Quentacinema's 62nd Chicago International Film Festival Short List Recommendations
10 films I will tell you to see but you cannot hold me liable if they suck and are bad because I have not seen them. These aren't quite plot summaries as I know people like to go in fully blind but mostly comments of interest.
10) Behemoth! (Dir. Tony Gilroy)
Andor showrunner, Tony Gilroy's new film stars Pedro Pascal, an actor I honestly do not care for. But he is kinda just in a lot of bad movies so maybe Gilroy, who I think is a good writer at least, can draw a decent performance out of him. I'm also quite interested in the musical aspect as well.
9) The Man I Love (Dir. Ira Sachs)
A good old gays-in-New-York film set during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, about a man who wants to put on a theater performance of Once Upon a Time in the East. A sorta ensemble cast but mainly focusing on Rami Malek's Jimmy George, a fictional man not to be confused with Indian volleyball player, Jimmy George. I do not know too much about this as to preserve my enjoyment of "going in blind" so bear with this, the rest are gonna be similar.
8) The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Dir. Noah Segan)
I've been hearing about this one for quite some time! Looks fun in a Marty Supreme way if that catches. The director is a Rian Johnson collaborator so that will lead to something interesting I'd hope, though it's only his second outing as a director.
7) Look Back (Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Look Back is complicated for me because there was already the delightful animated film no more than 3 years ago. But I understand the want to do a Fujimoto project in live action, but Goodbye, Eri is right there. I've heard great things about the director though so I'm gonna believe this too will be decent. I may tune in just because I'm a sucker for Fujimoto.
6) Elephants in the Fog (Dir. Abinash Bikram Shah)
A Nepali thriller that caught my eye about a transgender woman in a Kinnar community investigating her missing daughter while hiding a secret lover. Not to talk festival but it had a good run at Cannes, and I think it's generally interesting in terms of premise.
7) Eight Bridges (Dir. James Benning)
This is my little out-there pick, a more museum piece film about a bunch of bridges worldwide. Yeah and no dialogue. Unsure how it pans out in reality which is why I'm calling it museum piece but hey there are many great filmmakers without dialogue, Brakhage for one. So, we shall see about this.
4) Tender Loving Care (Dir. Mike Leigh)
Where to start with this, Mike Leigh's probably last film, which is truly unfortunate. As he is known for his intense attention to characters and having his actors really feel what they are playing, I don't have too much to say about this one because I'm interested in it due to the pure auteurist power of the name.
3) Rose (Dir. Markus Schleinzer)
This is one I had not heard of previously, the story of a soldier (Sandra Hüller) who is living as a man in a small 17th century protestant town. From my understanding this is a Mulan sort of situation but for lesbians, so if that's interesting to you check this one out. I'm a little in the dark about this one on purpose but I do know it's in German so if the subtitles are a turn off for you then don't go see it.
2) Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii: Junior Ghosts-Premorphic Drift; a Fragmentary Passage (Dir. Louise Weard)
Introduced to me by a dear friend who knows who she is, shout out. Louise Weard's Castration series is a portrait of trans women, from Vancouver to New York, their lives, their loves, their struggles. Junior Ghosts is a fragment continuing off Castration Movie Anthology i, and follows Izzy, who descends down a TERF pipeline as her partner transitions. I've seen maybe 30 minutes of the first Castration film and all I have to say is, that is some of the coolest transgender cinema currently being made, thus I highly recommend.
1) Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors (Dir. Lav Diaz)
If you were here last year, you know I spoke highly of Lav Diaz's Magellan, which I will speak about highly for the rest of time and encourage everyone to watch it, one of the best films of the decade. Well, Lav Diaz is back with a new film, the 1617 set 'Makikiraan Po' or 'Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors' just premiered at Venice this past month with good reviews, a portrait of Spanish colonial effects in the Philippines. A return to black and white for Diaz, as Magellan was an outlier in his filmography, I'm very excited for this and will be seeing it.
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