Jesse Eisenberg in Richard Ayoade’s The Double. Image via Magnolia Pics.
The 28th annual Filmfest DC kicked off last night at the AMC Mazza Gallerie in Friendship Heights. Director Don McKellar was there to present his latest film, The Grand Seduction — a droll comedy about a village in Newfoundland trying to trick a swanky, big-city doctor to settle in their tiny coastal community. It’s the kind of predictably warm, light-hearted fare that Filmfest DC loves to program. It’s also the last opening night film Filmfest DC is likely to ever program.
In February, Festival Director Tony Gittens announced that this year’s iteration would be Filmfest DC’s last. The reason? Money. “It’s all about cash,” Gittens says. After losing several key arts grants, along with declining attendee numbers, the festival couldn’t keep up with the costs. Although this is being billed as Filmfest DC’s final year, it’s not out of the question that it will come back. Gittens says that they would need about $250,000 in order to continue the fest next year. That’s a lot of dough, and Gittens supposes that a white knight with cash to spend could come to the festival’s rescue, but so far, no one has.
And so, as this is (probably) the last Filmfest DC, here’s a brief look at this year’s highlights and what you should check out. Of course, with more than 80 titles playing this year, you should check out Filmfest DC’s website and peruse the full lineup to see if anything else piques your interest.
Bad Hair
Mariana Rondon’s sweet and affecting film follows nine-year-old Junior and his longing to straighten his head of curly hair in order to fulfill his fantasy image of looking like a long-haired pop star singer. Of course, this is just the beginning of his gay self-awareness, but he’s too young to realize it. His mother and grandmother do, however, and the two are at ends over the boy’s emerging sexuality: his mother, Marta, wants to “correct” it, while his grandmother feels she should just let him be him. It’s a pertinent, if not fluffy LGBT film that’s certainly worth checking out.
Screens Friday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 26 at 6 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema.
The Double
Richard Ayoade might be known for his wry British humor, both as an actor on shows like The IT Crowd, and his directorial work in Submarine. But his latest film, the Jesse Eisenberg-starring dark thriller The Double is something of a departure. The second film about doppelgängers to come out this year (the other one being Denis Villeneuve’s excellent Enemy, based on the novel The Double by José Saramago, which is completely different from this film, which is based on the novel The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It’s confusing, I know), Ayoade’s film finds Eisenberg at his wits end when a man who looks identical to him is in his usual seat on the subway. What follows is a darkly comic, but viscerally paranoid thriller that evokes a kind of stark existentialism.
Screens Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema.
Everything We Loved
A magician tries to bring his wife back to life in this New Zealand tearjerker. At least that’s how the film’s relationships seem to play out in the beginning. Max Currie’s feature debut runs the risk of being a maudlin exercise in magical realism, but instead it is a harrowing study of grief.
— Pat Padua
Screens Friday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 20 at 7:15 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre.
Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia
There aren’t too many films playing Filmfest DC this year with local ties (although that’s usually the case), but this fascinating doc on the legendary writer is one of them. The film, which director Nicholas Wrathall worked on with Vidal’s nephew, Burr Steers, traces his early life, from being raised in D.C. to his rise in literary and political fame. Featuring interviews with notable faces like Christopher Hitchens, Tim Robbins, and, uh, Sting, it’s definitely worth checking out for anyone that’s a fan of Vidal’s work.
Screens Friday, April 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut and Monday, April 21 at 8:45 p.m. at Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema.
Ilo Ilo
From my Spectrum Culture review: “A struggling Singapore couple with a 10-year-old boy hire a Filipino maid in writer-director Anthony Chen’s assured feature debut. Viewers in the West may potentially miss a lot of cultural and historical subtleties in Ilo Ilo. Set during Singapore’s financial crisis of the ’90s, the film’s title for American distribution is taken from the Philippine province that Terry, the Filipino maid, calls home, but the province is barely mentioned in the film. Calling the film Ilo Ilo suggests a faraway home and an alienation that is not irrelevant to the plot. But the film’s Mandarin title is a far clearer summation: Father, Mother Not At Home. The set up in that Mandarin title explains why such a culturally specific film has appeal beyond its native audience. Chen and his cast develop human relationships that are universal, and sustain a domestic drama set amid a financial anxiety that is relevant to Anywhere, 2014.
— Pat Padua
Screens Saturday, April 19 at 4:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Landmark’s Bethesda Row.
Image via Filmfest DC.
Once Upon a Time in Shanghai
Filmfest DC’s only martial arts film is a doozy. Set in the 1930’s, against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War, this noirish action film follows the small-town Ma Yongzhen, who arrives to Shanghai in search of work, but gets tied up in the city’s seedy mafia underbelly. After pairing up with rising mobster Long Ki, the two uncover a conspiracy involving Japanese spies and fight to right the wrongs. It’s a visceral, fun, if not rudimentary martial arts film.
Screens Sunday, April 20 at 7:15 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Tuesday, April 22 at 8:45 p.m. at AMC Mazza Gallerie.
Wetlands
I haven’t seen Wetlands, but the buzz from its premiere at Sundance was large enough that I feel it’s worth mentioning. You can watch the first three minutes of the German film, which Indiewire calls “a gleefully gross romp, complete with an angst-y teen soundtrack,” at the link and judge for yourself if this is the kind of film that interests you. It, uh, looks interesting.
Screens Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 26 at 9:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema.
Image via Filmfest DC.
Moon Indigo
Another film I haven’t seen, but felt like it was worth mentioning because I’m (mostly) a fan of Michel Gondry’s work. The film’s description sounds especially Michel Gondry-ish, which is the “surreal and poetic tale of Colin, an idealistic and inventive young man, and Chloé, a young woman who seems like the physical embodiment of the eponymous Duke Ellington tune.” The reviews on it are mixed, but The Wrap says it “perfectly balances Gondry’s ornamental creativity and the verité storytelling of his more recent work, combining refined style and raw emotion into one devastating, beautiful package,” so maybe it’s worth your time.
Screens Saturday, April 19 at 9:15 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Saturday, April 26 at 5 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre.
