Telluride 2016
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
really, really good films - they made my day
Arrival
This film by Director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Incendies) is sure to be a classic. If you watched this film 10 years from now it would still inspire the same awe as the first time you saw it. A linguistic scholar (Amy Adams) is hauled off by government agents to a site where one of 18 space craft hovers. The goal, with the help of a physicist (Jeremy Renner) and a military specialist (Forest Whitaker), is to figure out how to communicate with the visitors from outer space. Stunning. Oh, and if you figure out the ending, let me know.Bleed for This
This is the true story of Vinny Pazienza, a world lightweight champion. Disclaimer: I don’t like boxing … but I really, really liked this movie. Sure, there are guys hitting other guys – HARD, but writer-director Ben Younger (Boiler Room) has made a film that is more about the strength of the human spirit than it is about the sport. Vinny (Miles Teller – bring on the awards) wins a boxing title. Then he is in a devastating car accident that leaves him partially paralyzed. With superhuman mental and physical effort Vinny is determined to make a comeback with the help of his manager (Aaron Eckhart – unrecognizable and pitch perfect). Fascinating and uplifting.La La Land
Frothy and gorgeous, yet thought provoking at the same time, the protagonists (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone) sing and dance their way through the trials and tribulations of making it in Hollywood. Directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) this movie could have been all kinds of dumb, instead it grabs hold of you and forces you to really, really care about what happens to these two lovely kids. I could watch this again and again.Manchester by the Sea
This is an award-worthy performance by Casey Affleck as a down on his luck handyman in a Boston suburb. It is a must see. When his brother (Kyle Chandler) suddenly dies he returns home to take charge of his 15 year old nephew (Lucas Hedges who is wonderful). His mysterious and devastatingly sad past with his ex-wife (Michelle Williams) is slowly revealed. A moving and funny, surprising and beautiful film by director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me).Maudie
Bring on the awards for this based-on-a-true-story tale of a poor, young girl with acute arthritis (Sally Hawkins) who became one of Canada’s most beloved folk artists. To escape a stultifying and just plain mean family she runs away to take a job as the “housekeeper” for a nasty fish peddler (Ethan Hawke) with severe anger management issues. Their home is a 12’ by 12’ shack in breathtaking Nova Scotia. Ultimately Maud gives Everett an ultimatum – marry me or else. I suppose this could be called a love story but more than that, it is a window into the quirky life of a talented artist.Moonlight
Writer-director Barry Jenkins takes us into the world of Chiron, a child who grows up with a crack addicted mother. Befriended by the local drug lord, but bullied in high school, he gets in a fight and lands in jail. When he gets out he makes his way back to a childhood boyfriend with whom he has always been in love. Think you’ve seen this before? Hmmm, maybe, but it felt different to me. Three sets of actors play Chiron as he travels through time. I cared about Chiron. While this is the farthest thing from uplifting it just might make you look at the next little African American boy you see on the street or on TV in a different light.Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Wow. Richard Gere IS Norman, a New York “business consultant” who talks/cons his way into becoming best “friends” with the Israeli Prime Minister. Vain, shameless, frustrating, talkative and persuasive … he is always looking to make a buck from his influence peddling. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s embarrassing and heart breaking. I thought Norman must be a caricature, but I’m told there are plenty of people just like him in NYC. With Michael Sheen, Josh Charles, Steve Buscemi, Hank Azaria and Charlotte Gainsbourg.Sully
I wasn’t particularly excited to see this film. I thought I knew the story. Wrong. This is a very good film. Tom Hanks is – surprise, surprise – amazing as Captain Sullenberger who, when the engines failed, was able to safely land a commercial jet with 155 people on board into the Hudson River. The co-pilot (Aaron Eckhart) and Sully are brought before the NTSB who think the landing wasn’t heroic, but foolhardy. Clint Eastwood directs a totally watchable and enlightening film.Try it, you might like it
Lost in Paris
Quirky, funny and hard to forget. A shy, nerdy librarian visits Paris to help her elderly aunt. Catastrophes ensue. Most involve a gentle, weird, harmless homeless man.the acting was good - maybe even brilliant – however …
Things to Come
The wonderful Isabelle Huppert tries hard to make this predictable, painfully slow and kinda boring story come to life. She plays a middleaged philosophy teacher so the film is littered with philosophical “thoughts”. Her marriage is on the rocks. Her troublesome mother is sick and her children have their own “issues”.Wakefield
A husband (Bryan Cranston in a stunning performance), in the midst of a major mid life crisis, comes home to his wife (the always amazing Jennifer Garner) and instead of walking in the door and saying “hi” to his daughters, goes up into the attic above their garage which gives him the chance to spy on them. It begins as a whim, but quickly turns into an obsession. While his family and law partners tell the police he has simply vanished he watches everything play out from his secret perch. This film gets weirder by the minute. Based on an E.L.Doctorow short story.strange/unsettling/cringe worthy – skip, unless you really have nothing better to do with your time
Through the Wall
Desperate to get married, a thirty something Israeli woman hires a matchmaker. All her dates are disastrous. So, with no groom in sight, she nevertheless decides to go ahead and plan an Orthodox Jewish wedding because “it’s God’s will that she find a mate for life” before the date she decides on. Maybe the filmmaker meant this to be a charming, lighthearted comedy, but this story – especially the ending – were just plain pathetic.Una
Many years after an incident in which a 13 year old was the victim of sexual abuse (Rooney Mara) she seeks out her abuser (Ben Mendelsohn - mesmerizing) to try to resolve her feelings of love - and anger - towards her father’s former friend and neighbor. Hard to watch. I wish I hadn’t seen it.lots of positive buzz from “the line”
California Typewriter
A documentary about the endangered typewriter … can anyone keep typewriters from obsolescence?Finding Oscar
From the Telluride program: “In 1982, a Guatemalan military dictatorship, enthusiastically supported by the Reagan administration, came to power in a coup and dedicated itself to eradicating a leftist insurgency. In the ensuing civil war, the army massacred an estimated 200,000 ...”. A documentary about a forensic detective who worked to bring the murderers to justice.Frantz
From the writer-director of Swimming Pool (if you haven’t seen this – put it on Netflix), this is about a woman who, as she grieves at her dead finance’s grave, sees a stranger place flowers next to the headstone.The Eagle Huntress
Mongolian nomads use eagles to help them catch foxes for food and their fur. The capturing and training has always been a male-only endeavor. This documentary is about a 13 year old girl who captures a baby eagle and goes on to compete with 80 men in a eagle competition.Toni Erdmann
A slapstick comedy about a retired piano teacher who attempts to reconnect with his tightly wound corporate hotshot of a daughter in Romania.A small note: If you go to the Telluride Film Festival you will (generally) be treated to excellent films, with the single exception of something called GREAT EXPECTATIONS which has – over the past 5+ years – been the most consistently terrible programming of films I’ve ever seen. It is a mystery why, out of the supposedly hundreds of submissions, the audience has to endure the 3-4 films the programmer chooses for this program every year. Absurd.
