Indiewire headed to Colorado this year to check out the latest slew of new independent films at the Telluride Film Festival. Here are our reviews from the festival:
‘Act of Killing‘
In Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” a pair of gangsters — responsible for murdering an untold number of suspected communists in the years following the 1965 overthrow of the Indonesian government — get the chance to recount their experiences. At first showing no visible remorse, the men boast of their achievements, and Oppenheimer capitalizes on their enthusiasm with a twisted gimmick: The men are given numerous opportunities to reenact the murders for Oppenheimer’s camera, sometimes emphasizing their brutality and occasionally delivering surreal, flamboyant takes that offer a grotesque spin on classic Hollywood musicals. Playing make believe with murderers, Oppenheimer risks the possibility of empowering them. However, by humanizing psychopathic behavior, “The Act of Killing” is unparalleled in its unsettling perspective on the dementias associated with dictatorial extremes.
‘Hyde Park on Hudson’
Bill Murray is a man of many talents who has lately struggled to find the right outlet for them. The latest example, “Hyde Park on Hudson,” finds Murray in a tame, mannered costume drama delivering his best FDR impression. The actor’s pathos and deadpan skills are buried in the material, which also suffers from a continuous lack of inspiration. It’s high-minded entertainment with low ambition.
‘The Gatekeepers’
“The Gatekeepers,” a startling exposé of Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, delivers an unequivocal indictment. The handful of former Shin Bet heads who deliver candid accounts of their reasoning for various destructive assaults in the constant horn-locking with their Palestinian neighbors initially come across as unsympathetic war-mongerers. However, director Dror Moreh allows the movie to exclusively unfold through their voices, humanizing them to the point where their logic and humanity fall into distinct categories. For every shocking justification of murder, there’s another moment where they confess frustration and regret, resulting in a refreshingly even-handed portrait.
‘At Any Price’
“Expand or die” is the mantra spouted by farmers in Ramin Bahrani’s “At Any Price,” a menacing slogan that reflects the explosion of the cornfield market into a $2 trillion industry. It also provides a reminder of the movie’s production conditions when compared to everything Bahrani has done before. With Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron in lead roles, “At Any Price” is a vastly different type of project than the astute, naturalistic character dramas that the neorealism-inspired Bahrani delivered with his first two features. Unfortunately, without the intimacy and diverse social conditions that characterize Bahrani’s “Man Push Cart,” “Chop Shop” and “Goodbye Solo,” the director’s fourth movie buries his distinguishing qualities in moral grandstanding and familiar inter-generational tensions. It’s not a terrible digression, but notably lacks the same distinction.
‘Love Marilyn’
In its opening minutes, the documentary “Love, Marilyn” establishes a gimmick that seems destined to fail: Chronicling the rise and fall of Marilyn Monroe, director Liz Garbus unleashes a collection of movie stars who mainly read excerpts from her personal diaries throughout the film. Watching these contemporary faces dramatize Monroe’s attitude initially creates a grating disconnect from the subject matter. Over time, however, the approach blends into an immersive account of the actress’ career that both deconstructs her celebrity while interrogating its impact on her troubled existence. Not content to let the actors carry the whole movie, Garbus also includes interviews with Monroe acquaintances and scholars as well as rare archival footage.
‘Frances Ha’
A slight and largely charming portrait of post-college woes, Noah Baumbach’s deceptively simple “Frances Ha” is breezier than any of his previous ventures and indeed features considerably less ambition than his earlier work. However, that’s hardly an indictment for a movie so eager to please and thoroughly in tune with the themes percolating throughout Baumbach’s career. Shot in black-and-white video that lends this New York odyssey a scrappy feel, “Frances Ha” foregrounds a characteristically endearing Greta Gerwig performance defined by her usual onscreen combination of high energy wit and awkward self-effacement.
‘Ginger and Rosa’
The fundamental coming-of-age conflict facing the troubled teen played by Elle Fanning in Sally Potter’s “Ginger and Rosa” may look familiar, but the director brings a raw energy to the material that deepens its possibilities. Set at the height of nuclear paranoia in early-Sixties London, Potter’s script has a lot to say about the progressive attitudes of its chosen era by cleverly analogizing them to the expanding horizons of a restless adolescent mind. A viscerally charged work that foregrounds surface tensions and gripping performances, “Ginger and Rosa” is the filmmaker’s most accessible and technically surefooted work to date.
‘Argo’
Equally a slick political thriller, intelligent period piece and sly Hollywood satire, Ben Affleck’s “Argo” maintains a careful balance between commentary and entertainment value. Stepping beyond the raw thriller qualities that distinguished his first two directing efforts, “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town,” the actor-director successfully broadens those skills with a historical scope. This tense and frequently amusing reenactment of a covert 1979 CIA operation to smuggle assailed American political operatives out of Iran amid revolutionary chaos by disguising them as a film crew takes the material seriously while still having fun with it.
‘Stories We Tell’
Sarah Polley’s efforts behind the camera have showcased tender performances attuned to nuanced fluctuations in shared screen chemistry. Both her Oscar-nominated 2006 directorial debut “Away from Her” and the recent “Take This Waltz” explore the deterioration of relationships in minute detail. While her third feature, “Stories We Tell,” marks a shift to nonfiction for the filmmaker, it similarly foregrounds the subtleties of human expression and the secrets embedded within it. A blatantly personal account of her Toronto-based family’s rocky developments, “Stories We Tell” marks the finest of Polley’s filmmaking skills by blending intimacy and intrigue to remarkable effect.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
