Psst. Hey, bud. Yeah, you. Over here, by the concession stand. We see you trying to decide whether to buy a ticket for Clash of the Titans, or just skip the middleman and pay someone $10 to kick you in the inseam. We can't let that happen. Not with dozens of worthwhile films showing most every hour of the day for the next seven days.
On Thursday night, the venerable Nashville Film Festival kicks off its 41st year, making it the South's longest-running (and arguably pre-eminent) festival. It's the place where upwards of 20,000 die-hard cinephiles from north, south, east and west of the Cumberland find common ground each year in the lobby of Regal's Green Hills 16. It's also the place where movie lovers of every stripe can find something to suit their tastes, from foreign films and local features to documentaries, shorts, experimentals and animated ventures.
Below, you'll find capsule reviews of more than 40 of this year's NaFF selections, intended to help you sort through the festival's dizzying options and inevitable scheduling conflicts. First, though, we offer some practical tips for getting the most out of the festival.
To begin with, you'll want to get advance tickets, either at the ticket office in the downstairs Green Hills lobby or online at www.nashvillefilmfestival.org. You'll especially want advance tickets for anything with a visiting celebrity (such as the closing-night film, Teenage Paparazzo, with director Adrian Grenier in attendance), a local element (such as the certain-to-be-controversial Southern Belle), or that has only one show.
If shows sell out, watch the downstairs lobby for announcements of additional screenings (or cancellations). The NaFF has wisely built repeat screenings of some of its most popular selections into the closing-day schedule: those should be announced late in the fest.
Make sure you show up at least a half-hour ahead of time, as lines build quickly (and traffic can congest the adjacent parking garage). Arrive even earlier and you can spend some time hanging out on the landing outside the downstairs entrance, which has become a de-facto chill zone for visitors, filmmakers with downtime between screenings and the hardcore movie aficionados whose conversations typically fill the Belcourt's front stoop.
Which leads us to our annual recommendation: Ride the buzz. You'll be spending a lot of time in line, but you've got a natural icebreaker to strike up a conversation with the people around you. Find out what people have seen, and if a film you've never heard of rouses a lot of enthusiasm, take a chance on it. This may be your only opportunity to see it in a theater, especially with the cast or filmmaker in attendance.
What's that? The lights are going down? We'll continue this conversation later — maybe out back over some VIP-tent nachos. In the meantime, you might consider resting your eyes a few minutes. You're gonna be giving those babies a workout over the next seven days.
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* = Highly recommended
THURS/4.15
NOWHERE BOY
(8 p.m.; also 1 p.m. Friday, April 16)
Artist/photographer Sam Taylor-Wood arrived with a literal bang in "Love You More," arguably the most electrifying short film on the festival circuit last year. The material she's chosen for her first feature — a pre-Beatles John Lennon biopic — would have lesser filmmakers cowering in fear, but she more or less pulls it off. Opening with the same big ninth chord that kicks off "A Hard Day's Night" (the closest thing to actual Beatles music you'll hear in the film), Taylor-Wood details a cocky young Lennon (Aaron Johnson in a much lower-profile film than the superheroic Kick-Ass) doing all the bad boy things you would imagine. When not dodging the furrowed brow of his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), he smokes, skips school, and generally misbehaves until he develops a relationship with his hitherto absent mother Julia (a radiant Anne-Marie Duff). She recognizes his creativity, puts an instrument in his hand, turns him on, and the rest is history ... but not just yet. The wink-wink-here's-a-Beatles-reference subplot of John's musical development will delight many a fan, but it clashes with some sappy melodrama involving the cocky Lennon, his stern aunt, and the mother who acts like a googly-eyed girlfriend. For a heart-wrenching emotional experience that meditates on a jilted son's broken heart, listen to Lennon's live version of "Mother" — and for a better film about seemingly incestuous mother-son relationships, see Cyrus (p. 26). TOBY LEONARD
Fri /4.16
BEYOND THE POLE
(1:15 p.m.; also 5:15 p.m. Saturday, April 17)
Hail Brian (Rhys Thomas) and Mark (Stephen Mangan), two bumbling environmentalists on a quest to be the first unsupported, carbon-neutral and vegetarian team to reach the North Pole. Though well intentioned, the naïve pair has little previous training for their arctic excursion, and the journey quickly spirals out of control. Shot by co-writer/director David L. Williams in tongue-in-cheek mock-doc style, the movie has just the right amount of dry British humor, creating some genuinely funny moments and memorably ridiculous characters. Even though it's about 30 minutes too long, BTP offers a hilarious take on the "green" craze, showing just how far some people will go to save the world. MADISON CONGER
APPLAUSE
(3:15 p.m.; also 9:15 p.m. Sunday, April 18)
The darling of Dogme — she was in the movie that launched the movement, Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration, as well as subsequent films by Lars von Trier, Susanne Bier and others — Danish actress Paprika Steen gets the anti-glamour diva trip of a lifetime as a famed stage actress reeling from her battles with alcohol and the possible loss of her two boys. Photographed unforgivingly, with every line and blemish lit to glare, Steen steamrolls though Martin Zandvliet's on-the-nose drama as if she were never getting the chance to act again — and just in case there's not enough onscreen melodrama amid relapses, one-night stands, custody pleading and multiple tirades, she's shown throughout falling apart in clips from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Joan Crawford, eat your heart out. In Danish with subtitles. JIM RIDLEY
