This Year, I Took My Favorite Movie-Lover to the Virginia Film Festival: My Mother!
Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival.
One of the most rewarding aspects of attending a public film festival is the opportunity to feel how a movie plays to a real audience. While Cannes boasts dazzling red carpets and Telluride flaunts a boutique atmosphere, such festivals can feel so far removed from reality, like glamourous fantasies of cinephilia. Smaller in scale, regional film festivals are typically much more relaxed, and their patrons feel like movie lovers seeking out accessible opportunities to have once-in-a-lifetime theatrical experiences. This year, from October 26-29, I attended my favorite regional film festival, the Virginia Film Festival, with my favorite movie-lover: my mother!
My earliest movie memories were made with my mom. With the closest movie theater at least a thirty-minute drive from where I was raised, going to a Sunday matinee movie with my mother always felt like a special event, something to look forward to. Growing up to study cinema in college and pursue a career in film journalism, watching movies evolved into a much more critical part of my life than I could have ever imagined, and I'm so grateful to be able to share my passion for cinema with my mom, especially as we both grow older. A movie fan with her own discernable tastes, Mom hated Barbie, loved Killers of the Flower Moon, and is always game for me to drag her to a subtitled movie (yes, I did make her sit through EO last year). This year's Virginia Film Festival marked the fourth consecutive year that my mom and I have attended together, an event we always value not just for the great movies programmed but also for the time that it affords us to spend together. This year at VAFF, I decided to delve into my mom's perspectives on the films we caught and to contemplate a point of view outside of my own. Check out Mom's first impressions of the films she screened at VAFF, how she rated them, and if she would recommend them to friends:
‘Eileen’ directed by William Oldroyd
Based on a 2015 novel of the same name, Eileen revolves around a young woman with the same name (Thomasin McKenzie) and her repression in a small New England town during the 1960s. A new face turns up in the form of Anne Hathaway as the new psychologist at the town's juvenile prison where Eileen works, shaking up her world forever. Eileen will begin its theatrical premiere on December 1.
Mom's Thoughts:
"It's dark, a very dark movie. I didn't know what direction it would take me from the very beginning. I couldn't expect what was to come from this troubling relationship between a young woman and her alcoholic father and was very affected by the broken family dynamic. I like the performances of both Hathaway and McKenzie; they embody those women so well, especially with the twist of how Rebecca takes advantage of Eileen's kindness and naivety. The movie is put together very well, especially how it was styled to fit its 1960s setting. I loved the clothes. I could watch it again and recommend it to friends.”
8/10
‘Fallen Leaves’ directed by Aki Kaurismäki
*2023 Finnish Oscar Submission for Best International Feature*
An anti-Capitalist portrait of the working class toiling away just to scrape by, the film centers around two lonely souls, Ansa and Holappa, who come together after a chance encounter in a Helskini karaoke bar. Funny, unexpectedly romantic, and clocking in at a brisk 81 minutes, Fallen Leaves is one of the standout films of 2023 and will make its way to movie theaters on November 17.
Mom's Thoughts:
"There wasn't anything that I didn't like about this movie. I love how the movie's love story gradually unfolded, how the central characters lose touch and reconnect again, and how Holappa waits outside of the theater for the chance to run into Ansa. The movie has a very heartwarming story and was also very, very funny: it kept me laughing from start to finish and left me with a good feeling. I would watch it again and tell my friends to check it out."
10/10
‘May December’ directed by Todd Haynes
May December boasts a deliciously engaging story that revolves around the scandalous beginnings of Gracie and Joe, a longtime married couple with a shockingly significant age gap (frequent Haynes collaborator Julianne Moore and Charles Melton of Riverdale fame), along with Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, a television actress set to portray Gracie in an upcoming independent film. May December will hit select theaters on November 17 before premiering on Netflix on December 1.
Mom's Thoughts:
"Great acting; the lead actresses are AMAZING. I think the movie takes inspiration from similar source material [Mary Kay Letourneau] in fascinating ways. I feel so sorry for Joe's character since he misses out on practically his entire childhood because of his experience. I would watch it again when it is available on Netflix, and I would totally recommend it to friends."
8/10
‘Origin’ directed by Ava DuVernay
*VAFF Audience Winner*
Ava DuVernay writes and directs Origin, adapted from the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and starring Aunjanue Ellis as the author, Isabel Wilkerson. Interweaving Wilkerson's personal history with that of her research, Origin travels through time to India, Germany, and the America of yesteryear to find a connection between the stratification of peoples and communities through caste systems, which Wilkerson believed was the root of many systemic forms of discrimination and oppression across the globe. Neon will do an Oscar-qualifying release for Origin in December before it opens nationwide in January 2024.
Mom's thoughts:
"Origin tells such a powerful story about the ways that people can face inequity and how humans put one another in containers that limit how we understand and treat one another. I think the movie gets off to a slow start and feels very long when watching. I suggest for my friends to see it, but I'm not sure if I will watch it again."
7/10
‘The Taste of Things’ directed by Trần Anh Hùng
*2023 French Oscar Submission for Best International Feature*
Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes earlier this year, The Taste of Things is a mesmerizing and meticulous 19th-century French romance between a gastronomist and his closest cook, played by the ever-talented Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. The movie will be coming to US theaters for a limited theatrical release in December before a wide release on Valentine's Day 2024.
Mom's Thoughts:
"I really enjoy the portrayal of the pride they [ Binoche and Magimel] take in preparing their food and the emphasis on the joys of creativity that they put into their cuisine. I love the romance created between the central characters and the care they take for one another throughout the movie. At times, the pacing was a little slow for my tastes. I don't want to watch it again, but I recommend it to anyone who loves to cook or has a passion for French food."
7/10
‘War Pony’ directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough
A longtime passion project for its directors, War Pony is filmed on location at the Pine Ridge Reservation and presents an intricate illustration of its day-to-day realities. Non-actors portray the parallel stories of two Lakota boys who must navigate the difficult obstacles life puts in their way.
Mom's Thoughts:
I appreciated how War Pony intertwines the two characters [Bill and Matho] and how their stories connect in the end. The movie shows the disparity between life inside and outside of the reservation in impacting ways, and the exploitation the community still faces. The film feels hard to follow at times, and it's a stretch to watch since it is very far from the kind of movies I typically enjoy. I recommend that others see it based solely on authentic depictions of what life and culture are like on the reservation in modern times."
7/10