2014 Fall Film Festival Recap: The Verdict on Films Screening at TIFF, Telluride, and Venice
Below, we reveal the highlights and lowlights of the fall festival circuit by gathering the responses from professional critics to films screening at Telluride, Venice, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Each year, these prestigious events are where many Oscar best picture nominees first premiere, and you can expect to see many of these films in theaters before the end of the year.
Excluded from the list below are films that have either already reached theaters or are about to. (You can find reviews for those films, including This Is Where I Leave You, Tusk, Pride, The Equalizer, The Boxtrolls, The Good Lie, and The Judge, in our regular Film section.) We have also omitted films that first debuted at other major festivals earlier this year, as those titles were previously covered in our Cannes Recap and our Sundance Recap.
30 key films
. 99 Homes
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Ramin Bahrani
It looks like director Ramin Bahrani has made a comeback of sorts with this look at the personal impact of the housing crisis. While it might not reach the heights of Goodbye Solo, it’s an improvement on his last film, At Any Price. In 99 Homes, Andrew Garfield stars as a father who goes to work for the ruthless real estate broker (Michael Shannon) who evicted him from his house. The Dissolve’s Noel Murray claims the film “has far more life in it than the at-times-laughably stiff At Any Price” thanks to the “outstanding lead performances” of Garfield and Shannon, and The Guardian believes it’s a “tough, muscular, idealistic drama that packs a mighty punch, and Shannon and Garfield are excellent.” The Playlist thinks the “blunt force trauma impact of its narrative never feels exploitative, being wholly justified by the importance of its themes,” while Variety finds the ensemble to be “excellent across the board, with those cast as the various evictees contributing a particularly vivid gallery of one-scene performances, ranging in tone from white-hot fury to silent desolation.” Though slightly less enthusiastic, TheWrap still feels “Bahrani finds the right mix of the two phases of his career to date.”
. Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtues of Ignorance) Watch trailer
October 17 | Comedy/Drama | Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Even though it didn’t win any awards in Venice, Birdman did make quite a splash, but the hype quieted down a bit once the film screened in Telluride. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first comedy stars Michael Keaton in the meta-role of a washed up actor famous for portraying an iconic superhero who now struggles to mount a Broadway play. In The Playlist’s rave, the film is “miraculous,” and “hubristic, humble, heartfelt and... phenomenal.” Variety calls Iñárritu’s illusion of a single unbroken take “mind-boggling in its complexity” and the film his “best feature.” Indiewire is also impressed by the film’s “tension between fluid camerawork and invented moments,” which THR finds to be “the most sustained examples of visually fluid tour de force cinema anyone's ever seen.” CineVue praises a script by Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Iñárritu that “crackles with killer lines and, as the camera moves through the backstage dramas, shifts dramatically but skillfully in tone from slapstick comedy, to corrosive satire to an almost visionary madness.” TimeOut London believes “Keaton is dream casting, and he’s fearless,” and The Wrap claims “this will certainly rank among Keaton's career highlights — in a role that allows him to completely dump out his paintbox and show a vast range of emotion.” Film.com admits that while “there are superb scenes” and “excellent performance moments,” in the end, Birdman “overwhelms you by design and with vigor, but when the shouting and steadi-cam shots are over, there’s both far too much and not nearly enough left behind.”
. The Cobbler
release tbd | Fantasy/Comedy/Drama | Directed by Thomas McCarthy
One of two films starring Adam Sandler that got savaged by critics (this fall; obviously, there have been others in the past), The Cobbler is also the first critical failure to date from director Thomas McCarthy (Win Win, The Visitor, The Station Agent). The film traces the story of a shoe repairman who discovers he has the ability to step into the lives of his customers. (Yes, you guessed it: by literally walking in their shoes.) It's actually not Sandler's fault this time; most critics agree that he’s far from the worst thing in a film Variety describes as “a slow-motion zeppelin crash that starts as a dull-edged fable, and then spirals further and further out of control without ever growing more exciting or interesting.” Veteran critic Owen Gleiberman, now writing at BBC.com, gives the film a mere one star out of five, calling it a “lose lose.” Echoing the sentiments of other critics, The Playlist notes that the ending pushes The Cobbler into “something transcendently, almost spectacularly bad,” while Wesley Morris at Grantland wonders, “How did adults decide to make this?... Who could watch the revelations in the final 15 minutes with a straight face?” The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias is also amazed that the film keeps getting worse as it progresses, concluding, “The Cobbler is a paradox: A film that must be seen to be believed, but mustn’t be seen.”
