2013 TELLURIDE FILM FEST REVIEW

 

Driving along highway 145, hugging the eastern slope of the Colorado Rockies, one can expect to witness many natural marvels. Whether it be the plethora of 14ers (summits of over 14,000 feet for all non-Colorado folk), countless vistas offering awe inspiring views, or the wildlife that frequent the area, you’re bound to see something that will excite your visual taste buds. However one such image stands out amongst the rest: the descent into the town of Telluride. Nestled tightly between three mountain slopes on the north, east, and south sides, Telluride looks as though its space was purposefully carved out by some divine being. The amazing symmetry of the slopes, the way the rising sun plays against the tree lines, nothing out of place. No wonder when the Telluride Film Festival, or TFF, was established in 1974 it was decidedly the perfect venue.

 

Every Labor Day weekend the town, which for most of the year is recognized as a prestigious ski resort, transforms into one of the most renowned film festivals and film experiences in world. The experience is visceral, something the late Roger Ebert described as “(it’s) like Cannes died and went to heaven…”. 2013 marked the 40^th anniversary of TFF and made this year particularly special. The festival, which usually starts on Friday and ends on Monday, added an extra day on the front end; by starting Thursday the four day festival stretched to five. Telluride also introduced a new theatre, the Werner Herzog Theatre, a tribute to the German filmmaker, which added a top notch sound system and a much needed extra 650 seats to audiences. What’s more: the likes of Brad Pitt, The Cohen Brothers, Steve McQueen, Michael Fassbender, and Jason Reitman were all in attendance. And the best part is yours truly got to attend!

This was my second year attending TFF. I had the good fortune of going to the festival last year as well, but the 39^th annual TFF was merely a warm up to what’s being lauded as one of the most successful festivals in recent history. Sure last year provided the sneak peek to Argo, the eventual Academy Best Picture winner, but aside from that the lineup, albeit impressive (Rust and Bone with Marion Cotillard and The Hunt, one of last year’s best films in my opinion, with Mads Mikkelsen), paled in comparison to 2013. When I went to the TFF website on Wednesday (8/28) afternoon and saw the lineup I was floored. Alexander Payne’s (Sideways, The Descendants) Nebraska, Jason Reitman’s (Juno, Up in the Air) Labor Day…aptly named for the festival, Joel and Ethan Cohen’s (Fargo, No Country for Old Men) Inside Llewyn Davis, Alfonso Cuaron’s (Children of Men) Gravity, The Past and Blue is the Warmest Color, both met with huge praise in Cannes, J.C. Chandor’s (Margin Call) sophomore effort All Is Lost with Robert Redford, the list goes on.

 

The aforementioned lineup alone would be cause for celebration however TFF is notorious for having big sneak peek previews that aren’t unveiled until the festival actually begins (Argo was one last year). This year’s sneak peeks included: Steve McQueen’s third feature and collaboration with Michael Fassbender 12 Years A Slave, Prisoners with Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, and Jake Gyllenhaal, and two special preview screenings of Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises and Salinger, the anticipated documentary on the life of the Catcher in the Rye author. Having seen the past 5-6 years worth of programs, and taking sneak peeks into account, I can honestly say this is the best TFF program I have witnessed. After mulling over the films that were on my short list to see, I was poised to get into 6-8 films this year.

 

Unfortunately I feel short of my goal, but I still made it to 5 films: 12 Years A Slave, Nebraska, Labor Day, The Wind Rises, and Inside Llewyn Davis. Considering I didn’t arrive in Telluride until Saturday afternoon and had to depart Monday afternoon it was still a successful weekend. I could quickly review each film but I don’t think that would do any of them justice. I would have to dedicate a full article to each to shine light on their accomplishments and shortcomings. All of the films I saw warranted high regard in many aspects however 12 Years A Slave and Nebraska sat above the others. Aside from the screenings which, at its base, is what the goal is when attending any film festival, there were a myriad of other highlights.

 

I attended a discussion with McQueen and the cast of 12 Years A Slave. “Why wouldn’t there be a movie about Bobby Sands?...Why wouldn’t there be a movie about sex addiction?...Why wouldn’t there be a movie about Solomon Northup?” McQueen responded when asked why he chose to adapt a film based on Northup, a free-born African-American sold into slavery as an adult, sounding puzzled as to why films hadn’t explored these topics before (Bobby Sands and sex addiction referring to his previous works Hunger and Shame). He went on to say “It seemed obvious”. The cast shared how they explored their character(s) for the film, “I didn’t want to play Epps as the evil plantation owner…I wanted him to be like the boil on the skin of the society of the times,” explained Fassbender. When discussing the sets and locations of film Fassbender added, “You can get too wrapped up in playing the era,” referring to period pieces being “too decorous” at times. McQueen also expressed his appreciation for Fox Searchlight and Regency for “…giv(ing) me the freedom to do what I wanted to do,” which isn’t always the case when studios put up big money for a film.

