Carrete in QUIXOTE IN NEW YORK. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The charming documentary Quixote in New York follows the 82-yer-old Spanish flamenco dance master El Carrete, who wants to cap his career by performing in a major NYC theater. It’s not that easy to mount a theater production, and he doesn’t have unlimited time to pull it off.
El Carrete himself is a hoot, funny AF and even makes rehearsals fun for everybody. Director Jorge Peña Martín has the good sense to give us a big dose of El Carrete. It’s a well-crafted film, especially the cinematography.
There’s a Can’t Miss seen where El Carrete watches a projection of Fred Astaire dance, and then dances himself in front of the screen, mirroring Astaire’s moves-flamenco-style.
This is an audience-pleaser. Cinequest hosts the US premiere of Quixote in New York.
Carrete in QUIXOTE IN NEW YORK. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Photo caption: Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns live and in-person March 7, back in downtown San Jose, with screenings March 7-17 at the California, Theatre and the Hammer Theater. Selected films from the program then move to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoyfrom March 21-31.
Highlights of the 2024 Cinequest include:
217 films, half directed by women, with many, many world premieres, US premieres and directorial debuts.
Films from 37 countries, including Germany, Spain, Canada, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Finland, Mexico, India, China, Brazil and Argentina.
New movies with Robert De Niro. Abigail Breslin, Ben Stiller, Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Gretchen Mol, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Rupert Sewell, Rainn Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, Olivia Williams, Tovah Feldshuh and Josh Radnor.
See it here FIRST: Ezra, Hard Miles, Frida and The Trouble with Jessica are among the movies slated for theatrical release later this year.
A personal appearance by film star Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, And the Band Played On), who will receive an award and his latest film Hard Miles.
Cinequest’s Silent Cinema Event will present Douglas Fairbank’s The Mark of Zorro and Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality, accompanied by master organist Dennis James on the historic California Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer.
And, at Cinequest, it’s easy to meet the filmmakers.
At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. Take a look at the entire program, theschedule and the passes and tickets
As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) over thirty Cinequest films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2024 page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Tuesday, March 5.
Taylor Joree Scorse in UNDER THE INFLUENCER. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Cinequest winds up today. Here are the films in the program that I hadn’t posted about yet:
Daddy: This dark sci fi comedy is set in a future where only a limited number of men are approved by the government to father children. Four guys apply for the privilege and are isolated in a mountain lodge to wait for the expert evaluator, who doesn’t immediately show up. As they try to figure out what’s going on and what they should do, they succeed only in demonstrating how unfit they would be as parents – until things get all Lord of the Rings. It’s a very funny skewering of both male overconfidence and male angst. Second feature and first feature, respectively, for for co-directors/co-writers Neal Kelley and Jono Sherman, who play two of the guys. World premiere.
Everybody Wants to Be Loved: This German dramedy is a triumph of the harried mom genre. As a psychotherapist, Ina (Anne Ratte-Polle) spends her workdays listening to whining and naval-gazing. Then she goes home to her self-absorbed boyfriend and her teen daughter – and the job of teenagers is to be self-absorbed.-Nobody is most narcissistic and entitled than Ina’s mom. It’s the mom’s birthday, and she is rampaging with demands. The daughter is threatening to move in with Ina’s ex, and the boyfriend wants to move the family to Finland for his career. As Ina is swirling around this vortex of egotism, she gets some sobering news about her own health. As everyone converges on the birthday party, what could possibly go wrong? First feature for director and co-writer Katharina Woll. Second screening in the US.
Catching the Pirate King: The enthralling Belgian documentary is two movies in one. The first is a play by play of the hijacking of a Belgian ship by Somali pirates and the negotiating of their ransom. The second is about the Belgian law enforcement’s dogged campaign to bring the pirates to justice – in Belgium. We meet the ship’s captain and crew, the shipping company’s negotiator, the cops and prosecutors and even some pirates. Absorbing, exceptionally well-sourced and very well-crafted. US premiere.
Under the Influencer: This the second film by Alex Haughey, whose debut Prodigy, a psychological thriller with paranormal elements, was one of the top films at the 2017 Cinequest. World premiere.
