Film Feature: Preview #3 of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival

The 46th Mill Valley Film Festival is now underway! For a full view of special awards, spotlights, and centerpiece films, check out the complete festival guide. Tickets can be purchased here. 

Below is our third preview of the Festival, featuring brief looks at four more films (If you missed our other preview posts, you can find them here and here):

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Film Feature: Preview #2 of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival

Our coverage of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival, which starts tomorrow, Thursday Oct. 5th, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 15th, continues below. We take a look at four titles worthy of your attention: two documentaries and two narrative features. You can browse the full program here, and read our first preview post here. Be sure to bookmark Spinning Platters to check back for more film snapshots during the Fest! And special note: although the Festival’s in person screenings end on the 15th, several films will be available for streaming after the Fest closes.

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Film Feature: Preview #1 of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival

 

The 46th Mill Valley Film Festival will take place Oct 5 – Oct 15, 2023, with screenings at theaters all around the North and East Bay (and a few in SF).

For a full view of special awards, spotlights, and centerpiece films, check out the complete festival guide. Tickets can be purchased here. 

Below is a preview of the festival, featuring brief looks at four films:

Continue reading “Film Feature: Preview #1 of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival”

MVFF39 Spotlights: The Eagle Huntress/The Architect/A Late Style of Fire: Larry Levis, American Poet/Love is Thicker Than Water/Moonlight

The 39th Mill Valley Film Festival, showcasing over 200 films from more than 50 countries, opened last Thursday evening, and runs until this Sunday, October 16th. The Festival is screening some titles already garnering Oscar buzz: Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which opened the Festival (and will open widely this fall), the stunning Manchester by the Sea (which already received deserved acclaim back in January at its Sundance premiere), and Loving, the Jeff Nichols historical drama that closes the Fest.

With a full week to go, there is still plenty of time to head over to Marin to catch some great new films. Below we spotlight five Fest titles you may want to check out. Full schedule, tickets, and more information are available here. Continue reading “MVFF39 Spotlights: The Eagle Huntress/The Architect/A Late Style of Fire: Larry Levis, American Poet/Love is Thicker Than Water/Moonlight

MVFF38 Spotlights #2: Truth/Yosemite/Suffragette

MVFF Logo

The 38th Mill Valley Film Festival closed Sunday, October 18th, but if you weren’t able to make it out to Marin these past ten days, never fear: many of the titles – both big and small – will be widely released, and available to you soon at your local theater. To wrap up our coverage, Spinning Platters takes a look at three of these films, one of which actually opens this Friday.

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MVFF38 Spotlights #1: The Automatic Hate/Second Coming/The Girl in the Book/You’re Ugly Too

MVFF Logo

The 38th Mill Valley Film Festival, showcasing over 200 films from more than 50 countries, opens today, October 8th, and runs until next Sunday, October 18th. The Festival is screening some titles already garnering Oscar buzz: Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, with Eddie Redmayne in the true story of Lili Elbe; Truth featuring Robert Redford as Dan Rather, and Suffragette, with heavy hitters Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep. This year, the Festival also hosts special evenings with Mulligan, Sarah Silverman, Brie Larson, and Sir Ian McLellan.

Here at Spinning Platters, though, we thought we’d start the Festival by spotlighting some of the lower profile films that risk being overshadowed by movies already getting their fair share of press. Full schedule, tickets, and more information are available here, and be sure to stay tuned to Spinning Platters for more updates throughout the Fest. Continue reading “MVFF38 Spotlights #1: The Automatic Hate/Second Coming/The Girl in the Book/You’re Ugly Too”

MVFF Spotlights #4: Wild/St. Vincent/After the Fall

We’ve got three final spotlights from the 37th Mill Valley Film Festival, which closed Sunday night after ten days of showcasing dozens of fresh and exciting titles. Festival highlights, photos, and videos are available at: http://mvff.com. We’ll see you at the Fest next year!

Wild
(USA 2014, 120 min)

Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) at the start of her long and often arduous journey.

Director Jean-Mark Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) and writer Nick Hornby have turned Cheryl Strayed’s exceedingly popular memoir Wild into one of the best pictures of the year. Reese Witherspoon gives perhaps the fiercest performance of her career as Strayed, who, in the mid-1990s, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) solo as a way to cope with several losses in her life. A powerful meditation on grief, healing, strength, and redemption, Vallée’s picture benefits enormously from the emotionally raw performances of is two lead actresses. Laura Dern, as Strayed’s mother Bobbi, seen in flashbacks, is devastating as a young mother whose capacity for hope and love is beyond measure. Shot on location at various points along the PCT, Yves Bélanger’s cinematography is breathtaking, and fittingly accentuates the emotional complexity of Strayed’s story.