When screening Labor Day, director Jason Reitman introduced the movie saying, “If you’re expecting a comedy you may be surprised.” I later saw Reitman casually dining by himself at location on the “main street” in Telluride; I think I was the only one who recognized him.

 

The incomparable film critic and historian Leonard Maltin moderated an animation discussion with animators Bill Plympton and Lauren MacMullan (Simpsons, Avatar: The Last Airbender) in an intimate venue of maybe 20 attendees. I was able to ask a question about the marketability of adult animation (ie Simpsons, South Park) as a full length feature to which Plympton replied, “…no studios want to take a chance at this time.” After the discussion it was straight to The Wind Rises and just before show time it was announced Hayao Miyazaki was retiring and this would be his last film. We were the first audience in all of North America to screen it. I am so thankful I attended in 2012 because without prior knowledge of how the festival works, the free discussions, and which theatres are the easiest to get into, I would’ve missed a lot of this year’s special moments.

 

A few things of consequence for potential attendees: the festival schedule is released the day before the festival! This typically means if you’re planning on going, you won’t know what’s available to screen until the day you travel or the day you arrive. If you don’t have a pass, which I did not both years, you have to wait in the “non-pass holder” line, usually for around one hour before show time and you’re not guaranteed a seat. Individual tickets are $25 a piece so if you end up seeing 6-8 films you’re still coming out way ahead of the cheapest pass that runs $390. Also, if you want to keep low stress on the wallet there are nearby campsites for roughly $20 a night. My whole TFF experience less travel expenses cost around $200, extremely reasonable. Both years I made it into 5 films while trying to get into 8, so still a better than 50% chance of getting in. The key is sticking to the theatres with the largest capacities (the new Werner Herzog, The Palm, and Chuck Jones Cinema). An added bonus of the non-pass holder’s line is all the relationships you make with fellow film enthusiasts.

 

I recognized a few people from the non-pass holder lines of last year and even checked in with a couple, asking what they’d seen, what films or other festivals they’ve attended since last year, and so on. One of the most intriguing environments to chat about the weekend’s happenings is on the free gondola ride from Telluride to Mountain Village (at the top of the ski slopes where there is one additional theatre). You’re sequestered, for around 15 minutes, in a tiny box of 4-6 people all of whom share a love for the cinema, simply talking about the joy of film, a very cool experience. But the real fun is always the one to two hour wait in the non-pass holder lines. This year my cohort Jack and I met a group of UC Santa Barbara film students (#snakestyle #TFF2014) that were at TFF on a “school field trip” (my best school field trip was to the museum of natural history, lame), big shout out to Professor B who, I’m assuming, put the trip together. You tend to see the same people in the non-pass holder lines throughout the weekend so being able to get continuous updates on what to see, what celebrities are in town, where to eat, planning which showing will be the best bet to get into, all in a big united team…it’s half the fun at TFF if you don’t have a pass. Unless I make the big time I plan on being a non-pass holding attendee for life.

 

Telluride has historically marked the beginning to “Oscar Season”. The big international festivals of the summer, Cannes in May and Venice in late August, give us a preview but it’s not until Labor Day weekend with Telluride and then the following week and weekend in Toronto (TIFF) that really kicks things off. By mid-September most of the big players have at least screened somewhere and the Oscar pundits start their predictions. Based solely on what happened in Telluride I can tell you 12 Years A Slave will garner serious consideration in many categories, Alexander Payne’s screenplay for Nebraska will be noticed, and Cuaron’s Gravity (which I didn’t see) and the Cohen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis will seek multiple nominations. Awards season is now upon us! And with a lot of the heavy hitters scheduled to be released in November and early December we are a mere month or two away until frontrunners start rearing their heads. The excitement is palpable!

I will be attending Sundance this upcoming January in Park City, Utah, where indie darlings get bought up by monster studios, and the Oscar cycle begins again. Look for a feature report sometime in February. Until then, happy screenings everybody and hope to see you Labor Day 2014 in the mountains!

NETFLIX ARTICLE IN REVERE MAGAZINE

Unfortunately Revere Magazine has been having trouble with their website so the only way to view my "official" articles is to download the Revere Magazine app through the iTunes store, Google Play for Android, or the Kindle store. Please download the app! It looks so much better! But for those of you who don't I've simply copied and pasted the text for your enjoyment.

 

Remember growing up when your parent’s would say “back in my day…(fill in the blank with the luxuries we have today that make our lives so much easier)”. For the majority of people that endured these never ending taunts from their elders one of subjects that came up often was technology. “Just be happy you have color TV”, “When I wanted to make plans I had to do it over the phone, none of this texting nonsense”, “Google?! Have you ever had to use an encyclopedia?” the list goes on. As the tech boom, yes it’s still a boom, rages on there are still a litany of advances making our lives “easier”. A prime example: Netflix.