SATURDAY NIGHT
(4 p.m.; also 9:45 p.m. Saturday, April 17)
If you're SNL producer Lorne Michaels and you're going to grant unprecedented access to somebody with a camera, make sure it's a friend — somebody like actor James Franco, who was evidently so dazzled he couldn't bring himself to ask any of the tough questions regular SNL viewers have every week. That said, for regular SNL viewers that access is still pretty damn compelling — a fly-on-the-wall portrait of the group pitches, grueling marathon writing sessions and last-second tinkering required to produce the 90-minute show week after week. (Tedium is the oxygen people breathe at 30 Rock.) As interesting and intimate as the glimpses are of host John Malkovich and a reserved Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg, though, the juiciest stuff concerns the constant threat and motivator of failure — whether it's watching the adorable (and now axed) Casey Wilson bomb hard in a Rosie O'Donnell imitation, or a vivid demonstration that a boffo table read doesn't guarantee audience love. Just curious: Why no Kristen Wiig or Kenan Thompson interviews? JIM RIDLEY
* BLUEBEARD
(5:15 p.m.; also 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 17)
Fat Girl/The Last Mistress director Catherine Breillat offers her own take on the uses of enchantment in her playful, coolly provocative rendering of the French fairy tale of the lady-killer Bluebeard. Breillat alternates a bare-bones, temporally indistinct period retelling of the Charles Perrault cautionary tale — essentially a Beauty and the Beast variation with much darker secrets locked away in the Beast's castle — with a pair of young modern-day sisters (modeled on the director and her own sibling) offering both counterpoint and commentary as they bicker their way through the story. Far less explicit than Breillat's controversial earlier films, it's still jauntily perverse, bristling with sexual politics and capped by a WTF ending as abrupt and startling as Fat Girl's infamous close. In French with subtitles. JIM RIDLEY
DEAR LEMON LIMA
(7 p.m.; also 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 17)
With its quirky misfits, twinkly score, and handcrafted flourishes, Suzi Yoonessi's teen comedy is clearly indebted to Wes Anderson and his imitators but uses cutesy sincerity to distinguish itself. Think Rushmore if Miranda July directed. Heartbroken 13-year-old Vanessa Lemor (Savanah Wiltfong) strives to impress her popular ex-boyfriend by leading fellow gym-class outcasts to win the prep school's Snowstorm Survivor competition. The Alaskan backdrop and Eskimo games add novel touches to a familiar story, although a few bumpy spots risk throwing off the tone. But Dear Lemon Lima possesses sufficient underdog charm to bounce back from its missteps. Veteran actress Beth Grant (No Country for Old Men) will attend. MARK PFEIFFER
* CROPSEY
(7:15 p.m.; also 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 21)
Long Island kids enjoy spooking each other with an urban legend about a creep called Cropsey, who emerges from a nearby mental institution to prey on children. When local children start to disappear for real, a real Cropsey turns up in the form of a skeletal, unnerving asylum dweller who could pass for Freddy Krueger's less appealing cousin. But could he fit the role too neatly, fulfilling the community's deep-seated need for both bogeymen and scapegoats? That's the unsettling premise of Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio's documentary — yes, documentary — which has been making a big noise on the festival circuit. The filmmaking and the level of inquiry may never reach the heights of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's landmark Paradise Lost documentaries, but it raises some of the same questions about society's unifying fear of the outsider — while demonstrating that real-life terrors will outstrip horror films every time. JIM RIDLEY
WAITING FOR FOREVER
(9:15 p.m.; also 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 17)
A lighthearted dramedy that gets better as it goes, director James Keach's seriocomic feature centers exclusively on unstable people in dysfunctional relationships, skillfully exploring the lines between fairy-tale romance and unhealthy obsession. Waiting for Forever follows the unusually carefree Will Donner (Tom Sturridge) and the only woman he has ever loved, struggling actress Emma Twist (The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson), after Will decides to profess his adoration at her lowest ebb. The film boasts a plethora of solid performances from a fine cast — Richard Jenkins, Blythe Danner, Jaime King, Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky — and though a few moments ring false, Keach delivers an uneven but ultimately satisfying look at the intersection of optimism and harsh reality. Keach and his wife, actress Jane Seymour, will attend with producer Trevor Albert. DEE TRAVIS
ART HOUSE
(9:30 p.m.; also 10 a.m. Saturday, April 17)
Think of it as Animal House for the art crowd: A group of art students are about to lose their university-subsidized dorm house — due to, among other things, visible nudity and loud parties — so they have to scramble to preserve their bohemian paradise. Victor Fanucchi's romantic comedy has a workable plot and plenty of heart, but the dialogue is often less than credible, and some of the performances are a bit wooden, making it a mixed bag. Even Greta Gerwig, who's received high praise as Ben Stiller's love interest in Greenberg, is a little stiff at times as Nora, who's leading the charge to save the house (and being courted by at least three men). It's probably not so much a case of weak acting as it is bad writing, with Gerwig trying her best to make steak out of a hamburger script and sometimes succeeding. Iggy Pop gives an OK if predictably wacky turn as Nora's eccentric father. JACK SILVERMAN