. The Cut
release tbd | Foreign/Drama | Directed by Fatih Akin
Expectations were high for the final installment of Fatih Akin’s Love, Death and the Devil trilogy (Head On and The Edge of Heaven cover "Love" and "Death," respectively), but The Cut ultimately disappointed critics. What was intended to be an epic portrayal of the Armenian genocide, starring Tahar Rahim of A Prophet, is instead described by The Playlist as “close to a disaster.” Variety blames the “pedestrian” script co-written with Mardik Martin, as well as a mise-en-scene that “lacks grandeur, notwithstanding impressive location work.” THR complains that the film “doesn’t allow for easy audience identification,” and, in giving it a “C+” Indiewire writes, “Having spent so many years of his life on the film, Akin has seemingly thrown everything at the screen, but the attention to detail seems to have come at the expense of the big picture.” CineVue is kinder, calling Tahar Rahim “superb” even though “there are some weaknesses as Akin's unquestionably good intentions sit too nakedly on the screen.” And The Guardian, in a 3-star review, declares The Cut to be a “forceful, watchable, strongly presented picture and a courageous, honest gesture from Fatih Akin.”
. The Duke of Burgundy
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Peter Strickland
Director Peter Strickland’s follow-up to his lauded indie thriller Berberian Sound Studio was unanimously praised by critics. The Dissolve’s Noel Murray finds the kinky, sapphic love story “endlessly fascinating, and lovely to look at, with a surprisingly tasteful approach to a subject some might find distasteful,” and his colleague, Mike D’Angelo was also “blown away” by the film. The Playlist calls it “sumptuous, surreal, serenading, and audaciously superb”, and The Telegraph praises the “terrific” performances of leads Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna. CineVue believes it’s a “more intimate and complete film” than Strickland’s previous efforts, and TimeOut New York lauds his “sensitivity to romantic sadness and the creep of cooling ardor.” Lastly, Mike D’Angelo of The Dissolve writes, “I went back last night for a second look at The Duke Of Burgundy, and am now confident that it’ll appear near the top of my best-of-the-decade list in five years’ time. Some people seem unable to look beyond the film’s superficially outré elements, but it isn’t really about lesbians, or S&M, or ‘70s softcore erotica. It’s about watching crappy reality TV shows in which you have little or no interest, because the person you love is addicted to them. It’s about going hiking with your boyfriend or girlfriend even though you’d much rather be sitting at home watching crappy reality shows on TV. On the sexual level, it’s about struggling to embody another person’s fantasy, stumbling over dirty talk and hoping you can find the right words to inspire an orgasm. On the most literal level, it’s about the ludicrous amount of water one has to drink if one’s partner is into water sports. The Duke Of Burgundy is the sort of bolt from the blue (I liked Berberian Sound Studio, but not remotely this much) that keeps me coming back to festivals like Toronto’s, seeking that elusive high.”
. Eden
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Mia Hansen-Løve’s last two features, Father of My Children and Goodbye First Love, were critical successes. Does her latest, a two-decade look at the life and loves (Greta Gerwig, Laura Smet, Pauline Etienne) of a French DJ (Felix de Givry) that's based on real events, meet expectations? THR thinks so, calling it a “graceful, deeply affecting movie” with a “soulfulness and sweep that mark it as a step forward for Hansen-Løve.” In his “A–” review, Eric Kohn of Indiewire finds Eden to be a “wise assessment of the interplay between fantasy and reality on the path to adulthood.” The Playlist believes Hansen-Løve once again “builds a film without traditional plot devices or turning points, and retains her knack of uncovering the complexities of relationships. And Variety feels the movie is “simultaneously deepened and distanced by its director’s characteristic emotional reserve.”At The A.V. Club, a somewhat less effusive Ignatiy Vishnevetsky gives the film a “B,” writing, “Despite—or perhaps because of—the broadness of its scope it struck me as less substantial than Hansen-Løve’s previous features, though her unconventional naturalism—which places low-key performances and images within eccentric frameworks—still makes for delicate, lifelike filmmaking.”
. Escobar: Paradise Lost Watch trailer
November 26 | Thriller | Directed by Andrea Di Stefano
The directorial debut of Andrea Di Stefano stars Benicio del Toro as Pablo Escobar and Josh Hutcherson as Nico, a surfer who comes in contact with the drug lord after he falls in love with Escobar’s niece (Claudia Traisac). Not surprisingly, del Toro’s portrayal of Escobar earned plenty of praise from critics, with The Playlist claiming, “Whatever fascination the film holds belongs solely to Del Toro and his vanity-free impression of Escobar.” But other critics found the movie as a whole a pleasant surprise. Variety praises “Del Toro’s fascinating performance and Di Stefano’s assured, muscular helming,” and THR believes Di Stefano “shows some real directorial chops in the film’s central and impressively extended action-suspense sequence.” Lastly, Indiewire declares Escobar to be a “memorable debut” from Di Stefano, with Hutcherson providing a “believability that transcends the script's limitations,” and Del Toro managing “the strongest achievement, imbuing Escobar with a creepy blend of charm and cruelty as he peers out from above a scrappy beard and orders death with ease.”
