Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
Happy Thanksgiving everyone...grateful to have you along for a look at what's in MTFB today.
SHOPLIFTERS ARRIVES
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters opens in the U.S. this holiday weekend. The TFF #45 entrant has been a critical smash and has become one of the few films thought to be able to challenge for the foreign language Oscar against Alfonso Cuaron's Roma Pawel Pawlikowki's Cold War.
As you might expect, with its U.S. release, there has been, over the past few days, a glut of news and interviews surrounding the film.
Nicole Kidman makes a play for inclusion as Best Actress with her turn as a detective seeking redemption in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer. The film is set to open on Dec. 25th. Annapurna pictures previewed a new clip from the film this week via Indiewire.
Destroyer's official trailer is here from YouTube:
DEADLINE INTERVIEWS: GRANT AND JACKMAN
Deadline.com has a couple of interviews of recent vintage that focus on participants from TFF #45.
Joe Utichi talks to Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me? That's linked here.
And Utichi also filed this interview with Hugh Jackman who plays Sen. Gary Hart in The Front Runner. You can find that here.
AND THE WRAP TALKS WITH ALI ABBASI
Continuing the string of interviews with TFF #45 personal, here's an interview from this week conducted by Steve Pond of The Wrap with Ali Abbasi, the director and co-writer of Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Border.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTRESS AND ACTOR
Here's MTFB's latest set of predictions for Best Supporting Actress and Actor updating the last shot I took at them from Oct. 22nd.
The new rankings list the performer's last position and, as always, TFF #45 performers are Bold.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk (1) 2) Emma Stone/The Favourite (3) 3) Claire Foy/First Man (2) 4) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased (4) 5) Rachel Wiesz/The Favourite (5)
In the Mix: Amy Adams/Vice, Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place, Elizabeth Debicki/Widows, Marina DeTaviria/Roma, Linda Cardellini/Green Book
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book (1)
2) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born (3) 3) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2)
4) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy (4)
5) Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman (-)
In the Mix: Sam Rockwell/Vice, Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, Russell Crowe/Boy Erased, Daniel Kaluuya/Widows
TFF#45 REPRESENTS IN THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS
Several films from the 2018 edition of the Telluride Film Festival made their presence known as the European Film Awards nominations were announced. TFF #45 films pulled in 16 total nominations with an additional nomination for a TFF #44 film.
Cold War led the way with five nominations for Best European Film, Direction, Actress, Actor and Screenwriting.
Both Border and Dogman garnered four nominations each. For Border they were: Best European Film, Direction, Actress and Screenwriting. For Dogman: Best European Film, Direction, Actor and Screenwriting.
Girl was nominated in three categories: Best European Film, Direction and Actor.
TFF #44's Foxtrot was nominated for Best Direction.
With The Front Runner's limited release on election day last week and its imminent expansion at hand, Time.com posted a look at the story of Sen. Gary Hart's run for President in 1987 (for the '88 election) that is the basis for the film.
Time establishes a timeline for all of the key moments that occurred and assesses those events.
INDIEWIRE FOCUSES ON FREE SOLO AND CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Indiewire this past week included in their IDA Screening Series a conversation with the people behind Free Solo. That video can be found in this story.
Meanwhile, Indiewire's Toolkit podcast this week included Can You Ever Forgive Me? Director Marielle Heller. That podcast is linked here.
That's a wrap for this Monday's MTFB. I'll have more for you on Thursday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR
Time to update MTFB's Oscar predictions in the Best Picture and Direction categories. Green Book is on the move!
BEST PICTURE
Here's the latest Best Picture predictions updating the previous round that I posted back on Oct. 15th. Each film's previous position is listed in parentheses and TFF #45 films are Bold
1) A Star Is Born (1) 2) Roma (2)
3) Green Book (5) 4) The Favourite (3)
5) BlacKkKlansman (6) 6) First Man (3)
7) If Beale Street Could Talk (7)
8) Black Panther (8). 9) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (12)
10) Vice (10)
Others: Vice, Widows, Boy Erased
Green Book continues to pick up momentum while First Man continues to fall to earth. Look out for Vice as well. I think that it could make a real splash as we get closer to its screening.
