movie gourmet

More good stuff at Cinequest

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Photo caption: Thomas Sadowski and Ella Rubin in ADULT CHILDREN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest kicks off tonight, and I’ve already highlighted seven Must Sees in my Best of Cinequest. But there are plenty of good films in this year’s very deep Cinequest program, so I recommend that you check out these movies, too.

  • Adult Children: In this smart and insightful comedy, a couple is heading off on a European vacation just as the troubled son from the wife’s first marriage is wait-listed for a drug rehab bed. He needs supervision to prevent relapse, so his mom enlists his two sisters to fly in and babysit him. The couple’s 17-year-old daughter, twenty years younger than her half-siblings, opts out of the trip so she can finally get to know them. The three adult children fled the nest early after growing up free-ranging in the alcoholic chaos of their late father. The high-achieving, somewhat anxious, teen daughter comes from much more stable parenting. As the four settle in together, they find that maturity, direction and responsibility don’t automatically accompany chronological adulthood. It’s even revealed that the older daughters are posing as altruists to mask their own neediness. By turns funny and poignant, the story benefits from an excellent ensemble cast: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad), Thomas Sadowski (The Newsroom, Life in Pieces), Aya Cash (You’re the Worst) and Ella Rubin (Ani’s roommate/sister Vera in Anora). The real star here is the screenplay by seasoned actress Annika Marks; she is married to director Rich Newey, and this is their second narrative feature as a filmmaking team. Bay Area premiere.
  • Young Female Playwright: In this edgy satire, the Canadian National Theatre announces the production of a 26-year-old’s first play. The playwright revels in her surprisingly early success, and the company is smugly self-satisfied with discovering a young female literary voice. But when the play’s dark theme becomes public, the company panics at some blow-back and mischaracterizes the story’s origin, which sends the playwright’s family into their own consternation. Can political correctness and artistic ambiguity turn a Win-Win into a Lose-Lose? First feature for director Pony Nicole Herauf and writer Ellie Moon (who also stars). World premiere.
  • Nancy: This Argentine gem is an intimate portrait of a cleaner/caretaker of vacation beach homes owned by the Buenos Aires affluent. It’s a slow boil, leading to a test of her resilience when she faces a high-stakes decision. With a remarkable performance by Camila Peralta, we are engrossed with Nancy’s story even though most her early actions are mundane. You’ll be thinking about this one afterwards. First solo narrative feature for writer-director Luciano Zito. US premiere.
  • Catane: Eastern European cinema excels in droll absurdist comedies that mock the legacy of Communism, especially the pervasive corruption, mindless bureaucracy and absence of altruism. In the slyly funny Catane, Romanian bureaucrats find that every single person in a remote mountain village is receiving benefits for the disabled and suspect fraud. They head off to investigate, but the locals are alerted and put on a remarkable exhibition of faux blindness, paraplegia, burned off limbs, and even a woman whose back won’t let her lie down, so she sleeps standing up. A pair of ingenious girls don an oversized sweater and braid their hair together, posing as Siamese Twins. All the tomfoolery works flawlessly – up to a point… There’s a very effective running gag of the officials looting souvenirs from the village. Second narrative feature for writer-director Ioana Mishie. US premiere.
  • Holy Meat: In this mostly droll and sometimes outrageous German comedy, a dour priest insists on being assigned to a dying parish. To prevent the church from being shuttered, he leads the parishioners into a fundraising performance of the Passion of Christ. He can’t control the motivations of others, and the performance becoomes an exuberant blasphemy. At the end, there’s a revelation that explains the priest’s own actions. Second feature for German-Vietnamese writer-director Alison Kuhn. US premiere.
  • Hungarian Wedding: Set behind the 1970s Iron Curtain, two Hungarian slackers hit on a mad get-rich-quick scheme to smuggle icons from Romania. Their cover story is an invitation to a wedding in a Romanian village. They’re just not slick enough to pull this off anyway, but one falls fr the bride’s sister, who is trying to get out of an arranged betrothal to the son of the police chief. Antics ensue, which make Hungarian Wedding a cross between a funny thriller and an urgent comedy. As fitting its title, the film overflows with traditional costumes, excessive palinka-drinking and folk dancing athletic enough to become an Olympic event. First narrative feature for Hungarian director Csaba Kael. West Coast premiere.
  • Terra: This is as as searing a war movie as you’ll ever see from a civilian POV. A dad and his daughter scramble through the ruins of a bombed out city (presumably in Kurdish territory in Iraq), dodging air attacks, snipers and checkpoints in a situation where every decision must be made urgently with life or death consequences. The medical staff and patients of an entire hospital have relocated to a covert location, but are still vulnerable still to bombardment. First feature written/directed/photographed/edited/produced by British-Bermudian actor Rory Wilson. World premiere.
  • No Thanks, I Quit Smoking: This gentle Mexican comedy follows recently laid-off Nuria (an endearing Esmeralda Soto) on her 24-hour quest to come up with the rent money. She’s been trying to finish writing her thesis while she’s been ghost-writing those of less motivated students, and navigating her community of friends, possible love interests and intrusive family members, all while trying to quit smoking. First feature for Mexican writer-director Diego Toussaint. US Premiere.
  • Mockbuster: A young director of corporate training films decides to make a now-or-never move to feature filmmaking. He signs up with The Asylum to direct “six-day specials”, ultra-low budget exploitation movies – and films his experience. The world of schlock movie making has its charms, because the guys at The Asylum don’t take themselves too seriously. Movie star Eric Roberts amiably talks about his own career moving between A movies and Z movies. First documentary feature for Anthony Frith (who did actually direct the two exploitation features). Bay Area premiere.

