AFI Diary #2: "Red Rocket" and "The First Wave"

Christopher is covering the 2021 AFI Fest Film Festival. Follow along for his reviews.

It's hard not to be reminded of COVID as we return to festival season. It's a terrific pleasure to be back in theaters again (even in masks). However, it also makes me recall fighting with virtual platforms last year so I could watch movies alone in my living room. Day Three of the festival brough us two films that, directly and indirectly, were born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The First Wave obviously covers the harrowing first months of the pandemic in New York. Additionally, Sean Baker's Red Rocket stands as a testament to the nimble, persevering nature of art under lockdown, as the film was shot in August of last year. From searing documentaries to comedies about porn stars, two films could not be more different. So which was the best of the day? Let's dive in!

Red Rocket (Sean Baker)

With the success of Tangerine and The Florida Project, writer/director Sean Baker has found himself in a new echelon of indie filmmakers. What makes him such an interesting director is his ability to naturalistically present subcultures as they are without the artifice that comes from a more stylized director. The location and the people within it are the core of Baker’s projects. Each film represents its own strange ecosystem that we get to study. With Red Rocket, Baker has made his prickliest film yet. Even with that said, the film cares for its subjects, even if the subjects don’t care for one another...

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Passing: Finding the Grey between Black and White

by Patrick Ball

In Rebecca Hall’s devastatingly delicate Passing, light plays a powerful role. One I haven't seen in many films before. The use and placement of natural and artificial light introduces and reintroduces us to the characters over and over. Depending on how the situation suits them, they bask in it, hide from it, are able to play up their ruses, daring us to look a little closer, or cling to shadows, to the safety of the shade. 

As many of us in America came to a new and widened understanding of the foundational race issues in our country following the deaths of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor last year, and the resulting national reckoning that came after, I spent a lot of time considering how my experience as an “ethnically ambiguous” mixed-race black person has shaped my perception of race, and of media. In Passing, Tessa Thompson’s Irene wryly remarks to a white acquaintance that “we all are passing for something or another, aren’t we?” And isn’t that at the heart of the imposter syndrome we all feel at a new job or opportunity, the shades of ourselves we put on in social gatherings, the walls we build to hide our flaws and insecurities? There is something universal in the facade...

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AFI Diary #1: "The Worst Person in the World," and More

Christopher is covering the 2021 AFI Fest Film Festival. Follow along for his reviews.

The 2021 AFI Fest Film Festival began Wednesday, November 10th with the World Premiere of Netflix’s Tick, Tick... Boom! (which got raves from Nathaniel). My festival began on Thursday with three films: one documentary feature, one international Oscar contender and a romantic anthology that had a splashy Cannes debut. It already feels great to be back in-person at a film festival. AFI is doing a hybrid of in person and virtual screenings this year, offering a nice variety for festivalgoers.

Without further ado, the reviews:

The Worst Person In The World (Joachim Trier) - Norway's Official International Feature Film Oscar® Submission...

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AFI World Premiere: "tick, tick... BOOM!"

by Nathaniel R

Tiny gasps and squeals gave way to shrieking and thunderous applause at the world premiere of Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut tick, tick... Boom last night at the AFI Festival. And that was just from one of the numbers. We shan't spoil the surprises but let's just say that if you're a musical theater nut, you won't have a single greater high at the movies this year than during its "Sunday" setpiece. That song by Rent's gone-too-soon composer, Jonathan Larson, is a personalized silly riff on Stephen Sondheim's transcendent song of the same name from Sunday in the Park with George. 

For those who are unfamiliar with "tick, tick... BOOM!" in its original form, it was a rock monologue that Jonathan Larson wrote and performed a few times in the early 90s...

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Spencer: Dressing an Icon

by Cláudio Alves

Spencer is proving itself a divisive picture. Even among The Film Experience team, some hate it, and some love it. Still, reading through plenty of negative reviews, one can find some elements capable of surviving the criticism, joining the two factions of the discourse around Spencer. So far, the costumes seem to be earning quasi-unanimous praise. Two-time Academy Award winner Jacqueline Durran is a beloved artist, capable of facing the challenge of dressing an icon with obstinate virtuosity. Evoking the ghost of Princess Diana, or rather a stylistic impression of her, the designer has created one of the most ravishing wardrobes of the cinematic year, a masterpiece of sartorial indulgence that befits the movie's melodramatic verve…

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