BEST DIRECTION
1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (4) 4) Damien Chazelle/First Man (3) 5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)
Others: Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Marielle Heller/Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Adam McKay/Vice
The category has remained essentially static these last two weeks. For my money the top three spots feel like locks with a real battle royale for the #4 and #5 spots.
I'll update the lead acting races on Monday.
NEW BOY ERASED TRAILER ARRIVES
Focus Features has released a new trailer for Joel Edgerton's gay conversion therapy drama Boy Erased starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. The film is set to open tomorrow.
Here's the new trailer from YouTube:
NETFLIX SETS ROMA RELEASE
Indiewire's Anne Thompson reported last night that Netflix has arrived at its release strategy for Roma and other films for this year's Oscar season. The streaming behemoth will release Roma theatrically in a limited fashion (NY and LA) on Nov. 21st. It will be platformed with additional theaters added on Dec. 7th and Dec. 14th which is also the date that it will available for streaming.
Other films included in Thompson's story include the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Suzanne Bier's Bird Box.
Jason Reitman and Hugh Jackman at the Telluride Film Festival Q+A for The Front Runner
Jason Reitman sat down to talk to Awards Circuit's Joey Magidson recently about his upcoming The Front Runner. Reitman directed and co-wrote the film starring Hugh Jackman as former Sen. Gary Hart.
Jackman's performance and the screenplay have received some attention in regards to possible Oscar consideration.
Welcome back from the weekend and Happy Impending Halloween to all who Trick or Treat...
NEW OSCAR PREDICTIONS: FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND DOCUMENTARIES
Almost every year there is a least one Oscar category that seems like every nominee might have played Telluride. This year the Foreign Language category could go that way.
Honestly, Best Supporting Actress could as well but it's a bit more of a stretch in that category than Foreign Language.
So, here for the first time this Oscar season on MTFB is my set of opening prognostications for Best Foreign Language Film. As is usual here the films that played TFF #45 are Bold.
1) Roma 2) Cold War
3) Capernaum 4) Shoplifters
5) Burning
As you can see, at the moment I am predicting three of the five will have played TFF #45: Roma, Cold War and Shoplifters. There are a few other films that are just off this top five that could supplant some of these: Girl, Never Look Away, Birds of Passage, Border and Sunset.
Meanwhile, in the wild Feature Documentary category, these are the films that I am guessing make the top five...at least for the time being:
1) The Notorious RBG
2) Won't You Be My Neighbor
3) The Identical Strangers 4) Free Solo
5) McQueen
Others: Minding the Gap, Dark Money, The Sentence, Reversing Roe, Filmworker, Quincy, Science Fair, Whitney.
And if you missed it last week, there are new predictions up at Movie City News' Gurus of Gold for Best Picture, Actress and Supporting Actress. And, not to beat the proverbial dead horse, I'm acting as a "Guru" this year.
I am thrilled to be included with friends: Sasha Stone/Awards Daily, Tomris Laffly/RogerEbert.com, and Mark Johnson/AwardsCircuit. I'm also pleased to see Peter Howell of The Toronto Star (Peter and I have exchanged tweets and messages in the past few years about items related to the Toronto Film Fest) and Dave Karger who, among other things, appears from time to time on Turner Classic Movies, are also Gurus this year.
As we edge closer to its domestic release (Nov. 21), Sony/Columbia released an international version of the trailer for Jason Reitman's The Front Runner.
The film stars Hugh Jackman as U.S. Senator Gary Hart and follows the flame out of his 1988 Presidential bid.
Here's the new international trailer from YouTube:
The Front Runner is set to open in Sweden on Nov. 21.
