San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Cover story
Busy weekend expected as celebrities, movie buffs head to Mill Valley
A look at the 2018 Mill Valley Film Festival: Pictured: A still from the centerpiece film, Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma.”
The 11-day Mill Valley Film Festival won’t be wasting any time when it opens Oct. 4, as celebrities, filmmakers and movie lovers converge on Marin County to view some of the most highly anticipated films of the awards season. Academy Award nominee Rosamund Pike and director Matthew Heineman will be in Mill Valley to screen one of the opening night films, “A Private War,” about fearless war correspondent Marie Colvin. Up the road in San Rafael, Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and director Peter Farrelly will appear for the U.S. premiere of the second opening night film, “Green Book,” the real-life tale of a Jamaican American pianist who ventures to the Deep South of the 1960s.
And that’s just the first day.
In the four days after that, the festival will unspool some of its most formidable films, including the centerpiece, “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s intimate yet epic love letter to the Mexico City of his youth. The internationally acclaimed director and Oscar winner will be at-
tending the festival for the first time.
Also on the early docket are the meth-addiction tale “Beautiful Boy” (with Timothée Chalamet, Amy Ryan and director Felix Van Groeningen in person); the family drama “Wildlife” (with Carey Mulligan and director Paul Dano in person); the gay conversion therapy drama “Boy Erased” (with actor-director Joel Edgerton in person); the police-shooting drama “The Hate U Give” (with Amandla Stenberg in person); and the North American premiere of the family drama “The Parting Glass” (with Anna Paquin, Denis O’Hare and director Stephen Moyer in person).
I see documentary filmmakers making narrative films, and narrative films using documentary techniques. That’s really healthy — filmmakers being stimulated by each other’s work.
Mark Fishkin, executive director, Mill Valley Film Festival
Throughout its run, the event will be packed with foreign films, documentaries and Bay Area movies. In all, the festival will screen 204 films — 108 features and 96 shorts.
The closing-night film will be “If Beale Street Could Talk,” a romantic drama from “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins, who also will be in attendance.
Mark Fishkin, executive director of the festival, noted that the lineup features many more true-life or real-event films than in the past, perhaps a nod to our current political times. He also spotted a few other interesting trends:
“A lot of films are being made with non-professional talent. I see documentary filmmakers making narrative films, and narrative films using documentary techniques. That’s really healthy — filmmakers being stimulated by each other’s work. And audiences are flocking to these kinds of films.”
Zoe Elton, the festival’s chief programmer, was impressed by the caliber of women’s roles:
“I’m thinking of Rosamund Pike in ‘A Private War,’ Nicole Kidman in ‘Destroyer,’ Carey Mulligan in ‘Wildlife,’ Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in ‘The Favourite,’ Amandla Stenberg in ‘The Hate U Give,’ and the incomparable Viola Davis in ‘Widows.’
“We have a lot of very powerful performances that portray unconventional women, ones who are being uncompromisingly themselves. Sometimes badass, sometimes just bad!”
David Lewis is a Bay Area freelance writer.