by Nathaniel R
"Is this starting to looking familiar?," the driver asked as we neared our destination, surrounded by lush greens on every side. Yes, yes, it's all very familiar. Horse and wine country. We've been coming to the Middleburg Film Festival, for so many years now that it now has the kind of nostalgic pull that only comes from the combo of staying power and lovely memories. The festival launched back in 2012. On Thursday October 13th, opening day in 2022, sandwiched between the first screening (TÁR) and the opening night film (White Noise), the festival's founder Sheila Johnson, welcomed corporate sponsors, select press, and Virginia power players like Middleburg's Mayor at a special reception to toast the 10th Anniversary edition of the festival...
At the reception my boyfriend was raving about the delicious 2020 rosé from Boxwood Estates Winery while I chatted with a lovely older couple...who coincidentally, as we soon discovered, ran that same winery! The last grape of the season had incredibly just been picked that day; perfect timing for them to catch a few movies at the weekend festival.
We've seen the festival grow over the years, collecting more sponsors, bigger crowds, and celebrity guests too. Our first celebrity spotted this year was Adam Driver, albeit not in the flesh. My boyfriend and I laughingly grazed his bare naked rock hard abs in an illuminated Burberry ad in Dulles Airport just before that drive into town. The image was so pristine and supersized that you could see Adam's every freckle. Two hours later we were staring at his naked pot belly in a doctor's office scene in White Noise. ACTING! (Or prosthetics, you decide. Who can know these days with the long gestation periods of so many movies during the COVID era as well as today's actors yo-yo diets for movie roles)
Despite mixed reviews and what felt like a collective shrug to its World Premiere in Venice, I loved Baumbach's latest which will hit Netflix in December in time for Oscar eligibility. This Don De Lillo adaptation is the story of a neurotic professor (Adam Driver), his pill-popping wife (Greta Gerwig) their gaggle of opinionated articulate children, and the fear of death. So, yes, it is "uncommercial" but the world cares far too much about that. Art is more than commerce... even Entertainment is more than commerce. White Noise is funny, smart, eccentric and packed with visual and sonic detail (great Danny Elfman score!). In her Venice review Elisa mcrentioned a train crash sequence, which is the first indication that Baumbach is really stretching himself on a much larger canvas than usual. But happily it's not the only bravura setpiece in the film, or even the only one in the first act. If you ask me that was an impromptu lecture/sermon/face-off between friendly peers Don Cheadle (Elvis studies!) and Adam Driver (Hitler studies!), to an enraptured student body.
White Noise is a shape-shifter with multiple acts that keeps hopping genres, from comedy to family drama to noir... even to musical. The throughlines are our collective fear of death and (if you lived through the decade) 80s nostalgia. The entire cast is delightful (watch out for Jodie Turner-Smith who is hilarious in a tiny part as the university's chemist) and it's all capped off by the year's most delightful ending.
Noah Baumbach on Opening Night © ShannonPhotoGal
Last year at their opening night party Middleburg had an amusing collection of cutouts of movie stars and celebrity guests lining the entrance to the party (it was great fun to see "Ann Dowd" next to "Brad Pitt" last year -let's have that in a movie please!). They repeated that again this year, changing the figures to members of this year's film crop. As for celebrities in the flesh, this year's opening night star was the Spotlight Filmmaker recipient Noah Baumbach. He was perfectly friendly so I spoke to him briefly at the party about Don Lelillo. "White Noise" is predictably his favourite (it's Baumbach's only adapted film ever). Mine is "The Body Artist", perhaps it's because it was my introduction to the novelist. Otherwise I was uncharacteristically tongue-tied and fannish and I usually only have trouble with that when it comes to celebrities that I'm obsessed with (i.e. I usually only have trouble with that with iconic actresses) so I gave up quickly when I heard myself saying the ultimate cliché "I love your work" (true enough but still!) and quickly excused myself to chat with the partygoers who were not Greta Gerwig's life/creative partner.
At the party there was divided opinion to White Noise (as there has been since it's premiere) though everyone seems to admire or love at least one element. Opinion was not divided on Cate Blanchett in TÁR. Some people even think it's her all time best performnace... which is quite a compliment. I still think that's Blue Jasmine (2013) but to even be in conversation for her top slot is an achievement. Will she win a third Oscar? It's very early in the season and there's arguments for multiple women still (but especially Michelles Yeoh and Williams, and Danielle Deadwyler). In October there's still a multiverse of possibilities... or at least a few future realities to believe in.
DAY 2 REPORT SOON: The Whale, Living, and chats with Best Supporting Actress hopefuls Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everwyhere All At Once), and Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness).