Telluride Film Fest #45 has come and gone. And this year, like an athlete trains for an Olympic event, I am just as committed… to sitting in the dark and eating popcorn and seeing films. Not just any films, the Telluride Film Festival thoughtfully curated films.
I watched 18 films in 5 days. Meals and showers are overrated.
- Birds of Passage B
- Border B+
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? A+
- Cold War A+
- Dogman A
- The Favourite A+
- First Man B
- Fistful of Dirt B
- Free Solo A
- The Front Runner B
- Girl A+
- The Old Man & the Gun B
- The Other Side of the Wind B
- Roma A+
- Shoplifters A
- Trial by Fire A
- White Boy Rick B
- The White Crow A
Birds of Passage B
This film has many of the familiar drug-world ideas we know (a crime family that keeps getting sucked in further and further, The Godfather), with a new twist: family ties that justify bloody drug war meets an indigenous Colombian culture, the Wayuu tribe. This film feels like it should be studied in a film theory class. It’s flawless in its authenticity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cbzb4pXZT0
Border B+
This film by director, Ali Abbasi is not what you think it is. Whatever you think it is, it’s not that. As a border patrol guard, Tina can sniff out the bad guys. Spoiler alert: the interspecies sex is unforgettable. If you like super weird stories, you’ll dig Border.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpwPp0DYyg0
Can You Ever Forgive Me? A+
I would watch this film again now. I loved it. Melissa McCarthy will surely be a contender for Best Actress for this role. She is great, as she always is, in this film about Lee Israel, a small-time crook who forges letters from famous writers. The pace and wit of this film (and depth of characters) is what The Old Man & the Gun missed. It’s funny and the details of everyday life are accurate and tell the story (her agent has 80% used-up toilet paper rolls in her bathroom cabinet – I mean… come on, this is a perfect detail of The Perfect Party Hostess). Marielle Heller directs and I hope she will be recognized for her vision to make this film feel real, gritty, but never cheesy. I’ll be seeing this one again when it shows in theaters.
Prediction: Academy Award Winner for Best Actress Melissa McCarthy + Best Film Nominee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvJIaNsf_bY
Here’s a little clip from the Q&A with Richard E. Grant, Melissa McCarthy and Marielle Heller about directing professional theatrical cats.
Cold War A+
Every film fest needs a great love story. Cold War is that. Sexy, romantic, black and white so the scenery and drama of the era feels authentic. This film is coming to the Milwaukee Film Festival — yay! So maybe I’ll get to see it again!
Prediction: Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPkDdFeTk8
Dogman A
I love this movie. I love the lovable goofball; the main character, Marcello (played by Marcello Fonte, an amateur actor who is beautifully directed by Matteo Garrone (directed Gomorrah, Telluride Film Fest 2008). Marcello is a dog-groomer who turns to drug-dealing to make ends meet. This story turns super brutal due to a super stupid thug. I watched the bloody parts with my eyes and ears closed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpm547O4J0w
The Favourite A+
Ok, so here it is: The Favourite was my favorite. With stellar performances from Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and — my prediction for Best Supporting Actress winner: Olivia Colman who is utterly pitiful and totally watchable as Queen Anne. It’s a romp. It’s delightful. It’s silly. It’s savage. It’s everything you want from a 18th century period film where the characters are not well-behaved ladies who simply wear pretty hats and pretty corsets. These are the women you want fighting a war for you because they play dirty.
Prediction: Winner of the Academy Award for Best Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g
First Man B
Intergalactic planetary porn. It’s not porn in the sense that you see Ryan Gosling get down with The Queen, Claire Foy (who plays Neil Armstrong’s wife). It’s porn because space is photographed as dangerous and sexy and rocky and hot. This is a space movie for people who really, really like space exploration. This is a really good simulator for space flight.
Prediction: Academy Award Nominee for Best Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4GtJB5WAlQ
Fistful of Dirt B
Splash meets Alien, meets Finding Neverland. Ok, there are some serious clues in that synopsis. This movie gets a lot right. Visually, the place looks bleak (this was the first major feature film shot after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico) and the little boy, Yei gives a great performance.
No trailer available
Free Solo A
Afraid of heights? Well, this movie is going to terrify you. The setup: a brave man, Alex Honnold, is the first and only guy to successfully “free solo” El Capitan, the 3,000+ foot rock wall in Yosemite. Free solo means exactly what you think it means. No ropes. Free climbing. Alex Honnold is totally bananas. And the amazing camera angles allow you to be bananas, too. Spoiler alert: Alex lives. But it doesn’t matter because you’ll be on the edge of your seat.