At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. Take a look at the entire program, the schedule and the passes and tickets. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2026 page, with links to all my coverage. 

Ellie Moon in YOUNG FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Best of Cinequest

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Photo caption: Amber Gray in HEARTWORM. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns March 10-22 to the California Theatre and the Hammer Theater in downtown San Jose and to the Alamo Drafthouse in Mountain View. Selected films from the program will move to to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, March 24-31.

I’m covering Cinequest for the fifteenth straight year. I’ve included some tips for making the most of the Cinequest experience under “Hacking Cinequest” below.

I’ve already screened almost thirty Cinequest 2026 films, and here are my initial recommendations. As usual, I focus on the world and US premieres. Follow the links for full reviews, images and trailers. Thrillers and feel good documentaries are especially strong in this year’s program; I’m leading off with a sci fi thinkpiece.

SCI FI

  • Heartworm: Set in a near future where humans can connect to an AI-generated world indistinguishable from reality, a couple grapples with the heartbreaking death of their daughter. The mom is bravely working through her grief, trying to harness her resilience; the dad, equally shattered, has emotionally shut down. When we see the daughter, is it a flashback or a reappearance? The mom must figure out whether she has experienced a trauma-induced hallucination or a psychotic break – or whether the dad has stepped into an insidious AI pseudo-reality where their trauma didn’t happen? The distinguished Broadway actress Amber Gray, most recently Tony-nominated for Hadestown, soars as the mom, fighting fiercely for her sanity at the moment of her greatest vulnerability. This brilliantly constructed film is a striking debut feature for writer-directors Miriam Louise Arens and Mitchell Arens. World premiere. (Scroll down for the trailer.)
Tommi Korpela and Pihla Viitala in THERAPY. Courtesy of Cinequest.

DRAMEDY

  • Therapy: A husband and wife team of therapists have over-invested in a spacious seaside manor, where they are about to host a five-day couples retreat. Trouble is, the splendid but decaying estate has tapped out their finances, and their own marriage is on the rocks. What could possibly go wrong? This very funny Finnish dramedy sends up psychobabble while exploring the topics of grief, loyalty, betrayal, jealousy, disappointment and relationship fatigue. Therapy’s screenplay brims with insight, wit and humanity. Second narrative feature for writer-director Paavo Westerberg. US premiere.
Dane DeHaan in WARDRIVER. Courtesy of Cinequest.

