Too New for the Queue

Thanks to the New York Times and the New Yorker, we get a good rundown of the festival New Directors/New Films, running through March 29 in Manhattan. Here are the titles that caught our eye:

• DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL - Marielle Heller scrapes for something new in the coming-of-age genre, this one about a curious, adventurous 15-year-old. Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgard play mother and mom's boyfriend. 
• THE CREATION OF MEANING - A pensive story of a sheep herder in a remote area of Tuscany, on the former site of a WWII battle.
• K - From producer Jia Zhang-ke, a Mongolian version of Franz Kafka's "Castle." 
• TIRED MOONLIGHT - A debut from a Kalispell, Mont., woman, filmed in her hometown with mostly amateur actors and the reliable Alex Karpovsky. This promises to be visually arresting.
• WHITE GOD - This Cannes leftover is coming to Albuquerque in April. A 13-year-old Hungarian girl deals with a revolt by the town's dogs.
• DOG LADY - More dogs. A year in the life of a woman and her four pals in Buenos Aires.
• CHRISTMAS, AGAIN - A "comic portrait of urban loneliness," about a man selling Christmas trees on the streets of New York. Sounds like it might have a "Man Push Cart" feel.
• ENTERTAINMENT - We didn't care for Rick Alverson's "The Comedy," but this new one, about a bad comedian, looks entertainingly disturbing.

The Times will offer a second preview next week.