WHITE STRIPES — UNDER GREAT WHITE NORTHERN LIGHTS
(9:45 p.m.; also noon Wednesday, April 21)
The White Stripes have always carefully calculated their image, shrouding their true colors in mystique. This feature documenting the band's 2007 Canadian tour does little to break that mold. Director Emmett Malloy captures the Nashville-by-way-of-Detroit two-piece as they lug their peppermint blues throughout Canada's widespread provinces, playing far-flung towns with names like Yellowknife and White Horse. Unconventional acts such as spur-of-the-moment side shows in bowling alleys, fishing boats and YMCA camps have long endeared the band to both observers and followers, and the footage Malloy includes of such performances capture the duo's electrifying prowess onstage. Unfortunately, those clips are too short and too few — which would be OK if the wrap-around footage provided any personal insight into the band. But the duo White are far too guarded to let in any candor, resulting in sleepy rock-doc-by-numbers footage of the band walking on and off stages, sleeping on planes, etc., that's of little interest to anyone outside their fan base. If the film doesn't lose you during the group's eyeroll-inducing Blind Willie McTell jam-sesh with the Inuit elders of Iqualit, then you've drunk the Kool-Aid. ADAM GOLD
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Sat/4.17
NE CHANGE RIEN
(1:15 p.m.; also 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
Beautifully shot in inky black and white, this rehearsal study by Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa (Colossal Youth) — perhaps the hottest international auteur of the moment on the rarefied festival circuit, and subject of his own new Criterion box set — captures the repetition, the repetition and the skull-numbing repetition of artistic creation only too well. It might be a revelation to hear the same Curtis Mayfield-style guitar riff looped continuously for 10 minutes (or maybe it's an hour) as the film's muse, French actress-singer Jeanne Balibar, tries to perfect a melody with bandmate Rodolphe Burger. But it's also maddening. Costa allows the agonizing pace of studio and rehearsal time to take over, a testament to his belief that the artistic process, even in its tedium, is noble work. At least let's hope that's what he thinks — otherwise, this is just sadistic. In French with subtitles. STEVE HARUCH
3 ACTS OF MURDER
(3:15 p.m.; also 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 21)
Its title punning on the link between life and art, Rowan Woods' dusty drama interweaves crime fiction and true crime, flashing back to the Depression-era killings Australians know as the Murchison Murders. While working on the rabbit-proof fence in the barren outback, struggling novelist Arthur Upfield (Robert Menzies) seeks help devising the perfect crime, but before the results are even published, co-worker Snowy Rowles (Luke Ford) puts his plan into action, murdering two men and grinding their bones to dust. Rowles was hanged, but the ensuing scandal made Upfield's name, a grim irony that feeds the movie's sobering account. The movie's uninflected dourness verges on monotony at times — think The Proposition without the operatic highs — but there's a steely economy to the performances that staves off the rote docudrama waiting in the wings. SAM ADAMS
* THE COMPLETE WORK OF JAMIE TRAVIS
(5 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. Sunday, April 18)
Since 2003, 30-year-old Canadian filmmaker Jamie Travis has completed two short film trilogies: "The Saddest Children In The World," a set of curious, beautiful stories about kids who get unwanted glimpses at the horrors of adulthood; and "Patterns," about the mysterious relationship between a man and a woman. Rich with metaphorical resonance and visual splendor, Travis' shorts swing from melodrama to suspense to musical theater, with a mix of poignancy and dry wit. When Travis finally makes a feature, it'll undoubtedly be one of the cinematic events of the year. Until then, these shorts will more than suffice. Travis will attend. NOEL MURRAY
* HIPSTERS
(7 p.m.; also noon Tuesday, April 20)
A splashy, crowd-pleasing Soviet hybrid of Footloose, Quadrophenia, Moulin Rouge! and Swing Kids, with pompadoured, pastel-suited teens defying killjoy apparatchiks in a 1950s Communist bloc out of Baz Luhrmann's opium dreams? How can you say nyet? The time is 1954, the color scheme Iron Curtain drab as 20-year-old Mels (Anton Shagin) joins his comrades in cracking down on dissident stilyagi — Soviet kids hooked on American jazz, snazzy threads and sexual freedom. He peeps through a wall at their underground dance party, and suddenly the movie explodes into screaming hot color and jitterbug frenzy. Guess who starts sporting an Eddie Cochran coif, blowing jazz sax and mooning after their reigning blond bombshell (the welcome return of Lilya 4-Ever's Oksana Akinshina). There's a powerful idea in the oppressed seizing upon the Hollywood musical (where the unspeakable bursts out as song) as a form of liberation and revolt, and even if director Valeriy Todorovskiy only partially realizes its potential, the movie's still one of the most sheerly enjoyable films playing all week — something no movie-musical fan will want to miss. In Russian with subtitles. JIM RIDLEY
HERPES BOY
(8 p.m.; also noon Sunday, April 18)
