I sat in the comfy leather recliner at Violet Crown, waiting for the first screening of the day to start. I was surrounded on either side by older festival goers and we all struck up a conversation. The couple on my right were film festival fans who had splurged for the top-tier badge. The woman was looking forward to retiring within the next year; her husband was recently retired. The woman on my left and I chatted about how she had been to so many festivals that only a few minutes of talking to someone would determine for her if they had gone to film school or not. She said this after I described a movie that I had seen the previous day as being a you’ve-seen-one-you’ve-seen-them-all romcom.
Somehow the subject turned to the recently held Oscars ceremony, and my companions had some strong opinions about what films had taken home the little gold men. “I couldn’t believe that Everything, Everywhere, Whatever It Was won Best Picture,” the lady on my left lamented. “I don’t even know what was going on in that thing.” I sat with a bemused grin on my face as she disparaged what I thought was one of the best films of the previous year. The couple on my right agreed. My mind flashed to the prominent role that butt plugs played in Everything Everywhere All at Once. “That’s probably what did it,” I thought, as I began to chuckle at my seatmates’ dismissive attitudes.
“And, I mean, nominating Cate Blanchett for that Tár? Give me a break,” the woman on my left hissed. The group also came to a consensus that Triangle of Sadness was weird and that The Fabelmans was only OK.
I offered no opinions. I was simply too fascinated to hear what they had to say to ruin it by interjecting.
*****
Halfway through the fest, I attended a discussion with cinematographer Lawrence Sher, ASC, about his craft. Sher served as the director of photography on titles like Garden State, the Hangover series, Joker, and its upcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. I sought out this discussion because cinematography is one of those areas that I feel woefully underqualified to critique, as I know so little about the actual nuts and bolts of the process. I usually stick to a, “it looked good,” or, “it looked bad,” binary. I want to be able to write with more authority on the subject, so I’m trying to learn more about it.
(The other discipline I need to study more closely is acting. I need to read the books by masters like Stanislavski, Meisner, Adler, etc. If you’ve seen my cringeworthy acting in student films from college, you’ll understand why I feel ill-prepared to critique the acting of others.)
*****
The back half of DIFF was as stacked with excellent documentaries as the front half was. I was elated after seeing Bad Press, a doc about the righteous fight one tiny news organization – and, more specifically, one reporter within that organization – wages in the name of transparency and the vital role a free and open press plays in a democracy.
The film focuses on Mvskoke Media, a newspaper for the members of the Muscogee Nation. The climax of the film centers on nothing less than a vote that will determine if Muscogee Nation will be the first North American Indigenous Peoples’ government to adopt a press freedom amendment to their constitution.
If you think that might not have anything to do with you, think again. The picture, from directors Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, speaks more broadly to press freedom everywhere and the Mvskoke Media fight reminds the viewer how important protecting press freedom is for democracy to thrive.
It’s Only Life After All is an intimate and endearing portrait of rock duo Indigo Girls. I walked into this doc knowing next to nothing about Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. I walked out filled with a respect for their politically conscious, progressive lyrics and ethos. For 30 years, Indigo Girls have been on the right side of issues that many of us are only now discovering. The quote of the film comes when one-half of the duo laments that the American music industry was woefully inadequate when it came to promoting a band that featured raw, female anger. They could handle Rage Against the Machine, she quips, but not Indigo Girls.
Meanwhile, Israelism focuses on the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. The doc features American Jews who served in the Israeli military and how they became disenchanted with what they came to see as an apartheid state where Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens. The film didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know, but it serves as a stirring call to action to put an end to brutal anti-Palestinian policy.
I also saw director Davis Guggenheim’s moving and unflinching look at an actor who ruled the zeitgeist for nearly two decades before a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis set him on a very different path. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is by turns funny, devastating, and hopeful as it gives us a glimpse into Fox’s meteoric rise to fame and how his diagnosis changed everything.
*****
Finally, I was able to attend the closing night film for DIFF. It was a movie I caught at SXSW, but I was happy to introduce it to Rae and a few friends. BlackBerry is a laugh-out-loud fictionalized account of the birth of the world’s first smartphone. The film’s director, Matt Johnson, spoke at SXSW, and he seems like a genuine, down-to-earth dude. Up until now, Johnson has focused on microbudget projects – something called Nirvana The Band The Show was mentioned during the South By Q&A – and he’s crafted a pitch-perfect comedy in BlackBerry.
Johnson is helped with delightful performances from the likes of Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton in a *chef’s kiss* bald cap. The director gets in on the fun by costarring as the goofy engineer who serves as the emotional heart of the movie. BlackBerry captures a moment in time in our culture right before everything changed forever. It’s also the kind of mid-budget indie comedy that has almost disappeared completely from multiplexes, which have been swallowed whole by the MCU. Johnson’s hilarious script – which he cowrote with Matthew Miller – offers up laughs while giving us a glimpse into how the tech that would change our lives was born, before the massive corporations locked everything down for themselves.
I liked BlackBerry so much, I’m planning on seeing it a third time (it opens in theaters today) so I can show it to more friends. I was able to see 24 films at DIFF, if you count short films (which I do!). I’m going to take a few weeks off, in order to recharge my movie battery before the summer blockbuster season gets under way. I’ll be back in June, in time for the likes of a new Indiana Jones, a new Christopher Nolen, a new Wes Anderson, and, of course, Barbie. Here’s to a great movie summer!
Now, go see BlackBerry!