May 2, 2009

Three Monkeys


I haven't had a chance to write about it, having been hunkered down at Tribeca most of the week, but my favorite film of the year thus far opened yesterday in Manhattan and I can't wait to see it again. If you live anywhere near by, do your best to see emerging Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cannes best director winner Three Monkeys. A harrowing tale of grief, betrayal and misbegotten desire, it retains the breathtaking visual style of the director's previous films, but this time integrates the aesthetic into a beautifully structured narrative that is part pot boiler, part Dostoyevsky, with a little hint of magic realism. Here are various critical takes by Mike Tully, Vadim Rizov and A.O. Scott.