Here we have an attempt at a snarky outsider comedy centered on the woeful bitching of Rudolph (screenwriter Byron Lane), a vlog-addicted misanthrope whose unfortunate birthmark earns him the nickname of the title. The character's three parts Napoleon Dynamite and two parts Juno, and the movie lusts after those quirkfests' inexplicable popularity, balancing cushy predictability with performances that verge on insufferable. Rudolph may trudge through life with a permanent Kool-Aid stain on his face, but after hearing him berate the other (substantially more likable) characters incessantly, you may feel he deserves a real-deal STD. We've heard that some folks love this movie, but I've got to confess: The blackout that temporarily killed the power to my television while I was watching the screener seemed like an act of God. Lane, co-stars Ahna O'Reilly, Beth Grant and Michael Chieffo, and director Nathaniel Atcheson are scheduled to attend. D. PATRICK RODGERS
* DO IT AGAIN
(9:20 p.m.; also 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
A document of Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers' mission impossible to reunite The Kinks, Robert Patton-Spruill's Do It Again is a must see for any die-hard rock 'n' roll fan. By telling The Kinks' story through the eyes of a super-fan — seamlessly inter-cut with archival footage and wall-to-wall audio — the movie engrosses the viewer with a three-dimensional take on rock music, encompassing themes of stardom, fandom, brotherhood and the love, hate and maddening obsession that binds them, while firmly establishing the band's rightful place as a rock 'n' roll cornerstone. In the process of pursuing an unlikely sit-down with Ray Davies, Edgers manages to land interviews with the likes of Sting, Clive Davis, Paul Weller, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Buck, Warren Zanes and Zooey Deschanel, and he picks their brains on the influence of The Kinks, the complicated interpersonal relationships that come with playing in a band, and the general pathology of rock musicians — before goading them into jamming with him on a Kinks song, with amusingly varying degrees of success. ADAM GOLD
PROVINCES OF NIGHT
(9:30 p.m. )
Over here is Kris Kristofferson as a prodigal bad-ass troubadour come to shake up his already rattled Middle Tennessee family; over there is his ticking-bomb son Dwight Yoakam and Yoakam's tail-chasing, hell-raising bro Val Kilmer. Any one of them would make a riveting protagonist, so who's at the movie's center? Why, the mopey teenage grandson (Reece Daniel Thompson) struggling with first love, attending college and rolling as far as he can from his poisonous family tree. The first feature by Watkins alum Shane Dax Taylor, cut (like last year's NaFF standout That Evening Sun) from William Gay source material, sprawls hither and yon without picking up much momentum. (It certainly looks great, thanks to ace cinematographer Tim Orr.) But whenever any combination of the toxic Kristofferson-Kilmer-Yoakam trio is onscreen — especially the rascally Kilmer, effortlessly tucking the film away with his hip flask — the Southern Gothic proceedings spark to life. Hilary Duff does well as Thompson's equally bad-off love interest, but former L.A. Law regular Sheila Kelley is damn near unrecognizable in a ferocious turn as her backwoods-harpy mom. Thompson, director Taylor, author Gay, actor-screenwriter W. Earl Brown and scorer Randy Scruggs are scheduled to appear, as are Corky Taylor, Travis Nicholson, David Ferguson, Michael Proctor, Claudia Church and Rodney Crowell. JIM RIDLEY
* ONE TOO MANY MORNINGS
(9:40 p.m.; also noon Monday, April 19)
Michael Mohan's endearing buddy flick almost feels like a collaboration between Judd Apatow and Jim Jarmusch, blending the former's mastery of slacker silliness and the latter's offbeat, understated mood and sumptuous black-and-white cinematography. But Mohan's film is less arty and obtuse than Jarmusch's work, and his leads, Fischer (Stephen Hale) and Peter (Anthony Deptula), experience relationships that ring truer and consequences that seem more real than in a typical Apatow creation (though the humor isn't always as successful). Hale gives a strong performance as a crass, directionless, hard-drinking twentysomething facing his moment of truth, and Deptula is equally good as his more centered though commitment-phobic best friend running from the woman he loves. Tina Kapousis and Jeanette Baity do well as the love interests, and Jonathan Shockley — better known to Middle Tennesseans as Dunlap from the web comedy series Red State Update — is terrific as a dorky-cool church pastor. JACK SILVERMAN
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Sun/4.18
* LOURDES
(3 p.m.; also noon Tuesday, April 20)
Devotion and humor rarely mix well, but Austrian director Jessica Hausner's wryly observed religious drama manages to examine issues of faith with a welcome wit. In many respects, her film fits into the template of contemporary art cinema — it pays homage to Carl Dreyer and uses exquisitely composed extreme long shots — but Jacques Tati is another visible inspiration. More unusual still, Hausner's lead character bears an odd resemblance to Tati's creation Monsieur Hulot: a paraplegic woman (the superb Sylvie Testud) searching for a miracle at the fountain of Lourdes. Lourdes draws both on Tati's sense of humor and ability to lose himself in a crowded frame; nevertheless, it offers a serious exploration of the possibility of miracles. Without compromise, Hausner has her cake and eats it too. In French with subtitles. STEVE ERICKSON
* SOUND OF INSECTS: RECORD OF A MUMMY
(3:45 p.m.; also 12:20 p.m. Monday, April 19)
Based on a true story, this highly innovative, gorgeously shot meditation on death won't convert any experimental film detractors. Those who have patience and are willing to take chances, however, will be amply rewarded. Reminiscent of Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest and John Gianvito's 2008 festival highlight Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, Insects tracks a man's 62-day suicide-by-starvation via starkly read journal entries and serene images of the forest where he set up camp to die. Seemingly incongruous clips of carnival lights, opera singers, and knife-throwers grow more frequent as the film progresses, suggesting the man's increasingly hallucinatory state. But one image we never see is the man himself — a device that puts us in the head of the protagonist and offers us a glimpse of the journey that we too must one day take. TONY YOUNGBLOOD
