Photo caption: Maddison Brown in TO KILL A WOLF. Courtesy of To Kill a Wolf.
In the character-driven indie drama To Kill a Wolf, a reclusive woodsman in the Pacific Northwest (Ivan Martin) finds the seventeen-year-old runaway Dani (Maddison Brown) collapsed in the forest. He brings her back to his isolated cabin, nurses her back to health and tries to learn how he can return her to her home. She’s not forthcoming, so he has a mystery to solve. Meanwhile, the audience is on to other mysteries – why is the Woodsman (that’s the character’s appellation in the credits) living such an isolated life and why is his relationship with local community members so charged? As the Woodsman takes Dani on a road trip to her most recent residence, the answers, one by one, are revealed. It’s an absorbing story.
To Kill a Wolf is the first feature for writer-director Kelsey Taylor, who demonstrates herself to be a very promising filmmaker. A superb story-teller, she doesn’t explain behaviors before you need to understand. We’re continually wondering about the characters and about what will happen next, and are usually surprised about what the Woodsman is doing and why. Music is unusually important to the characters and to the film itself. The way Taylor ends the film is perfect – the final shot is not even a half-second too long.
Ivan Martin in TO KILL A WOLF. Courtesy of To Kill a Wolf.
The lead performances are excellent, as are those of the rest of the veteran professional cast. The roles of Dani’s Aunt Jolene and Uncle Carey are especially well-written, realistic and textured, and the performances of Kaitlin Doubleday and Michael Esper are vividly authentic. As the Rancher, David Knell captures the surprises in the character’s attitudes.
To Kill a Wolf begins streaming today on VOD, including Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango.
Photo caption: Tamara de Lempicka (right) in Julie Rubio’s THE TRUE STORY OF TAMARA DE LEMPICKA & THE ART OF SURVIVAL. Courtesy of Mill Valley Film Festival.
The biodoc The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival reveals an astonishing life. The art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka was as groundbreaking in her lifestyle and her self-invention as in her art.
De Lempicka painted her female subjects as confident and comfortable with their sexuality, and her highly-stylized nudes are striking. A de Lempicka has sold for over $20 million, the third-highest price ever paid for a painting by a modern female artist.
De Lempicka lived substantial parts of her life Russian-ruled Poland, France, the US and Mexico. Her adventurous personal life, dotted with rich husbands and affairs with celebrity lesbians, brazenly disregarded all the prevailing societal mores of the first half of the twentieth century. She said, “I live life in the margins of society and the rules of normal society don’t apply to those who live on the fringe.” Although de Lempicka didn’t care what anyone thought of her sexual behavior, she constructed much of her own image, sometimes embracing fiction as fact.
The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival is the third feature and first documentary from Bay Area director Julie Rubio, the producer of East Side Sushi. Rubio’s extraordinary research has uncovered that, in building her flamboyant persona, de Lempicka obscured much of her identity, including her heritage and her real name. Bringing birth and baptism certificates, 8mm home movies and the testimony of family members to light for the first time, Rubio completes a new and accurate understanding of de Lempicka.
The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival has been playing select theaters and is at the Palm in San Luis Obispo September 20-21, before Laemmle LA hosts 15 shows in five theaters September 27-29. I originally screened it for its world premiere at the Mil Valley Film Festival.
Photo caption: Pavel Talankan in MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN. Courtesy of the SLO Film Fest.
Nothing has changed since Aeschylus observed that the first casualty of war is truth, as revealed in Mr. Nobody Against Putin, the blistering exposé of Putin’s outrageous domestic propaganda about his Ukraine War.
Pavel Talankan is an unassuming, goodhearted guy with a small-time job as the events coordinator at the school in a remote Russian industrial town. That also makes him the school videographer, so no no one notices that, as he films school assemblies, award ceremonies and performances, he is also capturing the blatant Big Lie propaganda. It’s a surreptitious documentary filmed in plain sight.
Pavel is an unlikely muckraker. He is a free-thinking nebbish who loves Russia and loves his hometown of Karabash in the Ural region, putrefied by a noxious copper plant and called “the most toxic place on earth”.
More than anything, Pavel cares about his students, and he is increasingly disgusted as Putin ramps up the propaganda. First, a cadaverous party hack, whose heroes are the most vile Commie hitmen in history, spreads empirically false information about Ukraine being the aggressor in the war. Then, horrifyingly, Wagner mercenaries are brought in as classroom guest speakers. Silently, Pavel continues to film, letting the propagandists defile themselves for history.
