Middleburg: "Marriage Story" wins yet more fans and "Waves" gets a Spotlight

by Nathaniel R

The Middleburg Film Festival is halfway over and we've yet to report! We were off to a troubed start with a very late flight (8 hours in the airport for a 45 minute flight. ARGH!). Given the gusty NYC weather, we missed the Virginia premiere of Marriage Story, the opening night film. We'd already seen it at TIFF and loved and are pleased to report that the movie was met with great enthusiasm yet again. A Los Angeles friend came directly towards us at the Q&A  (which we arrived just in time to see ending) apologizing for her wet face. Never apologize for crying at beautiful movies...

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Review: "The Domain," Portugal's Oscar Submission

by Cláudio Alves

The Domain opens with the sort of scene that works as a mission statement. Its first image seems like something out of a western, a vast landscape, the horizon slashed by the silhouette of a great big tree. From one of its branches, a body hangs by a noose. It’s the eldest son of the rich owner of all the land we can see. The father, far from being heartbroken, watches on dispassionately, a glint of disappointment in his eye.

In an act of cruelty, the patriarch forces his youngest son to confront the corpse of his brother, his weak brother. Frightened, young João runs away from the morbid tableaux, taking refuge in the mossy ruins that stand in the middle of a nearby river. Death, parental cruelty, coldness confused with strength and an escape from the horror of reality to the warm embrace of a long-forgotten past - such are the main themes of this epic, shot like a western and paced like a funeral...

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(You're Gonna) Love it Again - Rocketman!

by Nathaniel R

Kudos to Paramount to beating the Rocketman drums again with a screening and performance in Los Angeles yesterday. Early releases require this sort of care and attention from their home studios, come awards season. Rocketman emerged in the giant shadow of Bohemian Rhapsody this past May, and though it is vastly superior to the Queen picture in every way, shadows are shadows and sometimes they obscure the light...

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Best of the London Film Festival 2019

Please welcome guest contributor Scott Thomson, who just participated in the Critics Mentorship Programme at the London Film Festival. We've invited him to tell us about his favourites from the festival, which just concluded. -Editor

Monos, Colombia's Oscar submission, won the film festival's top honors

by Scott Thomson

The programming team at the London Film Festival delivered a magnificent slate of films this year, working within a series of expertly curated strands to shape the programme into something that caters to all tastes. This year there was a focus on developing a hub for the Festival, with a schedule of free events to generate a more connected and interactive vibe.  As London falls fairly late in the Festival calendar, it does not tend to get a great deal of World Premieres, but the buzz and atmosphere around both the larger and smaller offerings is undeniable and LFF deserves a lot of credit for being a festival that is very much for the audiences.

With 40% of all films on the programme this year were from female filmmakers this is another huge step in the right direction for festival curation; the content is most certainly available and other festivals should take note. With 28 films under my belt this year I have taken in a lot of what I was hoping to, but inevitably missed out on some wonderful stuff. Here are some of my ‘Bests’ from London this year: 

Adele Haenel and Celine SciammaBest Film: Monos (which also took the Best Film prize at the Festival). There is not an ounce of fat on Colombia's Oscar submission. It's thrilling, progressive cinema with an outstanding young cast. Everything is cinema magic including that machine energy Mica Levi score. 

Best Director: Celine Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. My my my, I’m still swooning. Sciamma’s gentle gaze on this beautiful love story is so open hearted and considerate...

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Review: "Cyrano, My Love" & "By the Grace of God"

by Cláudio Alves

Pity those who live in the shadow of Oscar's champions. Such is the case of two French films from last year which now arrive in American theatres. If they were Hollywood productions, we'd surely be talking about Cyrano, My Love and By the Grace of God as potential contenders. As it stands, they can expect some golden recognition in the shape of the César rather than a little golden man. They must also expect eternal comparisons to more famous movies... 

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