I cannot believe that despite AFI Fest being a whole week later than it normally is that it has snuck up on me. The festival starts today with the premiere of Queen and Slim and runs until next week. I will be popping in and out of the festival given my crazy work schedule, backlog of reviews, and awards season screenings, but here are the movies I’m msot interested to see.
Atlantics
A tower under construction looms over the Senegal coastline. 17-year-old Ada meets her lover, Souleiman, on the beach after he returns home from working construction, and they struggle to share their truths. The next day, Ada learns Souleiman has left with his exploited co-workers on the treacherous voyage to Europe, pursuing a better future. As bodies wash ashore and a fire ruins a wedding party, rumors swirl and a mysterious fever begins to spread. In Mati Diop’s striking and poetic feature debut, she creates a hypnotic and haunting mystery, focusing on the women left behind. A supernatural take on the refugee crisis, the film skillfully balances romance and grief. With ATLANTICS, Diop became the first black woman to contend for the 72-year-old Palmes d’Or.
A Hidden Life
Terrence Malick returns with this harrowing true-life tale of conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), eliciting comparisons in scope to his Academy Award-nominated TREE OF LIFE. The rise of the Third Reich in Austria shatters the peaceful illusion that is Franz’s daily life of farming, evenings spent at the pub and Sundays at church with his family. As the war encroaches, he faces grave decisions and is forced to reconcile the prevailing beliefs of his church and country with his personal convictions of right and wrong. This life-affirming story of one man’s quiet courage in the face of overwhelming odds earned the François Chalais Award when it premiered at Cannes and also features Bruno Ganz and Michael Nyqvist in their final performances.
And Then We Danced
A dancer in the National Georgian Ensemble, Merab is descended from a line of traditional dancers. The training at the academy is demanding. Its instructors are conservative and severe, maintaining the importance of foregrounding masculinity in Georgian dance. The arrival of the preternaturally talented Irakli awakens a sense of friendly competition in Merab, along with an array of more complicated emotions. An immediate and affectionate rivalry finds the two practicing with one another, then partnering in preparation for an important audition. Elegantly and sensitively helmed by Swedish director Levan Akin, this complex interpretation of homophobia seen through the inherent sexuality of dance is a twirling, rhythmic romance where the profundity of first love is heightened by the risk that exposure could threaten career and both familial and community support.
Romantic Comedy
There’s no question about it, Romantic Comedies are having a cultural resurgence right now. What is it about the meet cute, the trusty sidekick, and the tearful confessions that draw audiences in time and time again? In this unique essayistic film, director Elizabeth Sankey examines and deconstructs the popular film genre. Looking to filmmakers such as Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner and Garry Marshall, with clips from such films as RUNWAY BRIDE, MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING and JERRY MAGUIRE Sankey is able to parse and pull apart how these films affect audiences but, more crucially, Sankey examines how these films have influenced her own psychological state, behavior and life. Movies shape us in ways we sometimes don’t even realize, even the most seemingly innocuous of guilty pleasures.
Troop Zero
Spunky, oddball nine-year-old Christmas Flint loves space. When she learns the prize for the 1977 Birdie Jamboree talent competition is having your voice recorded on the space-bound NASA’s Golden Record, Christmas decides to start her own troop. After recruiting other neighborhood misfits, she convinces the fearless Rayleen (Viola Davis) to help as troop mother. Much to the discouragement of the school principal (Allison Janney), the ragtag bunch enters the extra-perfect world of official Birdies as they try to earn their Birdie badges and place on the talent show floor.