For those of us who live close enough to Mill Valley and San Rafael to regularly attend the annual Mill Valley Film Festival, September is a super exciting month.
“Why not October?” one might ask, when the annual festival, which is now in its 48th year, takes place for 10 weird and wonderful days? It’s because September is when programmers officially announce the films and special guests that will be the focus of our attention during the course of the increasingly well-attended festival.
Taking a look at the MVFF lineup for the first time every September is like tearing open one of those curated brown-paper-wrapped mystery packages from the local record shop, the kind with a surprise-packed stack of vinyl records hiding inside.
Or maybe September is like the famous box of chocolates that Forrest Gump’s mom was always yammering on about.
Just like that, we never know what we’re going to get … until we do.
In September. When we pick up the magazine-thick program guide for the first time and start thumbing through it. Which is what I’m doing right now as I write this. In real time.
Ready? Let’s go. The cover of the program guide for the film festival, which runs from Thursday, Oct. 2 to Sunday, Oct. 12, is very cool and mysterious—a single red movie theater seat perched all alone on an asphalt walkway under a canopy of towering trees. It’s very artsy. And it does make the point that compared to a lot of film festivals, this one happens in a beautiful part of the world where nature and creativity grow up together in twisty, knotty, branchy ways. Like I said: artsy.
Let’s turn the page and give it a quick flip to see what stands out.
True to form, this year’s festival appears to be jam-crammed and thrill-filled with great movies and cool people. I see the recognizable faces of Joel Edgerton (who will be honored at a spotlight event on Tuesday, Oct. 7, along with his movie, Train Dreams), and the impossible-to-miss Tonatiuh (from Netflix’s Carry-On), who’ll get the star treatment along with his new movie, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, the film adaptation of the musical, also starring Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna. Even shot from behind, I recognize the hard-rocking posteriors of Metallica, whose documentary, Metallica Saved My Life, will be screened at 6pm, Thursday, Oct. 9 and 3pm, Friday, Oct. 10.
And wait; is that Spike Lee?
Yes, the director responsible for Do the Right Thing, The 25th Hour, Malcom X and BlacKKKlansman is coming to the Mill Valley Film Festival. Looks like he’ll get a special tribute on Saturday, Oct. 11, with lots of clips from all of his films, including (I assume) his latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, currently in theaters. There’s no movie being screened with this tribute; but hey, it’s Spike Lee.
This is quite possibly going to be the hottest ticket of the event. And let’s face it; it’s probably already sold out, but one never knows. It’s the kind of event for which Rush Ticket Lines were invented.
OK, now let’s jump to opening night.
Hamnet, directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), is, as previously revealed, the big screen adaptation of O’Farrell’s bestselling historical romance about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (aka Anne Hathaway), played by the alarmingly exceptional Jessie Buckley (Women Talking), and how the children they share, specifically their son, Hamnet, go on to inspire one of the greatest pieces of theater of all time.
Buckley and Zhao will be there for the screening. And on Friday at 3pm, Buckley will be back for a special afternoon spotlight event looking at her short but stunning career, which includes the films, Wild Rose, I’m Thinking of Ending Things and The Lost Daughter.
The one that stands out for me on Friday, Oct. 3 is Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Fiho’s The Secret Agent. Wagner Moura (seen last year in Civil War) is a man attempting to escape with his son from the repressive Brazilian government in 1977, in a tense drama all taking place during Carnival.
Saturday, Oct. 4 brings a lot of cool things, including a terrifying and beautiful animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm (11:30am); Ralph Fiennes’ new World War II music-themed drama, The Choral (3:30pm); and the documentary Love + War (7pm), about fearless conflict photojournalist Lynsey Addario.
Skipping a couple of pages brings me to Nouvelle Vague, the new black-and-white French New Wave homage from director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, Hit Man), which screens at 7pm, Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Rafael. Starring Zoe Deutch as Jean Seberg and Guilaume Marbeck as Jean-Luc Godard, it takes place on the streets of Paris in 1959, as Godard and his team prepare to shoot the underground film, Breathless. Deutch will be present for a special spotlight event, followed by a reception at San Rafael’s Le Comptoir.
That’s a big night actually, since it also brings side-by-side screenings of Yorgos Lanthimos’ new sci-fi/thriller-kidnapping-comedy, Bugonia (7pm), and director Luca Guadagnino’s new After the Hunt (7pm), starring Julia Roberts in what looks like a tense sexual assault mystery set in the world of academia.
Have fun trying to pick which one of those to see.
On Monday, Oct. 7, there’s yet another show business-themed film from Richard Linklater, Blue Moon (7pm). This one stars Ethan Hawke as the famous songwriter Lorenz Hart, shown right at the moment that his Broadway musical writing partner, Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott), with whom he wrote shows like My Funny Valentine and Blue Moon, decided to team up with Oscar Hammerstein to write Oklahoma!.
Looks like the great Rose Byrne will be there on Friday, Oct. 10, for a special spotlight screening of her new movie, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (7pm), directed by Mary Bronstein. It’s about a therapist whose life is falling apart, and the self-awareness she gets, but doesn’t always take, from her own therapist, played by Conan O’Brien.
It goes on and on like this. So many cool movies; not enough time.
So let’s just jump to closing night, Oct. 12. The big finale is the much talked about film festival fave, Rental Family, in which an out-of-work actor (Brendan Frazier) in Tokyo takes a job as a make-believe family member for people needing a companion for some public event. Things, as they do, get complicated.
The full lineup of films and special events can be found at MVFF.com.
