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On the first full day at the Middleburg Film Festival after that cathartic teary opening with Lion, I attempted to schedule a horseback ride for the full Middleburg experience. The town is known for its rich horses & hunting history and you can see horses and foxes in sculpture form and in signs and logos in the charming little town. Rain got in the way of a ride but all was not lost since a beautiful black and white cat named Callisto greeted me inside the stable at practically a full gallop and began rubbing up all over me. Dear reader, I can assure you that her love was requited! She was 21 years old but super friendly, spry and playful so the country life has obviously been kind to her. One can assume the horses also love her as she hasn't been stepped on.
So back to the movies I went, a perfect activity for rainy days even when you aren't at a film festival.
There was a time - say early 2012 - when Michelle Williams could do no wrong with Oscar. Basking in her third overall nomination for My Week with Marilyn (2011), the second in as many years as she was nominated the year before for Blue Valentine (2010), she had the heat, she had the momentum. She also had the critical and cinephile love with acclaimed performances behind her in Take this Waltz (2011), Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and Wendy and Lucy (2008).
The win was definitely coming and soon. How times change.
From the New York Film Festival here's Jason on the new film from Kenneth Lonergan.
The scene that we've been waiting for all during Manchester by the Seacomes pretty much where you might expect it to, that climactic slot about 3/4ths of the way in right where stories usually come to a head. And yet, and yet, the way that it comes showcases what makes Kenneth Lonergan such a fascinating writer and director. The way we get to this emotional head is typically, for this director, winding - the film is suffused with flashbacks that don't so much announce themselves as they do sneak in through the window and climb into bed beside you, surprise spooning you til sunrise. So when this climax comes where it should come, well that in itself is a surprise, but one you only notice in hindsight.
But it's more than that. Without going into specifics about what happens, what's so fascinating about this scene (and I'm using it as a microcosm for the whole film here) is how it lays there in wait in the broad daylight for its sneak attack. It just happens. And in Lonergan's hands this feels like the sweet hard mess of real life - broken boat motors and a bumped head; the moments where we catch up while our friend is bringing the car round and suddenly the world around us crumbles. Miniature hurricanes that don't announce themselves but sweep you up and slam you down without actually moving you an inch.
Manchester by the Sea is awash in such flashes, such sudden floods. Casey Affleck gives an astonishingly light performance of utter devastation. We spend the film putting together the puzzle of him only to find out the puzzle is broken and the pieces are vanishing in our hands as we gather them up. The actor makes us gather faster, and gather harder. He makes us want to sort it out alongside him. That his performance and the film are so much much funnier than you're anticipating only makes its foundation of bottomless grief all the more vertiginous - it is, like honest-to-goodness life, disorienting with drilled deep possibilities of goodness, and honesty, and pain.
The New York Film Festival enables local cinephiles to catch a finely curated collection of films that have screened at other festivals earlier in the year. It is also a veritable hotbed of casual sightings of the New York film crowd: there’s Todd Haynes entering the Alice Tully Hall animatedly chatting with his Carol editor Alfonso Gonçalves (who has two films in the festival: Gimme Danger and Paterson). Here's Mikhail Baryshnikov posing with his daughter Anna who’s in Manchester by the Sea; I see Bob Balaban making his way through the security line. And, look, Edie Falco introducing herself to Casey Affleck after the Q and A for his movie.
Lonergan in conversation with Jones
Most interesting though are the stories filmmakers tell as they screen their films...
Chris here. As the upcoming fall festival and Oscar season looms, get ready for a steady stream of incoming footage for this year's hopefuls to start cropping up in the coming weeks. Today we have some peeks at a few weepies ready to work your tear ducts on their path to awards: Manchester By The Sea, A United Kingdom, and Lion. Take a look at the trailers (and a few quick thoughts) below:
Manchester By The Sea
• Kenneth Lonergan is definitely returning to You Can Count On Me territory after the intellectual meanderings of Margaret, with already raved about results. • Isn't Kyle Chandler in this? Obviously new star Lucas Hedges will be the supporting Oscar play here, but when will the always strong Chandler finally get his due? • I've read Michelle Williams performance compared to Beatrice Straight in Network several times. Looks like we'll have a brief spellbinder of a performance. • A common complaint for trailers such as this, but that cliche uplifting rock tune seems extra tacked on here. Lonergan would never.
A United Kingdom
• This and Loving will no doubt face cheap comparisons to one another in the coming season. Kingdom looks to be playing to more broad, rousing emotions on a larger scale. • The gorgeous coupling of Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo sends my heart all aflutter. That's a lot of pretty. • While it doesn't look like the historical drama mold won't be broken here, the two stars ferocity might be what gives it some life. • After Belle, this is an excited sep up in scale for director Amma Asante, who seems poised to give us a moving crowdpleaser.
Lion
• The trailer works just as hard to sell the plot as it does to establish Rooney Mara as Silent Supportive Girlfriend. She has more caring glances in the trailer than actual words. • Dev Patel is charismatic if not always great, so his understated emoting here should at least shed some of his "aw shucks" persona. • So little Nicole to be seen here that she's eclipsed by her unfortunate wig. • Will the Weinstein Company financial woes hold this one back in the awards race? They have this and The Founder this year, and Michael Keaton might be the one Harvey throws his weight behind.
What are your thoughts on Manchester By The Sea, A United Kingdom, and Lion?
Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 12:40PM 
