Last week, I traveled across the state for the Seattle International Film Festival, which, in its 49th year, showcased more than 250 features and 125 shorts. Because most of these movies don’t yet have U.S. distribution, you’re often walking into the theater not knowing what you’re going to get. During my time at the festival, I didn’t see any masterpieces, but I didn’t see any outright duds, either.
I’ll start off with a handful of entertaining documentaries, including A Disturbance in the Force, which is about the legendarily bad Star Wars Holiday Special that aired once on CBS in 1978. It was a head-on collision between the past and future of entertainment, and even though no one wants to take the blame for it, it has become an unlikely cult object.
Another funny, affectionate doc is Being Mary Tyler Moore, which is now airing on HBO. This is one of those straightforward biographies the network does well, tracking Moore’s life and career on her way to anchoring one of the most influential sitcoms of all time. It’s a relatively ordinary movie about an extraordinary woman, but it’s still worthwhile.
And one more documentary: Penny Lane’s Confessions of a Good Samaritan, in which the filmmaker turns her camera on herself as she prepares to donate a kidney to a complete stranger. It’s another of Lane’s wry examinations of the unusual back channels of American culture.
I also saw a few queer-centric narratives from around the world, all anchored by impressive performances. The first, L’immensità, was probably the best film I saw at SIFF, director Emanuele Crialese’s evocation of growing up in early 1970s Italy as a trans kid. It’s a heartfelt roman à clef featuring great work by Penélope Cruz as a mother who is eccentric one moment and brittle the next.
Mutt is a first-time feature from Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, a day-in-the-life drama about a trans man who must contend with estranged family members and an ex-boyfriend who reappears in his life. Star Lío Mehiel, who won an award at this year’s Sundance, is an actor to look out for. And Blue Jean is also a debut feature, this time from writer-director Georgia Oakley. It’s a riveting, ultimately hopeful drama set in England during the final years of the Thatcher era, where a lesbian gym teacher’s private life nearly becomes public when one of her students begins frequenting the same bar she does.
And then there’s Dreamin’ Wild, a biopic that tells the distinctly Inland Northwest story of Fruitland musicians Donnie and Joe Emerson, whose teenage album was rediscovered and acclaimed 30 years after it was recorded. As he did in his terrific Beach Boys film Love & Mercy, writer-director Bill Pohlad slips through time in an impressionistic way, telling a warm, lowkey story about the complicated nature of artistic success. Dreamin’ Wild was shot last year in Spokane and Fruitland, and features Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanel, Walton Goggins and Beau Bridges. It’s set to be released theatrically in August.
If you missed the Seattle International Film Festival in person, you can still catch a collection of features and shorts on the festival’s streaming site through May 28. Visit siff.net to see the lineup.