THRILLERS

  • Plan C: This hyper-kinetic thriller is one pressure cooker of a movie. Criminals often lack impulse control, and a brother-and-sister team of small-timers exacerbate a bad situation with a sequence of ever-worse bad choices. As they careen into into life-and-death desperation, the accelerant is the sister Clare, whose lethal combination of determination and logical unsoundness is vividly played by Claire Cavalheiro. There’s a ticking clock, and the countdown stems from a most unusual hijacking. The acclaimed Viveca A. Fox has a key supporting role. First feature for writer-director Scott Anthony Cavalheiro. World premiere.
  • Wardriver: In this pulsating and highly original thriller, Cole (Dane DeHaan) is a hacker, who drives around Salt Lake City logging on to other people’s wireless networks, locating business payrolls and draining them into his own secret accounts. He conveniently says that he doesn’t rob people, but only steals from banks. Cole may be geeky for a professional criminal, but he finds himself entangled with a sequence of extremely dangerous bad guys, each scarier than the last. When he meets a beautiful woman who may or may not be who she says she is, his compulsion to save her puts him at even more risk. DeHaan’s performance carries this well-acted film. Sasha Calle, so good in In the Summers, and William Belleau (Killers of the Flower Moon) stand out in supporting roles. In a complete departure from her brilliant debut film Electrick Children, director Rebecca Thomas keeps the pace sizzling. This highly original techie noir screenplay was written by Daniel Casey. If you’re not paranoid about the security of your home router, you will be. World premiere.
UNSCRIPTED LIVES. Courtesy of Unscripted Lives.

DOCUMENTARY/FEEL GOOD

  • Unscripted Lives: A community center for the disabled in a small Vermont village puts on a musical every year, and this doc chronicles the town’s production of Beauty and the Beast.  The intellectually disabled play the the parts with lines of dialogue and make up 25-50% of the cast; the rest of the cast are townspeople up on stage in costume, helping make the disabled successful.  The auditions make you wonder how this could possibly work, but it’s a massive Feel Good. The kid who plays the Beast has a goofy charm, and the kid who plays Belle gets a deserved ovation after her big vocal number. This celebration of the power of community is goodhearted without being saccharine, and should be the biggest Feel Good hit at the 2026 Cinequest. Bay Area premiere.
  • Face to Face: Don Bachardy: This is the charming biopic of Don Bachardy, an exceptional artist who draws and paints portraits only from life. Don’s late partner, the famous writer Christopher Isherwood (30 years older), introduced him to scads of other celebrities, and we see perhaps over 100 movie star portraits by Don.  There’s a series of Isherwood portraits, and a clip of Isherwood referring to himself in the third person  – “I like the ones where he is dying”. Bachardy painted the the iconic and jarring official portrait of Jerry Brown in the California Capitol building.  There’s a great scene where the 90-year-old Don himself surprises a tour guide and a class of schoolchildren as they look at the painting.  Bachardy himself is upbeat and very fun to be with. World premiere.

ART FILM

  • Remember Me Always: This artsy, atmospheric neo-noir is set during one night in the mustiest, most shadowy hotel in Argentina. The burned-out hotel manager looks unkempt but he cares about one thing – the safety of his guests. There are hardly any guests, but one of them becomes a target of the very criminal organization that the manager once belonged to and has repudiated. He must scurry around the bowels of the hotel as the clock ticks. Shot in a boxy aspect, in black-and-white, Remember Me Always revives the smokiness and visual darkness of classic film noir – and the hotel’s sole television is rerunning Out of the Past. First film for Argentine writer-director Mateo Garimberti. World premiere.

HACKING CINEQUEST

Cinequest resumes its Downtown San Jose vibe, with concurrent screenings at the 1122-seat California and the 550-seat Hammer, within 1600 feet of each other (and the Continental Bar Lounge & Patio, which has historically hosted the festival’s VIP lounge). On Saturday, March 13, screenings start up at the Alamo Drafthouse in Mountain View, 30 minutes away in weekend traffic (and longer on weekdays).

At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. Take a look at the entire program, the schedule and the passes and tickets.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) twenty to thirty films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2026 page, with links to all my coverage. 

