As usual, there are north of 400 movies to choose from. I
told you it was a marathon. For some, this represents their public debut, while
others have made the festival rounds, gathering hype and looking for
distribution along the way. There’s fast-paced action, gut-punching
documentaries, twee indie comedies, sophisticated drama, horror (though a
woefully scant selection this year), sci-fi (there’s usually a woefully scant
selection), and pretty much anything else you’re looking for.
Because there are so many movies at SIFF, here’s a handy
dandy list of movies we’re excited to see. There are a few titles we’ve been
waiting for since earlier fests, a handful of outliers, and some that just
sound rad. And as is the case most years, our must-see list will likely evolve
over the course of the fest.
The Big Sick
Riding a wave of hype coming out of Sundance, Kumail
Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon mine their own real-life story for relationship
comedy The Big Sick. Directed by Michael Showalter and
starring Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, a couple has to navigate one-night stands,
cultural differences, and medical problems as their relationship grows and
evolves.
Landline
Gillian Robespiere totally killed it in 2014 with
Obvious Child, you know, the abortion rom-com. Now she’s
reteamed with Jenny Slate for Landline. Set in 1995, it
follows three female members of a New York family—Slate, Edie Falco, and Abby
Quinn—as they discover the father/husband is having an affair. And we know it
won’t be a simple and straightforward as that.
Bad Black
I’ve already seen this slice of Wakaliwood madness, and
unless something truly blows my hair back, this will go down as my favorite
movie of SIFF 2017. Shot on video for no money in a Ugandan slum, Bad
Black filters that experience through insane, American-style action
antics. Borderline incoherent, the plot includes a rags-to-riches gangster
story and a mild-mannered doctor “trained in the art of ass-kicking commando
vengeance by a no-nonsense ghetto kid named Wesley Snipes.” Even that fails to
do justice to the onscreen insanity. Just watch this and prepare to have your
brain melt.
Jungle Trap
I’m a sucker for long-lost shot-on-video oddities made by
lunatics, and as such, legendary maniac James Bryan’s (Lady Street
Fighter, Don’t Go in the Woods, Hell
Riders) recently unearthed Jungle Trap, about a
jungle hotel haunted by murderous ghosts, is a must watch. I’m even planning to
brave the lone screening, a midnight show, which is so far past my bedtime it’s
not even funny.
The Little Hours
A period comedy about foul-mouthed sex nuns starring Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, John C. Reilly, Dave Franco, and Nick Offerman? You had me
at hello. But this is the type of movie that proudly flaunts a scathing review
from the Catholic Church, which makes me want it even more.
Endless Poetry
An 88-year-old Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surrealist
autobiographical film. Need I say more?
The Door
A blue-collar Chinese auto mechanic discovers a door that
whisks him away to an alternate reality where he’s rich playboy. That right
there is enough to get me to watch your movie.
Nocturama
Described by one review as a “hipster French terrorism
picture,” Bertrand Bonello’s portrait of young radicals looks compelling and
provocative, and I’ve have it on good authority from people I trust that it
rules.
The Bar
Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia is a damn lunatic,
creating unhinged sensory assaults like The Last Circus,
The Day of the Beast, 800 Bullets, and
more. So you better believe I’m into The Bar, a condensed
thriller about a group of people trapped in a café by a rogue sniper.
Bad Day for the Cut
A mild-mannered Irish farmer pushed too far going after
revenge on the criminal who killed his mother. It’s apparently bloody and raw,
and that’s all I really need from this movie.
The Oath
Icelandic action filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur wrote,
directed, and stars in The Oath, a nasty little suspense
thriller about a father trying to pull his daughter out of the seedy
underworld. Kind of like Taken, but I imagine more brutal.
Wind River
After penning Sicario and Hell
or High Water, Taylor Sheridan serves as both writer and director on
Wind River, a thriller about a newbie FBI agent and a
grizzled tracker teaming up to solve a murder on an Indian Reservation. With a
cast including Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Jon Bernthal (all three Marvel
veterans, oddly enough), Graham Greene, and others, this isn’t one to miss.
Meatball Machine Kodoku
When I first wrote about Meatball Machine Kodoku last year, I described it as “heavy metal, blood, and machine
gun boobs…and blood.” That assessment hasn’t changed, but the latest from
unhinged Tokyo Gore Police mastermind Yoshihiro Nishimura
looks like a spectacle of blood geysers, violence, and insanity. AKA, exactly
what you hope for from the gore master.
There are, of course, tons of other titles worth a look.
Cartel Land helmer Matthew Heineman’s latest, City
of Ghosts, looks at the fight against ISIS. Moka
is a quiet, continually surprising revenge thriller about a grieving mother.
Lake Bodom has been a staple on the recent festival circuit
and is one of the few horror movies at SIFF this year. Casey Affleck may be a
piece of human garbage, but David Lowery has yet to do me wrong, and A
Ghost Story looks fantastic. I’m not entirely sure what The
Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume One is all about, but it looks
nuts and I can’t wait to find out.
Some of these I’ll see, others I’ll miss. Some I’ll regret
seeing, others I’ll be sad to skip. I’ll randomly watch some that will
disappoint me, and check out a few that blow me away. At some point in the
midst of all of this, I’ll catch a nasty bug and spend two or three days flat
on my ass. That’s just how SIFF always goes. And I wouldn’t have it any other
way.
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