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15 Films Not to Miss at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Eephus
Amidst wi-fi and cellular outages, a threatened workers' strike, and dialogue around the #MeToo movement in France, the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is underway. For Filmmaker, Vadim Rizov and Blake Williams are both back with on-the-ground reports and Critics Notebooks, and we begin with this list of 15 films that might be sliding under your radar. You don't need us to recommend Coppola's Megalopolis, Schrader's Oh Canada, Cronenberg's The Shrouds or any of the other titles from the higher-profile auteurs. Instead, we've focused here on debuting directors, U.S. independents, and arthouse auteurs who have dazzled us with previous work. Gazer. This year represents the sophomore effort for the current, Julien Rejl-led regime at the Quinzaine des cinéastes sidebar,… Read more
“You Have to Make it All Personal”: Tom Pelphrey, Back To One, Episode 291
(Photo: Skylar Reeves)
Since he was last on the podcast (Ep. 112), Tom Pelphrey has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on Ozark, he’s had juicy roles on Outer Range and David E. Kelly’s Love and Death, and now Kelly has given Pelphrey perhaps his most exciting role to date in the character of Raymond Peepgrass in Netflix’s A Man In Full. On this episode, Pelphrey takes us deep into his work on that limited series. He talks about why a good costumer designer is an actor’s best friend, what made him feel free to go “full weird” with Regina King, the importance of being an advocate for your character, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get… Read more
Nominees Announced for Inaugural Gotham TV Awards
Bodkin
The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker's parent organization, announced today the nominations in seven competitive award categories for the inaugural Gotham TV Awards, recognizing a range of series, including Baby Reindeer, Ripley, The Curse, Shōgun, Bodkin, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Black Twitter: A People’s History as well as performances from Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder in The Curse, Andrew Scott in Ripley, Kristen Wiig in Palm Royale, Richard Gadd in Baby Reindeer, and Lily Gladstone in Under The Bridge, among others. “In a historic moment for The Gotham, we're thrilled to recognize an extraordinary collection of TV series and the brilliant creators responsible for bringing them to the screen,” said Jeffrey Sharp, The Gotham’s Executive Director. “As an organization… Read more
“You Can’t Go Into Your Hometown and Not Shoot Cinemascope”: Writer/Director Adam Rehmeier on His Early ’90s Nebraska-Set Comedy, Snack Shack
Snack Shack
The logline for Snack Shack—two teenaged best friends spend the summer of 1991 working at a community pool food stand and get up to shenanigans—suggests a hyper-generic “one crazy summer”-type coming-of-age flick, but the film distinguishes itself with specifics almost immediately. It opens with AJ (Connor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) at an off-track betting parlor intently watching the races with lit cigarettes dangling from their mouths. They exchange gambling strategies and profane insults before deciding to bet their new winnings on one more long-shot race. They hit big, but upon leaving they see someone swipe their cab, making it impossible for them to cross the interstate into Nebraska and sneak back onto their school field trip without raising suspicion.… Read more
Watch: An Exclusive Clip from Alison O’Daniel’s Independent Lens Premiere, The Tuba Thieves
The Tuba Thieves, courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Derek Howard.
Artist and filmmaker Alison O'Daniel appeared on Filmmaker's 25 New Faces list in 2019 as her feature The Tuba Thieves, screening next week on Independent Lens, moved from stop-and-start production — she had been shooting the film in "bits and pieces" since 2013 — to a finishing sprint. Inspired by a news story about a rash of tuba thefts from Los Angeles marching bands, the film is an impressive and wholly original expansion of O'Daniel's overall project. As I wrote in the 25 New Face piece, "Sound — as subject matter, metaphor, and structuralist organizing principle — is at the heart of O’Daniel’s work, which mixes conceptual art practice, narrative storytelling, documentary and engagement with the deaf and hard of… Read more
Critic’s Notebook: Monica Sorelle’s Miami-Set Debut, Mountains
Mountains
Monica Sorelle's debut feature Mountains is currently screening at the Seattle International Film Festival, with its final screening tomorrow, May 14, and then on the festival's streaming platform from May 20 - 27. Mountains, the debut feature by Miami-based filmmaker Monica Sorelle, opens with a Haitian proverb: Dèyè mòn gen mòn—behind mountains are mountains. We hear the brutal clamor of a towering demolition crane—perpetually under construction, Miami, where Mountains is set, has no mountains but these—as it rakes the shingles off a roof. The patriarch of the family at Mountains’ center is Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a construction worker who’s been tasked with the demolition of houses in Little Haiti, his own neighborhood, to make room for impending redevelopment. So the thunderous… Read more
