The Mill Valley Film Festival always showcases the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. It’s the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Don’t wait until Thanksgiving – head to Marin in early October.
For example, last year’s festival featured Roma, Green Book, Shoplifters, If Beale Street Could Talk and Cold War. Those five films combined for 28 Oscar nominations and 7 Oscars. You get the idea.
THREE of the movies I am expecting to be the year’s best are playing at this year’s MVFF:
- Parasite – This year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes. A family of poor scoundrels and a rich family become entangled in a thriller dramedy. Writer-director Bong Joon-ho is one of my favorite filmmkaers (Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, Mother, Okja).
- The Whistlers – from Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective), this is a fish-out-of-water crime comedy that won’t be released in the US until February 2020.
- Jojo Rabbit – the anti-hate satire about a young boy and his shocking inappropriate imaginary friend. From the unpredictable director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople).
Other highlights include:
- The Irishman – Martin Scorsese’s latest gangster saga, with Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci; the film employs innovative anti-aging effects for the flashback scenes.
- The Truth – Master director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) first non-Japanese film, with Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.
- The Lighthouse – Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are on a remote island in the 1890s. Major festival buzz about this contemplative movie.
- 63 Up – the latest in Michael Apted’s Seven Up series, one of the great achievements in cinema history (and Apted himself will appear at the screening).
- Frankie – the always discomfiting Isabelle Huppert takes her family (Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear) on a roller coaster.
- Ford v Ferrari – a Hollywood audience-pleaser with Matt Damon, Christian Bale and Tray Letts.
- Seberg – Kristen Stewart stars as Jean Seberg (and will appear at MVFF). Also stars Maragret Qualley (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Novitiate).
- Pain and Glory, the latest from Pedro Alomodovar.
- Just Mercy – Southern justice with Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Tim Blake Nelson and Brie Larson. Major Oscar bait from Short Term 12’s Destin Daniel Cretton.
- Knives Out – currently my favorite trailer, this is Rian Johnson’s (Brick, Looper) star-studded take on the English country home murder mystery.
- Motherless Brooklyn – the neo-noir from Edward Norton, who also stars.
- Marriage Story – could be a career-topper from Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale).
Plus there’s a very special event for cinephiles – a screening of the 1988 art house classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being with director Philip Kaufman and star Lena Olin in attendance.
This year’s festival runs October 3-13 at four different Marin County venues (plus BAMPFA in Berkeley),. You can peruse the program and buy tickets at Mill Valley Film Festival.