The American on-demand internet streaming and disc digital media provider started not long after Al Gore invented the internet. The company was established way back in 1997 in Los Gatos, California. A couple years later Netflix began its subscription based distribution to a modest market, most of us were too busy chatting on AOL to catch on early. Fortunately with the increasing affordability of DVD players and discs, the distributor that spawned the likes of Game Fly and Redbox began to gain traction. By 2007 Netflix had announced its billionith DVD delivery; the company had strong earnings and a stranglehold on the market. But not unlike Compaq and Netscape the competition caught up. The aforementioned Game Fly and Redbox, coupled with the emergence of Amazon Video and Hulu, cut into Netflix’s customer base. So what kept Netflix in the game? Diversification and adaptation.

Netflix expanded its business model to account for the growing demand of internet or streaming based media. Over the past half dozen years or so Netflix has fought numerous distributors to gain exclusive rights on certain content, specifically countless TV series that can’t be seen anywhere else unless you buy the DVDs or wait for syndicated re-runs on cable. Although these changes helped Netflix stay competitive, it wasn’t near the powerhouse it was in 2007. Earlier this year, in an effort to return to dominance, Netflix became a “streaming TV network service” with direct plans to compete with cable and satellite television providers.

If you really want you can still order DVDs and Blu Rays for home delivery, you know, those things you’ve been using as coasters the last couple of years, but why bother when you can have everything delivered at the touch of a button. Netflix’s primary focus now rests in two markets, the already saturated streaming media market of released movies and syndicated television and now the “streaming TV network service”, a totally original business model with the capability to change how we watch television entirely.

Netflix knew to be successful with this new idea, for people to buy in, they would need to produce television series that could compete, both from a commercial and critical standpoint, with not only the mega-network shows but also with other individual paid service channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, ect). If you had to compare the new Netflix model with anything else it would most closely mirror these premium channels, the only difference, although an extremely important one, is fact you don’t need a cable or satellite subscription.

First up, House of Cards. The political drama series was driven by Academy Award winning director David Fincher and anchored by Kevin Spacey as the acting lead. Netflix did something else unorthodox when releasing the series; all 13 episodes of the first season were release simultaneously, allowing viewers to plow through the season in marathon fashion. The move proved successful and House of Cards was a certified hit. On the tails of the release of Cards Netflix released the fourth season of Arrested Development, after securing the rights to produce the defunct Fox comedy in 2011, in May 2013. Met with some ire from fans of the original three seasons the release was still considered successful with multiple critics praising it for its “each character gets an episode, with everyone’s parallel stories eventually intersecting” framework. In a matter of months, after the release of both series, subscriptions were up nearly 4 million and near 37 million total by June 2013.

In addition to the highly popular Cards and Development series, Netflix has also released Hemlock Grove, a horror series from director Eli Roth, and Orange is the New Black, a comedy series of a woman’s experience in prison. Although the new Netflix model is still in its early phases there are already plans and contracts in place to produce animated series based on the full length animated features Turbo, Shrek, and The Croods, in a deal signed with DreamWorks. There is also a highly anticipated Pablo Escobar drama series called Narcos slated for next year.

Netflix’s original series’ success was validated with much deserved Emmy nominations for House of Cards and Arrested Development, and some minor nominations for Hemlock Grove. Cards received 9 nominations including Best Drama and Best Actor for Spacey while Development scored a Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nom for Jason Bateman. 2014 will see the second seasons for some of these Netflix originals as well as expand the field into animation and throw Pablo Escobar on the screen to boot. The future looks promising for Netflix and judging on the success of their “streaming TV network service” model they could be changing the way we watch television in the future, especially if their customer-cost structure remains low and they can provide competitive shows for a fraction of the price of cable and satellite subscriptions. I’m talking to you DirecTV, Dish, and Comcast…watch your back!

ETHAN HAWKE ARTICLE IN REVERE MAGAZINE

Unfortunately Revere Magazine has been having trouble with their website so the only way to view my "official" articles is to download the Revere Magazine app through the iTunes store, Google Play for Android, or the Kindle store. Please download the app! It looks so much better! But for those of you who don't I've simply copied and pasted the text for your enjoyment.

 

It has already been a busy summer so far for Ethan Hawke. The guy the everyday movie-goer may simply know as Officer Hoyt, that dude who played opposite of Denzel in 2001’s Training Day, has put out two films: Before Midnight, Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy capping entry, and The Purge, a look into what a government sanctioned annual 12 hour no laws/anything-goes period would entail, in May and June respectively. Although Hawke consistently puts out a couple films a year on average the box office may tell the tale why Hawke isn’t a bigger name in Hollywood.