INTERVIEWS: HUGH JACKMAN (THE FRONT RUNNER), JOSH SINGER (FIRST MAN) AND EVA MELANDER (BORDER)
Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman (for Les Miserables) could earn his second nomination for his work as Gary Hart in Jason Reitman's The Front Runner. Jackman was profiled over the weekend by The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that was conducted by Katie Kilkenny. That interview is linked here.
Oscar winner Josh Singer, who won the Oscar for co-writing Spotlight, and is the script writer for Damien Chazelle's First Man sat down with SlashFilm's Jack Giroux recently. SlashFilm posted the interview on Thursday and you can catch it here.
First Man is in theaters now.
Meanwhile, Eva Melander who stars in the weird and(at least at Telluride) somewhat divisive foreign film Border shared about her experiences with that film this past week wit Erik Anderson of Awards Watch.
It's a truncated MTFB today as I am smack in the middle of our state's One Act Play Contest Final. My kids are doing a truncated version of The Crucible.
UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: SCREENPLAYS
Here's where I am predicting the screenplay contests as they stand at the moment. I last had them picked on Oct. 4th.
These predictions are followed by their position in parentheses at that last posting. Telluride films are Bold.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1) If Beale Street Could Talk (1)
2) A Star Is Born (6)
3) BlacKkKlansman (4) 4) First Man (2) 5) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)
Others: Boy Erased, Widows, Black Panther, The Front Runner
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1) Roma (1) 2) The Favourite (3)
3) Green Book (2)
4) Eighth Grade (4)
5) Vice (6)
Others: First Reformed, Ben Is Back, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
GURUS ASSEMBLED
Movie City News Gurus of Gold is up with its second posting for this brand new Oscar season and as I have posted earlier, I have been asked to Guru for MCN this season...Thanks MCN!
Highlights of the new post are predictions for Best Picture as well as Best Actress and Supporting Actress.
Telluride films in play for Best Picture according to the Gurus are Roma, First Man, The Favourite and Can You ever Forgive Me? Also mentioned from TFF are: First Reformed (TFF #44), Boy Erased, Cold War and The Front Runner.
Among the Best Actress contenders are Telluriders Olivia Colman/The Favourite and Melissa McCarthy/ Can You Ever Forgive Me? Also possible: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma.
And in the Supporting Actress category: Claire Foy/First Man, Emma Stone/The Favourite and Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased. Also possible: Rachel Weisz/The Favourite and Vera Farmiga/The Front Runner.
The final list of all submitted films from around the world for consideration for the Foreign Language Oscar has been completed this week with 87 films on the final list.
Among that list of films are a good number that were a portion of the TFF #45 lineup. By nation of submission they are:
Belgium: Girl
Cambodia: Graves Without a Name
Colombia: Birds of Passage
Italy: Dogman
Japan: Shoplifters
Mexico: Roma
Poland: Cold War
Sweden: Border
Of that batch of eight films I think Roma, Cold War and Shoplifters are strong contenders to make the final five and there is a possibility that all five films that eventually get nominated will have played at Telluride.
Here is linked coverage of the list of 87 films from:
HOLLYWOOD NEWS WEIGHS IN WITH OCTOBER OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Joey Magidson posted his first big pass at Oscar predix at Hollywood News on Friday last week. It's interesting in part because he picks all 21 feature categories. Because of that we can begin to get a sense of the overall Oscar prospects for films beyond the eight major categories.
Here's the breakdown of Magidson's picks beginning with TFF #45 films with predicted nominations in parenthesis:
First Man (12): Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Original Score. One other possibility is Costumes.
The Favourite (8): Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Costumes and Film Editing. Also possible: Direction and Supporting Actor.
Roma (6): Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, Direction, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography. Also possible: Film Editing. I'm more than a little surprised that Magidson doesn't have Yalitza Aparicio anywhere in his top ten for Best Actress.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3) Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor. Also possible: Adapted Screenplay.
The Front Runner (2): Best Actor, Adapted Screenplay. Also possible: Best Picture, Supporting Actress and Film Editing.
Boy Erased (1): Best Song. Also possible: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Score.