Pavel is a hero, albeit a non-violent one, who risked his life to gather this material. David Borenstein exquisitely formed Pavel’s footage into a searing exposé of Putin’s soul-crushing impact on Russia. The secret audio from the funeral of a former student killed in Ukraine is heart-rending. The film begins with video of Pavel’s midnight escape from Russia,
I saw Mr. Nobody Against Putin at the SLO Film Fest; it releases theatrically this weekend.
Robert Redford was one of the very most significant filmmakers of his generation. With his stunning good looks, magnetism and wry charm, he could have “settled” for mega stardom with the acting roles that he is justifiably best remembered for, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, along with a slew of romance movies. But his own artistic aspirations and his flinty contempt for the phony and the superficial took him to even greater heights.
Redford’s first effort at directing, Ordinary People, won the Best Picture Oscar. He directed nine more films, some of them excellent (A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer) and none of them bad.
But Redford’s biggest contribution was his developing the Sundance Institute ad the Sundance Film Festival as incubators for other people’s independent filmmaking. His NYT obit highlights Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, Darren Aronofsky, Nicole Holofcener, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Robert Rodriguez, Chloé Zhao and Ava DuVernay as directors whose careers were accelerated by Sundance. That would have constituted an indelible legacy, even if he hadn’t become an iconic movie star.
My own favorite Redford acting roles were in Jeremiah Johnson, All the President’s Men and Downhill Racer.
Robert Redford in JEREMIAH JOHNSONRobert Redford in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
Photo caption: Jeremiah Daniels and William Catlett in COLOR BOOK. Courtesy of NashFilm.
NashFilm, the Nashville Film Festival, opens on Thursday, September 18 and runs through September 24 with its mix of indies, docs and international cinema, including world and North American premieres. I’ve highlighted the highest profile festival events, including Nicole Kidman’s personal appearance, in my NashFilm preview.
Today, I’m focusing on two indie Must Sees at NashFilm. One is an emerging writer-director’s first feature and the other reflects a resurgence from an indie filmmaking icon.
Color Book: After the sudden death of his wife, Lucky (William Catlett) is left to parent their son Mason (Jeremiah Daniels), who has Down syndrome. Now grieving and trying to make ends meet on a one income, Lucky faces the unrelenting struggles of single parenting – why does everything have to be so hard? Although he has a hard time asking for help, in many ways, Lucky is the ideal dad – affectionate, patient and consistent. Lucky wants to thrill Mason with his first major league baseball game, but the two get a bigger dose of Atlanta’s transit system than they would ever want. The journey is far more more meaningful than is the destination. Atlanta writer-director David Fortune has won eight festival awards in the US and France with his inaugural film. The black and white cinematography by Nikolaus Dummerer is exquisite. Without a hint of sentimentality, Color Book is authentic and endearing.
The Baltimorons: In this sweet and funny movie about second chances, a cracked tooth sends a guy to an emergency dentist; the misfortune of an impounded car launches the two of them into a raucous nighttime adventure through Baltimore that could result in romance. Cliff (Michael Strassner) is a floundering goof, a comedian who hasn’t performed during his months of new-found sobriety. In contrast, the highly functional dentist Didi (Liz Larsen) is personally reeling from her divorce, which has left her lonely and gashed a hole in her confidence. So, we have two talented people in moments of vulnerability and recovery. What happens is funny, but The Baltimorons succeeds because of its humanity – we really care about Cliff and Didi. The Baltimorons is the first film directed by indie film legend Jay Duplass since 2012. Festival audiences in Austin, Philadelphia and San Luis Obispo loved this film, which won the Best Narrative Feature Audience Award at SXSW. I expect The Baltimorons, after its theatrical run this fall, to become a word-of-mouth Holiday hit on the streaming platforms.
Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis and John Magaro in OMAHA. Courtesy of NashFilm.
And here are two other indie discoveries in the NashFilm program.
Omaha: This concise, searing drama is a showcase for John Magaro (Past Lives), who stars as an especially devoted dad who has been financially ruined by his late wife’s final illness. His inability to provide for his kids has filled him with desperation and profound shame, but he is determined to insulate his kids from his stress. He bundles the two kids into his barely drivable car for a a road trip across the Great Basin toward Nebraska. The purpose of the road trip is mysterious, and even the whip-smart nine-year-old daughter can’t guess it. Omaha is the first feature for director Cole Webley, working off a screenplay from Richard Machoian (God Bless the Child, The Killing of Two Lovers). Webley has a gift for portraying those seemingly minor life moments that tell the audience so much about relationships and motivations. The emotionally powerful ending is shattering.