Here’s the trailer for Heartworm:

Movies to See Right Now

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This week on The Movie Gourmet – my First Look at Cinequest, previewing the Silicon Valley fim fest, which opens on Tuesday. On Sunday, I’ll publish my Best of Cinequest and followup with more Cinequest recommendations on Tuesday. I have been covering Cinequest for 15 years.

Here’s my farewell to Robert Duvall, one of the essential figures in cinema in my lifetime.

I also watched the Paul McCartney doc Man on the Run on Amazon, which was somewhat entertaining. Directed by prolific documentarian Morgan Neville (who won an Oscar in 2013 for 20 Feet from Stardom) with McCartney’s cooperation, it’s well-made and exceptionally well-sourced. It’s just hard for me to be enthusiastic about the subject, which is the eleven years right after the Beatles’ breakup, when McCartney led the band Wings; my take on Wings runs the gamut from indifferent to loathing.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.

Robert Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but he won his Best Actor Oscar for Tender Mercies, coming up on Turner Classic Movies on March 10. Duvall plays a once-famous country-western singer who has sabotaged his career and his family life with alcoholism and bad choices. Hey, mister, were you really Mac Sledge? Yes, ma’m, I guess I was. He’s trying to reboot with a new wife, but will his estranged daughter give him a second chance? Novelist Horton Foote won the screenplay Oscar. Duvall did his own singing and even wrote two of Mac Sledge’s songs, Fool’s Waltz and I’ve Decided to Leave Here Forever.

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.

First Look at Cinequest

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Photo caption: Steve Zahn and Ethan Hawke in SHE DANCES, Bay Area premiere at Cinequest. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns March 10-23 to the California Theatre and the Hammer Theater in downtown San Jose and the Alamo Drafthouse in Mountain View. Selected films from the program will move to to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, March 24-31.

Highlights of the 2026 Cinequest include:

  • 123 world and US premieres and many directorial debuts.
  • Films from 44 countries, including from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Albania, Norway, Hungary, China, Finland, India, and the UK.  
  • New movies produced by James Ivory, directed by Steven Soderbergh, Rebecca Morris (Electrik Children) and Ben Wheatley (High-Rise); and starring Bob Odenkirk , Steve Zahn, Ethan Hawke,  Vivica A. Fox, Tamara Weaving, Henry Winkler, Sonequa Martin-Green, Thomas Sadowski, Mimi Rogers, Betsy Brandt, Rosemary DeWitt and Tony-nominee Amber Gray.
  • Personal appearances by Steve Zahn and Viveca A. Fox to receive Cinequest awards and to present their upcoming films.
  • Cinequest’s Silent Cinema Event will present a major spectacle, the 1926 Ben-Hur, accompanied by master organist Dennis James on the historic California Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer.
  • And, at Cinequest, it’s easy to meet the filmmakers.

At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. The prices have not been raised SINCE 2019!) Take a look at the entire program, the schedule and the passes and tickets

I’ll be rigorously covering Cinequest for the fifteenth straight year, with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) over twenty Cinequest films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2026 page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Sunday, March 8).

Cinequest at the California Theatre. Photo credit: The Movie Gourmet.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jessie Buckley in HAMNET. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – reviews of two overlooked films, Dennis Hopper’s searing drama Out of the Blue and the deliciously subversive Argentine comedy Human Resources. Slamdance is under way, and here’s my coverage:

Note: Two highly recommended movies – both Oscar-nominated – The Secret Agent and Mr. Nobody Against Putin are now available to stream at home. And all of the big Oscar movies are now available to watch at home.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz in VOLVER.

On March 4, Turner Classic Movies plays Pedro Almodovar’s Volver. Almodovar’s signature is a female-forward movie that is a subversively hilarious exploration of dark subjects – and that fits Volver to a tee. There is murder and parentage secrets , along with a body conveniently stashed in a freezer, plus a ghost who isn’t. The mostly female cast is headed by Penelope Cruz (Oscar nomination) and Carmen Maura. Cruz, of course, is a global A-lister, and Maura, like Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes and Roddy De Palma, we know best from her collaborations with Almodovar (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom, Matador and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.).

