September 25, 2008 08:00AM EDT

Go: Fabulous New York Film Festival Flicks

The 46th annual edition of The New York Film Festival—beginning this Friday—is marked by its consistent personality. Like previous editions, this festival has a lot to offer moviegoers, whether it's choice cuts from Cannes and Toronto, challenging cinephile-only fare, or megawatt celebrity coming from the festival's Centerpiece: Clint Eastwood's 20s-era thriller Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie.

The coveted Opening Night film is the Cannes Palme D'Or winner The Class, which was also just announced as France's submission for this year's Oscar Foreign Film race. Italy's Gomorra, also a Cannes favorite, will be a hot ticket too. It's a Mafia drama but unlike the bulk of movies within that sub-genre, it focuses on the underlings rather than the power players. Waltz With Bashir, an animated Israeli film, is big on buzz and already a winner (netting six Ophirs, Israel's Oscar, including Best Picture) as it makes its New York premiere.

My heartiest personal recommendation at the time of this writing goes to the Catherine Deneuve-starrer Un Conte du Nöel (A Christmas Tale), from French auteur Arnaud Desplechin. It’s intellectually robust, impossible to keep up with, and orbits a confusing but fascinating woman. This lively story of an unhappy extended French clan, haunted by past tragedies, is dense with storytelling tangents and mysterious feeling. I loved it.

As with any festival, multiple screenings yield a curious mix of themes, and NYFF 46 is obsessing over sociopathic voyeurs. The first of the voyeurs I watched in the dark of the theater was the 70s set Chilean drama Tony Manero, about a 50-something Travolta impersonator obsessed with restaging Saturday Night Fever as dinner theater. Yes, you read that right. The second voyeur, Robert, the central focus of Cannes alum Afterschool, is much younger and less aggressive but no less disturbing. He's a prep school YouTube addict whose favorite clips feature real life violence and porn. Judging from the influences on display, one suspects the film's 25-year-old writer/director Antonio Campos is himself a Gus Van Sant addict. The last of the creepy staring men, Leon, is the subject of the well-made Polish film Four Nights With Anna. Unfortunately, by the time I’d seen the other two I’d had my fill of non-verbal and possibly dangerous voyeurs as protagonists.

Voyeurism isn’t exactly a rare topic for the cinemas—but this accidental trilogy worried me, once I stopped to consider that the NYFF selection committee chose all three films from hundreds of entries. Perhaps they are trying to send a message. Pray that their windows don’t face yours. [Nathaniel Rogers]

The 46th New York Film Festival runs from September 26 - October 12. Click here to buy tickets.