Here are my top picks from San Jose’s Cinequest Film Festival so far. I’ve updated my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which includes comments on all nineteen films that I’ve seen to date at the fest.
Topping my list so far is the inventively constructed French thriller Lead Us Into Temptation. A middle-aged married man does a good deed for a beautiful young woman and finds himself the pawn in a dangerous game. Lead Us Not Into Temptation plays again on March 1 and March 9.
The American thriller Dose of Reality packs wire-to-wire intensity and a surprise ending that no one will see coming. Dose of Reality is playing Cinequest again on March 5 and 9, and will release on DVD and VOD on March 26.
The deadpan American comedy Congratulations! sends up the police procedural and will screen at Cinequest again on March 5.
The very dark and suspenseful French Chaos is centered on a creepy character that you know is up to no good, but the audience has to wait to find out what he plans and why. You can see Chaos at Cinequest on March 7.
The compelling The Deep tells the fact-based survival story of a shipwrecked Icelandic fisherman’s ordeal in frigid waters.
In The Shadow is a Czech paranoid thriller that won Best Film at the Czech Film Critics’ Awards and was the Czech submission to the Academy Awards. It plays at Cinequest on February 28, March 6 and March 8.
In the Belgian drama Offline, we meet a character struggling to redeem himself. You can see Offline at Cinequest on March 5 and 7.
In the solid American drama Solace, three stories are interlinked. Solace plays Cinequest again on March 6.
In the documentary We Went to War, the filmmaker goes to small town Texas to revisit the Vietnam vets who were the subjects of his 1970 I Was a Soldier. It’s a poignant snapshot of a 40-year-old war that is still going on for the participants and their families. We Went to War is told successfully in a style that contrasts from other talking head docs. We Went to War will be screened again on March 5.
The documentary Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself shares the extraordinarily rich life of the Zelig-like George Plimpton. He was somehow able to marry the most highbrow literary world with cheesy TV celebrity. You can see Plimpton! at Cinequest on March 8.
I haven’t yet seen it, but the Danish drama The Hunt (plays on March 6) has been univerally acclaimed at other festivals. Mads Mikkelsen (After the Wedding, Casino Royale, A Royal Affair) stars as a teacher wrongly accused of child molestation, spurring hysteria in his town. Mikkelsen won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
I’ve also heard credible good buzz on two other films that I haven’t seen: the Turkish comedy One Day or Another and the American comedy The Playback Singer.
After seeing Lawrence of Arabia digitally restored in the very impressive Sony 4K, I wanted to point out that, also recently restored in Sony 4K, Taxi Driver plays on March 6 and Dr. Strangelove plays on March 9.
And again, you can always check my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which also includes comments on Aftermath, The Almost Man, I Am a Director, The Sapphires, Panahida, Pretty Time Bomb, Welcome Home and White Lie.