. Good Kill
release tbd | Thriller | Directed by Andrew Niccol
Director Andrew Niccol reunites with his Gattaca star, Ethan Hawke, for this look at the life of a drone pilot. Variety calls the film a “smart, quietly pulsating contempo war drama” with a “nuanced, hard-bitten performance” by Hawke, and THR believes the “psychologically complex” film has a “chilling timeliness.” However, though CineVue finds the film “occasionally devastating,” it is “too often way off-target. And in “C” review, The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd complains that Good Kill is “heavy on speeches and light on actual drama.” Noel Murray of The Dissolve is also underwhelmed, lamenting, “It would’ve been far more effective if Niccol had put all of his copious research about the drone program into an actual story.”
. The Humbling Watch trailer
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Barry Levinson
In Barry Levinson’s adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, Al Pacino stars as an actor suffering from a mental breakdown who retreats to his house in Connecticut and strikes up a relationship with a lesbian played by Greta Gerwig. Critical opinion varied widely on this one with CineVue calling it a “beautifully entertaining film,” and HitFix wondering, “The impulse to adapt novels by the big names in American literature is understandable - but why choose this one?”. THR admits that an “entertaining film emerges from the rubble” of the “extremely buggy first half,” but Indiewire warns that “despite Levinson's efforts to phase out some of the novel's excesses” the book’s “ridiculous plot” still remains a detriment. Praising Pacino's performance, Variety writes, “It’s a brave performance, not entirely lacking in its own vanity, but marked by moments in which Pacino lets go of the tics and mannerisms — the gravelly-voiced mumblings and hoo-wah! crescendos — that have been the crutches of his late career, and the great actor stands once more revealed.” However, The Telegraph feels the movie is “too keen on Pacino by half, indulging him with so much off-the-cuff Shakespeare and bleary close-ups that humbling turns out to be the last thing on the movie’s mind.”
TIFF PEOPLE'S CHOICE WINNER
. The Imitation Game Watch trailer
November 21 | Drama | Directed by Morten Tyldum
Recent TIFF People's Choice winners:
97 12 Years a Slave (2013)
81 Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
60 Where Do We Go Now? (2011)
88 The King's Speech (2010)
79 Precious (2009)
In this biopic from Headhunters director Morten Tyldum, Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the British mathematician and logician who helped crack the German Enigma Code during World War II. The film won the People's Choice award from audiences at TIFF (the festival's top honor, which, in recent years, almost always foreshadows an Oscar best picture nomination), and impressed critics as well. The bulk of the praise goes to Cumberbatch, as HitFix notes, “Cumberbatch does a wonderful job bringing this characterization to life and it's often his performance that overcomes some of the film's melodramatic tendencies.” THR is enthusiastic about the movie—“Engrossing, nicely textured and sadly tragic”—as well as Cumberbatch, “whose charisma, tellingly modulated and naturalistic array of eccentricities, Sherlockian talent at indicating a mind never at rest and knack for simultaneously portraying physical oddness and attractiveness combine to create an entirely credible portrait of genius at work.” Variety agrees, declaring, “So innately compelling is Turing’s story — to say nothing of Benedict Cumberbatch’s masterful performance — it’s hard not to get caught up in this well-told tale and its skillful manipulations.”
Indiewire, meanwhile, stands up for Cumberbatch’s co-star, Keira Knightley, who "does exceptional work in a role that could have easily been expanded,” while The Playlist also believes Knightley “is quite good with what she’s given.” The only reviewer not drinking the Cumberbatch Kool-Aid* is Tim Robey of The Telegraph, who writes, “Post-Sherlock, the star's natural intelligence is a gift but no longer a surprise, and his work here, entirely committed and clever though it is, feels so customised for awards voters to coo over, it may inspire rebellious thoughts. For my money he gave a more creative and risk-taking performance in a biopic no one saw, last year's otherwise iffy Julian Assange portrait The Fifth Estate.”
* Not an actual flavor. Yet.
. A Little Chaos
release tbd | Rom-com | Directed by Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman’s first turn behind the camera in 17 years (he also makes an appearance as King Louis XIV in front of it) tells the story of a landscape designer (Kate Winslet) hired by the king’s chief architect (Matthias Schoenaerts) to help complete the gardens at Versailles. While drama, romance and hilarity are intended to ensue, they apparently don't do so in a pleasing combination; the tone of the film is “all over the place,” according to HitFix, which also complains that Winslet and Schoenaerts have “almost zero chemistry.” The Playlist agrees with the tone issue, warning, “The film tries to be a drama, then a comedy, and then a romance, and it ends up failing to be anything but a laborious thing suspended in air, neither here nor there." And THR also senses a “shortage of chemistry between Winslet and Schoenaerts,” despite “Winslet’s mix of grace, gumption and private sadness.” Lastly, The Guardian find the performances to be “excellent” but the script in need of “pruning.”
