Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” has a lot of stars, so many that fans of the director are chomping at the bit to see it. But they’re ignoring the reviews so far from critics who also enjoy Anderson’s movies but could not navigate this film. I am now one of those.

Not a movie but a series of vignettes, “The French Dispatch” is supposedly a New Yorker-like magazine attached to a Kansas City newspaper, based in a French village. You would have to know a lot about the history of The New Yorker to really appreciate the way Anderson has framed this movie– know about editor Harold Ross, and his famed set of writers from the 30s through the 70s. This is rarefied air, to be certain, a very thin atmosphere that doesn’t allow breathing.

Let’s try to break it down. Bill Murray plays the Ross-like editor, and we learn up front that he has died. So we’re going to go back and look at three interminable feature pieces that ran during The French Dispatch’s halcyon days. Of the three, only the first is coherent enough to make us care. This is a story about a convicted murderer who becomes an artist in prison. Benicio del Toro is the artist. Adrien Brody is the art gallerist who makes him famous. They are the only actual well-drafted characters in a sea of appearances.

I must add here that Tilda Swinton is note perfect doing a parody of the real life late Metropolitan Museum of Art lecturer Rosamund Bernier. But how many people in the world will understand what’s going on here? Beats me. Fifty? A hundred?

The two other stories are very hard to follow and have no relation to the first one. What’s supposed to hold them together is that we return to Murray and The French Dispatch’s offices. But all those stars featured in the ads and publicity,they are walk  ons. Or drive-bys. Elisabeth Moss, for example, has nothing to do. Bob Balaban and Henry Winkler are all dressed up with no place to go. Frances McDormand and Timothee Chalamet have more to do, but it adds up to very little.

“The French Dispatch” is such a collection of chaotic nothing that you have to look at what works. That would be the production design by Adam Stockhausen and the art and set decoration. All the ‘below the line’ craft people deserve Oscar nominations. Their work is impeccably inventive down to the most minute details. But isn’t that the problem? There’s more coherence to the production than there is to the narrative. This is really a case of style over substance.

Our screening was the closing night film of the Hamptons Film Festival, which should have been the exact right audience for so much pretentiousness. Yet the folks in Guild Hall didn’t get it. Many walked out before the show was over. Someone was overheard saying they were glad they’d been told in advance that this had something to do with The New Yorker.

But in the end, “The French Dispatch” has absolutely nothing to do with the venerated magazine or its fabled history. It has even less to do with the Wes Anderson movies we’ve loved, like “The Royal Tenenbaums” or “Moonrise Kingdom.” There are no characters, no plot, and no heart. It’s as if someone dumped a bunch of notes for potential stories on Harold Ross’s desk and instead of being shaped they were just thrown in a blender that was set to ‘frappe.’

Here’s the release from HIFF.

The 29th Hamptons International Film Festival, presented by HamptonsFilm, today announced their award winners at a ceremony in East Hampton. This year HIFF screened 61 films from 34 countries, with five (5) World premieres, two (2) North American premieres, and two (5) U.S. premieres. We are very proud to report that 53% of this year’s films were directed by women, and 36% were directed by filmmakers of color.

MURINA, directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, won the Award for Best Narrative Feature. ASCENSION “登楼叹”, directed by Jessica Kingdon, received the Award for Best Documentary Feature. EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE), directed by Olive Nwosu, received the Award for Best Narrative Short Film, and IN FLOW OF WORDS, directed by Eliane Esther Bots, won for Best Documentary Short Film. Both Short Films will qualify for Academy® awards consideration.

In addition, Franz Rogowski received a Special Jury Prize for Exceptional Performances for his work in GREAT FREEDOM “GROSSE FREIHEIT.”

BAD OMEN, directed by Salar Pashtoonyar, was awarded the 2021 The Peter Macgregor-Scott Memorial Award. The award, which is accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize, aims to continue the celebrated producer’s mentorship for a new generation of passionate filmmakers. Sponsored by Susan Macgregor-Scott, this award is specifically designed to recognize narrative short filmmakers and reward creative approaches to solving practical production challenges in the service of storytelling.

