TFF Day 4 and 5/Pros and Peoples Telluride/Monday TBas and Sneaks

Telluride Day Four

This will be my last report from Telluride...driving back to the real world tomorrow.

Day Four was very good.

Started late with Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" about which I had some reservations after some of the reviews I had seen after it premiered at Cannes.  Shouldn't have been concerned.  "Nebraska" is warm, funny, genuinely touching.  It's beautifully shot in black and white and the aging is quite good.  Bruce Dern shines as a cantankerous 70+ year old Montanan named Woody Grant who believes he has won a million dollars and must travel from his home in Billings, MT. to the contest headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska.  The route will take him and his son, played surprisingly well by SNL alum Will Forte across the prairie and through Woody's old hometown.  Family history and secrets emerge.  June Squibb shines as Woody's long suffering and sharp tongued wife.

Payne continues to add to his canon of quality films.

Midday, I caught Errol Morris' documentary "The Unknown Known", an examination of the career of two time Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  Morris, who generally turns even what seems to be the driest material into something provocative and entrancing seems to lose his way a bit in the sea of words that Rumsfeld deploys.

Late Night-Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" which has been tearing up the critical world in terms of Venice as well as Telluride.  It is a fantastic ride.  Jaw dropping effects and pulse pounding tension.  Sandra Bullock leads the way and is sturdy as an astronaut in serious trouble in Earth near orbit.  My only issue with the film comes with some of the dialogue choices in the screenplay.  Curaron co-wrote the screenplay with his son Jonas and this is the one place that seems to occasionally falls into cliche.  It sometimes seems to me that tries a bit too hard to entice empathy.

That's my take anyway.

PROS AND PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

Over the next few days, the fest will wind down and I will collate ratings from my group of film pros that have agreed to share their ratings as well as collecting and collating from you blog readers as well.  Remember that you can rate 0-5 and send them to me via comments here on the blog or also via email:
michael_speech@hotmail.com or mpgort@gmail.com

or tweet me @Gort2.

I'll have both The Pros and the People's Telluride up next week.

MONDAY'S TBA'S AND SNEAKS

Sneak Preview       Salinger  Q&A Palm/9a
With nine years of research, interviews with 150 of J.D. Salinger’s friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle (including Jean Miller, who inspired Salinger’s story “For Esme”), never-before-seen archival materials, and excerpts from Salinger’s unseen diaries, this is the definitive documentary on the notoriously private author of TheCatcher in the Rye. Shane Salerno offers plenty of surprises as we finally see behind the author’s meticulously built-up wall: his childhood, painstaking work methods, romances and secrets left behind after his death in 2010.  (U.S., 2013, 129m) In person: author David Shields, Jean Miller



• C/H Natan + Musidora (no shorts)- Backlot/9a                                                

• 9   Nebraska- Herzog/9:30a                                                            

• 15  Tim’s Vermeer Q&A- Nugget/12p                                             

• 6   Inside Llewyn Davis- Herzog/12:30p                     

• 16  The Past Opera House/12:30p                                             

• 45  Out of Love + Una Chanza Mas- Pierre/12:45p                        

• 18a Burning Bush 1- Masons/12:45p                                                       

• 37  Gravity-  Galaxy/1p                                                                   

• 21  Tracks- CJC/1:30p                                                                                                                            
• 36  Ida Q&A - Nugget/2:30p                                                           

• 18b Burning Bush 2&3 Q&A- Masons/2:30p                                             

• D   Here Be Dragons Q&A- Backlot/Mon 2:45p                               

• 14  Labor Day- Herzog/3p                                                                  

• 25  The Lunchbox- Palm/3p                                                                      

Sneak: Salinger-  Galaxy/3:15p                                                            

• 21  Tracks- Opera House/3:15p

• 47  Student Prints- Pierre/3:30p                                                              

Sneak: Prisoners- CJC/4p                                                        

• E  Jodorowsky’s Dune-  Backlot/5p                                                

• I  Particle Fever Q&A- Nugget/5:30p                       

• 37 Gravity- Herzog/5:30p                                                            

• 3  All Is Lost- Palm/5:45p                                              

• 29 La Maison de la Radio- Pierre/6p                                                   

• 22 Under the Skin- Masons/6p                                                                

• 27 Bethlehem Q&A- Opera House/6:15p                              

Sneak: The Wind Rises-  Galaxy/6:15p                                                                              

• F  Milius- Backlot/7p                                                                                    

• 10 Blue Is the Warmest Color-  Nugget/7:45p                                         

• 32 Starred Up Q&A - Pierre/9:15p                                            

• 35 Before the Winter Chill-  Mason/8:15p                                          

Sneak: 12 Years a Slave- Palm/8:15p                                              

• 6   Inside Llewyn Davis- Elks/8:30p                                                

• 28  Palo Alto-  Opera House /8:45p

More later!