THE RED BARON
(4:45 p.m.; also noon Monday, April 19)
You know what this mega-budget biopic of the World War I flying ace needs? Snoopy. One of the most expensive German features ever produced (and a major bomb), this high-gloss History Channel wet dream mixes requisite anti-war boilerplate with nostalgia for the good old days of respectful aristocratic adversaries. It's like a dogfight between Grand Illusion and Patton. Valkyrie's Matthias Schweighofer plays the gentlemanly Von Richthoven, who advocates aerial combat as sport to be conducted as humanely as possible: his attitude shifts after he falls for a field nurse (Lena Headey) who opens his eyes to the carnage he soars above. The writer-director, Nikolai Mullerschoen, fares much better with the aerial action, which uses CGI to evoke the vertigo and relatively slow speed of Sopwith combat in a sky full of buzzing biplanes. On the ground, though, the English-language movie canonizes its subject with dull earnestness. JIM RIDLEY
* THE BURIAL
(5:45 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. Monday, April 19)
When three somewhat estranged brothers reunite at their mother's funeral, it touches off a — well, at first it's hard to say what it touches off, exactly. Is this a brooding study in the burdens of brotherhood? A slowly unfurling mystery told through flashbacks? An international corpse-smuggling caper? There's some unevenness in the tone, and a lot of meaningful glances (the meanings of which are often unclear) in the movie's first half. But when the two dovetailing narratives finally meet, there's an emotional wallop — followed by a surprisingly joyful lift. Directors Danielle Boucher and David Mills and star Josy Corrieri will attend. In French with subtitles. STEVE HARUCH
ENDURE
(6:45 p.m.; also 2:30 p.m. Monday, April 19)
Selecting films for a festival is not just about quality. After all, there are seats to fill, sponsors to please, and funding to secure. What I can't figure out is why NaFF picked this dreary procedural cop thriller. There's little star power (unless you count Tom Arnold, Judd Nelson and Joey Lauren Adams) and no breakout performances (see previous). No one involved is attending the festival (not even the guy from The Breakfast Club). And if you've seen any TV cop show, you already know the plot: Grizzled old cop is forced to partner with know-it-all rookie in search for psycho killer. The film has no redeeming value and will leave you scratching your head as to why it was ever picked in the first place. TONY YOUNGBLOOD
* CITY OF BORDERS
(7:15 p.m.; also 2:15 p.m. Monday, April 19)
Director Yun Suh's documentary offers a unique glimpse into the gay and lesbian scene in Israel and Palestine, exposing some of the difficulties of everyday life as well as the dangers of publicly acknowledging homosexuality. The film follows several couples as they enjoy one of their few creative outlets, the gay bar "Shushan," and cope with the sometimes violently disapproving community that surrounds them. Suh's thought-provoking study goes far beyond sexual orientation, however, to explore the complex relationship of race and tradition in an extremely strict religious culture. In English, Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles. MADISON CONGER
BOMBER
(8 p.m.; also 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
This dry British dramedy details the road trip from hell that ensues when a ne'er-do-well son drives his aging, emotionally repressed parents to a German village, where his father — a former WWII bomber pilot — is determined to atone for the collateral damage he regrettably wreaked upon its townspeople a half-century earlier. Discord between the elders reaches a breaking point, forcing Junior to mediate with disastrous consequences. The front half of the film is fairly slow, but it stays afloat thanks to excellent performances by co-stars Shane Taylor (Band of Brothers), veteran British screen actor Benjamin Whitrow and Eileen Nicholas (Trainspotting). ADAM GOLD
* CLEANFLIX
(9:15 p.m.; also noon Tuesday, April 20)
Documentarians Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi look beyond the headlines to consider the thorny ethical and aesthetic questions raised when of a group of Mormon retailers decided to sell "sanitized" versions of big Hollywood movies. The news at the time was all about the Directors Guild Of America suing, and the Cleanflixers' response that since they paid for every movie they altered, they could do whatever they wanted with them. But the story runs even deeper, especially when James and Ligairi meet a businessman rumored to be involved with illegal duplication, fraud and sexual indiscretion. Cleanflix can be a little one-note at times, but it's fascinating whenever it explores the daily difficulties the devoutly religious have trying to maintain purity while participating in mainstream American culture. Avoiding R-rated movies may not preclude an R-rated life. NOEL MURRAY
DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME
(9:30 p.m.; also 2 p.m. Monday, April 19)
In David Morrissey's simple and sweet character piece, two strangers fall in love against the backdrop of a lovingly shot Liverpool. Robbed and heartbroken in an unfamiliar city, David (James Brough) places a bet at the races with ticket-girl Tina (Helen Elizabeth, in a phenomenal debut). Thus begins a clumsy, giddy attraction that takes them all over Liverpool and New Brighton, from the Anglican Cathedral to the cast-iron human sculptures at Crosby Beach. You may recognize director Morrissey from his work as an actor, most recently in the Red Riding trilogy and NaFF opener Nowhere Boy (also shot in Liverpool); he also adapted the script from a play written by and starring the two leads. TONY YOUNGBLOOD
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Mon/4.19
* AJAMI
(6:30 p.m.)
