Hot titles, rare treats in store at film festival
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The 2015 Twin Cities Film Festival opening Wednesday will offer some of the fall's hottest film titles. It also aims to showcase some of the best new indie movies, including some with Minnesota ties.
The festival's executive director, Jatin Setia, said it's expanded 200 percent in the last three years. He'll be showing more than 100 films in coming days, introducing many of them personally.
When asked which film he's most excited about, he eventually settled on "Room." It's the much-anticipated adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel about a woman and her child imprisoned for years in a garden shed.
To protect the boy, called Jack, she tells him the room is the entire world. When an opportunity to escape arises, she has to reveal that there's a world outside, and coach the 5-year-old on the plan.
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"I'm scared," Jack says.
"I know. I'm going to be there in your head talking to you the whole time," she tells him as they repeat what he has to do. "Truck. Wiggle out. Jump when the truck slows down. Run. Somebody."
"'Room' just won the Audience [Award] at the Toronto International Film Festival," Setia said. "Which automatically catapults it to one of the top three or four Oscar-buzzed films at the moment."
The word "Oscar" comes up a great deal in conversation with Setia. The Twin Cities Film Festival is timed to run after the studios launch their Oscar contenders at festivals such as Cannes and Toronto.
"We are giving the audience what they are wanting, which is Oscar-contending-buzzed films," he said.
Another festival movie generating excitement is "The 33." It's the dramatization of the 2010 rescue of a group of Chilean miners trapped miles underground.
The director of photography for "The 33" is slated to be at the festival to talk about the craft of cinematography. It's one of several festival panels on the mechanics of filmmaking.
Other big titles include "Brooklyn" with Saoirse Ronan, "The Adderall Diaries" with James Franco and "Youth" with Michael Caine.
A rare appearance by actor and Minnesota native John Hawkes promises to be another highlight. Setia said he's built a long resume in Hollywood, including his Oscar nomination for playing the sinister Uncle Teardrop in "Winter's Bone."
"He was also in 'The Sessions,' with Helen Hunt, which we premiered a couple of years ago at our festival," said Setia. "He did a wonderful job there."
The festival will feature a short retrospective of Hawkes' work and the local premiere of his new film "Too Late." It's a tangled detective story set in Los Angeles. The film lasts one and three-quarters hours, but consists of just five long, complicated shots.
Hawkes plays an unorthodox private eye. He turns up at one interview drunk and bloody, having just crashed his car. He immediately accepts an offer to help himself at the bar.
"Can I offer you one as well?" he asks his hostess.
"No, I don't drink," she says. "Do you want a cigarette?"
"Oh, I don't smoke,' he said.
"Do you want a painkiller?" she asks.
"Not just right now," he slurs. "Isn't it a shame when two people can't agree on a vice?"
The festival also features a strong contingent of documentaries, as well as indie movies. The festival is based at the Showplace Icon Theaters in St Louis Park. It will offer post-screening parties every night, open to anyone who has a ticket that day. Setia described the parties as another way for filmgoers to meet filmmakers.
