The first weekend of SIFF is now over, and Ye Olde SunBreak Hivemind will be weighing in on what they’ve seen during that stretch soon. In the meantime, time (and SIFF recommendations!) wait for no man or woman. Here’s what’s got us excited on the SIFF roster for Monday May 23 through Thursday May 26.
Tony:
I can hardly wait to get caught up about what I saw opening weekend, but I’m also chomping at the bit to get a peek at the below.
Finding Kim. Aaron Bear’s homegrown documentary about a 50-year old trans man’s transition couldn’t be more timely, and by all accounts it’s a compassionate and riveting journey.
May 23, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown 6:30 PM
May 31, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown 3:30 PM
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle. This Director’s Cut of Shunji Iwai’s dark comedy about a young woman plagued by a series of bad decisions rooted in her fixation on a social media site runs nearly 3 hours, but Iwai’s deft balance of nervous laughter and emotional pull is reportedly in fine form here.
May 24, 2016 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 9:30 PM
May 26, 2016 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 3:00 PM
Chimes at Midnight. Orson Welles condenses five Shakespeare plays into one overlooked 1966 gem. That Welles felt a definitive kinship with The Bard’s blustery wounded lion of a man is poetically apropos, and it’ll be cinephile nirvana to see this labor of love in its new restoration.
May 24, 2016 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 7:00 PM
Hummus! The Movie. I love hummus. This is a documentary about hummus. If it was just a 70-minute slide show of bowls of hummus, I’d likely watch it gleefully. Happily for non-hummus-holics, it also follows other hummus worshippers and offers some historic context to one of the most glorious foodstuffs conceived by man.
May 24, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown 6:00 PM
May 24, 2016 Majestic Bay Theater 4:00 PM
Josh: Like you, I still have some holdovers and catching-up from my opening weekend schedule. Along with those, I’m going to try for a few more:
Little Men. Ira Sachs makes movies about the emotional consequences of real estate in New York City. Where much-lauded Love is Strange concerned itself with older gay couple, this one centers around two teenage friends in gentrifying Brooklyn sticking together while their families battle over rising rents. I’ve been eager to see this since it got strong reviews out of Sundance.
May 24, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown 7:00 PM
May 25, 2016 Majestic Bay 9:00 PM
Welcome to Norway! The plot of this “scandalous comedy” — saving a family ski resort by turning it into a refugee center, with ensuing heartwarming and comical lessons — may sounds deeply improbable. Although the movie may not be based on a true story, there really is a ski resort in the far north of Sweden called Riksgränsen that, in fact, began hosting 600 asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan last winter. I’m curious to see whether how this fictional version balances humor with the seriousness of the crisis.
May 24, 2016 Majestic Bay Cinemas 6:30 PM
May 25, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown 4:30 PM
May 26, 2016 Lincoln Square Cinemas 9:00 PM
Disorder. This looks like a fun psychological thriller whose premise is the questionable decision to hire a ex-soldier with PTSD as the head of security for one’s home, wife, and kid. The soldier is Matthias Schoenaerts, the wife is Diane Kruger, whose compelling performances in things like Inglorious Basterds and the excellent American remake of the Bridge is enough to put this film on my to-watch list.
May 26, 2016 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 9:30 PM
May 27, 2016 Lincoln Square Cinemas 4:00 PM
Chris:
With 421 feature films playing at SIFF, it’s literally impossible to catch everything, but also it means that there is something interesting playing nearly every night. Here’s what I’m excited about for seeing this week:
Ants on a Shrimp. When I’m at home (which is most of the time I’m not at my day job), my TV is likely to be tuned to the Food Network. I couldn’t boil an egg at gunpoint, but I’m interested in how creative someone can get with something as ephemeral as food. This documentary is about how famed Danish chef René Redzepi tries to relocate his world-famous restaurant NOMA (regularly awarded lofty titles like “Best Restaurant in the World”) from the Copenhagen to Tokyo. That includes the staff. It sounds ambitious!
May 20, 2016 Pacific Place 11 4:30 PM
May 23, 2016 Pacific Place 11 7:00 PM
If There’s a Hell Below. Another film set in rural Washington, this one focuses on the story of an ambitious journalist and a government whistleblower who has uncovered a national security secret. I’m intrigued by what I hear from people around SIFF buzzing about this movie, and when they throw words around like “atmospheric neo-noir of political intrigue in a post-Snowden world,” I listen.
May 25, 2016 SIFF Cinema Uptown Festival 8:30 PM
May 26, 2016 Pacific Place 11 4:30 PM
Ma Ma. This is a much-buzzed about movie from Spain that reportedly features an incredible performance from Penelope Cruz as a woman who is diagnosed with an advanced stage of breast cancer. I met some visiting journalists in the SIFF press office last week who said that this was hands-down the best movie they saw at a previous festival. It’s from the director of Sex and Lucia, Julio Medem.
May 25, 2016 Majestic Bay Cinemas 6:30 PM
May 27, 2016 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 4:00 PM
Keep track of the SunBreak’s SIFF coverage on our SIFF 2016 page, plus news updates and micro-reviews on Twitter @theSunBreak.