SOME NOTES ABOUT TFF #44 AND MTFB
I wanted to share some thoughts regarding TFF #44 and MTFB:
1) 96%- I have already noted that the final Ten (25) Bets last week had 24 titles correctly. I missed on the inclusion of Before We Vanish. How'd that happen? Here's the answer. When the New York Fest announced the film absent a premiere status, I concluded that meant a Telluride play and, essentially bumped Ai WeiWei's Human Flow from my list. My error? I didn't check the Fantastic Fest lineup which does, as a matter of fact, include Before We Vanish. Fantastic Fest will screen the film prior to its NYFF play which explains why NYFF didn't list it as a U.S. Premiere.
Always room for improvement.
2) I have also mentioned that 7 of the original Ten Bets made the TFF #44 lineup...a bit better than the average over the past six years of the Ten Bets style. The average is 5.5 of the original Ten Bets. Seven films is also a significant leap from last year's three films and 2015's four.
The first Ten Bets also included another two films that were listed as "possibles" that ended up making the lineup.
Additionally, the Ten Bets had seven films correct in each of the four weeks that I put up the bets prior to Toronto's first announcement. The July 14th and 21st Ten Bets each had four films listed as additional possibilities prior to TIFF's initial announcement of films that began to give concrete clues to TFF films based on premiere status.
3) I always think it's fun to look back and see when I first began thinking a film might make the list. Most of the time it's within the year of the fest. For example, I first mentioned Joe Wright's Darkest Hour in March, 2017.
Sometimes, though, I track a film for years. Three examples from this year:
I started tracking Alexander Payne's Downsizing in August of 2010.
Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck in Dec. 2016.
Dayton and Faris' Battle of the Sexes in June of 2014.
MY FILM RATINGS FOR TELLURIDE 2017
I felt going into this year's fest that there were a lot of good films and I was hoping to see that some of them were great. As I have reflected on this past weekend's offerings I feel like that original take proved out. Many good films but not one that really grabbed me like a Diving Bell and the Butterfly or 12 Years a Slave or Moonlight.
Still, plenty of good stuff, though, as you'll see below, I don't necessarily line up with some of the critical community. Here are the ranks/ratings for the ten films I saw at TFF #44:
1) Darkest Hour-4-Give Gary Oldman the Oscar now and save some broadcast time.
2) Lady Bird-4- The more I reflected, the higher this film crept up my list.
3) Battle of the Sexes-3.5
4) Lean on Pete-3.5
5) The Shape of Water-3.5
6) Hostiles-3.5
7) Downsizing-3
8) Wonderstruck-3
9) Loving Vincent-2.5
10) Faces Places-2
I am busy collecting your ratings as well as those of The Pros and expect to have those soon...see below.
CRITICAL RESPONSE TO TELLURIDE 2017
The past few years Eric Kohn and Indiewire have also done a collection of critical responses to the Fest. This year was no different as Eric asked four questions of a group of 15 critics and bloggers including some who are participating in the MTFB set of Professionals such as: Kohn himself, Indiewire's David Ehrlich and Anne Thompson, Variety's Peter DeBruge. It's possible that a certain Telluride-centric blogger might also have been included in Indiewire's survey...
Kohn's questions and answers:
1) Best Film? Tie between The Shape of Water and Lady Bird (I chose Darkest Hour as you can see above)
2) Best Performance? Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (My vote: Oldman/Darkest Hour)
3) Best Documentary? Faces Places (I abstained here as I only saw one doc-Faces Places and I was not as enthralled as many)
4) Best Director? Also a tie between Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water and Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (I opted for Gerwig).
The complete article can be found here from Indiewire.
TRAILERS FOR HOSTILES AND LADY BIRD
In the immediate aftermath of Telluride 2017 we got trailers for two of the most talked about titles. Both Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Scott Cooper's Hostiles have trailers to tease any and all that didn't catch either film last weekend. Both films are headed to Toronto.
Hostiles trailer via YouTube:
Lady Bird Trailer also via YouTube:
RATE THE TFF #44 FILMS
And I am reminding everyone again to get me your ratings for The People's Telluride. I'm going to leave the polls open through Tuesday, Sept. 12th with a plan to post those a week from today. My hope is that I have The Professionals up for Monday's post. As always I will also do a combination poll as well as taking a look at 2017 films in the context of the films that have been rated through this process through the past several years.
But to make it work...I have to have your input through any of the contact methods listed here:
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)
FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page
COMMENT TO THE BLOG
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