Peacock: In this droll and absurd comedy, Matthias (Albrecht Schuch of All Quiet on the Western Front) works in a most unusual companion service; he gets paid for jobs like masquerading as a client’s fictional partner. Matthias has so perfected being a chameleon that he has lost all sense of himself. When the vengeful ex-husband of a client terrorizes him, Mattias’ world starts to unravel. Austrian director Bernhard Wenger won a prize at Venice, where it was also nominated for Best Film in the Critic’s Week. If you like Ruben Ostland’s work (Force Majeure, The Square, Triangle of Sadness), you’ll like Peacock.
All in all, this year’s NashFilm presents 140 films from 30 countries. Peruse the program and get tickets. Here’s the trailer for Color Book.
Photo caption: Tao Zhao in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES: Photo courtesy of Janus Films.
I’ve posted my Best Movies of 2025 – So Far page. Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year. By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my list of Best Movies of 2024 and Best Movies of 2023. To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.
Of course, I still haven’t seen many of the most promising movies still to be released, including Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Lynne Ramsey’s Die My Love, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-handed Girl, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 and the Palm d’Or winner at Cannes, It Was Just an Accident.
Here’s the first incarnation of this year’s list:
Caught by the Tides: China evolves, she persists. Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango, Criterion.
Pee-Wee as Himself: a man hidden in his own invention. HBO Max. (just won two Emmys for director Matt Wolf.)
No Sleep Till: turbulent weather, turbulent lives.Was in arthouses, streamed on Metrograph; will let you know when it streams
This year I’ve created an additional separate category in the list for those films that, to this point, haven’t been available to see in a theater or online. These are films that I’ve screened at US film festivals this year and qualify as among the best films of the year. I’m reluctant to tease my readers with a list of movies that they can’t see, so I created this new Festival Films category (follow the link and scroll down). When they get theatrical distribution or a streaming platform, I’ll move them up to the regular list.
Honey Don’t: kinda funny, disposable. In theaters.
Sorry, Baby: smart, funny and on the path to healing. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
ON TV
Joan Crawford in SUDDEN FEAR.
On September 13, the classic noir suspenser Sudden Fear plays on Turner Classic Movies’ Noir Alley with intro and outro by Eddie Muller. Sudden Fear showcases Joan Crawfor as a highly successful woman who marries a guy (Jack Palance) who really just wants her money; he plots with his longtime girlfriend (Gloria Grahame) to do in his wife for the inheritance. The wife discovers their scheme, and plans to get them before they can get her.
The riveting final twelve minutes is movie perfection. Now, it’s a pretty good movie for the first hour and thirty-eight minutes, but its ending takes Sudden Fear up a couple of notches.
Photo caption: Irina Starshenbaum and Douglas Booth in SHOSHANA. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
The thriller Shoshana is a historical drama set in pre-Israel Palestine that revolves around a love story between two people on different sides. The Jewish journalist Shoshana Borochov (Irina Starshenbaum) is a committed Zionist and a supporter of the paramilitary group Haganah. Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) is the Assistant Superintendent of Criminal Investigation for the British authorities.
All of the significant characters in Shoshana were real people, and the story takes place from 1933 to 1944. We don’t see many movies set in this time and place. The Ottoman Empire had ruled Palestine for 400 years, until the Ottomans were expelled by the British in WW I. The British then took over governing Palestine, with its majority Arab population and small Jewish community, under an international agreement – the British Mandate – and with a policy that there should be a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Arab residents have been living with a few Jews, but are horrified by the specter of mass Jewish immigration, and they revolt. Tit for tat murders begin between Arabs and Jews, which the British try to suppress. Soon there are rival Jewish paramilitary organizations, each with a different take on how to deal with the British, with the Arabs and with each other. When the British sharply limit Jewish immigration and frustrate the efforts to form a Jewish-majority state, the Jews react with anger against the British.
It becomes a lethal gam of three-dimensional chess. Shoshana does a pretty good job in helping the audience track who is who – and who wants to kill who. Shoshana was directed by the veteran Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, Jude, The Claim, A Mighty Heart and The Trip movies).
Thomas Wilkin and Shoshana Borochov forge an 11-year relationship in an environment that becomes more stressful every year. But Thomas is unwilling to stop being a British policeman, and Shoshana is unwilling to put aside her Zionist beliefs. They love each other, but not enough for either to abandon deeply-held values or their personal identities.
What could doom their relationship is not just arguing politics at the dinner table, but something more ominous – there are plenty of players who want each of them dead. The situation is explosive – often literally. And neither can hide in a Tel Aviv still small enough that everybody knows each other.