Cold War (1): Best Foreign Language Film. Also possible: Best Picture, Cinematography.
Shoplifters (1): Best Foreign Language Film.
That would be a total of 34 nominations if Magidson is 100% correct.
In addition, three other TFF #45 films land in the "also possible" camp without being picked as a nominee in any category:
The Old Man and the Gun: Best Actor, Supporting Actress.
Destroyer: Best Actress.
Birds of Passage: Best Foreign Film.
That totals 19 other "possible" nominations beyond the 34 he's currently predicting.
Among the other films Magidson is picking as Best Picture nominees (besides the TFF films) A Star Is Born leads the way (and ties First Man) with 12 predicted nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and two Best Song nominations. Magidson lists no other possibles for ASIB.
Others in his BP list and their predicted nominations:
Black Panther (8): Best Picture, Production Design, Costumes, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Song.
If Beale Street Could Talk (6): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Original Score.
BlackKklansman (5): Best Picture, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Original Score.
Vice (5): Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.
Green Book (4): Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay
Here it is for TFF #45. The composite mash-up of ratings from both the People and the Professionals. The Composite Telluride combines the ratings for films that came from both sets of Telluride attendees that I canvas immediately after the fest.
I began doing The Composite in 2013 and in each year the film that has finished at the top has gone on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Here's a quick look at the top five Composite films for each year since I started:
In 2013 the top five composite films were:
1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25)
2) Tim's Vermeer (8.97)
3) Gravity (8.75)
4) Nebraska (8.38)
5) All is Lost (8.26)
In 2014 the top five were:
1) Birdman (9.18)
2) Foxcatcher (8.83)
3) The Imitation Game (8.79)
4) Wild Tales (8.43)
5) '71 (8.15)
In 2015 the top five were:
1) Spotlight (8.86)
2) Son of Saul (8.74)
3) Beasts of No Nation (8.62)
4) Steve Jobs (8.17)
5) Carol (8.13)
In 2016 the top five were:
1) Moonlight (9.19)
2) La La Land (8.91)
3) Manchester by the Sea (8.13)
4) Arrival (8.01)
5) Maudie (7.89)
In 2017 the top five were:
1) The Shape of Water (8.72)
2) Lady Bird (8.58)
3) Faces Places (7.96)
4) Darkest Hour (7.90)
5) Hostiles (7.78)
Finally, heading into 2018 the top ten films for the duration of the existence of the Composite Telluride have been:
1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013
2) Moonlight (9.19) 2016
3) Birdman (9.18) 2014
4) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
5) La La Land (8.91) 2016
6) Spotlight (8.86) 2015
7) Foxcatcher (8.83) 2014
8) The Imitation Game (8.79) 2014
9) Gravity (8.75) 2013
10) Son of Saul (8.74) 2015
Only 12 films of the 33 featured films had enough responses collectively between the two polls to create the Composite Telluride ratings. Here's where they landed on the 2018 Composite Telluride ratings (combined ratings in parentheses and the film's positions for both The People's Telluride ratings and The Professionals):
1) Roma (9.20) 1-1
2) First Man (8.51) 2-2
3) Free Solo (8.33) 5-3
4) Cold War (8.16) 6-3
5) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (7.91) 8-5
6) The Favourite (7.66) 9-6
7) Boy Erased (7.43) 4-10
8) White Boy Rick (6.94) 7-11
9) The Front Runner (6.74) 10-13
10) Destroyer (6.69) 12-9
11) Border (6.57) 16-8
12) The Old Man and the Gun (6.56) 14-10
As you can see, the largest disconnect between The Pros and the People was with Ali Abassi's Border with The People rating it at #16 while The pros had it at #8. Another large disagreement was on Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased with the People ranking it as the #4 film of the fest while The Pros have it at #10.