. The Look of Silence
Summer 2015 | Documentary | Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up to The Act of Killing serves as a companion piece to that documentary about the perpetrators of an Indonesian genocide, and it once again finds critics almost unanimously impressed. The winner of the Grand Jury prize (roughly the 3rd-place award) at the 71st Venice International Film Festival is, according to Variety, “an altogether stunning companion piece that shifts its emphasis from the perpetrators of the atrocity to their victims, all the while maintaining its predecessor’s ornate moral complexities, keen sociological shading and occasional, devastating jabs of humor.” The Guardian believes it’s “just as piercingly and authentically horrifying,” and The Dissolve’s Noel Murray suggests that what makes it “as great a film as The Act Of Killing—if not better—is that it’s shot through with a mix of hope and despair that leaves its ultimate point more ambiguous.” THR feels “The Look of Silence is perhaps even more riveting for focusing on one man’s personal search for answers as he bravely confronts his brother’s killers,” and Eric Kohn of Indiewire awards Silence an “A” even though the film “takes a less outwardly daring path — but even as it quietly engages with the same topic, its intentions are more audacious.” Scott Tobias of The Dissolve thinks The Look of Silence is “maybe even more shocking and powerful” than The Act of Killing, but a dissenting opinion comes from his colleague Mike D’Angelo, writing, “It’s really just more of the same, with the garish recreations elided and the brother of one victim serving as a proxy for Oppenheimer. These men have had nearly 50 years to rationalize what they did, and watching them refuse to take responsibility for their actions—even in shots of stony, telling silence—simply doesn’t illuminate anything for me. That’s a decidedly minority opinion, however, and those who loved The Act Of Killing can safely ignore it.”
. Love & Mercy
release tbd | Drama | Directed by William Pohlad
Director Bill Pohlad’s look at the life of Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the younger and older Wilson in a bifurcated narrative (written by Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner) that THR finds “deeply satisfying” and featuring “one of the best performances” of John Cusack’s career. HitFix praises both Dano and Cusack, who “do sterling work as the two halves of this broken soul,” and The Playlist happily reports that “Pohlad's direction is unfussy and thankfully avoids the stylistic tics that can run rampant in this kind of material.” In his B+ review, Indiewire’s Eric Kohn calls the film “an engrossing portrait,” but a less enthralled Noel Murray of The Dissolve finds that Mercy “gradually deteriorates under the usual symptoms of ‘biopicitis’.”
. Madame Bovary
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Sophie Barthes
Mia Wasikowska stars as the titular character in Cold Souls director Sophie Barthes’ adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel about the affairs of a doctor’s wife. Variety likes Wasikowska’s “fiercely unsympathetic performance” in this “measured and absorbing” film, but The Playlist feels the movie is “largely miscast, and, as a result, the “usually strong Wasikowska feels off her game with no equal to volley against.” The Guardian notes that it’s the first screen adaptation of Madame Bovary directed by a woman, but “the presence of Sophie Barthes behind the camera does not amplify sympathy for our heroine. Rather, the opposite: if anything Barthes seems less in her allure, less tolerant of her tiffs, full-throttle with the vanity and the selfishness.” THR is the least impressed: “Unfortunately, Barthes brings nothing new to the familiar story. What she does bring, along with cinematographer Andrij Parekh, is a dreary naturalistic palette; a nonhomogeneous group of actors hopelessly split along American-, British- and French-accented lines; familiar observations about class and society divisions; and a decidedly unpersuasive rendition of a hunting sequence.”
. Manglehorn
release tbd | Drama | Directed by David Gordon Green
With Al Pacino in the titular role of a reclusive locksmith still hung up on a lost love, David Gordon Green’s follow-up to Joe divided critics. Holly Hunter, Chris Messina, and Harmony Korine have supporting roles in a film The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd calls “damn-near-unwatchable.” Backing him up is The Telegraph's Robbie Collin, who cautions, “The picture is slight to the point of translucence,” while “the sense of a film stalling for time is overbearing.” THR is also clearly not a fan of “Paul Logan's ham-fisted script, which painstakingly spells out every metaphor, whether it's spoken or visual.” CineVue responds slightly more favorably to this “sturdy character study” in which “Pacino fleshes Manglehorn out with sensitivity, pathos and a real attention to detail.” Picking up on that attention to detail is The Dissolve’s Mike D’Angelo, who calls that facet “formidable” even though the film as a whole is “really not very good.” The Guardian, however, admires Manglehorn as a “beguiling, minor-key study” showcasing “the finest performance Pacino has delivered in years,” and HitFix thinks “Pacino reminds us that he's still capable of holding our attention for the right reasons with a performance that, while it doesn't rival his powerhouse era, is compelling and well-judged." Similarly, TheWrap believes Pacino's Manglehorn “will be remembered among his finest latter-career performances.”
