NZIntFilmFestival / YouTubeWe get it. You've got a lot to do – and choosing a movie is probably way down the list
  It's even harder when the New Zealand International Film Festival throws the book at you
  That book, the guide to the Auckland leg of the annual festival, includes a huge list of 143 films from 45 countries
 Wellington will get a similar number, while the 11 other towns and cities hosting the annual celebration of global cinema will get most – or at least part – of the programme
 There are documentaries, horrors, dramas, Cannes winner, musicals, true crime epics and strange twisted tales
 A new cut of Apocalypse Now and an entire series of Agnes Varda movies and a little film about a little local band called Herbs
  How do you choose? Where do you even start? Which way is the popcorn? Where am I sitting?   You start here, of course, by listening to us
   Here are the film festival's selections that we believe will make the biggest impact on you
  READ MORE: * New Zealand International Film festival schedule unveiled * Bill Gosden: A life devoted to film * Ant Timpson: Cult connoisseur THE FILM THAT WILL MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN The Amazing Johnathan Documentary  Look, there are dozens of documentaries to see in this year's festival
 It is, right now, the dominant story form, so you just have to accept that you're not going to see them all
 You can't. Just pick one or two, and whatever you choose, make sure this is among them
 In The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, director Ben Berman turns his camera on John Szeles, a magician and the self-confessed "Freddy Krueger of comedy"
 Berman's film captures Szeles at home, retired, bored, struggling with a heart condition – and apparently doing quite a bit of meth
 Things start getting meta when Szeles launches a comeback tour with one hell of a kicker
 Szeles, who's known for playing fast and loose with the truth, claims he's dying – and he's rolling the dice one last time
 "Ingeniously constructed, a hilarious thrill ride and the underdog story of the year," is what Film Inquiry critic Musanna Ahmed wrote
 In other words, The Amazing Johnathan Documentary is a little bit of magic.  THE FILM THAT WILL GET YOU HIGH High Life "Extraordinary, difficult, hypnotic, and repulsive," is how Variety critic Jessica Kiang described High Life after her first viewing
 That's quite the review, but it's exactly what you'd expect from French filmmaker Claire Denis when paired with A24, the high class horror house building up quite the reputation
 In Denis' first English-language film, a freshly scalped Robert Pattinson is part of a group of intergalactic criminals stuck on a suicide mission as they fly towards a black hole
 Yes, there are scientific experiments. Yes, things are going to go awry. Yes, Pattinson's baby daughter is also on board their spaceship
 Yes, this one's probably best-viewed late at night in the most claustrophobic cinema you can find, with only your closest and best friend for company
  As Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers puts it in a four-star review: "Let the movie mess with your head
"   THE FILM THAT WILL MAKE YOU THINK For My Father's Kingdom Banquet tables laden with so much seafood, fresh fruit and chocolate there's no way diners can eat it all
 Children dancing while plastered with $100 bills. Money that clearly no one can afford being donated to church
 Of all the stunning sequences director Vea Mafile'o captures in her first film, perhaps it's that of her Dad, shuffling down the street in the early hours, intricately rolling his bundles of advertising material and stuffing them into letterboxes on his paper route, one he does so he can raise even more money for his church
 For My Father's Kingdom starts here with Saia Mafile'o's story, but ends up diving much deeper, heading off to Tonga to fully understand the role the church plays there
 It's an eye-opening ride, both raw and intensely personal, with scenes that will provide chuckles and provoke thoughts for weeks afterwards
 With family front and centre, For My Father's Kingdom explores universal themes that anyone with a troubled family past will understand
 You might want to pack tissues for this one.  THE FILM THAT REALLY WILL MESS WITH YOUR HEAD Come to Daddy Despite his lifetime dedication to film, a career that has produced multiple films and TV shows, as well as spearheading both the 48 Hour Film Festival and the Incredibly Strange section of the NZIFF, Ant Timpson had never stepped behind the camera
 That changes with Come To Daddy, Timpson's debut effort as a director, and a film that doubles as a homage to his father
 "I wanted to make a permanent testament to him and the kind of film we watched together when we were younger," says Timpson
 Enter Elijah Wood's Norval, a DJ who's invited to return home to reunite with his estranged father, when, as you'd expect from a film involving Timpson, things take a twisted turn
 "A gruesomely gory, coldly comic revenge thriller," wrote Screen Daily after Come To Daddy's successful Tribeca Film Festival debut
 While many critics have pointed out how messed-up Come to Daddy is, Timpson doesn't see it that way
 He's more proud of making a movie his Dad would have loved. "He had such a wicked dark sense of humour," he says
 "He would be laughing his ass off at some of this stuff." Timpson says he shouldn't have waited so long to get behind the camera – and has more directing roles planned
 This may, he says, be the start of a messed-up family trilogy. Watch this space.  THE FILM THAT WILL MAKE YOU QUIT INSTAGRAM Jawline Are you addicted to your mentions? Posting for likes, scrolling for days, waiting for the next hit of the little thumbs up? Liza Mandelup's debut documentary might make you question where your Instagram addiction is heading
 Jawline follows the sparking social media career of Austyn Tester, a 16-year-old American teen building up his online audience with his relentless positivity and upbeat quotables
 As he attempts to build a life out of social media fame and escape his life in Tennessee, the film asks who needs who more – Tester or his adoring, largely female fanbase
 "The film works as a dissection of modern digital celebrity, but also a classic story about beautiful young people struggling to get famous," wrote The Verge
  "It helps that Austyn is a genuinely charming protagonist and it's easy to understand why his fans like him, even amid a legion of nearly identical floppy-haired competitors
" Maybe listen to the cinema's warnings and really do turn your phone off for this one
   THE FILM THAT WILL TURN YOU INTO A SUPER SLEUTH Cold Case Hammarskjöld If you're a true crime nutball, we've got one for you
 In September, 1961, a plane crashed under mysterious circumstances in Northern Rhodesia, killing UN Secretary-General Dag Dag Hammarskjöld on his way to undertake ceasefire negotiations in the congo
 Why? What happened? Was he assassinated? Fifty years on, Danish filmmaker Mads Brugger arms himself with a metal detector, two shovels and a film crew and goes looking for the truth
 What he uncovers is, according to those that have seen Cold Case Hammarskjöld, far more sinister
 It is, by all accounts, a film that will "suck you in like a vortex". Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote: "Cold Case Hammarskjöld is a singular experience that counts as one of the most honestly disturbing and provocative nonfiction films in years
" Or perhaps take Baltimore Magazine writer Max Weiss' review as a warning: "The film delivers a gut punch that I never saw coming
" Pack your fake moustache, top hat and magnifying glass for this one.   * The New Zealand International Film Festival opens in Auckland on July 18, before heading to Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gore, Hamilton, Hawke's Bay, Masterton, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Timaru
 See nziff.co.nz for more information, dates, tickets and venues.  