HUMAN RESOURCES: Iago with a sick sense of humor

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Pedro De Tavira (center) in HUMAN RESOURCES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the dark, dark Argentinian comedy Human Resources, Gabriel Lynch (Pedro De Tavira) is an alienated office worker, in an absurdly alienating workplace. Gabriel is a low-level supervisor on an anonymous lower floor of a corporate hive with too many layers of management and an oppressive, top-down culture. It’s also oversexed, with a carousel of Inappropriate office liaisons. And, we’ll soon see, is shockingly tolerant of what we would see as the most horrifying workplace violence.

Gabriel, an Iago with a sick sense of humor, begins a ruthless, unhinged campaign against those who offend him. Alienation leaks out in how her treats everyone. Mischievous, mean-spirited and completely unashamed, he’s very fun to watch. And, as venal as Gabriel is, he is matched, step-for-step, by Veronica from Finance (Juana Viale).

Around the 41-minute mark, Gabriel makes his grievance explicit (followed by a great drone shot)

“I’ve lived like the secret son of a king for a long time, waiting for a courtier to rescue me. Of course, nobody rescued me. Nobody rescues anybody.”

Human Resources is the creation of writer-director Jesús Magaña Vázquez. I’ve rarely seen a more cynical comedy.

Last year’s Cinequest hosted the US premiere of Human Resources, which I highlighted in my Best of Cinequest. Human Resources is now streaming on Hulu. There are many recent movies with a similar title; make sure you’re watching the 2023 Recursos Humanos directed by Magana and starring Pedro De Tavira.

I love the Spanish language trailer, even without English subtitles:

OUT OF THE BLUE: when there is no redemption

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Photo caption: Linda Manz in OUT OF THE BLUE. Courtesy of Discovery Productions, Inc..

Newly restored for re-release, Dennis Hopper’s 1980 Out of the Blue is an anti-redemptive parable of alienation. It features both an unforgettable performance and an unforgettable ending.

The spirited teenager Cebe (Linda Manz) has the worst parents in her British Columbia town, maybe in the entire province. Her dad (Dennis Hopper), is a drunk, deservedly in prison for an act of irreparable harm. (Cebe bears a facial scar from this incident – and lots of emotional damage as well).

Her chirpy mom (Sharon Farrell) can’t keep a needle out of her arm or guys out of her pants. Ever impulsive, she ruefully observes that there are two kinds of men – the sexy, adventuresome types and the good providers; it’s evident that she hasn’t bet her life on the good providers.

After five years in prison, the dad is released and gets a job operating heavy machinery at a garbage dump overrun by sea gulls. But he’s still sucking on his ever-present pint bottle, and the town won’t forget why he was incarcerated.

Cebe is full of life and has a gum-chewing swagger. She’s comfortable leading her teen peers in some rowdiness, but she also has a rich imagination and she spends a lot of time in her room alone, acting out her interests in Elvis and punk music.

But Cebe doesn’t know in what direction to channel her exuberance; she can’t tell her sympathetic, court-appointed psychologist (Raymond Burr) what she wants.

The one thing that Cebe doesn’t want is what’s best for her – to be separated from her parents. As is common with neglected and abused children, she clings to the bad situation that she is familiar with.

Cebe acts out in mildly rebellious mischief at school, and she runs away for a night of adventure in Vancouver, somehow emerging unscathed from risky situations.

Back home, she hides from her parent’s arguing in her room. Suddenly, the audience is shocked by something the father says (what??!!), and it is revealed that the parents’ dysfunction is MUCH darker, more twisted than previously apparent.

Cebe erupts, and Out of the Blue ends with a stunning, utterly unpredictable climax. Hopper follows Billie Wilder’s screenwriting advice – “don’t hang around”; the ending is not even one second too long.

Dennis Hopper wrote and directed Out of the Blue, pacing the film well and delivering verisimilitude from the Vancouver-area setting. The camera swirls around the actors at times, and Hopper makes good use of the thousands of seagulls populating a garbage dump.

Out of the Blue is really all about Linda Manz’s singular performance as Cebe. Often improvised, her performance is naturalistic and unpredictable. When she is in her room or walking through a Vancouver night, she acts like no one is watching her, and it’s riveting.

