26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Day 11: Final films, final thoughts

The lines for the Ritz East move behind the theater to keep patrons out of the rain before catching their last flicks.

(Read about Day 9 here)

It almost saddens me to write about the last day of the festival because it is over so quickly. At the start I look at the schedule and think about all of the possible scheduling scenarios to make up and how to fit the the features all in. There never seems to be enough time in the 11 days to get to everything you want to. In the blink of an eye its over and you wonder how you did it.

Granted, I only managed a measly 21 movies - 22 if I didn't walk out of "Under the Tree" - while others can easily do over 40 of the approximately 110 features on the schedule. I usually see around that many every year anyway, so I'm happy.

26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Day 9: Festival winners and good picks

(Read about days 6 and 7 here)

The "closing night" of the festival is supposed to be the ending shebang on the ninth day. The one thing that always baffles me is why closing night festivities occur with two days left in the festival. It's not the last day of the festival so why market it as such? Maybe it's more fun to make the most of a Friday night instead of a Sunday night? At least they get the opening night right by putting it on the first day.

Anyway, winners were announced by the "jury" — the composition of which is never made public so I don't know who is selecting these winners — on "closing night" with documentaries cleaning up nicely. "Bobbi Jene" picked up the documentary feature prize with "At the Drive-In" winning the Pinkenson Award for local features and "Jane" claiming the student choice award.

26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Days 6 and 7: Nice surprises, some bumps

(See my coverage of days 3 and 4 here)

I opted out of seeing anything on Monday (day 5) because I was just too darn tired after the weekend. Ten movies in three days may not be as much as others have seen in such a short period of time, but for me that was more than enough. You would be surprised how tiring it can be to go back-to-back-to-back watching movies all day for a few days in a row.

Come Tuesday and it was a rainy, gloomy morning. I was a little deterred by the thought of standing in the rain waiting outside theaters for screenings to start. Luckily, the sun started to peek out around 11 o'clock and stayed out for the rest of the day, score! With good weather embracing me I set out to the festival. But first I had to stop at the AC Moore in Center City and pick up some yarn to get me through 15 movies through Sunday. I picked me up five balls of Sugar 'N' Cream yarn and head out to the Ritz Five for "At the Drive-In".

Movie Review: 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' is unsettling, addicting

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The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Ireland/U.K., English, Color, 121 minutes) Leading "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" are Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman as the well-off married doctors who live in a pristine house with two beautiful kids. The family's stringent aura is broken by a teenager named Martin (played by Barry Keoghan), a young man who wants revenge after his dad died on Farrell's watch a few years prior. Who's to blame for the death? It's not clear. No matter, Martin will start to manipulate and taunt the family until they're on the verge of killing each other.

In an about-face from his raucously dark "The Lobster", Yorgos Lanthimos delves deeply into our own ethical and moral standards with this unsettling psychodrama. It's a stray from the warped settings of "Dogtooth" and "The Lobster" with a more precise, normal sense of place... and that makes this movie that much scarier. Nothing is scarier than realizing evil lurks in a place that could be our own community.

26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Days 3 and 4: Animals and art.

The third day of the festival — my second since I didn't attend opening night — was only a hair better than day two. My screenings for both days were equally awful. That's not to say that everything shown that day was bad, I just didn't choose correctly.

My day started off with this year's Golden Bear winner "On Body and Soul," a Hungarian film about two slaughterhouse workers who find a connection because of the synchronous dreams they share. Both young, baby-faced Maria and the older Endre dream that they are deer in a snow-covered forest and have the exact same dream each night. The two socially-awkward individuals become simple acquaintances over their nighttime visuals and we delve slowly into their eccentricities and personalities in this delicate feature.

26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Day 2: Film fest? More like snooze fest!

One of the most wonderful times of year is back: the Philadelphia Film Festival! With over 100 features playing in three theaters in Center City — the number of films and venues seems to be shrinking every year, doesn't it? —for 10 days there's never a shortfall of something new, or old, to see. This year I opted to stray for more below-the-line, less "flashy" titles in lieu of those that will get plenty of theatrical bookings in due time. And for an occasional film "critic" like myself, I know there will be plenty of free press screenings I could go to without paying $15 to $50 to see these titles at the festival. I wanted to seek out films that may not be seen in theaters again (for the most part).

With that said I skipped the opening night screenings of "I, Tonya". One, because I had class so I couldn't comfortably squeeze it in and two, it will be a big hit during its theatrical release late this year.

Movie Review: Unraveling the mystery of 'Blade Runner 2049'

Blade Runner 2049 (2017, directed by Denis Villeneuve. U.S.A., English, Color, 163 minutes) There's a lot I'm not allowed to say about the the long-awaited sequel to the acclaimed 1982 sci-fi staple "Blade Runner". Therefore, I will not. I can, however, talk about the film in broad strokes, and provide some notes about other random things related to the Blade Runner world.

First, this is a very attractive sci-fi film, perhaps more beautiful than the original. Set 30 years after the original the streets have been "cleaned up" a bit it seems, not so much the dingy apocalyptic setup we were accustomed to. Perhaps it's the advancement in technology that leads the original to have a really run down and dirty look when compared to this film. I did admire the production values of "Blade Runner 2049," it certainly made watching the film worthwhile.

'I, Tonya' and 'Three Billboards...' among films featured at 26th Philly Film Fest

Well over 100 films will play at the 26th Philadelphia Film Festival the Philadelphia Film Society announced Tuesday afternoon.

Craig Gillespi's "I, Tonya" will open the festival on Oct. 19 at the Prince Theater to kick off 11 days of marathon moviewatching for die-hard Philly cinephiles. The society also announced that Martin McDonagh’s "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" will close the festival on Oct. 27. The festival will showcase more than 110 feature length and short films. The festival line-up is curated by our programming committee who carefully selects each film from multiple international festivals throughout the year.

"Coming off our 25th anniversary, we entered this year with a certain amount of trepidation as to how we could match what was arguably our strongest Festival program ever built upon one of the best years for film in recent memory. After traveling the Festival circuit and watching a record number of submissions, we’re thrilled with this year’s line-up, which again represents the best of film from around the world,” said Executive Director, J. Andrew Greenblatt. 

“From crowd pleasers like our Opening Night film 'I, Tonya' to award contenders like Closing Night film 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'; from thought-provoking documentaries like The New Radical to cutting edge foreign films like 'The Square' and experimental indies like 'Flesh and Blood' from Philly-born director Mark Webber, there’s something for everyone in this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival.”

The film society had previously announced a retrospective called "Demme in Philly" featuring projects of recently-passed director Jonathan Demme which includes "Philadelphia" and "Beloved."

The festival runs from Oct. 19 to Oct. 29.

Here is the full festival line-up:

Opening Night Film

·         I, Tonya, Director Craig Gillespie. 2017, USA.

Closing Night Film

·         Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Director Martin McDonagh. 2017, USA.

Centerpiece Screenings

·         Darkest Hour, Director Joe Wright. 2017, UK.

·         The Florida Project, Director Sean Baker. 2017, USA.

·         Lady Bird, Director Greta Gerwig. 2017, USA.

·         Last Flag Flying, Director Richard Linklater. 2017, USA.

Movie Review: 'The Florida Project' is one of the year's best

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The Florida Project (2017, directed by Sean Baker. U.S.A., English, Color, 115 minutes)
I went into "The Florida Project" completely blind. I had not read a single review, didn't watch any trailers, didn't even really know much on the story. The best perk about going into a movie blind is that you have no expectations about it. It's when the film is over and you realize you saw something great that makes it all worthwhile. "The Florida Project" surprised me immensely, and I loved it.