It will be interesting if Roma or First Man should win Oscar for Best Picture as either film would continue a TFF ratings trend. A Roma win would continue the streak of Telluride films that have placed at the top of the Composite ratings in each year I've done them. A First Man win would continue the almost uninterrupted trend of #2 films from The People's Telluride to win Best Picture. That's been true every year of The People's T-ride save for 2016 when Telluride favorite Barry Jenkin's Moonlight won over Damien Chazelle's La La Land. Had La La Land won (which most pundits expected) that #2 trend would still be unbroken.
Something's got to give this year. And, of course, there's always the possibility that The Telluride streak gets busted this year (eight straight BP winners and nine of the last ten played Telluride). Maybe A Star Is Born wins (many are predicting that to happen) and that ends the streak.
Finally, Roma moves to the #2 spot on the all time Composite list which bumps Laszlo Nemes' Son of Saul to #11.
The new all time Composite list:
1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013
2) Roma (9.20) 2018
3) Moonlight (9.19) 2016
4) Birdman (9.18) 2014
5) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
6) La La Land (8.91) 2016
7) Spotlight (8.86) 2015
8) Foxcatcher (8.83) 2014
9) The Imitation Game (8.79) 2014
10) Gravity (8.75) 2013
CONTINUED OSCAR ASSESSMENTS
Various Oscar prognosticators continue to weigh in with their perspectives on the season as Telluride/Venice/Toronto festival gauntlet has come to an end (New York's fest is just underway) and here's a look at the highlights of more of those as MTFB continues to pivot to its secondary mission to follow the awards season fortunes of the films that screened as a part of TFF #45.
Variety's Kristopher Tapley has a Best Picture piece posted. Tapley names ten films that seem to have the edge for Best Picture at this time. Included among them are T-ride selections Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Favourite, First Man and Roma. Among "Other Films to Consider" Tapley includes The Front Runner and Cold War.
Tapley is on record as having said that he won't get to large scale predictions in multiple categories for Variety until December.
Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson goes with early takes for the six major Oscar categories: Picture, Direction, Actress, Actor and Supporting Actress and Actor.
By category, here's what T-ride films/performances he sees in the race at this point:
Best Picture: Roma, First Man (Lawson becomes the first journalist who echoes my opinion-voiced on the gondola in Telluride-that First Man shares some stylistic attributes with last year's multi-nominated Dunkirk). Lawson also suggests The Favourite is "still in play" and that the BP fortunes of The Front Runner and Boy Erased "dimmed" in Toronto.
Best Actress: Lawson says Olivia Colman/The Favourite and Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? are probable. He also opines that both Yalitza Aparicio/Roma and Nicole Kidman/Destroyer could make the race as well.
Best Actor: Lawson, like many, think Robert Redford has a real shot at a nomination for The Old Man and the Gun owning in some measure to the fact that Redford has said it's his last acting gig. Ryan Gosling/First Man is also mentioned and Lawson says we shouldn't count out Hugh Jackman in The Front Runner.
Best Supporting Actress: As many do, Lawson suggests both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz could earn nominations for The Favourite. Also on his radar is Claire Foy from First Man.
Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me? is the TFF most likely Supporting Actor nominee according to Lawson. He also suggests that Russell Crowe might be possible from Boy Erased.
Best Direction: Lawson suggests that the five directors nominated could include Alfonso Cuaron/Roma, Damien Chazelle/First Man and Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite.
The Guardian also put together a post-festival Oscar analysis that isn't as focused as those above. It does, however, conclude with what it says are Ten Safe Nominee Bets which include TFFers:
Alfonso Cuaron/Roma/Direction
Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?/Supporting Actor
Olivia Colman/The Favourite/Actress
Robert Redford/The Old Man and the Gun/Actor
Many outlets posted/published lists of the critical reaction to films that played at all three just concluded festivals. Here are a couple of takes:
Metacritic
The critical aggregating outfit had an extensive article posted Sunday with a breakdown of films into four categories: Award Winners, Other Highlights, Minor Disappointments and The Duds. Here's where TFF #45 ended up with their Metacritic composite score:
Award Winners:
Roma (Golden Lion/Venice) 96
The Favourite (Grand Jury Prize/Venice) 92
Other Highlights (alphabetical):
The Biggest Little Farm 74
Can You Ever Forgive Me? 83
First Man 83
Fistful of Dirt 71
Free Solo 79
Non-Fiction 83
The Old Man and the Gun 84
The Other Side of the Wind 82
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead 81
Minor Disappointments:
Boy Erased 68
Destroyer 62
The Front Runner 67
The Great Buster 69
Peterloo 69
And finally, Indiewire published "The 12 Best Movies of the Fall Festivals" on Sunday which included The Favourite and Roma. Find out the other ten films in the complete article here.
