Cinequest 2017 opened with the Shirley MacLaine comedy The Last Word, which was well-received by the festival audience, as was the adapted-from-best-seller comedy Carrie Pilby. The Australian crime drama Goldstone was another strong entry, leaving the laughably wretched The Ottoman Lieutenant as the only misfire among the Spotlight Films.
By far the most successful of the indies was the world premiere of the dramedy Quality Problems (which reprises in San Jose on Friday night at the Hammer). The crowd-pleasing For Grace will come to San Jose’s California Theatre on Tuesday night.
World cinema has been particularly strong:
- The Slovak Iron Curtain drama The Teacher may be the best film in the festival, but it has flown under the radar and will screen only more time: Sunday in Redwood City.
- The Norwegian drama All the Beauty offers a novel construction and an exploration of female sexuality from a first time woman director. Plays Cinequest again Thursday and Friday in Redwood City.
- The Hungarian sci-fi thriller Loop is an intellectually provocative – and malevolent – Groundhog’s Day. It plays Cinequest again Thursday night in San Jose.
- The Norwegian suspense thriller Revenge is another first film from a woman director and plays again Friday at Santa Row and Sunday in Redwood City.
- The smart Uruguayan dramedy The Moderns has been completely overlooked and plays Cinequest just one more time: Saturday in Redwood City.
- Other striking world cinema entries include the Swiss thriller Aloys (Tuesay at the Hammer), the Moldovan art film Anishoara (Wednesday in Redwood City), the cinematically brilliant Latvian drama Exiled (Tuesday and Wednesday in Redwood City) and the deadpan comedy King of the Belgians (Sunday at the Hammer).
Among the documentaries, New Chefs on the Block has emerged as popular. The final screening is Saturday morning at the Hammer. If you want to see my favorite Cinequest doc, you’ll need to chase down The Twinning Reaction in Redwood City today, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Virtual Reality segment of the fest is well-organized. Just show up at the California Theatre any time and follow the signs to the VR Theater. You can get a taste of the medium (but I’m not a fan myself).
Best bets to come:
- MONDAY: Thomas Vinterburg’s The Commune.
- TUESDAY: The psychological thriller Una, with Rooney Mara.
- THURSDAY: The period drama The Promise, with Oscar Isaac and Cristian Bale.
- FRIDAY: The silent classic Flesh and the Devil with the Wurlitzer Organ at the period movie palace California Theatre; the second San Jose appearance of the world premiere indie Quality Problems at the Hammer.
- SATURDAY: New Chefs on the Block in the morning; celebrity appearance by Jane Lynch in the afternoon, and then what looks like a trashy guilty pleasure in (re)Assignment (to be released soon as The Assignment).
- SUNDAY: The Sense of an Ending (Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling); the Closing night extravaganza built around The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain.
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