Release Date:
– Opens nationwide on December 5th

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MVFF Spotlights #2: What We Do in the Shadows/Like Sunday, Like Rain/Lucky Stiff/The Boy and the World/Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

The 37th Mill Valley Film Festival opens tonight, October 2nd, and runs until October 12th. The Festival is screening some of this fall’s most hotly anticipated pictures:  Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher (starring Steve Carrell) and Morten Tyldum’s Imitation Game (starring Benedict Cumberbatch), and so many more.  But here at Spinning Platters, we thought we’d spotlight some of the lower profile films that risk being overshadowed by the bigger movies.  Full schedule, tickets, and more information are available at: http://mvff.com, and be sure to check back here for more updates during the Fest.

What We Do in the Shadows
(US/New Zealand 2014, 86 min; English)

The whole crew in 'What We Do in the Shadows'
The whole crew in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’

What We Do in the Shadows resembles the result of a casual joke/idea, delivered with enough informality and humor to make it more entertaining than it could’ve been — it’s one of the funniest movies of the year.  The witty writing, from the comedy team behind Eagle vs Shark and The Flight of the Conchords, enables the film to break free from potential one-joke captivity, whereby the story expands the simple premise (vampire housemates) to wonderful subplots and hilarious surprises.  It’s definitely a movie best experienced with an energetic crowd!

Screenings:
– Tuesday, October 7, 7:45pm, Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
– Thursday, October 9, 4:00pm, Rafael Film Center, San Rafael

Continue reading “MVFF Spotlights #2: What We Do in the Shadows/Like Sunday, Like Rain/Lucky Stiff/The Boy and the World/Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem”

MVFF Spotlights #1: In Order of Disappearance/How I Came to Hate Math/States of Grace/Dying to Know

The 37th Mill Valley Film Festival opens this Thursday, October 2nd, and runs until October 12th. The Festival is screening some of this fall’s most hotly anticipated pictures: Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children and Tommy Lee Jones’s The Homesman (opening night films); Theory of Everything (featuring Eddie Redmayne as the young Stephen Hawking); and Wild, which has already garnered much festival buzz for Reese Witherspoon’s turn as Cheryl Strayed, the author of the popular memoir of the same name. But here at Spinning Platters, we thought we’d spotlight some of the lower profile films that risk being overshadowed by the bigger movies. Full schedule, tickets, and more information are available at: http://mvff.com, and be sure to check back here for more updates during the Fest.

In Order of Disappearance
(Norway/Sweden/Denmark 2014, 116 min; English, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish with English subtitles)

Stellan Skarsgard is out for revenge.

This Scandinavian crime thriller owes a debt not only to 2011’s terrific Norwegian noir film Headhunters, but also to the American movies Pulp Fiction and Fargo in terms of its surreal, darkly comic atmosphere and chilly landscape. Norwegian director Hans Peter Moland has cast Stellan Skarsgard to great effect as a sort of Swedish Liam Neeson in full-blown action mode. A Swedish immigrant living and working in a small Norwegian town, Skarsgard’s Nils gives new meaning to his recently earned Citizen of the Year award when he single-handedly takes on both a Serbian crime syndicate and the local gangsters to avenge the death of his son, an unwitting pawn in a dangerous turf war. Indelibly drawn characters and a screenplay filled with unexpected plot turns are highlights of this edgy, well-crafted picture.

Screenings:
– Friday, October 10, 5:45pm, Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
– Sunday, October 12, 2:45pm, Cinéarts Sequoia Theater, Mill Valley

Continue reading “MVFF Spotlights #1: In Order of Disappearance/How I Came to Hate Math/States of Grace/Dying to Know”

Mill Valley Film Festival Spotlights

Film fans can relish eclectic offerings at 36th MVFF

There's something for everyone at the MVFF opening Thursday.
There’s something for everyone at the MVFF, which opens on Thursday.

The 36th Mill Valley Film Festival opens this Thursday, October 3, and runs until Sunday, October 13. The Festival is featuring early views of some hotly anticipated fall films, including August: Osage County, Nebraska (opening night film), Dallas Buyers Club, 12 Years a Slave, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, among others. Here at Spinning Platters, though, we thought we’d spotlight some of the lower profile films that may not be getting as much attention. Full schedule, tickets, and more information available at: http://mvff.com

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