. Men, Women & Children Watch trailer
October 3 | Drama/Comedy | Directed by Jason Reitman
Hoping to rebound from his first critical disappointment (Labor Day), Jason Reitman instead disheartened critics with this adaptation of Chad Kultgen’s novel. With an ensemble cast that includes Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, and Kaitlyn Dever (plus narration by Emma Thompson), the film tracks multiple, loosely linked stories about life in the connected age, resulting in what Variety describes as a “less overblown version of Crash for the information superhighway,” that feels “noncommittal, insincere and curiously anesthetized: Watching it is like getting a hug from someone sheathed in plastic, fearful of emotional contamination.” Indiewire feels that the film “falls short of its big ideas,” and The Playlist thinks it “becomes the very thing it initially mocks, a ‘Dateline’-esque ensemble piece about the dark consequences of logging on, that tries and fails to send an overarching message about human connectivity and looking beyond your screens to the universe around you.” The Guardian does find it to be a “huge improvement on the muddled melodrama of Labor Day,” but “its scope is too big, his ambitions too high.” Completely disappointed is The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias, who admonishes, “Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children is more catastrophically misjudged than even his much-maligned last effort... Nothing about the film works.” That opinion is echoed by fellow Dissolver Mike D’Angelo, who writes, “Individually, each of these mini-narratives is at best egregiously tone-deaf...they collectively cross the line into outright laughable.” But The Hollywood Reporter actually seems to like the film, calling it “a hypnotic, if clinical, assessment of middle-class social attitudes, sexual mores and interpersonal communication in the instant-messaging age.”
. Nightcrawler Watch trailer
October 31 | Drama | Directed by Dan Gilroy
Critics have plenty of praise for writer Dan Gilroy’s (Real Steel, The Bourne Legacy) directorial debut, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a go-getter who takes a liking to the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Film.com believes the best thing in this “fantastic, sleek and fun satire” is Gyllenhaal, and Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com feels that the star delivers “one of the best performances of the year.” The Guardian claims that “Gyllenhaal’s performance is so dedicated, and Gilroy’s world so determinedly realised that it forces its way to originality.” The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd finds the film to be “darkly funny and wildly entertaining,” and The Playlist thinks it’s a “terrific and electric debut thriller.” THR is less enthusiastic about the film, but admits that “Gyllenhaal does a fantastic job channeling Louis’ outrageous and overwrought personality. But a disappointed Variety feels the movie is a “flashy but hollow first directing gig” with a tone of “strident, finger-wagging self-seriousness.”
. Pasolini Watch trailer
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Abel Ferrara
With his latest film, Abel Ferrara goes from looking at the life of controversial politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Welcome to New York to taking on the final days of a legendary filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Willem Dafoe plays Pasolini, and a majority of critics like his portrayal. The Playlist calls it an “excellent, understated and thoroughly convincing performance,” and CineVue believes Dafoe “plays the role to perfection.” While THR agrees it’s a “compellingly internalized performance,” that publication feels the film as a whole doesn’t work. And they weren't alone. Variety deems Pasolini a “confused collage of the poet-provocateur’s final days,” and The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias also finds it to be a “confused, tedious, only fitfully compelling experiment in narrative filmmaking.” But The Guardian claims Ferrara’s Pasolini “stands as one of his best” films, while Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gives it a B, writing, “Pasolini is one of those imperfect movies that’s more admirable than many more fully realized ones.”
. Pawn Sacrifice
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Edward Zwick
Director Edward Zwick and screenwriter Steven Knight team-up for this look at the 1972 "Match of the Century" between American chess phenom Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) and his Russian rival Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). The Playlist believes “Zwick does a good job of reminding the audience of a time when America was obsessed with chess,” and Variety calls the film “conventionally well-crafted” with an “angry, bristling lead performance” from Maguire. Though the film brings “nothing new to the genre,” THR likes Sacrifice thanks to “handsome craftmanship and solid performances” from Maguire and Schreiber. That pair impressed critics far more than Zwick. HitFix claims, “The problems with 'Sacrifice' don't lie with the actor or screenplay ... They lie with the direction,” and The Telegraph agrees, concluding, “The antsy editing divides our point of view everywhere but at the game, which is where we most want to be looking, always. It’s not a film about Bobby Fischer playing the most famous chess of his life: it’s about Tobey Maguire being continuously irritated by excessive sound design.”