Brothers Broken: The documentary Brothers Broken contains a singularly refreshing aspect on a familiar phenomenon – the breakup of a 60s rock band. But here, the band breaks up, not because of drugs or ego, but because of a cult. And the estranged band members are brothers. The band doesn’t last long, but the brothers’ arc covers a 58-year arc. Fitting for Cinequest, the brothers and the band are from San Jose! First feature for co-directors Geoff Levin and Lily Richards. US premiere.
Under Water: This dark Dutch dramedy (or extremely dark Dutch comedy) starts out as the insistent effort of a pushy woman and her estranged husband to get her aged mother into residential care. The mother, a paranoid survivalist, resists every entreaty by the woman and her estranged husband to leave her isolated, condemned house – and even imprisons them in her basement. The husband’s role evolves, and we eventually see that this is a portrait of generational mental illness.
A Cautionary Tale: In this documentary, a Romanian man returns from 19 years in Turkey to find that he’s been officially declared dead; maddeningly, he needs a new ID to prove tht he’s alive, but the government won’t issue a new ID because he’s officially dead. The man is older and seems bewildered, and the movie seems like it’s going to be a real life The Trial by Kafka. But when the filmmaker tracks down his family, the story gets more complicated, finally even explosive. US premiere.
Sloane: A Jazz Singer: This is another laudatory doc on an overlooked musical artist. Now 82, she’s a lot of fun. I wasn’t wowed by an advance version that I screened, but I understand that revisions have since made this film very strong.
The Secret Song: This doc is an uncomplicated movie about a visionary and saintly public school music teacher. He has touched hundreds of lives; this movie won’t.
O Pioneer: This aspirational documentary samples the lives and work of three very nice Appalachian West Virginians – a creative, a traditional artisan and a spiritual leader, and tries to unify them as figurative pioneers. Grass grows and paint dries. World premiere.
This is the thirteenth year that I’ve covered Cinequest. My Cinequest coverage, including past festivals, is on my CINEQUEST 2023 page.
Photo caption: Sabrina Jie-A-Fa and Louis Tomeo in EGGHEAD & TWINKIE. Credit: Olivia Wilson, Courtesy of CanBeDone Films and Orange Cat Films.
Cinequest runs through through August 30. Here are the films that in the program that I hadn’t posted about yet:
Egghead & Twinkie: In this remarkably funny, sweet and genuine coming-of-age film, high school senior Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa – real talent) is trying to navigate her sexual awakening as a lesbian, and goes on a roadtrip with her lifelong bestie, the neighbor boy who is now sweet on her. Perfectly paced, with just the right amount of whimsical animation sprinkled in, Egghead & Twinkie is an impressive debut feature for writer-director Sarah Kambe Holland. IMO this is one of the best coming-of-age films of the decade. World premiere.
Scrapper: Georgie, a precocious 12-year-old girl, thinks that she is independently living her best life, until the unexpected appearance of the dad she hasn’t known. In her first feature, British writer-director Charlotte Regan has created a deliciously charming character, played to roguish perfection by Lola Campbell. Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) is very good as the dad. The screenplay, about loss, connection and second chances, is brimming with humanity. Won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema/Dramatic at Sundance.
Share? In this very funny think-piece, an unnamed Everyman (Melvin Gregg) finds himself locked up in his civvies in a high tech cell – and he’s on camera. Through trial and error, he learns that he can acquire necessities and on-screen social interaction with other captives, by performing for the camera; the currency is not unlike the likes and follows of social media. There are many layers of metaphor in this exploration of human behavior and the human appetite for bread and circuses. First feature for director and co-writer Ira Rosensweig. World premiere.
Destiny on the Main Stage: In this brilliant documentary, a female director (and almost all-female crew) chronicle four years in the lives of Dallas-area strippers – and it’s authentic and NOT sensationalist or exploitative. Hearing the strippers’ voices through a female lens/gaze/perspective is both novel and insightful. The strippers include both a 20-year veteran very comfortable in her vocation to a former stripper organizing to help women exit the business. And, of course there are the very young women who are puddles of bad choices. Over the four years, the subjects’ lives take some very gripping turns. This is a serious film that could become an audience favorite, too. Second feature for director Poppy de Villenueve. World premiere.
