Notes from the Telluride Film Festival (2018) – Part 1

I’m still pretty excited a week later!  See - I recently attended the Telluride film festival where, in just three and a half days, I saw eleven upcoming feature films. Most of these are headed for general release in the coming months, and several are what might be called Oscar hopefuls – although it’s pretty early to make such predictions. They include pictures with stars like Emma Stone, Robert Redford, Hugh Jackman, JK Simmons and Casey Affleck; films directed by Alfonzo Cuaron, Werner Herzog, Jason Reitman, Peter Bogdanovich and - nearly 35 years after his death and 48 years after he started shooting – the final movie by Orson Welles! I want to preview a few of these movies for you. I’ll talk about four of them this time, and a few more in Part 2 (and maybe part 3) of this report, in a few days.

Telluride is a small film festival in a tiny, picturesque, somewhat remote Rocky Mountain village. It runs over the Labor Day weekend each year, Friday through Monday, showing around 50 movies all told – some big, some small - in a variety of venues, most of which are adapted for the occasion (the town has only one dedicated movie theater) .  Along with the Venice Film Festival which runs simultaneously (although for more than twice as long and nearly triple the slate of pictures), Telluride has become quite influential as the kicking off point for the prestigious Fall season of award-worthy movies. Some of these are commercial films, intended for wide release, while many are what you’d call art-house pictures.

Because it’s both small and prestigious, the organizers are able to vet the movies that get submitted, selecting only the best. As a result, I enjoyed every one of the movies I got to see. And for movie buffs, the Telluride festival is a fun place to be because everyone there is an enthusiast, and you can talk movies and compare notes to your heart’s content.

Okay, let’s get started.

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

The first movie I want to talk about in this report is also the first one I saw in Telluride. The Old Man & the Gun stars Robert Redford in what he says is his final performance. He’s decided that at age 82 it’s time to retire. I’ll note that he has hedged a bit, offering long-time fans a glimmer of hope, by prefacing his retirement announcement with the words:  ”never say never”).  But if this really is Redford’s swan song, he leaves us with a warm performance and a smile.

The Old Man & the Gun is based on a true story, yet plays like a fable – and is more concerned with setting the right tone and telling a good story than sticking strictly to the facts. But the essence of the reality is there. It’s about a guy named Forrest Tucker - a bank robber who was convicted and imprisoned 17 times over his long life, and escaped 17 times. He clearly loved his occupation, and so each time he got out of the hoosegow, he went right back to work. One of his more notorious escapes was in 1979 when he paddled away from San Quentin in a little boat, which he somehow had constructed at the prison.  He even named the boat: on its side was painted ”Rub-a-dub-dub.”

Needless to say, Redford portrays Forrest Tucker and is the star of the movie.  The Old Man & the Gun starts when Tucker is already an older man. At around 70 years of age he’s still robbing them banks. He carries a gun for credibility, but it’s never loaded.  Tucker was an optimist. By all accounts, he was a charming guy, whose polite demeanor and good nature made others around him happy as well. Even the bank tellers that he robbed liked him. And Redford certainly knows how to do charming. As it turns out, so does writer-director David Lowery, whose prior movies include last year’s Ghost Story and 2013’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. 

Both of those movies feature Casey Affleck, and he’s in this one too - as Sherriff John Hunt, who becomes intrigued by Tucker and tries to nab him. This isn’t so easy since for a while, no one knows who this old guy is.  Affleck is at the top of his form here and his supporting work is fun to watch. There’s an especially delicious scene when the two men accidentally meet at a diner. Also wonderful in a supporting role is Sissy Spacek, famous for starring in Carrie back in 1976 and Coal Miner’s Daughter in 1980. She’s lost nothing over the years.  Spacek plays a widowed rancher who gets caught up in Tucker’s charm, and she too is a joy to watch. The movie also features nice turns by Danny Glover and Tom Waits as Tucker’s sometime partners in crime.

The Old Man & the Gun is a sweet, upbeat, likeable movie. It won’t knock your socks off, but it will entertain you and leave you feeling good. It’s scheduled for release on September 28th.

The Front Runner (2018)

Our next picture, The Front Runner, is also based on a true story, and as far as I can tell, it takes fewer liberties with the factual record. I think it’s a doozy!

It’s the story of the short lived 1988 presidential campaign of Colorado Senator Gary Hart, who started out as the clear front runner for the Democratic nomination, but who dropped out amid the media frenzy that followed revelation of the Donna Rice / Monkey Business sex scandal. The movie features a brilliant performance by Hugh Jackman as Hart, and generally terrific acting all around, including standout performances by JK Simmons (who is always good) as Hart’s campaign manager, and Vera Farmiga (likewise always good) as his steely, aggrieved wife.