. Phoenix Watch trailer
tbd 2015 | Foreign/Drama | Directed by Christian Petzold
The director of the acclaimed drama Barbara, Christian Petzold, and the lead actress of that film (and others by the director), Nina Hoss, reunite for this tale of a concentration-camp survivor searching postwar Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis. Critics find much to like about a film RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico calls an “amazing piece of work that transcends historical document to become art.” Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gives it an “A,” declaring it to be “one of the best new movies” he’s seen all year, and his colleague A.A. Dowd writes, “If I’m half-a-grade less enthusiastic...chalk it up to my general anxiety about declaring instant greatness. Or maybe I’m just being notoriously stingy with the straight 'A.' Either way, it’s an ingeniously plotted and rather heartbreaking movie.” THR believes the “plot alone would probably make this latest effort worthy enough, but it’s the masterly craftsmanship and performances that reveal Petzold to be at the top of his game, slowly but surely building his narrative towards an absolute knockout of a finale.” The final scene is indeed a stunner to most reviewers, even if The Dissolve’s Mike D’Angelo feels “they’ve mistaken a great final scene for a great movie.” Thoughts on Hoss’ performance include “in a class by itself” from Indiewire, “riveting, spectacularly subtle” according to The Playlist, and “fabulous” per CineVue.
VENICE GOLDEN LION WINNER
. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
release tbd | Foreign/Drama/Comedy | Directed by Roy Andersson
The final part (Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living make up parts one and two) of what the director has called his trilogy “on being a human being,” Roy Andersson's latest took home the top award in Venice. Though Pigeon is loved by many critics, it is also seen as a case of “diminishing returns” by The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias and A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club, who still gave it a “B” because “the director’s modus operandi—static, meticulously arranged long takes, shot in deep focus to use background and foreground space—is so entirely unique that it’s impossible to not to get some joy out of just gawking at his films.” But a more enthusiastic Variety believes it’s “a master class in comic timing,” and The Playlist feels it’s a “near-perfect cap to a near-perfect trilogy, a cavalcade of oddness, humor, banality and even horror.” The highest praise comes from The Guardian, declaring, “Pigeon’s a lugubrious joy; nobody else could have made it. But it’s a film that contains multitudes; it’s a cat’s cradle of mysteries. I can no more make sense of this movie than I can explain my own life.”
. The Riot Club Watch trailer
release tbd | Thriller | Directed by Lone Scherfig
Lone Scherfig (An Education) directs Laura Wade's adaptation of her own play, Posh, to mixed results. The story follows two first-year students (Max Irons and Sam Claflin) at Oxford University as they join the infamous Riot Club. Variety is impressed with Scherfig’s “grasp of tension and tone as the club’s initial allure turns to anxiety and disgust,” and CineVue finds the film to be “entertaining viewing but its power is undermined by a ultimate lack of insight amongst the debauchery.” The Telegraph believes the film is “perfectly cast in its main roles,” but The Playlist feels that “apart from the performances, there is nothing much to latch onto.” Lastly, THR claims, “Wade’s adaptation ... has sacrificed much of its savage comedy en route to the screen, and while the dark drama is never dull, its portrait of upper-crust entitlement run amok is seldom surprising either.”
. Rosewater Watch trailer
November 7 | Drama | Directed by Jon Stewart
Daily Show host Jon Stewart makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of journalist Maziar Bahari’s memoir of his five-month imprisonment in Iran. A personal project for Stewart (Bahari was thrown into prison after appearing in a taped interview with Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones), Rosewater earned fairly solid reviews from critics. Variety believes Stewart has made a “movie of the moment that doesn’t feel like a sententious ‘issue’ drama, and is all the more affecting for it,” and TheWrap calls it a “solid, quietly involving work.” Film.com claims that Stewart is successful at balancing humor and drama, as the “changes in tone work in a harmony, not at cross-purposes.” But THR wants more from the film, commenting, “The performances are all sincere and solid and the situation is easy to respond to emotionally. But as a case history in the annals of political repression, it feels like a bit of a side show.” The Dissolve’s Noel Murray also feels that Rosewater “never develops into anything unexpected or special,” and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gives the film a “C–,” complaining that “Stewart’s direction is all over the place, which is the same as being nowhere.”