PAPER & GLUE, A JR Project, was awarded the 2021 Brizzolara Family Foundation Award to Films of Conflict and Resolution, which is accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize.

PAPER & GLUE was also presented with the Victor Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice. The annual award is handed to a film that exemplifies the values of peace, equality, global justice and civil liberties, and is named after iconic civil rights lawyer Victor Rabinowitz and his wife Joanne Grant, an author, filmmaker and journalist. The award, which is accompanied by a cash prize of $2,000, is named in honor of two people who spent their entire lives fighting for those values.

GOOD GRIEF, directed by Nastasya Popov, was awarded the Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant. This program supports the completion of high quality, original, director-driven, low-budget independent films from both emerging and established filmmakers who have completed 50% of principal photography within Suffolk County. The film was awarded a $3,000 grant.

COW, directed by Andrea Arnold, was awarded the Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award. This award is presented to a film that raises public awareness about contemporary social issues, including the moral and ethical treatment and the rights of animals as well as environmental protection. The film was awarded $2,500.

QUEEN OF GLORY, directed by Nana Mensah and INTRODUCING, SELMA BLAIR, directed by Rachel Fleit were awarded the New York Women in Film & Television Awards. These two awards honor outstanding female narrative and documentary filmmakers who have demonstrated exceptional artistic vision and dedication to their craft. Each award is accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize.

The festival also announced the recipients of the University Short Film Awards, highlighting the extraordinary talent and achievements of five exceptional students. Each will receive a $500 cash prize. Awardees include BAD OMEN, directed by Salar Pashtoonyar (York University), BUZZKILL, directed by Kathy E. Mitrani (Columbia University), NEURIM, directed by Shaylee Atary (Steve Tisch School of Film & Television, Tel Aviv University), UN DIABLE DANS LA POCHE, directed by Antoine Bonnet and Mathilde Loubes (GOBELINS, l’école de l’Image), and WAVELENGTHS, directed by Jessie Zinn (Stanford University).

This year’s narrative competition jury was comprised of producer Sam Bisbee, whose work includes the Emmy Award-winning documentary THE SENTENCE, as well as THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS, HEARTS BEAT LOUD, and FAREWELL AMOR, among others; screenwriter Bill Collage, best known for his work on ASSASSIN’S CREED and THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT; and Entertainment Weekly’s Critic at Large Leah Greenblatt.

The documentary competition jury included co-founder of Chicken & Egg Pictures Wendy Ettinger, whose production company has awarded $8 million in grants and thousands of hours of creative mentorship to over 340 female nonfiction filmmakers; Senior Curator for Staff Picks at Vimeo Ina Pira; and filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, whose most recent project WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR debuted in the NEXT section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

This year the Festival was honored to partner with the New York Film Critics Circle for the thirteenth year.

“Being able to once again experience the power of cinema on a big screen with audiences was incredible and something that was dearly missed within our community,” said David Nugent, HamptonsFilm Artistic Director. “We are so thankful to all of the filmmakers and artists who allowed us to showcase their films.”

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring everyone safely back together this year. It so clearly remains that our community out East loves cinema and we are so glad to be able to share such an incredible slate of films with them,” said Anne Chaisson, HamptonsFilm Executive Director. “We are so thankful to all of the staff, volunteers, sponsors and most of all to the audiences for their continued support. Next up, our 30th anniversary!”

Attendees of the 2021 festival included Don Argott, Alec Baldwin, Bob Balaban, Michael Barker, Susan Bedusa, Clint Bentley, Selma Blair, Dan Cogan, Julie Cohen, Clifton Collins, Jr., Kelcey Edwards, Rachel Fleit, Liz Garbus, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Matt Heineman, Sheena M. Joyce, Penny Lane, Amanda Lipitz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Josh O’Connor, Nancy Schafer, Doug Tirola, E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Ari Wegner, Betsy West, Debi Wisch, Joe Wright, Odessa Young and more.