Kaymak: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Milcho Manchevski returns to Cinequest with his raunchiest and most overtly comedic film. Kaymak is a sex romp that explores both the imperative to parent and the elastic strictures of of monogamy. US premiere.
No Right Way: This affecting family drama is compelling without any tinge of soapiness and a remarkably promising debut feature for writer-director-star Chelsea Bo World premiere.
Fallen Drive: A very strong screenplay by first-time writer-directors Nick Cassidy and David Rice with complicated characters and a touch of ambiguity elevates this revenge noir. You’ll never guess the two characters driving off together at the end. World premiere.
This is the thirteenth year that I’ve covered Cinequest. My Cinequest coverage, including of past festivals, is on my CINEQUEST 2023 page.
Melvin Gregg in SHARE?DESTINY ON THE MAIN STAGE. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Jakki Jandrell and Phillip Andre Botello in FALLEN DRIVE. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The neo-noir thriller Fallen Drive begins with some 20-somethings congregating in a suburban Airbnb ranch house, having returned to their hometown for a high school reunion. It looks like the successful Liam is really more interested in reuniting with his mysteriously estranged younger brother Dustin. Tightly wound Charlie (Jakki Jandrell) and her boyfriend Reese (Phillip Andre Botello) arrive, and it’s apparent that they have an agenda that could be more grim than drinking with high school buddies.
Soon we are enmeshed in revenge noir, in a variation of the perfect crime film. Things get more intense – and more unpredictable – as the story evolves. There are Hitchcockian touches – he suspects us.
Fallen Drive is written and directed by Nick Cassidy (who also plays Liam) and David Rice; it’s the first feature for both. A very strong screenplay elevates Fallen Drive from the paint-by-numbers thriller we see so often. Here Cassidy and Rice have made the characters complicated and added some ambiguity to the back story. There are subtle hints about the relationships of Liam and Dustin and of Reese and Charlie, and the audience is asked to fill in the blanks. You’ll never guess the two characters driving off together at the end.
There’s also a minor character who still parties too much, who could have been written merely for comic relief; but Cassidy and Rice make it clear that his alcoholism has left him immature – that’s why he behaves like a jerk.
The performances are strong. Jandrell is superb as the coiled Charlie. Donald Clark Jr. is also excellent as Dustin, who the others have always found creepy. Cassidy makes for a sufficiently smirky Liam.
An uncommonly textured revenge thriller, Fallen Drive should be a crowd-pleaser. Cinequest is hosting the world premiere of Fallen Drive.
Chelsea Bo and Ava Acres in NO RIGHT WAY. Courtesy of Cinequest.
In Chelsea Bo’s affecting family drama No Right Way, Harper (played by Bo herself) is a 27-year-old go-getter in LA. She gets a call from child protective services in Las Vegas, informing her that her 13-year-old half-sister Georgie (Ava Acres)can no longer stay with her mother. Because their father is away on a work assignment, Harper drives to Vegas to pick up Georgie herself.
Harper finds that Georgie’s mother Tiffany (Eliza Coupe of Happy Endings) is a hot mess. There may be no one right way to raise a child, but there are wrong ways, for which Tiffany is the poster girl. Addled by a serious drug addiction, Tiffany runs with scary men and can’t even manage to kep the electricity on; as a result, Georgie, very smart with a big personality, is essentially feral.
A fundamentally decent person, Harper is appalled by Tiffany’s failure to provide Georgie with guidance and stability, let alone a safe environment. The dad is comfortable with his current hands-off parenting and gun shy of engaging with Tiffany, so Harper sees herself as Georgie’s last chance and tries to get custody of Georgie from Tiffany.
But Harper is out of her depth dealing with an addict’s denial and sociopathy, and doesn’t reckon that Tiffany, who has no boundaries at all, will explode in manipulative drama and involve Georgie herself in the vortex. Harper makes a mistake that keeps her from gaining control of the situation, and soon Harper is getting a big dose of no good deed goes unpunished. Even neglected kids often prefer to stay with the parent they know, and teenagers relish the freedom of an unengaged guardian.
Chelsea Bo wrote and directed No Right Way, and the exceptionally smart screenplay indicates that she is a perceptive observer of human nature, and her characters are authentically complicated.