Why would you be interested in a movie about a thirty year old political scandal? Well, I’ll tell you.

First of all, this is not just another scandal – it is one of the earliest instances in modern American politics and the first connected with a major presidential candidate, where the separation of the private from the public - which is to say the distinction between the personal life and picadilloes of a candidate (which traditionally were not reported by the media) and his or her public performance and viewpoints, which were – was breeched and abandoned. Now that scandal-mongering is so commonplace, it’s important to remember that it was not always thus; that the legitimate press would never report or even investigate rumors or actual stories about adulterous liaisons of major political figures. Those kinds of stories were considered off limits, tabloid stuff, beneath notice. The Hart scandal was the turning point, and this movie asks: Has that turned out to be such a good thing?

Secondly, like All The Presidents Men in 1976 or Spotlight in 2015, The Front Runner doesn’t just tell a story, it puts us right in the middle of the campaign on the one hand and in the newsrooms on the other – so it has a palpable immediacy to it that is engaging and quite thrilling. Journalists I’ve spoken to have said that the film’s rendition of these moments looks and feels spot-on accurate.

Also, Hart’s journey is the stuff of classic tragedy. I don’t mean that he was a great hero who might have saved the Republic. That conclusion will depend on your political views. But regardless of your politics, what we see with Gary Hart is a riveting drama about a man felled by a fatal flaw – actually two fatal flaws in this case. The first, of course, is of a leading presidential candidate who is careless enough to have a fling, some of which was relatively public on a pleasure yacht, without thinking of consequences. We might call it hubris or chutzpah or just plain stupidity. The second flaw is less about judgment than personality: Hart was incapable of talking about personal matters; so, when the crisis erupted, he simply wouldn’t or couldn’t talk about it – not even with his closest advisors, much less in the form of any public acknowledgment. As a policy wonk, he was great communicator; but in the swirl of controversy about his personal life - not so much.

Finally, you may want to see The Front Runner simply because it’s a beautifully acted and directed movie. As I said, Hugh Jackman is terrific as Hart. This actor can do anything, it seems, from singing on Broadway or as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, to action films as the Wolverine in the X-Men series and last year’s Logan, to the charismatic, yet tragic figure depicted here.

Most of the folks I spoke to thought that The Front Runner was one of the top 4 or 5 movies at Telluride.  It’s set for general release in the US at Thanksgiving.

The Favourite (2018)

Another mainstream movie coming out at Thanksgiving is The Favourite, a comedic costume drama  set at the royal court in England during the early 18^th century reign of the little known (nowadays, at least) Queen Anne. Again, the bones of this tale are factual, although much is imagined. This is one of those movies that might be said to be ‘inspired’ by a true story.  It is a war story of sorts. In the background, the War of Spanish Succession (also little known to modern audiences) is raging, and England is going broke – resulting in all kinds of political conflict and intrigue. In the foreground is a more personal intrigue – a battle for power among three women:

There’s Queen Anne, an ailing, emotionally enfeebled monarch played gloriously by British actress Olivia Colman. Queen Anne ruled at a time when Kings and Queens actually wielded power – her word was the last word. Having the ear of the monarch meant access to power.   While Colman is known most in this country for her roles on the British series Broadchurch and The Night Manager, that may soon change. If this movie takes off, as I think it might, Colman’s star will rise considerably. She will also be the next iteration of Queen Elizabeth II in the next season of The Crown, which won’t hurt either. Based on her performance here, some at Telluride were confidently predicting consideration for “best actress” awards come January.

Anyway, at the start of The Favourite, the queen is leaning heavily on Sarah, her best friend, and wife of the powerful Duke of Marlborough. In fact, so dependent is she on her friend that Lady  Marlborough has essentially become the queen’s chief of staff - usurping much of her power.  Sarah/Lady Marlborough is commandingly played by the great Rachel Weisz, perhaps best known for her award-winning performances in The Constant Gardener in 2005 and The Deep Blue Sea (2011), not to mention as the wife of Daniel Craig.  As The Favourite begins, Sarah’s down-on-her luck cousin Abigail arrives on the scene. Her father has just died, and she is seeking a position at court. Abigail, played by Emma Stone [Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016)], seems pretty helpless, but she is ambitious. Soon she is vying with Sarah for the queen’s favor in a rivalry that is gloriously vicious, catty and hilarious. This is Emma Stone as you have never seen her before; in fact, as you probably could not have imagined her: tough, canny, devious, amoral – in short, an absolute delight!

