2018 San Francisco International Film Festival ends this week
If you haven’t made it out to the SF International Film Festival yet, don’t worry – you still have one more day to catch some great films. The Festival ends tomorrow, Tuesday, April 17th, and tickets to remaining screenings can be found here.
Spinning Platters continues its coverage by taking a look at four films that screened at the Fest that will be opening soon here in the Bay Area (we note each film’s opening date below), so if you had hoped to see some of these at the Fest and missed them, you’ve got a second chance. And even though the Fest ends soon, stay tuned to Spinning Platters; we’ll have some wrap up coverage after the Fest concludes.
1.) Kodachrome
(Canada/USA 2017, 105 min. Marquee Presentations)
Upon hearing the title of director Mark Raso’s new film, you would be forgiven for thinking it might have something to do with Paul Simon’s 1973 single of the same name. That song is referenced in the film, but never played, which is for the best, since the last film to take its title from a Paul Simon song was a huge flop. Raso fares better here, working from a script by the author and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (This is Where I Leave You). Based loosely on a 2010 article in the New York Times about the closing of the last photo lab in the country to develop Kodak’s famed color film, Kodachrome is a father-son redemption story that calls to mind Sam Shepard, and not just because Shepard stalwart Ed Harris plays Ben, the estranged, terminally ill famous photographer father to Jason Sudeikis’s wounded music producer son Matt. The actors are believable as a father and son with a complicated history, which helps detract from the cliché of their road trip from New York to Kansas to drop off old Kodachrome rolls of Ben’s before the lab closes. Accompanying the duo is Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen), Ben’s nurse and assistant and, of course, love interest for Matt. Olsen’s likable presence and her chemistry with Sudeikis also help keep the story from feeling too obvious, and you find yourself wanting to spend more time with them. The film does occasionally succumb to the hackneyed, though, as when Matt and Zoe finally look at Ben’s developed slides (you’ll have long since guessed what’s on them), in a somewhat cloying scene that may remind some viewers of the famous “The Wheel” episode of Mad Men. But with its nostalgic look at how our analog world has given way to digital, Raso and Tropper manage to pull off a charming narrative that would have felt derivative with a lesser cast at the helm.
Kodachrome will open in the Bay Area this Friday, April 20th.
2.) Tully
(USA 2018, 96 min. Awards and Tributes)
In his third collaboration with screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno; Young Adult) and second with actress Charlize Theron (Young Adult), director Jason Reitman brings us what he considers the third in a thematic trilogy about growing up. As he told us in the Q&A following the Tully screening, Juno is about growing up too fast, Young Adult is about growing up too slow, and Tully is about the moment when everything changes between who you were then, and who you are now. Charlize Theron stars as Marlo, an exhausted mother of two with the third on the way as the film starts. Gifted a night nanny by her rich brother (Mark Duplass), Marlo welcomes 20-something free spirit Tully (Mackenzie Davis) into her home to help care for the new baby. What follows is a candid and often profound look at motherhood, post-partum depression, marriage (Ron Livingston plays Marlo’s patient but equally tired husband), and, yes, growing up, that will resonate with anyone who has ever waxed nostalgic for their younger and carefree days. Theron is stellar here, showing remarkable range (she also forfeited a fat suit in favor of authenticity; at the Q&A, she lamented that she had been in the best shape of her life for Atomic Blonde, and then did the opposite for this role. She told a funny story about texting Reitman photos of eating burgers and shakes at In-N-Out). The rapid weight gain from eating unhealthily contributed to a real life depression that, Theron told us, helped her channel emotions similar to what Marlo experiences, and that truthfulness is evident in Theron’s performance. The picture benefits from an unexpected and clever ending that brings a richness and freshness to the film’s themes. If you’re even a marginal Reitman, Cody, or Theron fan, you shouldn’t miss this one.
Tully will open in the Bay Area on Friday, May 4th.
3.) First Reformed
(USA 2017, 112 min. Masters)
Imagine if Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle had been a small-town pastor and not a taxi driver, and you’ll have a pretty good idea what First Reformed is all about. Written and directed by the award-winning Taxi Driver and Raging Bull screenwriter Paul Schrader, First Reformed continues exploring the themes Schrader first set forth in his 1976 classic. Ethan Hawke stars as Ernst Toller, a former military chaplain still grieving the loss of his son who now leads the quaint, historic First Reformed church in a fictional upstate New York town. Hawke is outstanding as the depressed and bereft pastor, whose despair spirals out of control when he unsuccessfully counsels a passionate environmental activist (Philip Ettinger) and his young, pregnant wife (Amanda Seyfried). Heady theological themes come to the fore as Toller grapples with issues of spirituality, righteousness, grace, and forgiveness. How can we cope in world where so much despair and destruction exists? Can God forgive us for what we’ve done to the world – and to each other? Schrader will have you mulling over these same questions long after you leave the theater, and the film’s appropriately ambiguous but heart-stopping powerful ending will leave you reeling as well. We’re only four months into the year, but come awards season, I’m predicting multiple acting and screenwriting nominations for Hawke and Schrader. You heard it here first.
First Reformed will open in the Bay Area on Friday, June 1st.
4.) A Kid Like Jake
(USA 2018, 92 min. Opening Night)
Based on a 2013 play by New York playwright Daniel Pearle, A Kid Like Jake retains much of its theatrical feel, which works well for some of the intense scenes between husband Greg (Jim Parsons) and wife Alex (Claire Danes). The topic of these arguments, which quickly escalate from fraught to vicious, is the couple’s young son Jake (Leo James Davis), who, to use the words of Jake’s pre-school teacher Judy (Octavia Spencer), is engaging in “gender expansive play.” Director Silas Howard, a trans director whose previous credits include episodes of Transparent (Amy Landecker, who plays Sarah in that show, also has a small, but pivotal part here), brings both subtlety and raw honesty to this story of parents trying to do the right thing for their child, whose true self may still be emerging. Using the highly competitive Brooklyn elementary school application process as a catalyst for the parents’ marital strife, Howard’s film is less about Jake himself (in the play, he’s actually an unseen character) and much more about the dynamic between Greg, a pragmatic therapist, and Alex, a lawyer turned stay-at-home-mom and their conflicts. Parsons and Danes are terrific here, and you’ll find yourself alternately siding with each of them as they navigate societal, parental, and gender norms and expectations. As Howard put it at the Q&A following the film, we live in a society that cherishes uniqueness, but punishes differences. Given that, Howard’s film tells us, there are no “right” or easy answers or fixes in a situation like this, but compassion, understanding, and love can go a long way in helping us all muddle through when fear of the unknown grips us. As an added bonus to an already smart and well-crafted film, the great Anne Dowd is phenomenal as Alex’s well-meaning but astoundingly passive aggressive mother.
A Kid Like Jake will open in the Bay Area on Friday, June 8th.
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The 61st San Francisco International Film Festival continues through Tuesday, April 17th.
You can watch the Festival trailer on the Festival’s website, here.