The British are trying to cope with what we now know as asymmetrical warfare. A British officer sneeringly asks a Zionist terrorist why he is blowing up women and children, and gets the reply “Because we don’t have the resources that you do“. Ironically, the British in Shoshana are themselves employing mass reprisals, extrajudicial executions and torture that would clearly be considered war crimes today.
Of course, British colonial rule was known for arrogant, racist, and culturally tone-deaf twits, and they are represented by Shoshana‘s villain, police official Geoffrey Morton (the fine actor Harry Melling).
Arabs and their cause may not be depicted in depth in Shoshana, but are shown as victims of both Jewish terrorism and British atrocities.
The historical events constitute the origin stories for both the nation of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The British throw up their hands and fal to provide for Palestinian self-determination within the borders of Palestine. The Jewish organizations in Shoshana later evolved into the two major Israeli political parties of the past 75 years, and the Haganah morphed into the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel has since become a military power and now faces its own asymmetrical warfare.
Given the impact of this history upon the current day, we might have expected more films about this period. After all, there are a zillion films about the Holocaust and a lot set in post-1948 Israel. In 1960, Otto Preminger made the blockbuster film Exodus from the 1958 Leon Uris novel which was the biggest best seller in US since Gone With the Wind. Exodus was set in the period between 1946 and 1948. (My parents saw Exodus at a drive-in with me as a small boy in the back seat.) No less than the pioneering Zionist leader and Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion said of the novel, “as a piece of propaganda, it’s the greatest thing ever written about Israel“.
Shoshana is far more clear-eyed and nuanced than Exodus. Shoshana reflects a historical setting that was complicated, and tells the story of lovers’ inner conflicts amid a dynamic and perilous external conflict. Shoshana, which I reviewed earlier this year for the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is now streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
Photo caption: Liz Larsen and Michael Strassner in THE BALTIMORONS. Courtesy of NashFilm.
The always exquisitely curated NashFilm, the Nashville Film Festival, opens on Thursday, September 18 and runs through September 24 with a diverse menu of cinema. The Nashville Film Festival is the oldest running film festival in the South (this is the 56th!) and is an Academy Award qualifying festival. The program includes a mix of indies, docs and international cinema, including world and North American premieres.
The most high profile events at NashFilm will be:
Opening night’s Man on the Run, the story of Paul McCartney’s life and career after the breakup of the Beatles, fresh off its world premiere two weeks ago at Telluride. Director Morgan Neville has delivered two of the very best recent biodocs (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain).
Nicole Kidman will appear personally for Q&A and a special screening of Cold Mountain.
The centerpiece biodoc John Candy: I Like Me.
The closing night film, Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez.
Omaha, an indie drama starring John Magaro that garnered buzz at Sundance.
Rebuilding, another Sundance indie drama starring Josh O’Connor.
The Baltimorons, the first film directed by Jay Duplass since 2012, a sweet and funny film that won the Best Narrative Feature Audience Award at SXSW.
The Nashville Film Festival embraces its home in Music City with a strong program of music films. This year, NashFilm celebrates the beloved John Prine with You Got Gold. There’s also Finding Lucinda, a singer-songwriter’s road trip to explore the stories that formed the powerfully raw songs of Lucinda Williams. There are also documentary features on genre-buster Sun Ra, grunge icon Eddie Vedder, Gospel artist Carl Bean, emerging flamenco star Yerai Cortés and Christian rappers LeCrae and the 116 Clique. It’s hard to imagine a more diverse slate of music docs.
My favorite element of most NashFilm fests is the discovery of new auteurs with their ballyhooed first films. This year’s slate includes these first films:
Peacock: new Austrian director Bernhard Wenger won a prize at Venice, where his droll debut was also nominated for Best Film in the Critic’s Week.
Mad Bills to Pay: the Bronx’s Joel Alfonso Vargas was nominated for Best First Film at Berlin and won a NEXT Special Jury Award at Sundance
Color Book: Atlanta’s David Fortune has won eight festival awards in the US and France with his inaugural film.
Fucktoys: Nashville’s hometown girl Annapurna Sriram, who also stars, won a Special Jury award at SXSW with her first feature.
Slanted: Chinese-Australian filmmaker Amy Wang won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW with her calling card.
All in all, this year’s NashFilm presents 140 films from 30 countries. Peruse the program and get tickets. I’ll be publishing my fest recommendations on September 16. Here’s the trailer for The Baltimorons.