. She’s Funny That Way
release tbd | Comedy | Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich’s return to feature directing after a 13-year absence underwhelmed most critics in Venice. The screwball comedy about a call girl (Imogen Poots), a famous director (Owen Wilson), a therapist (Jennifer Aniston) and various other characters actually works for The Telegraph, which calls the film “a hysterical screwball fantasia that openly steals from Lubitsch, Hawks, Capra and Sturges and wants to be caught with its fingers in the till. The result is a highly-sexed Jenga-pile of silliness, to which Bogdanovich can’t resist adding block after teetering block.” CineVue particularly enjoys the “improbability of it all” as “we see how many plates the superb cast and their on-form director can keep spinning and for how long.” While less enamored of the film, Variety still believes “in its best moments, She’s Funny That Way defies its careless construction to allow Bogdanovich’s sharper instincts fleetingly through.” HitFix claims that your enjoyment “will depend hugely on your personal tolerance for coincidence as plot mechanic,” and The Guardian thinks the “storyline keeps snagging on its own inconsistencies and infelicities, which would naturally not matter if there was a supply of real jokes to tide us over.” TheWrap concurs, finding “the ingredients steadfastly refuse to whip up into the froth this film so clearly wants to be.”
. St. Vincent Watch trailer
October 10 | Comedy | Directed by Theodore Melfi
The final film screening at TIFF’s Bill Murray Day event was his newest, the story of Vincent (Murray), a cantankerous hedonist who becomes the unlikely mentor to his next-door neighbor’s 12-year-old son. Critics seem to like the film as a showcase for Murray's talents. Theodore Melfi’s debut feature “benefits from his strong and funny screenplay as well as a fantastic ensemble of actors,” according to HitFix, and Variety believes “Murray and the kid have genuine chemistry, and Melfi deserves credit for writing a script that not only spoke to the actor’s sensibilities, but offered so much room for him to personalize the character.” Indiewire also sees a good balance between script and star, writing, “When the movie arrives at its inevitable big scenes, where the character must confront his emotions, Melfi's screenplay doesn't overstate them and instead cedes control to Murray's surprisingly tender delivery.” The Playlist finds it’s “hard to deny that the charms of St. Vincent work even if you clearly can see the narrative machinery moving,” and THR claims the film is “amusing enough as long as Bill Murray sticks to his mean and ornery act.”
. Still Alice
release tbd | Drama | Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Julianne Moore plays a Columbia University linguistics professor struggling with early-onset Alzheimer's in this adaptation of Lisa Genova’s 2007 novel from Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (The Last of Robin Hood). Moore’s lead portrayal is “emotionally restrained but very potent” according to THR, and Variety feels it’s one of her most powerful performances.” The Telegraph notes how Moore’s “close-ups are minutely calibrated, even by this actress’s celebrated, unshowy standards. The increments of the performance are tiny marvels.” And HitFix believes “the film lives and dies on Moore’s portrayal” even though Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart and Hunter Parrish form an “accomplished ensemble.” The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias is a bit more lukewarm on the film because it “prods too much for emotional effect,” and The Playlist feels that “while Still Alice is respectful about the subject matter it tackles, it's to such a degree that the earnest film never lands with greater impact than a well-meaning informational pamphlet.”
. The Theory of Everything Watch trailer
November 7 | Drama | Directed by James Marsh
Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in this look at the scientist’s early years at Cambridge where he met his first wife, Jane Wilde, played by Felicity Jones, and was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Everything, adapted from Wilde’s memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, by screenwriter Anthony McCarten and directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire), features one thing the critics can agree upon: “terrific" (The Dissolve) and "superb" (Variety) performances from the two leads. HitFix claims Redmayne gives an “almost perfect performance,” and The Guardian agrees that it’s an “astonishing, genuinely visceral performance.” Unfortunately, for many critics, the movie doesn’t quite live up to its leads. THR declares Everything to be a “solid, duly moving” film, and The Telegraph calls it “a respectable and moving effort.” CineVue summarizes, “With so many elements working on such a high plain, it is ultimately a shame that The Theory of Everything remains a formulaic biopic with a scope far narrower than its subject. Still, it broaches universal themes through the story of a man who studies the universe, and succeeds in being a life and love-affirming along the way.”
. Top Five
release tbd | Comedy | Directed by Chris Rock
Sold to Paramount in a bidding war that ended in the $12.5 million range, this third movie written by, directed by and starring Chris Rock will no doubt wind up the best-reviewed of the three, beating out Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife. Rock plays a New York City comedian trying to get his life and career in order, and Variety believes he “has finally found a big-screen vehicle for himself that comes close to capturing the electric wit, shrewd social observations and deeply autobiographical vein of his standup comedy.” THR claims that the “writing is strong enough that when the humor gives way to drama in the second half, there’s enough at stake to keep us interested, although Rock still has plenty of jokes in store for the finale.” And The Playlist thinks “ it does the primary job of entertaining with flying colors, while also delivering something genuinely compelling if you choose to dig beyond the broad array of laughs.” While The Dissolve’s Scott Tobias feels Rock still struggles with tone, Indiewire finds that “Rock's script has a freewheeling sensibility that never strays too far from its punchlines.”
