Maybe you were underwhelmed by the summer blockbuster season. A lot of them did feel somewhat unfinished and underdeveloped, didn’t they? Perhaps you felt the spring release slate was a little light, and the winter award season was a tad anticlimactic.
Reader, you’re not wrong. The lingering effects of the pandemic are still present, the shift from theatrical to streaming continues to confound studios and distributors, and last year’s dual strike brought the domestic industry to a standstill.
Here’s the good news: All of that might finally be behind us.
Last week, the 51st Telluride Film Festival ushered in the festival season, and, for the first time since 2019, the whole town was abuzz with moviegoers and filmmakers, all of them high on this movie and that. And if their energy was an indication of what’s to come, then the back half of 2024 is gonna be great.
Festivals
Crested Butte Film Festival
Sept. 18-22, The Majestic Theatre and The Center for the Arts
507 Red Lady Ave., and 606 6th St., Crested Butte, Tickets: $15 Passes: $275
Founded in 2011 and presented at 9,000 feet above sea level, the Crested Butte Film Festival is where mountain folk and film lovers go when they’re not watching the aspens turn. Seriously, there is something bizarre about people who trek hours to such a picturesque location to hide inside a dark theater — so bizarre it might make you wonder what magic is hiding in those theaters.
This year’s CBFF features several standouts from the festival circuit (The New Boy, A New Kind of Wilderness and Kneecap, to name three) and a proposition too good to turn down: Grand Theft Hamlet. Two unemployed actors try to stage Hamlet inside the open-world video game known for its anarchic violence, populated by Grand Theft Auto players who have no interest in their thespian goals.
Denver Silent Film Festival
Sept. 27-29, Denver Film Center
2510 E. Colfax Ave. Tickets: $15 Passes: $75
The lights dim, the live music begins and the black and white images of yesteryear shimmer once again. It’s the Denver Silent Film Festival, and every cinema lover owes it to themself to attend at least once.
Presented by founding programmer Howie Movshovitz, DSFF’s lineup includes Oscar Micheaux’s Symbol of the Unconquered, D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance and four from Buster Keaton, including one of the funniest short films of all time, One Week.
And for all you silent diehards, the recipient of DSFF’s David Shepard Career Achievement Award is none other than Anita Monga, the artistic director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival — another bucket list fest for any cinephile.
Boulder Jewish Film Festival
Nov. 10-17, Dairy Arts Center
2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets on sale Oct. 22.
Festival founder Katherine Bernheimer always strives for diversity in programming, and this year’s Boulder Jewish Film Festival is no different. Of the 10 features, three focus on Sephardic life (The Blond Boy from the Casbah, Running on Sand, Seven Blessings), one documentary about Borscht Belt comedy (The Catskills), and one of the best movies you’ll see all year, A Real Pain.
Written, directed and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg — alongside Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain follows two cousins who used to be as close as brothers on a guided tour through Poland to see where their grandmother lived before surviving a concentration camp and coming to America. It’s equal parts somber, hilarious, moving and memorable.
47th Denver Film Festival
Nov. 1-10. Ticket packages: $60+ Passes: $450+
While the lineup won’t be released until Oct. 1, mark your calendars now, as the Denver Film Festival is always the place to see hits of the festival circuit and award darlings of the year. Over 200 features and shorts will screen in venues all over the Mile High City, many with talent in attendance for Q&As. It’s a must for Front Range moviegoers.
Films
My Old Ass
Opens Sept. 13 in limited release;
everywhere Sept. 27
On her 18th birthday, Eliot (Maisy Stella) ingests a mushroom tea and hallucinates herself (Aubrey Plaza), aged 39. Neither woman understands the particulars of the time travel, and writer-director Megan Park doesn’t dwell on the specifics, just the messiness that comes with trying to discover who you are, where you’re meant to be and how to avoid the unavoidable pain of existence. It’s a delightful coming-of-age story featuring a stellar performance from Stella and the disarming Percy Hynes White. Don’t miss this one.
The Outrun
Opens Oct. 4
Rona (Saoirse Ronan) is out of control. Her drinking has crossed over from a good time to endangerment, and if she doesn’t get out of London soon, she might never. So she goes to a remote Scottish island where she is tasked with tracking an elusive and endangered bird.
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir, The Outrun manages to evade some of the more routine pitfalls of the recovery-relapse narrative while staying true to the claws of addiction. Ronan is magnificent, and the movie’s ending is one of the best you’ll likely see this year.
The Apprentice
Opens Oct. 11
The genius of The Apprentice lies in its neutrality. This is neither a pro-Trump nor an anti-Trump movie, but the story of an unremarkable man who found the one little niche where he could build a mountain out of a molehill.
Sebastian Stan plays the New York real estate mogul, Jeremy Strong plays lawyer Roy Cohn with all the deliciousness of Mephistopheles and director Ali Abbasi manages to create a story where the hero rises and falls simultaneously and obliviously. It would make for an excellent double feature with Citizen Kane.
Conclave
Opens Nov. 1 in limited release; everywhere Nov. 8
The Holy Father has died, and the Catholic cardinals of the world congregate in Vatican City to elect the next pope. Will it be the conservative cardinal from Rome who is ready to wage a spiritual war? The African cardinal with an unpopular view of homosexuality? Or a progressive who wants to bring the church into the 21st century? Ralph Fiennes leads a spectacular cast that includes Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini through a labyrinthine plot of secrets, rivetingly staged by director Edward Berger.
Emilia Pérez
Opens Nov. 1 in limited release; on Netflix Nov. 11
Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña) is a disenchanted lawyer trying to do something good when a ruthless drug lord makes her an offer she literally can’t refuse. So she sings. And dances. Big, choreographed musical numbers featuring dozens of dancers. It’s wild, and that’s not even the half of it.
There aren’t a lot of movies that take swings as big as Emilia Pérez, and even less that land them, but director Jacques Audiard knows how to get the job done. It doesn’t hurt that he has Saldaña, Adriana Paz, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez in his corner. Collectively, they won the Best Actress prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — richly deserved at that.