In this expertly paced Oscar-nominated crime drama, the lives of Muslims, Jews, and Christians collide in the melting-pot Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, Israel. Good people find themselves forced into crime, including an Arab Israeli teen who must pay off a "peace" debt to a Bedouin crime family and a Palestinian boy working in Israel illegally to fund his mother's costly operation. Co-directed by an Israeli Arab and an Israeli Jew, the film might be misconstrued as a treatise on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. But the clashes are far messier and not always along ethnic lines, involving the complex factors of religion, tradition, social status, access to resources, and language. Highly recommended. In Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles. TONY YOUNGBLOOD
* NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON
(6:45 p.m.)
Long derided as a showboat and troublemaker on and off the court, NBA fireball Iverson has been hounded most of his career by his bad reputation. But in this thoughtful and even-handed ESPN documentary, the gifted Steve James (Hoop Dreams) suggests that Iverson may have gotten a raw deal — especially in the 1993 bowling-alley brawl that got him a sentence beyond all comprehension. James uses the polarizing incident to explore his Virginia hometown's racial divisions, gestating ever since the arrival of slavery, and in interviews the town's black and white residents don't pull any punches. But perhaps more eye-opening (at least to those who see Iverson as Exhibit A for the decline of sportsmanlike conduct) are the teachers who recall him as a studious, promising and responsible kid who tried to shelter his infant sibling — and himself, for as long as he could — from influences that proved insurmountable. Which makes this and James' landmark 1994 doc Hoop Dreams (screening earlier in the day at 3 p.m.) a double-pronged inquiry into the viability of sports as the new American dream. James will attend. JIM RIDLEY
* THE ATHLETE
(8 p.m.; also 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
The domination of Africans in distance running is now routine in international track competition. But that wasn't always the case — something Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew's outstanding film documents by taking audiences back to the early '60s, a time when the continent's lack of training resources made many observers feel Africa would never be a major player in world athletic competition. Abebe Bikila shattered those notions, winning gold medals in 1960 and 1964 while running barefoot and honing his skill running on roads rather than regulation tracks. His 1960 victory in Rome was also doubly significant, as he not only became Africa's first gold medal winner but also triumphed in the nation (Italy) that had once occupied his homeland. But this isn't just a tale of achievement on the track. Bikila subsequently faces far more tragedy than he ever encountered in any race, and the film's coverage of his post-athletic life proves more powerful than his rise to Olympic glory — making The Athlete the rare sports documentary that's even more compelling after the competition ends. In English and Amharic with subtitles. RON WYNN
TIMER
(9 p.m.; also 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
Produced, written and directed by newcomer Jac Schaeffer, this cinematic debut puts a pseudo-sci-fi spin on the conventional romantic comedy, but not in any way that will reel in the nerds. Set in a post-eHarmony world of absolute compatibility, the plot hook in play is the invention of an implanted device that, with absolute certainty, counts downs to the moment you will meet your soul mate. Conflict arises when our uber-yuppie protagonist, Oona (Emma Caulfield), falls for the scruffy drummer of a fledgling indie-rock band (John Patrick Amedori), only to find his timer doesn't synch to hers. Despite the pseudo-science twist, the end result is still a formulaic roundup of tired romantic platitudes: What is true love, blah blah blah ... Love is a journey, not a destination, blah blah blah ... Pie-in-the-sky, blah blah blah. But if you fall into the film's target demographic, that isn't likely to bother you. ADAM GOLD
* THE COLONEL'S BRIDE
(9 p.m.; also 5:10 p.m. Wednesday, April 21)
Beautifully shot and scored, The Colonel's Bride is local writer-director Brent Stewart's heartrending depiction of an austere, aging Vietnam veteran and his twilight marriage to a mail-order bride. It's the story of a world-weary, lonesome man who takes a stranger — a Vietnamese immigrant, as it happens — as his bride not out of lust, but to atone for the sins he feels he's committed. Thanks to a scant 70-minute runtime, sparse but poignant dialogue and a striking performance from Nashville native James DeForest Parker, The Colonel's Bride treads the oft-trespassed grounds of minimalist drama without ever feeling affected or cliché. D. PATRICK RODGERS
WHY ISN'T CHRIS VON SNEIDERN FAMOUS?