Harper is responsible, but she’s naïve and a little judgy. When she observes the untidy household of Tiffany’s friend Amy, we can see Harper aghast at both red flags (the littlest kid is encamped in a closet) and Amy not meeting middle-class norms (we can see her thinking OMG she’s smoking in front of the kids!); but Amy’s teenagers happily play games with the family after dinner – an accomplishment most American parents would envy.
Amy (Sufe Bradshaw of Veep) naturally relates more to Tiffany than to the privileged Harper. But Amy has seen some bullshit in her day, and her sympathy to Tiffany is tempered by a focus on Georgie’s welfare.
Coupe is brilliantly twitchy and volatile as Tiffany, who, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, erupts to make everything someone else’s fault.
Both lead actors – Bo and Ava Acres – are believable and relatable. Acres, who already has 57 screen credits on IMDb, is a force of nature as Georgie.
No Right Way is compelling without any tinge of soapiness. A scene where the dad reams out Harper on the phone as disfunction swirls around her is especially strong. This is a remarkably promising debut feature for Chelsea Bo. I screened No Right Way for its world premiere at Cinequest.
Taylor Joree Scorse in UNDER THE INFLUENCER. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The comedy Under the Influencer is a fable of identity. Tori (Taylor Joree Scorse) is a YouTuber who has built an immense following by appealing to the most frivolous interests of 13-year-old girls. But she’s becoming stale to that audience, and her popularity is tenuous. Having achieved so much success by selling a version of herself, Tori has become very invested, perhaps melded, with her screen persona. Tori is bratty, despite the shallow silliness that she trades in, and she’s ripe for a comeuppance.
Tori seeks to pivot her brand, but her audience is fickle, and she is ambushed by the treachery of two other social media stars. Since her self-confidence rises and falls with the toxicity of on-line comments, she’s at risk of implosion.
This is a glimpse into a professional social media world unknown to some of us, but writer-director Alex Haughey, having spent a year producing for a major YouTuber, knows the scene.
It looks like we’re in for a savage mockumentary until there’s major change in tone when Tori is forced to come to terms with how her own identity is so wrapped up in the validation of views and instant likes or dislikes. It turns out that Tori may not be a ditz after all – she’s just been playing one on YouTube. There’s a revelatory flashback showing how the 13-year-old Tori first dipped her toes into social media (after we have already seen what she’s become).
Taylor Joree Scorse explodes with energy as Tori, completely believable as both the superficial and the more reflective versions of Tori. Spencer Vaughn Kelly is very good as an almost mystically charismatic stranger Tori encounters.
This is the second film by Alex Haughey, whose debut Prodigy, a psychological thriller with paranormal elements, was one of the top films at the 2017 Cinequest.
Under the Influencer is topical, funny and, ultimately, sweet and hopeful. Cinequest is hosting the world premiere of Under the Influencer.
Photo caption: Sabrina Jie-A-Fa and Louis Tomeo in EGGHEAD & TWINKIE. Credit: Olivia Wilson, Courtesy of CanBeDone Films and Orange Cat Films.
In the funny, sweet and genuine coming of age film Egghead & Twinkie, Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa) is finishing high school and trying to navigate her sexual awakening as aa lesbian – and it’s not easy. Her lifelong bestie is the neighbor boy Egghead (Louis Tomei), and he’s now sweet on her; (Egghead and Twinkie are their nicknames for each other), Twinkie impulsively commandeers her dad’s car and heads out on a cross country road trip to join her Internet object of desire (Tik Tok star Ayden Lee). Egghead is so loyal, smitten and cluelessly hopeful that he comes along.
Along the way, they have their share of zany road trip experiences. Twinkie meets the girl (Asahi Hirano) who REALLY is perfect for her, but Twinkie is first destined to learn a cruel lesson about being infatuated with a player. It’s a hoot, and there’s not one false note. For all their kooky antics, the kids’ feelings are remarkably authentic.
The entire cast is very good. Sabrina Jie-A-Fa is a charming force of nature as Twinkie. She’s in every scene, and she’s a real talent.
Asahi Hirano and Sabrina Jie-A-Fa in EGGHEAD & TWINKIE. Credit: Olivia Wilson, Courtesy of CanBeDone Films and Orange Cat Films.
