5 Films to See at Middleburg 2024
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed | October 16th, 2024
This year’s Middleburg Film Festival—held annually in Middleburg, Virginia—is the 12th iteration of what has become one of the DC region’s important fall events (at least for cinephiles). Running from Thursday, October 17, to Sunday, October 20, with 44 feature films screened, plus assorted conferences and panels (such as one with veteran actress Isabella Rossellini), Middleburg 2024 promises to be as exciting as ever. Among the many highlights—beyond the usual presence of many of the artists at their movies’ Q&As—are the opportunities to see the movies that are sure to be part of the awards conversations in early 2025.
Some of these contenders could include the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Anora or the Colman Domingo-starring Sing Sing or Jacques Audiard’s musical Emilia Pérez (which also scored at Cannes, winning the Jury Prize, aka second place) or Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch (with Amy Adams in the lead) or any of the many other films to watch. Whether they actually win (more) awards or not, they each offer unique viewing experiences. I have seen a number of films playing Middleburg, mostly at previous festivals, and I below list five of them which I can personally recommend, providing excerpts from my review. Once I see more films on the ground in Middleburg, expect some full-length reviews for this site. All titles are hyperlinked to the movie’s page on the Middleburg website, where you will find ticket information.
Anora (Sean Baker) [excerpted from my published Hammer to Nail review]
In his last three features—Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket—director Sean Baker has proven himself extremely adept at soliciting great performances from mostly little-known actors and at crafting incredibly tense moments of thrilling drama. His latest, Anora, though it has a story unlike its predecessors (which were also each narratively unique), shares with them some of the same cinematic DNA and masterful mise-en-scène. Trafficking in sleaze and quasi-exploitation as has increasingly become his wheelhouse, Baker nevertheless hits certain almost-profound beats, though the movie features a little too much reckless mayhem to fully resonate beyond the amusing plot machinations. At the very least, it is rousingly entertaining. It’s also a bit of a mess, both by design and in spite of itself.
I’m Still Here (Walter Salles) [excerpted from my published Film Festival Today review]
Brazil’s military dictatorship lasted 21 years, from 1964-1985. Starting in the 1970s, the government began to crack down with greater force than before on the voices of dissent, or even just on those perceived to potentially offer resistance. Many such unfortunates were “disappeared,” their bodies never to be recovered. If you wonder why today’s Brazil has reacted more strongly to ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts to overturn the results of the last election than has the United States of America to its own recent failed coup, look no further than this recent history. In I’m Still Here, Brazilian director Walter Salles (On the Road) returns to the big screen with his first feature in a decade, taking on his country’s traumatic past in a gripping family drama filled with terrific performances. Based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s eponymous memoir, the movie tells the sad story of the author’s father, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman arrested in 1971, and the resultant devastation weathered by Paiva’s wife, Eunice, and their five children, delivering one emotional gut punch after another.
Santosh (Sandhya Suri) [excerpted from my published Film Festival Today review]
Director Sandhya Suri (Around India with a Movie) moves into narrative filmmaking with Santosh, her fiction debut. The titular lead character is a woman forced to navigate the patriarchal demands of the workplace after her husband, a constable, is killed during a riot. At risk of losing the apartment they shared, Santosh (Shahana Goswami, Zwigato) has few options to remain independent from either her in-laws (who despise her) or her own parents (who infantilize her). And so she gets a job. In Santosh’s Northern Indian province, there is a government initiative in place to bring more women into the police force, so she is effectively offered the exact same position left open by her husband’s death. There’s only one other woman in the unit, and the two are given different tasks than their male counterparts. One such chore is accompanying the body of a recently drowned Dalit (aka “untouchable”) teenage girl to the morgue. That death is what launches the plot into high gear. Santosh offers a compelling story bolstered by strong performances.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof) [excerpted from my published Film Festival Today review]
It’s one thing to suffer for your art; it’s something else entirely to put your life and freedom on the line. Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof (There Is No Evil) was sentenced to 8 years in prison, with flogging on top of that, for his latest movie, The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Fortunately, he managed to escape the country for Europe, where he now resides in exile. It seems as if we cinephiles at least now owe him the courtesy of watching the film that has cost him so dearly. The good news is that the work is strong, if overly long. In its brutal takedown of both the patriarchy and authoritarianism, it mostly avoids polemics in favor of a taut, thrilling plot with vivid characters. You don’t feel the heavy hammer of messaging so much as absorb it with every fiber of your being.
Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar) [excerpted from my published Hammer to Nail review]
A lovely paean to the splendor of humanity, Sing Sing—from longtime cinematic partners Greg Kwedar (Transpecos) and Clint Bentley (Jockey)—offers an inspiring look at how creativity can transform lives in seemingly unlikely places. The film presents a dramatization of the great work done by the organization Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), which brings arts programs into prisons. If RTA’s real-life results are anything like what we see here, then it should be in every prison in America. Though there are many people who were once incarcerated starring in the movie, lead character Divine G—based on John “Divine G” Whitfield, an early participant in RTA—is played by the great Colman Domingo (If Beale Street Could Talk). Convicted of a crime he insists he did not commit, Divine G may hope for exoneration or clemency but is otherwise fully invested in making life inside the titular prison more than merely bearable; through his actions and those with whom he collaborates, it can be beautiful. These men—mostly men of color, given the vast inequities of our prison system—refuse to be reduced to the time they serve, insisting on their value as individuals, and in Sing Sing, they each sing loudly, indeed.
Among the other films I can recommend are: Conclave, director Edward Berger’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front; journalist Shiori Itō’s personal documentary Black Box Diaries; Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These, adapted from Irish writer’s Claire Keegan’s novella probing the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries, starring Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer); and The Wild Robot, Chris Sanders’ animated adaptation of Peter Brown’s eponymous illustrated children’s series. See you at the fest!