The usually vulnerable but strong playing Hawke has been in the biz going on 25 years now and currently has never had a film gross $100 million domestically and has only had two films hit that mark worldwide, the aforementioned Training Day and Dead Poets Society, considered Hawke’s breakout performance, with Robin Williams in 1989. Other than sitting shotgun with Alonzo, Hawke’s career has spanned a large spectrum of roles and different hats, including; directing, screenwriting, stage acting, and being a published novelist.

Raised solely by his mother after his parents were separated four years following his birth, Hawke grew up primarily in New York. He attended the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, where he grew an affinity for the arts and had hopes of becoming a writer. During this time Hawke also developed an interest for acting and made his stage debut in a school production of Saint Joan at the age of 13. It was in 1985, at 14 years old, Hawke scored his first major film role in Explorers with River Phoenix. Although the film was successful critically it flopped at the box office and the disappointment was enough to cause Hawke to take a break from acting.

Hawke transferred another prep school, the Hun School of Princeton, to finish his pre-college education. While at Hun Hawke took acting classes on the Princeton campus before ultimately studying acting at Carnegie Mellon University. Only a year into college Hawke was cast in Dead Poets Society. Due to the film’s success and the acting opportunities he was presented with afterwards, Hawke decided to drop out of school to pursue acting full time.

Over the next half dozen years or so Hawke was given the opportunity to display his talents in an array of pictures. There was 1991’s White Fang, 1992’s Midnight Clear, Alive in 1993, and ultimately 1994’s Reality Bites opposite Winona Ryder, which gave Hawke widespread critical acclaim from the likes of Roger Ebert. The acting prowess Hawke displayed in his earlier pictures caught the eye of director Richard Linklater who decided to cast him in the 1995 drama Before Sunrise (the first of Linklater’s “Before” trilogy). Hawke again received critical acclaim for his portrayal of a young American’s chance meeting with a French woman on a train, and a night getting to know each other in Vienna.

Although the praise continued to pour in for his many touted roles in the first half of the 90s, Hawke decided to take a short hiatus from acting to publish his first novel The Hottest State in 1996. The story was that of a love affair between a young actor and a singer, and saw Hawke draw from his personal experiences to pen the effort. The novel received mixed reviews and shortly after its release Hawke returned to acting.

1997 brought Hawke back to the big screen with Andrew Niccol’s (Lord of War, In Time) Gattaca. Another film considered a box office failure, making less in sales than its budget, the sci-fi thriller received favorable reviews and has since garnered somewhat of a cult following and high levels of syndication viewing on cable television. The film also introduced Hawke to his onetime wife Uma Thurman (1998-2004) with whom he has two children. Snow Falling on Cedars was released in 1999 and provided Hawke with one of his few less than stellar acting reviews in his career.

In 2001 Hawke reunited with Before Sunrise director Linklater to release Waking Life and Tape, both huge critical successes that again brought in small box offices. Later that year came Training Day, the role that, for most critics and fans alike, is the career defining role for Hawke. Hawke used the vehicle to show more tenacity and proved he could stand with the likes of a Denzel, turning in a brutally honest and believable performance. One that even Hawke has said is his most rewarding of his time in Hollywood.

After the success of Training Day, Hawke again took a “mini-break” from screen acting to make his directorial debut with Chelsea Walls in 2002 and also published his second novel Ash Wednesday that same year. Much like his first novel Hawke’s first directing effort was a mixed bag critically and financially unsuccessful. Ash Wednesday however was met with better reviews and even landed on the New York Times’ best seller list for hardcover fiction.

Hawke has since been cast in a multitude of fairly critically successful films albeit ones that haven’t fared well at the box office; Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Lord of War (2005), Fast Food Nation (2006), Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), What Doesn’t Kill You (2008), Daybreakers (2010), The Woman in the Fifth (2012), and Sinister (2012). Hawke has stated on multiple occasions he prefers to do smaller films with more creative integrity if possible. Giving him the freedom to play characters the way the he and the creative teams see best fit.

Throughout his career Hawke hasn’t forgotten what originally got him into acting, the stage. Paralleling his film career Hawke has made time to appear in plenty of theatre plays; The Seagull (1992, his Broadway debut), Buried Child (1995), Camino Real (1999), Hurlyburly (2005), Coast of Utopia (2006, earned him a Tony Award nomination), The Cherry Orchard (2009), Winter’s Tale (2009), Ivanov (2012) are just a handful of productions Hawke has been a part of.

Next on the docket for Hawke is The Getaway with Selena Gomez slated to be released late summer or early fall of this year. Although there’s no telling if or when Hawke will have another Training Day in his career we can count on seeing solid performances from him in an array of films for years to come.