Abel Ferrara

2 weeks ago | letterboxd.com | Stephen Bjork |Abel Ferrara

There’s no way to do justice to KING OF NEW YORK without getting into spoiler territory, so caveat emptor: there be spoilers here. Abandon hope, all ye that enter. KING OF NEW YORK was released to a world that wasn’t quite ready for it yet. It was the sixth feature collaboration between idiosyncratic New York director Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John, and in some ways, it became a statement on everything that they had done together up to that point.

Nov 5, 2024 | inreviewonline.com | Luke Gorham |Abel Ferrara

While the experimental “sidebar” screenings at larger film festivals receive more than their share of critical attention, they only have so many slots to program. While this perhaps promotes selectivity and careful curation, it also means that younger filmmakers and their promising but imperfect films are often overlooked. This is a limitation that is experienced both as a critic/viewer and as a programmer.