The festival has awarded prizes to filmmakers in cash and goods and services of over $130,000 each year, with over $5 million awarded in competition funds and services over the past 29 years.

HIFF thanks the supporters for this year’s festival, including corporate sponsors Audi, Netflix, Chantecaille, KORE Private Wealth, Silvercup Studios, Press Seltzer, and official media sponsors WNBC, Variety, The Purist Magazine, and The East Hampton Star. HamptonsFilm is grateful for the long-term support from New York State Council on the Arts and Suffolk County. For more information please visit www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.

You remember the Winkelvoss twins: they claimed also to be founders of Facebook and sued Mark Zuckerberg back in the day. Their settlement with him was a measly $65 million. They were played by Armie Hammer in “The Social Network.” They started the website Guest of a Guest and a couple of financial companies. They are reported to be crypto currency billionaires.

The Winkelvi, as they are known, are also rowers. They are big, big fellas, and took up rowing as teens. They rowed at Harvard, started and bought teams, and even participated in the Olympics (they took sixth place in the men’s pairs rowing event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics).

Now it turns out they have paid for — i.e. “executive produced” — a movie about rowing called “Heart of Champions.” This is not grammatically correct. You could have Hearts of Champions, all plural. or Heart of a (singular) Champion. But many hearts of one champion suggest science fiction.

Just sayin’…

They hired a very good director, Michael Mailer, who got a real movie actor, Michael Shannon, to play the coach of their fictional rowing team. There’s a trailer that’s just appeared and looks good. The cinematography seems like it was top notch. The screenplay does not:  Shannon’s dialogue in it is so cliched that the very low level Vertical Entertainment is releasing the film on October 29th. It will go straight to video. And airplanes.

So far there is no listing for “Heart of a Champion” on the imdb. Most people will never know about it, but now the Winklevi can call themselves movie producers.

There’s nothing wrong with vanity movies, by the way. I always remember the one Greg Kinnear was in about the invention of timed windshield wipers. I just got new wipers at Valvoline and thought about that movie. So you see, films do make a difference even if no one wants them!

PS I learned about Mailer’s involvement in this thanks to Richard Johnson’s new Sunday column in the New York Daily News. I wish the News would highlight that column instead of hiding it!

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is a film fan’s dream come true: a charming, fun and mightily enjoyable time at the movies. This is because director Jason Reitman, son of original director Ivan Reitman, chose the path of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’

In the new movie, the late Harold Ramis’s Egon Spengler, the famed Ghostbuster, has a daughter named Callie played by Carrie Coons. Dad left her a dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere called Summerville, Oklahoma. Reluctantly she moves there with her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard from “Stranger Things”) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace). Phoebe is a 12-year-old scientific genius, while her brother aches to fit in to any group he can. Phoebe is in summer school; the school still uses VHS’s to give you a clue to how un-hip this town is. Her teacher (the always appealing Paul Rudd) quickly realizes how wise and smart Phoebe is. Phoebe literally stumbles onto Granddad’s true identity and calling, to save the world from this supernatural threat of evil ghosts.

From there the plot unfolds, and critics have been asked not to reveal any spoilers. Suffice to say that the actors are all absolutely off the charts engaging and appealing, and boy do they have the comic beats down to a ‘science’! McKenna Grace is the beating heart of this film, and wow is she good. Her Phoebe is rebellious, smart, funny and a truthteller.

Reitman directs all his actors from a clever script he co-wrote with Gil Kenan, pitch perfectly. Kudos to Reitman for making a sequel with sincere movie love and respect, paying tribute to the themes and characters that make it so beloved and iconic. Remember the disaster that was the 2016 reboot? Not so easy, but Reitman more than succeeds. Now this generation has its own “Ghostbusters,” and a worthy tribute it is to its classic predecessor. “Afterlife” will have film nerds jumping for joy and newcomers delighted.

PS With “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “Spider Man: No Way Home,” Sony’s going to have an excellent season. No Oscars, but that’s what Sony Pictures Classics is for.