The 13th iteration of the annual Middleburg Film Festival—which takes place in Middleburg, Virginia—runs from Thursday, October 16, to Sunday, October 19, with 47 feature films, a documentary series, and assorted presentations and panels all coming together in a vibrant cinematic mix. As always, what makes Middleburg special is the programming and the fact that so many participating artists come to the event. It’s a great way to get a glimpse of what may be the awards-contenders of the year.
Among those attending this are the following: Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), receiving the fest’s Visionary Director Award and bringing her latest, Hamnet to screen; Oscar-nominated actor Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), receiving the Spotlight Actor Award and starring in Edward Berger’s newest film, Ballad of a Small Player; actress Rose Byrne (Juliet, Naked), receiving the Agnès Varda Trailblazing Film Artist Award for her performance in another movie playing the fest, Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You; and Iranian director Jafar Panahi (No Bears), receiving the Impact Award and bringing his Cannes Palme d’Or-winner It Was Just an Accident with him. They are not alone. You’ll have to come see for yourself who else is there.
I have seen a number of films playing at this year’s Middleburg, whether at previous festivals or through advance screeners. Below are five which I can personally recommend; where I have previously reviewed the film, I provide an excerpt from that review and link to the full text. All titles are hyperlinked to the movie’s page on the Middleburg website, where you will find ticket information.
Billy Idol Should Be Dead (Jonas Åkerlund) [excerpted from my published Hammer to Nail review]
Born in Middlesex, England, in 1955, William Michael Albert Broad would go on to international fame in the 1980s as pop star Billy Idol. With deep roots in the previous decade’s punk scene, Idol rode to the top of the charts courtesy of his unique baritone voice and catchy tunes married to an outsider aesthetic. In Billy Idol Should Be Dead, a new documentary from director Jonas Åkerlund, we follow our subject’s career from past to present, learning all about his very high highs and very low lows. Expect a lot of sex, drugs, and rock & roll.
Come See Me in the Good Light (Ryan White)
Prolific documentarian Ryan White, whose work spans a great variety of topics—from Catholic-school scandals in Baltimore (Netflix’s The Keepers series) to Dr. Ruth Westheimer (Ask Dr. Ruth) to North Korean political assassinations (Assassins) to Martian rovers (Good Night Oppy)—returns to screens with his latest, Come See Me in the Good Light. It’s a somber, if also simultaneously uplifting, profile of the late spoken-word poet Andrea Gibson as they and their partner, writer Megan Falley, weather the news of, and treatment for, Gibson’s ovarian cancer. Films about impending death are never easy to watch, but when done well, as this one is, they remind us of why life is so precious to begin with.
It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, mentioned in the above intro, never shies away from direct confrontation with his country’s totalitarian regime, and has paid the price for it. In It Was Just an Accident, however, he takes his interest in how humans respond under pressure to another level, exploring what one group of formerly tortured individuals might do if they spotted (or though they spotted) their interrogator on the street. Would they pursue a vengeance that makes them no better than the government they despise? And what if they’re wrong about the man’s identity? Here, each person must decide where they stand on the issue once events spiral out of control (and they do, quickly). You will be challenged to figure out what you would do.
Rebuilding (Max Walker-Silverman)
Max Walker-Silverman’s debut feature, the 2022 A Love Song, was noteworthy for—among other reasons—its performances from seasoned actors getting their due on screen. In his sophomore effort, Rebuilding, what stands out the most is the performance of the youngest actor in the ensemble, Lily LaTorre, and this despite the presence of the always excellent Josh O’Connor (La Chimera). She plays his daughter, Callie Rose, and he plays Dusty, who as the film begins has just lost everything on his Colorado ranch following a devastating wildfire. As mellow and as moving as his first movie, and as beautifully photographed, Rebuilding shows how seemingly minimalist storytelling can deliver the highest of emotional stakes.
The Tale of Silyan (Tamara Kotevska) [excerpted from my published Hammer to Nail review]
No one needs me to tell them that the world is changing around us, and not for the better. Climate change is real, the rich screw the poor, and working stiffs find it ever harder to survive in the human-eat-human universe out there. In The Tale of Silyan, director Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland) trains her documentary lens on the village of Češinovo, in her native Macedonia, home to the largest population of white storks in the world. It’s a gorgeous movie, and also a profoundly sad one.
Two other films I can recommend and which I have already reviewed at Film Festival Today are: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) and Rian Johnston’s latest Knives Out caper, Wake Up Dead Man. See you at the fest!
Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.