Close to Reality

Phones ringing, couples whispering, late arrivals squeezing past one hour into a film: despite its prestige, the New York Film Festival is not above common moviegoing encounters. I was welcomed to the sixtieth edition of the festival, its twelfth since the completion of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s renovations of Lincoln Center, by a packed screening of Triangle of Sadness (directed by Ruben Östlund) in Alice Tully Hall. My assigned seat, customary for all screenings in the one thousand–capacity concert hall, was occupied by a woman who “already had to move twice” and refused to move again. If many years working in the service industry had trained me for anything, it was de-escalating this conflict by kindly directing the woman to her actual, better (more central and closer to the screen) seat. But every seat in Alice Tully is both the best and the worst one. Viewing angles are immaculate anywhere within the theater, its crisp acoustics managing to ensure sound remains clear yet thundering. At the same time, if you end up seated close to the center, your departure duri…