(9:30 p.m.; also 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 20)
There's no denying that Chris von Sneidern is a talented singer, musician and songwriter. But Nashvillians in particular will likely see this film and think to themselves, "I know three bands in my neighborhood that are as good or better, and they're not famous either." In fact, about 20 minutes into this rock doc, the answer to the titular question becomes all too clear: Despite crafting intelligent, tuneful power-pop songs, von Sneidern just lacks that certain je ne sais quoi, both as a performer and a film subject. Even his longtime bass player, Peter Straus, formerly of renowned punk band Dwarves, says he felt totally committed to his previous group but sees von Sneidern as just a gig. Which makes you wonder: "If his bass player doesn't care, why should we?" One can only assume that director Kathleen McNamara is a fan and this is a labor of love — but for audiences, it's mostly just labor. JACK SILVERMAN
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Tue/4.20
NEW LOW
(9 p.m.; also 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 21)
Writer-director-star Adam Bowers tells the story of Wendell, a painfully neurotic video-store employee who can't seem to decide between the two women in his life. He falls for the down-to-earth girl who doesn't play by the rules, then he finds the philanthropic love of his life, then he dates them both, etc. It's a pretty standard romantic comedy, borrowing some of its humor from Judd Apatow and crew. Bowers' skittish look at relationships does offer some laugh-out-loud moments, but so many punch lines rely on the main character's annoyingly overwhelming anxiety that they just become repetitive. Seriously, this guy makes Woody Allen look like James Dean. MADISON CONGER
* SNOW & ASHES
(9:30 p.m.; also noon Wednesday, April 21)
Stylish and superbly executed, Charles-Olivier Michaud's drama tells the dark story of Blaise Dumas (Rhys Coiro), a hospitalized Canadian journalist who has returned from an Eastern European war zone. Blaise wakes from a coma and discloses his adventure one tantalizing piece at a time to his friends, letting the story emerge slowly over the film's almost two-hour time frame. Some viewers may be initially frustrated by the gradual unfolding of the plot, but the movie's overall presentation is a triumph, marked especially by its gritty, impressively realized evocation of the violence-ridden backwoods of Eastern Europe. DEE TRAVIS
Wed/4.21
THE GOOD HEART
(Noon; also 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22) Curmudgeonly bar owner Jacques (Brian Cox) has a failing heart and little hope for a transplant. Having no friends or family, he grooms the homeless and suicidal Lucas (Paul Dano) to take over the bar when he passes. Lucas's only problem? He's too kind-hearted for the profession. The English-language debut of Noi the Albino's Dagur Kári is pleasant enough with strong performances by the two leads (who also played opposite each other in 2001's L.I.E.). Sadly, the film's premise is far too predictable: when the payoff finally happens, the only thing we're left wondering is what took so long. TONY YOUNGBLOOD
* DOGTOOTH
(5:30 p.m.; also 12:15 p.m. Thursday, April 22)
M. Night Shyamalan's The Village as reimagined by Luis Buñuel — the analogy's not perfect, but it may convey some of the bleakly funny surprises awaiting you at this jarring, captivatingly enigmatic (and near-hardcore) film by Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, a major freaky talent. At a remote estate, grown children wait each day for the return of their factory-functionary dad, who schools them in unhelpful language skills ("excursion" = "concrete") and cautions them of monsters beyond the property's walls — for instance, cats. Under assault from a conniving outsider, the infiltration of '80s American pop culture and the kids' insuppressible hormones, however, Dad's iron grip on the household produces something like anarchy — except it's founded upon logic as reasonable within the household's topsy-turvy order as it is batshit crazy. Every viewer will have his/her own suspicion of what's going on, and what it all means: I can't wait to hear the lobby conversations afterward. Of the movie's most astonishing sequence, though, I'll say only this: what a feeling. In Greek with subtitles. JIM RIDLEY
For The Sake Of The Song Trailer from Jim Barham on Vimeo.
* FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG: THE STORY OF ANDERSON FAIR
(7:15 p.m.; also 2:15 p.m. Thursday, April 22)
Bruce Bryant's thoughtful doc pays tribute to Anderson Fair, a venue and haven for folk songwriters that served in the 1970s as Houston's answer to Haight-Ashbury. Featuring interviews and performances from Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Guy Clark, late greats such as Townes Van Zandt and Dave Van Ronk, and countless more, For the Sake of the Song tells how community and a common passion for the intimacy of the Texas songsters' genre have kept Anderson Fair alive, birthing legends and churning out stories both triumphant and tragic. The film is as much about the history of the art as it is about the art itself, and it's told with a palpable air of respect and awe. Bryant will attend. D. PATRICK RODGERS
DOWN TERRACE
(7:15 p.m.; also 2:45 p.m. Thursday, April 22)
A British ex-hippie couple (Robert Hill and Julia Deakin) and their maladjusted son (Robin Hill), all members of an organized crime ring, solve various everyday problems with extreme prejudice. Ben Wheatley's generally well-judged direction of actors, and a number of interesting on-screen presences, hide for a while the film's lack of interest in plausible or consistent human behavior. Each of the main characters is ultimately conceived as a joke, collectively comprising the old tired jape about how funny it is when killing is a family way of life. DAN SALLITT
* FREEDOM RIDERS
(7:30 p.m.; also noon Thursday, April 22)
Watching Stanley Nelson's documentary, about as essential as viewing gets, audience members born after 1980 may not know which to find more astounding: the casual institutional acceptance of racism just five short decades ago, or the courage of the black and white Americans who stood together to defy it. Nelson, whose credits include distinguished documentaries on Emmett Till and the Jonestown massacre, here marshals numerous interviews (including John Lewis, Diane Nash and John Seigenthaler), copious archival footage and telling artifacts of period pop culture to show exactly what was at stake when some 400 volunteers fought segregation aboard the South's public transportation lines — the buses that made American mobility both symbolic and literal. Today, with much of the country reciting "post-racial" through gritted teeth, the doc seems particularly urgent — and inspiring as a reminder that real change is hard and painful, yet winnable. JIM RIDLEY
* I AM LOVE
(7:40 p.m.; also 12:45 p.m. Thursday, April 22)
Luca Guadagnino's sprawling family drama stars Tilda Swinton as the fashionable Russian wife of a powerful Milanese businessman; she speaks fluent Italian but communicates on an earthier level when she falls for a young chef with a passion for simplicity. I Am Love is profoundly sensual, relishing the elegance of old-world estates, the textures of lovingly prepared food, and the blur of naked bodies writhing against each other. But the story loses focus whenever Guadagnino turns the camera away from Swinton, and his characters all have a formal stiffness to their dialogue that works against his attempt to convey a dizzying, terrifying sense of profound change. NOEL MURRAY
* DON'T QUIT YOUR DAYDREAM
(9:30 p.m.; also 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22)
It's definitely a novel concept: Two fortysomething former major-label casualties (Nathan and Clark, aka The Good Listeners) drive across the country — a studio's worth of equipment in tow — and make an album by recording a song with a different collaborator in whatever town they roll into each day. The resulting music's pretty good, and the film, which is cleverly shot and edited, has its share of colorful personalities. But while it's easy to root for these guys, Don't Quit does a better job of capturing the nuances of their friendship and mutual admiration — no small things, certainly — than explaining why they (or anyone) should be able to make a living off making music. The Good Listeners will attend and play the closing-night party Thursday, April 22, at the Cannery Ballroom with Sam and Ruby. STEVE HARUCH
* SYMBOL
(10 p.m.)
The second feature film by Japanese comedy star Hitoshi Matsumoto (Big Man Japan) is an absolutely singular cinematic experiment, and occasionally it's hilarious. But going into Symbol expecting a "comedy" per se is more than a mistake, it's a formula for disappointment. This isn't a criticism by any means, just an observation that Matsumoto's film is much more of a wry conceptual thinkpiece: What does the unnamed man (Matsumoto) in the mysterious white room of penis-switches have to do with Escargot, the Mexican luchador? The title really makes more sense as a homonym, each half one "cymbal" banging tonally against the other: solitude vs. community, sparseness against grit. Highly recommended. In Japanese with subtitles. MICHAEL SICINSKI
Thurs/4.22
* CYRUS
(7 p.m.)
Spurred on by his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) — who's caught him in a compromising position with his laptop — John (C. Reilly) makes a last-ditch bid for companionship by going to a party. Much to his drunken disbelief, Molly (Marisa Tomei, still effortlessly embracing her mid-career hotness) actually shows an interest in him and goes home with him. When she attempts a stealth morning getaway, confounded John finds that the reason is her grown son Cyrus (Jonah Hill), with whom she still shares her home as well as an off-puttingly close relationship. At first polite and gregarious, Cyrus and John's dynamic becomes increasingly confrontational behind the back of the woman for whose love they seemingly compete. With this broadly entertaining cringe comedy, brothers Jay and Mark Duplass emerge from the mid-Aughts' pack of lo-fi South-by-North Brooklyn filmmakers with a higher pedigree cast and an elevated grasp on their art. Of particular note, Mark's recent leading roles as an actor (Humpday and True Adolescents) appear to have opened a new level of awareness, or perhaps empathy, that allows the filmmaking duo to really click with their ensemble's strengths. With a theatrical release due later this year, Cyrus is the "get" of this year's festival. TOBY LEONARD