Egghead & Twinkie is the first feature for writer-director Sarah Kambe Holland, and it’s an impressive calling card. Egghead & Twinkie is perfectly paced, and Kambe Holland sprinkles in just enough animation to help leaven the angst with the whimsical. Kambe Holland says,
“The kernel of an idea that turned into EGGHEAD & TWINKIE was more of a question: Can I find humor in the coming out process? I was nineteen years old at the time, and I had just come out to my own parents a few months before. The stress of coming out was fresh in my mind, but so was the hilarious awkwardness of it all. I challenged myself to write a short film script about a teenage girl who comes out to her parents, but I was adamant that it wouldn’t be a drama. It would be a comedy, and the message would be one of hope and friendship.“
Of course, given Kambe Holland’s inspiration for the story, Twinkie just doesn’t HAPPEN to be gay or HAPPEN to be Asian-American, but the themes are universal, and Egghead & Twinkie is one of the best coming-of-age films of the decade.
I screened Egghead & Twinkie for Cinequest’sonline Cinejoy in March. After playing OutFest Los Angeles in July, it will be on-screen at the in-person Cinequest in August.
Peter S. Kim, Ally Maki and Hayden Szeto in DEALING WITH DAD. Courtesy of 1091 Pictures.
Dealing with Dad is a topical family comedy with an Asian-American cast. Three adult siblings – the super-achiever oldest sister, the passive middle brother and the infantilized youngest brother, a gaming slacker – meet at their parents’ home. The dad, whose harsh and never-bending expectations battered them as kids, has become paralyzed (and defanged) by severe depression.
Although Dealing with Dad is a comedy, its strengths are in addressing two serious subjects – depression and the issues that many second-generation Asian-Americans face because of their immigrant parents’ parenting styles.
The differences between the siblings spawn lots of laughs, but I found the banter a bit too sit-commy for my taste.
Bay Area audiences will appreciate that Dealing with Dad is set in MILPITAS.
I screened for the 2022 Cinequest. It started rolling out in theaters on May 19.
Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy ran through March 12. Here are the films that in the program that I hadn’t posted about yet:
Egghead & Twinkie: In this remarkably funny, sweet and genuine coming-of-age film, high school senior Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa – real talent) is trying to navigate her sexual awakening as a lesbian, and goes on a roadtrip with her lifelong bestie, the neighbor boy who is now sweet on her. Perfectly paced, with just the right amount of whimsical animation sprinkled in, Egghead & Twinkie is an impressive debut feature for writer-director Sarah Kambe Holland. IMO this is one of the best coming-of-age films of the decade.
Catching the Pirate King: The enthralling Belgian documentary is two movies in one. The first is a play by play of the hijacking of a Belgian ship by Somali pirates and the negotiating of their ransom. The second is about the Belgian law enforcement’s dogged campaign to bring the pirates to justice – in Belgium. We meet the ship’s captain and crew, the shipping company’s negotiator, the cops and prosecutors and even some pirates. Absorbing, exceptionally well-sourced and very well-crafted.
Under Water: This dark Dutch dramedy (or extremely dark Dutch comedy) starts out as the insistent effort of a pushy woman and her estranged husband to get her aged mother into residential care. The mother, a paranoid survivalist, resists every entreaty by the woman and her estranged husband to leave her isolated, condemned house – and even imprisons them in her basement. The husband’s role evolves, and we eventually see that this is a portrait of generational mental illness.
Sweet Disaster: This zany German comedy is driven by the protagonist’s ever-unleashed impulsiveness and utter lack of boundaries. Frida (Friederike Kempter) encounters and falls for an airline pilot and audaciously charms him into a relationship; their affair lasts just long enough for her to become impregnated and for him to abandon her for his ex. Consumed by the urge to win him back, Frida throws propriety to the winds. Frida’s zany roller coaster is tempered by sweet relationships with her apartment neighbors, a precocious teenage neighbor and a Greek Chorus of card-playing older women.
Sloane: A Jazz Singer: This is another laudatory doc on an overlooked musical artist. Now 82, she’s a lot of fun. I wasn’t wowed by an advance version that I screened, but I understand that revisions have since made this film very strong.
The Secret Song: This doc is an uncomplicated movie about a visionary and saintly public school music teacher. He has touched hundreds of lives; this movie won’t.