By the time she was 19 in 1980, Linda Manz had acted in and narrated a masterpiece (Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven) and appeared in two cult films (Philip Kaufman’s The Wanderers and Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue). Then she retired to raise a family. Manz died at 59 in 2020.

Don Gordon (left) and Dennis Hopper (center) in OUT OF THE BLUE. Courtesy of Discovery Productions, Inc.

As the dad, Hopper is able to demonstrate the charm that attracted the mom and the playfulness that endears him to Cebe. In a scene where the dad dramatically gets himself fired, Hopper shows a man so enjoying his ballsy action, and then, his visage changes as the consequences of his impulsivity sink in, reflecting on his helplessness when he is once again done in by his own impulses.

As the mom, prolific television actress Sharon Farrell excels in a rare movie role.

Don Gordon plays Charlie, the dad’s marginally more functional pal. Gordon had key supporting roles in Bullitt and Papillon and over a hundred appearances in the episodic TV of the 60s and 70s.In Out of the Blue, Gordon displays his gift for playing drunk convincingly. Gordon really understood the essence of drunk thinking and behavior, and has an even more compelling drunk scene in Hopper’s The Last Movie).

Out of the Blue premiered at Cannes and enjoyed praise from Roger Ebert (“Bitter, unforgettable. An unsung treasure.“) and other critics. But the ending is so shocking and emotionally desolate, that it wasn’t released in the US; no distributor wanted to bet on its acceptance by a US audience. John Alan Simon acquired the distribution rights for a 17-week art house tour in 1982 with Hopper. Now Simon and Elizabeth Karr have digitally restored Out of the Blue from the only two 35mm prints in existence.

Out of the Blue has only recently become available to stream; (I own the DVD.) In late 2021, the 4K restoration opened at a New York City screening presented by Chloë Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne. Now you can find Out of the Blue on the Criterion Channel, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Wagner Moura in THE SECRET AGENT. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – the Slamdance film festival is under way right now:

Note: Two highly recommended movies – both Oscar-nominated – The Secret Agent and Mr. Nobody Against Putin are now available to stream at home.

REMEMBRANCES

Here’s my farewell to Robert Duvall, one of the essential figures in cinema in my lifetime.

Director Frederick Wiseman was one of the most influential documentarians; he didn’t invent cinéma vérité, but he was one of its most famous practitioners, beginning with his first film, the disturbing psychiatric prison exposé Titicut Follies in 1967. Some of his best work came when Wiseman was in his 80s: Boxing Gym, In Jackson Heights and Monrovia, Indiana.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Ingrid Thulin and Victor Sjostrom in WILD STRAWBERRIES

On February 21, Turner Classic Movies presents the one non-depressing Ingmar Bergman film, Wild Strawberries. There’s no denying that Bergman is a film genius, and he’s influenced the likes of Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, Kieślowski and basically much of the last two generations of filmmakers. But I don’t recommend that casual movie fans watch Bergman’s gloomiest movies just because they “are good for you” – I want you to have a good time at the movies.

Wild Strawberries is the story of an accomplished but cranky geezer. His indifferent daughter-in-law is taking him to be honored at his college. On their road trip, they pick up some young hitch-hikers and then a stranded couple. Each encounter reminds the old doctor of an episode in his youth. As he reminisces, he can finally emotionally process the experiences that had troubled him, helping him finally achieve an inner peace. It’s a wonderful film.

Must See at SLAMDANCE

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Sylka, Bruno Clairefond and Alain Guillot in THE KEY at Slamdance Film Festival. Courtesy of HTTH Productions.

The 32nd Slamdance Film Festival opens tomorrow in LA, unveiling the work of new filmmakers. Christopher Nolan, Bong Joon-ho and Sean Baker are among the filmmakers whose early work was showcased at Slamdance; will another cinema icon emerge from this year’s program?

Here’s my Slamdance festival preview. I’ve had a chance to sample some of this year’s program and here are my recommendations.

