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”
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.
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’
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
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
Film fans can relish eclectic offerings at 36th MVFF
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