Prediction: Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urRVZ4SW7WU
The Front Runner B
I wanted to love this, because I love Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In the Air, Thank You For Smoking, Young Adult) but this isn’t his typical movie. The Front Runner refers to Gary Hart (played by Hugh Jackman) running for president in 1988 (and the sex-scandal that unraveled his campaign). In the era of the Trumpster Fire we have now, this story is cute, quaint, the way things used to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAOYDcnVx6E
Girl A+
See this film. It’s really special. The reason I cried (yup, me) was because the story is universal. A parent (loving and supportive dad) and kid (“I know how to do it myself” teenage daughter) try to navigate being different in a world that doesn’t support different. It’s heartbreaking and truthful – which are my drugs of choice. Lukas Dhont won Cannes Camera d’or for best first feature. Whoa. If this is his first film — imagine what he will do next!?
Prediction: Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdzu26tnUTc
The Old Man & the Gun B
This movie is a love letter to Robert Redford, and it’s Robert Redford’s love letter to movies. Sissy Spacek plays Redford’s girlfriend in this charming little bank robber with a heart-of-gold love story. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s charming and fun. And like any Robert Redford bank robber story, you never cheer for the cops. Casey Affleck, who plays the bad guy law enforcement, understands that he is witnessing something special.
Prediction: Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor Robert Redford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7rlUe-Thvk
The Other Side of the Wind B
I wanted to love this film because my friend, Dan Hanley LOVED this film. This film took 48 years to complete which is an amazing feat, no matter what the outcome is. To follow this film, you gotta be a real film buff. Dan watches F for Fake a few times a year and loves Orson Welles. To me, this film had no narrative throughline that I could track. It’s a series of bright colors, a recurring naked lady and party montages with the amazingly charismatic John Huston and a young Peter Bogdanovich. I didn’t get it but it sure was fun watching Dan love this film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMWHBUTHmf0
Roma A+
Roma is great. It will be distributed by Netflix, which is a bit of a shame because this film deserves to be seen on a big screen. The film is so rich in black and white (a subtle nod to the black and white-ness of the film narratives) textures and story. The question I kept asking myself is — this is a future-award winning film, maybe the best film of the year… So, are Netflix films eligible for Oscars? Yes, if the film is released at a Los Angeles County movie theater, it can show at one theater and be eligible for Academy Awards. Roma should be a strong contender. Alfonso Cuarón (who came to Telluride with Y Tu Mamá También in 2001 – my first year in Telluride!) has a wonderful gift for subtle storytelling. Often missing in cinema. Confident, personal storytelling.
Read more here.
Prediction: Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Film and maybe Best Picture nominee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ
Shoplifters A
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, this film asks the question: “What is a family”? These characters are flawed but their motivations are understandable. I’m guessing this film is a ringer for a Best Foreign Film nominee.
Prediction: Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJ3_JZnH_Q
Trial by Fire A
This film may get classified simply as a capital punishment film, but that’s not completely fair because this story has a lot of depth. One of my Telluride Film Fest 2018 magic moments was going to the Q&A for this film and seeing the real life angel, Elizabeth Gilbert (not that Elizabeth Gilbert) who I wanted to talk with but felt too much like a stalker.
No trailer yet
White Boy Rick B
This film is fun because you get to go rollerskating in Detroit in 1982. This film isn’t fun because it doesn’t show you much you haven’t seen before in a drug dealer with a heart of gold. Ricky Wershe Jr. is a small-time dealer who rises up through the ranks, and then snitches on his mob boss and the feds don’t protect him, so he goes to jail. Seems fair enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qns48PtK2io
The White Crow A
This is a beautiful film is directed by Ralph Fiennes about ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev attempting to defect to the US from Russia. It’s a rollercoaster with some real twists and turns.
No trailer yet
I think for the first time in 9 or 10 years, Telluride Film Festival didn’t premiere the Best Film of the Year… I think top prize will go to BlacKkKlansman for 2018. I think this is Spike Lee’s year. He deserves recognition for this film (and for his body of work).
Counting down the days until Telluride Film Festival 2019… 347 days, 346 days, 345…
betsyrowbottom 
Leave a comment