TFF HISTORY PROJECT
For those who enjoy re-visiting Telluride's past film fests, the Selected History Page has been updated for both 2017 and 2018. Additionally, I have added the link for the TFF #45 program to the Extended History 1996-Present page. I'm still planning to expand the Extended History with the information available for the fests beginning with 2006 right up to 2018 over the next few months.
FINAL TRAILER FOR FIRST MAN
Three weeks before its release, Universal has revealed a new and final trailer for Damien Chazelle's First Man. Here it is from YouTube:
First Man starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong opens on Oct. 12th.
That's your MTFB for this Thursday. I'll have more on Monday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Films that played TFF #45 were well represented among the films that won major prizes at this weekend's conclusion of the Venice Film Festival with Alfonso Cuaron's Roma winning the biggest of the prizes as it was named winner of the Golden Lion.
The Favourite also scored winning the Grand Jury prize (largely regarded as the runner-up prize to the Golden Lion) as well as Best Actress for Olivia Colman's performance as Queen Anne.
Additionally, the Dareen Aronofsky produced Virtual Reality presentation: Spheres was named Best VR. Spheres played at TFF #45 last week.
Complete winners from Venice are here from Variety and also from Indiewire.
THE FIRST GURUS
With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing and both Telluride and Venice in the books for 2018, The Gurus of Gold have cast their first ballots attempting to discern this year's top candidates fro Best Picture.
Among the top ten vote-getters from "festival films" are Telluride '18 films: First Man, Boy Erased, Roma, The Front Runner and The Favourite. Also mentioned are The Old Man and the Gun and Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Jason Reitman's The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman as former Senator (and Presidential candidate) Gary Hart will make history as it will be the first major motion picture to released on national election day, Nov. 6.
Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn are in Toronto but talking largely about what went down last week in Telluride with particular focus on Roma, The Favourite and First Man in the latest installment of ScrenTalk.
PODCASTS: VARIETY'S PODCAST FEATURES NICOLE KIDMAN
Kris Tapley's latest podcast was recorded at Telluride with Nicole Kidman who talks about both films that she had playing at TFF #45: Destroyer and Boy Erased. Kidman is getting some buzzy talk about possible Oscar nominations for both roles. Lead for Destroyer and Supporting for Boy Erased.
And finally, here's the link to Sasha Stone's (Awards Daily) wrap-up from the Telluride Film Fest. The podcast features Mark Johnson of Awards Circuit, Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere and some other guy that may have accidentally stumbled into the same films they were seeing (yea, it's me).
We're coming down to the wire friends. If you want your reactions to films at TFF #45 to count, the deadline is Wednesday at 5:00pm EDT. Send the 1-5 ratings to me at any of the contact methods below:
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Here's a brief post from the road as I return from Film Heaven to the real world.
Final film tally: 10 (in no specific order)
The Old Man and the Gun
First Man
Destroyer
Boy Erased
The Favourite
The Front Runner
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Roma
Cold War
White Boy Rick
For me it's a fest that ends up in the middle of the pack as far as the 13 I have attended (2007 still sets the bar). Personal favorites from the weekend were First Man, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Front Runner.
Highlights included talking with Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant about their marvelous performances in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Comforting Laura Dern after Boy Erased (yes, that really happened). Getting the chance to congratulate Jason Reitman and co-screen writer Jay Carson for their work on The Front Runner. Walking out of The Zog next to the luminous Nicole Kidman and meeting or re-acquainting with so many fine folks that seem to take the time to read the space.