The Favourite is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, best known for his quirky, breakout hit The Lobster in 2015. This film is quirky too, but in a different, more mainstream way. It is charming and quite funny. It is also beautiful to look at: creatively and expressively shot, featuring gorgeous costumes for the women and for the foppish males too; plus magnificent royal interiors and some fabulous set pieces.  Still, center stage belongs to the three female leads Colman, Weisz and Stone  – mesmerizing, magnificent and hysterical in their bitchy, no holds barred power struggle. One might subtitle this picture “Extremely Dangerous Liaisons”.

I just loved it. The Favourite will be released on November 23, 2018, the day after Thanksgiving.

[Noto Bene: when looking up this movie on IMDB or other sites be sure to use the British spelling of favourite, or you may not find it.]

The Great Buster (2018)

The final movie I’ll review today is a documentary about one of the three greatest comedians and directors of the silent film era, some would say the greatest physical comedian of all time: Buster Keaton.  Simply called The Great Buster, it’s directed by Peter Bogdanovich, a pretty great director himself (known for Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, the film version of Noises Off, and many others) but also a noted film scholar and historian.

Buster Keaton was not only a brilliant comic actor, but also one of the most original and creative directors of comedies ever. As Bogdanovich notes, he could set up a shot like no one else, and many of his techniques continue to be used today. As a comic actor, he was known as old Stone Face, because – like Garbo – he never smiled, not because he was inexpressive. To the contrary, he was wonderfully expressive. Unlike Charles Chaplain, he did not rely on pathos or sentimentality in his movies. He did not need our sympathy; his deadpan takes were just hilarious. As were the often elaborate situations and sight gags Keaton constructed. His movies remain funny a hundred years after they were made – acing the test of time.

The Great Buster provides an ample sampling of the best of Keaton, from his early two-reelers to the ten feature-length films that he wrote, designed, directed and starred in between 1923 and 1928. I can tell you that when I watched this material in a theater with about 600 other folks, all of us laughed - a lot.

Bogdanovich takes an interesting tack in telling the Buster Keaton story. He starts chronologically, telling of young Buster’s childhood – born to vaudevillian comedian parents, who billed themselves as The Keatons, and incorporated Buster in the act when he was 11 months old. In fact, by the time he was a toddler, he was the star of the show, not just for being cute, but because they’d use him as a projectile, tossing him around the stage with seeming abandon – which the audiences of the day found quite amusing. At one point they attached a handle to his back to make the throwing of little Buster that much easier! 

The film goes on to chronicle Keaton’s early career in moving pictures, first as a partner to Fatty Arbuckle and then as an independent producer of his own films; skipping lightly, at first, over the period of his greatest success from the mid-to the late twenties;  then describing his period of decline: first a disastrous contract with MGM, which took away his control and misused his talents; subsequent personal issues including divorce and alcoholism; then, changing public taste in light of WWII and relative obsolescence in the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, in addition to showing us clips from Keaton’s movies, we are offered commentary by folks like Mel Brooks, Bill Hader, Carl Reiner, and Quentin Tarantino.

In the film’s third act, Bogdanovich first describes a final late-life high note – Keaton was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival a year before his death, receiving a ten-minute standing ovation, which really touched the old man.  After this, The Great Buster circles back to examine Keaton’s greatest work, the movies that earned him those honors – films like Sherlock Jr. (1924), Go West (1925), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

Bogdanovich was present at the screening I attended and he told a story that fits here I think. It seems there was an old British comic writer and actor who was pretty big in the 1940s, but now largely forgotten. By around 1980, the guy was laid up at his retirement home on his last legs. An old friend came to visit, and asked him how it was going. “It’s tough,” he said. “Real tough  …

… But not as tough as comedy! “

The saying goes: “Leave ‘em laughing”; and The Great Buster certainly achieves that. It’s a beautiful, sometimes bittersweet, genuinely funny, worthwhile movie.   Look for it.  It’ll be in theaters starting October 5^th .

In my next post, I’ll report on several smaller films I took in at Telluride. These include the latest from writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski [Ida (2013)], the critically acclaimed Cold War; the charming and affecting new movie by Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore’eda [Like Father, Like Son (2013)] entitled The Shoplifter; the dramatic and beautiful biopic about dancer Rudolf Nureyev, The White Crow, directed by Ralph Fiennes; and perhaps the biggest critical success of the nascent Fall season, Alfonso Cuaron’s autobiographical, Roma.

Until then, Enjoy!