This week is all about TWO film festivals underway with new movies to watch at home. We have one more week to stream movies from Cinejoy, Cinequest’s October virtual fest. Here is my best of Cinejoy plus five more Cinejoy films.
The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. This year is the same – except we don’t even have to visit Marin County in person. Watch at home. Here is my MVFF preview.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Sibyl: trashy, but in that sly and expert French way.
- #Alive: A Korean Home Alone with zombies.
- Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story: badass female movie-making
- Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian.
- I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore: schlub goes postal.
- The August Virgin: searching for reinvention. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
- Apocalypse ’45: I never imagined hell being that bad
- Coup 53: uncovering what we suspected
- An Easy Girl: summer school in Cannes
- Moka: whodunit mixed with psychological thriller
- Lucky Grandma: tour de grouch
- She Dies Tomorrow: you have not seen this before
- Prime Suspect: binging one of TV’s greatest episodic characters.
- The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound
- Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind: no, I hadn’t thought of him for decades, either
- Yes, God, Yes: learning that hypocrisy is a choice.
- Dateline-Saigon: the truth will out
- The 11th Green: a thinking person’s conspiracy
- Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
- The Lovebirds: A rom com with a playful plot and a truthful relationship.
ON TV
On October 15, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today. Set your DVRs now; I’ll be publishing about this film next Wednesday.
