since race, class and culture undoubtedly play a role in the lives of The Class's kids, maybe the English language title is apt.

If you miss it now, don't worry; the film will be released later this year by Sony Picture Classics.

6) L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours)
Dir. Olivier Assayas



What happens when a key figure in a large family dies and memories begin to fade like the last days of summer? Watch the moving L'Heure d'été to find out. Juliette Binoche, back where she's supposed to be -- i.e. not playing Dane Cook's girlfriend.

7) Tokyo Sonata
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa



The Film Society of Lincoln Center says:

A contemporary fable masterfully pitched between comedy, tragedy and Buñuelian irrationality, Tokyo Sonata is a perfect film for a troubled historical moment.

Anything described as vaguely Buñuelian is worth a look. Plus, you know you love Tokyo.

8) La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman)
Dir. Lucrecia Martel



Described as a "splintered cinematic mosaic," La Mujer sounds like a dizzying head-trip without a head. It all starts when the woman (presumably the headless one) hits something with her car but can't figure out what it was. Only at the movies can you delight in watching somebody's mind unravel.

9) Afterschool
Dir. Antonio Campos



From the Film Society of Lincoln Center:

Independent director Antonio Campos’s hypnotically concentrated first feature is set in the insulated world of a New England prep school. Robert, a withdrawn student who more or less lives on the Internet, unwittingly captures on video the sudden deaths by drug overdose of a pair of popular twin girls.

Campos has a keen eye for prep school life and the emotional fumbling of adolescents, and his formal control is something to behold. He frames the action in impressive wide shots which, coupled with a meticulously ambient soundtrack and the precise disaffection of his teenage cast, establishes a deeply unsettling tone.

10) Gomorra
Dir. Mateo Garonne



This tense Neapolitan mafia flick is based on the best-selling book/exposé Gomorrah, written by Roberto Saviano. Saviano was forced to hide after the book hit shelves, when threats were made against his life. The film is just as buzz-worthy, pulling away the veil on an organization of gangsters whom the New York Times dubbed "savage parasites" who would "rot the nation from within."

Honorable Mentions:

Tulpan -- For the animal birth scene.

The Changeling -- For Angelina Jolie's best impression of Julianne Moore.

Happy-Go-Lucky -- For taking a risk by being incredibly cheerful on the eve of a recession.

Wendy and Lucy -- For Michelle Williams and Kelly Reichardt.

Waltz With Bashir -- For animation!

The Wrestler -- For being a film by Darren Aronofsky.