. While We're Young
release tbd | Comedy/Drama | Directed by Noah Baumbach
In Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to Frances Ha, the lives of a documentary filmmaker (Ben Stiller) and his wife (Naomi Watts) take some unexpected turns after they befriend a hipster couple played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. The Playlist calls Baumbach’s film a “deliciously entertaining, funny and honest look at getting old, being young and the intersection of the two at crucial life junctures,” and The Guardian claims, “Never before have the effects of new tech – and intergenerational envy – been articulated so amusingly.” Indiewire declares it a “perceptive ode to getting old” that “offers Stiller his best role in years, giving him room to play around with a wide-eyed, paranoid temperament.” But The Dissolve’s Noel Murray is “mildly let down by While We’re Young,” despite it being a “very funny film, packed with well-observed Baumbach moments and lines.” And his colleague Scott Tobias is also disappointed with a film that “starts as an invigorating and witty comedy about generational divide, but turns into a false disquisition on documentary truth and ethics.”
. Wild Watch trailer
December 5 | Drama | Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
After directing Matthew McConaughey to a best actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club last year, Jean-Marc Vallée may now get Reese Witherspoon a second best actress trophy for her widely praised work in this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's memoir about her thousand-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. HitFix believes “Witherspoon is so good many will argue this is the best performance of her career,” and Indiewire claims “Witherspoon excels as a committed figure battling through each rough day.” According to The Telegraph, “Wild provides a huge, dappled range of emotional tones for this perky-pugnacious star to explore. She etches everything in front of her with colour and clarity.” And The Dissolve’s Noel Murray finds Witherspoon “winning, in a role that requires her to be prickly in the flashback sequences and a plucky feminist heroine on the trail, and while the film is engineered for maximum uplift, it’s an undeniably effective machine.” That machine is described by THR as “alternately harrowing and heartbreaking, but laced with saving bursts of humor,” while Film.com feels the “tone is especially fascinating, neither weightless nor maudlin, and giving us good, human laughs among the tougher stuff.”
Other films of note
Click on any of the links below to find a few published reviews for each film.
Burying the Ex: Starring Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, and Alexandra Daddario, Joe Dante’s first film since The Hole split critics. THR believes it’s a “cute and pretty efficient zom com,” but Variety claims it’s “strained, sexist schlock.”
Cake stars Jennifer Aniston as a woman addicted to pain killers. Both THR and The Playlist feel Aniston does some of her best work in years but the script lets her down.
Far From Men is an adaptation of the Albert Camus story The Guest starring Viggo Mortensen. CineVue gives the “heartfelt and sincere” movie five stars, while THR finds it “ambitious but uneven.”
Goodnight Mommy, from writer-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (wife and nephew of Ulrich Seidl) is “squirm-inducing stuff” according to THR, and A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club believes “fans of extreme cinema should consider this a must-see.”
Hungry Hearts: Leads Adam Driver and Alba Rohrwacher won best actor and actress at the Venice Film Festival, but critics didn’t fall for Saverio Costanzo’s adaptation of Marco Franzoso’s novel about a couple’s disagreements over raising their newborn. Variety believes the “fault lies squarely with the script,” and CineVue finds it “neither satisfying as a thriller nor convincing as a drama.”
Jackie & Ryan stars Katherine Heigl as Jackie, a down on her luck country singer, and Ben Barnes as Ryan, a struggling musician. The Playlist finds it “low on stakes, light on originality, and limp in execution,” but Variety believes it “reveals pleasing new sides of both leads.”
The Keeping Room: This Civil War-set drama finds Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, and Muna Otaru fighting to defend their home from two rogue Union soldiers. Variety complains that it’s a “frustratingly mannered period drama,” but Indiewire praises the “artful period drama and first-rate thriller.”
The Last Five Years: Richard LaGravenese directs Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan in a screen adaptation of Jason Robert Brown’s musical, and the result is “sweet but a tad dull” according to THR. But The Dissolve’s Noel Murray thinks it “works anyway, because of the cleverness of its conceit, the earnestness of the overall production, and the magnificence of Kendrick.”
Ned Rifle is Hal Hartley’s conclusion to a trilogy that began with Henry Fool and continued with Fay Grim. THR calls the crowd-sourced film “short, sweet and quite moving,” and The Dissolve’s Mike D’Angelo believes new cast addition Aubrey Plaza "fits surprisingly well into the Hartleyverse, rattling off his verbose, deliberately stilted dialogue with aplomb.”
The Postman’s White Nights: Andrei Konchalovsky won the Silver Bear (best director award) in Venice for this look at life in a remote Russian village. CineVue believes it’s a “beautifully realised picture,” but Variety thinks “stunning shots and a likable protag can’t cover up the story’s shallowness.”
What do you think?
Which of these festival films are you looking forward to seeing? Let us know in the comments section below.