Sincerely, I am stunned when I meet readers and they are so kind.
Got to see/hear Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Matthew McConaughey, Alfonso Cuaron, Jason Reitman, Karyn Kusama and Yann Demange talk about their films.
Also caught sight of Ralph Fiennes, Damien Chazelle, Kathleen Kennedy, Jay Carson, Matt Bai, David Grann, Jimmy Chin, Ken Burns and, of course, Werner Herzog
I say it every year...this doesn't happen anywhere else on the planet.
Telluride Film Festival...I love you!
THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE REMINDER- IT IS TIME!
For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride. All you have to do is report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".
Send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Jason Reitman and Hugh Jackman at The Front Runner Q and A
Started the day with Jason Reitman's The Front Runner which moves to the #2 spot for the weekend. I loved it. Hits all my politics geek buttons and history and film making. Hugh Jackman as Gary Hart, Vera Farmiga as his wife Lee and J.K. Simmons as campaign manager Bill Dixon are all in fine form. Reitman is back, my friends!
Then did the Netflix Doc brunch which was lovely and also allowed me to grab Front Runner co-screen-writer Jay Carson as well as Reitman and express my enthusiasm for their film.
Then Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased. SUbtle and understated with a subject (gay conversion therapy) that could easily have provided any number of histrionics. Praise to Edgerton and his cast of Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Edgerton himself. Beautifully realized and emotionally honest.
Matthew McConnaughey during The White Boy Rick Q and A
The day ended with White Boy Rick which is an entertaining film featuring nice work from Matthew McConaughey and non-actor Richie Merritt...who is fantastic as WBR. McConnaughey in greta form in the Q and A that followed.
MONDAY TBAs
Palm
7:00 PM, FREE SOLO, Program 23, Cinephile
Galaxy
9:00 AM, COLD WAR, 35, Cinephile
3:00 PM, NON FICTION, 6, Cinephile
Herzog 7:00 PM, THE FAVOURITE, 7a, Cinephile
Sheridan Opera House
3:30 PM, SHOPLIFTERS, 32, Cinephile
8:00 PM, DOGMAN, 36, Cinephile
Nugget
1:00 PM, GHOST FLEET, 29, Cinephile
7:00 PM, THE WHITE CROW, 30, Cinephile
Masons
1:00 PM, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD, 12, Cinephile
3:15 PM, FISTFUL OF DIRT, 17, Cinephile
5:30 PM, THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS, B, Cinephile (This is not a free show.)
7:45 PM, GIRL, 25, Cinephile
Le Pierre
2:30 PM, HUGH HEFNER’S AFTER DARK: SPEAKING OUT IN AMERICA, D, Cinephile (This is not a free show.)
4:45 PM, THE TARNISHED ANGELS, 39, Cinephile (This is not a free show.)
7:00 PM, BORDER, 14, Cinephile
Backlot (all programs always free)
9:00 AM, IT MUST SCHWING! THE BLUE NOTE STORY, E
1:15 PM, WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL, F
3:30 PM, HAL, C
6:15 PM, IT MUST SCHWING! THE BLUE NOTE STORY, E
Noon Seminar, Town Park FREE
Sponsored by Participant Media
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
How do filmmakers find a formal distance when dramatizing family stories?
With Joel Edgerton, Markus Imhoof, Alfonso Cuaron.
THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE
For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride. All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".
When the time comes, you can send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
You may or may not have seen a post from Awards Circuit yesterday that linked to their YouTube account. If you did not, they rank the world's most important film festivals in as far as awards season is concerned.
No spoilers but...
Here's that video:
I'm out...almost literally...we hit the road to T-ride in about two hours... Hoping to see some of you tonight.
Next post will be Friday morning with a view toward what I'll be planning to see and do...
Then check back throughout the weekend for TBAs and reactions to the films that I see.
IT'S FINALLY HERE!
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