MUST SEE

  • The Key: This offbeat French fable brings us unexpected characters and takes them into an even more unexpected world. Bruno and Alain, strangers to each other, are each, despite living in the middle of Paris, completely devoid of connection to other humans. Both the disagreeable, prickly Bruno and the more passive Alain remain essentially invisible to others – and anchored to a profound loneliness. The two are suddenly waylaid by a third man, Z, who invites them back to his place, which turns out to be one of those gloriously posh Parisian apartments, with high ceilings and a grand piano. The three new friends are getting to know each other when Z surprises them with a revelation that I won’t spoil. Fascinated, Alain and Bruno embrace Z’s highly unconventional lifestyle, but will it fulfill their lives? In his first narrative feature, writer-director Paul G. Sportiello explores what he calls “hidden people”. What makes a “nobody”? Is it a bad thing to be a nobody? Is it better to be comfortable in one’s own skin? Every aspect of this highly original storytelling serves to introduce Sportiello as an especially promising auteur. North American premiere at Slamdance.

OTHER SLAMDANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Manolya Maya in DUMP OF UNTITLED PIECES. Courtesy of Melik Kuru and Hafif Film.
  • Dump of Untitled Pieces: In this Turkish dark comedy, photography student Asli (Manolya Maya), a law school dropout, and her oddball roomie face eviction from their bohemian flat unless they can raise the rent money ASAP. They embark on a campaign to sell her portfolio to art dealers, careening through the the non-touristy neighborhoods of Istanbul and confronting the unwelcome realities of commerce (foreign buyers want tragedy). Their escapades are funny, but the humor in this first feature by writer-director Melik Kuru is primarily character-driven. Is the stubborn Asli an uncompromising artist or a slacker posing as an artist to avoid getting a real job? Kuru’s clever, surprise ending give us a clue. Beautifully shot in black-and-white in a cinéma vérité style by cinematographer Baris Aygen. North American premiere at Slamdance.
  • The Lemieurs: This cinéma vérité doc chronicles over a year in the lives of a Minnesota family as they meet the inevitabilities of life. Five middle-aged brothers must face the increasing frailty of their aged mother, while three cousins from the younger generation run the family’s funeral home. The stories of the family members are fittingly bookend by two funerals and anchored by the spirited matriarch. At once intimate and unsparingly clear-eyed, The Lemieurs is absorbing and brimming with humanity. First feature for director Sammy LeMieur. World premiere at Slamdance.

Slamdance festival passes are SOLD OUT, but you will be able to sample at least some of these films on the Slamdance Channel from February 24 thru March 6.

Discover the Newest Filmmakers at SLAMDANCE

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Sylka, Bruno Clairefond and Alain Guillot in THE KEY at Slamdance Film Festival. Courtesy of HTTH Productions.

It’s time for the 32nd Slamdance Film Festival, which is all about discovering new filmmakers and unveiling their work. Originating with 30 years in Utah, this is the second Slamdance in Los Angeles. It’s a hybrid festival with live events (February 10-25) and online via the Slamdance Channel (February 24-March 6). Three LA venues will host the screenings – DGA, Landmark Sunset, and 2220 Arts with the closing night ceremony held at the Egyptian Theater.

Slamdance was founded in 1995 by filmmakers reacting to the gatekeeper role and growing marketplace focus of a nearby Utah film festival with a similar name. Whenever I cover a film festival, I’m on the lookout for first films and world premieres – and here’s a festival essentially entirely made up of first films and world premieres.

Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, Memento, Dunkirk), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room), Lynn Shelton (Outside In, Sword of Truth), Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Brick), Benny & Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War).

All Slamdance feature films selected in the competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million. The 141 films in this year’s program, featuring 50 world premieres, hail from 50 countries and were selected from 10,000 submissions.

Slamdance opens with the world premiere of Alexandre Rockwell’s The Projectionist, a love letter to cinema starring Vondie Curtis-Hall and co-produced by Quentin Tarantino.

This year, Utopia will offer theatrical distribution for at least one Slamdance Grand Prize Winner. Way cool.

I’ll start rolling out full reviews of some Slamdance films on February 24th. Remember, even if you don’t get to the fest in LA, you can sample these films on the Slamdance Channel from February 24 thru March 6.