Over Labor Day weekend every year, the remote, idyllic town of Telluride, Colorado, transforms into a movie lover’s dream. First held in 1974, the Telluride Film Festival has long served as the unofficial kickoff to awards season, and has premiered dozens of eventual Oscar nominees and winners throughout its 50-plus-year existence.
This year was no exception, with the 53rd year of the festival hosting numerous U.S. and world premieres for films that will no doubt rack up plenty of golden statuettes. Expect to hear a lot more about Wild Horse Nine, La Bola Negra and The Debut over the coming months; all three films were met with rave reviews at Telluride and are sure to have a major presence at the Oscars next year.
There were also several illuminating panel discussions with filmmakers, actors and industry experts. The most notable of these was a wide-ranging conversation about AI, featuring both Tristan Harris of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma and none other than Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. Oprah Winfrey was even on hand to moderate a Q&A with mountaineer Jim Morrison, featured in the National Geographic documentary Everest: The Other Side.
In addition to Gates and Winfrey, some of the other famous faces spotted at Telluride included Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Willem Dafoe, Julianne Moore, Barry Jenkins, John Malkovich and Sofia Coppola, just to name a few.
The many celebrity sightings and strong slate of awards contenders would have been enough to generate plenty of buzz for this year’s Telluride Film Festival. But all that was overshadowed by a top-secret screening on Sunday night, when several hundred attendees packed into the Werner Herzog Theatre, surrendered their phones to Yondr pouches and were treated to a jaw-dropping, three-hour documentary from the inimitable mind of Nathan Fielder.
Below is a recap of our thoughts on that film and six others we saw at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival that are sure to make an impression.
Wild Horse Nine
John Malkovich attended the Telluride Film Festival as one of this year’s three Silver Medallion recipients, and the recognition was well-deserved. The veteran actor has been turning in award-worthy work on the big screen for decades, but Wild Horse Nine may be the film that finally nabs him his first Oscar.
Set in Chile shortly before a CIA-backed coup in 1973, Wild Horse Nine continues director Martin McDonagh’s penchant for pitch-black humor and thorny male relationships. Malkovich is a big part of that, delivering a drolly funny and surprisingly moving lead performance as Chris, an eccentric CIA agent with a terminal illness and a mysterious past.
His days numbered, Chris embarks on a trip to Easter Island with his agency partner Lee, played by Sam Rockwell. While there, the two agents become embroiled in a conspiratorial plot that meanders a bit too aimlessly before delivering the goods in a thrilling and satisfying third act. — Clinton Olsasky
Tender Loving Care
No other filmmaker brings the power of empathy to the screen quite like Mike Leigh, and the legendary British director’s latest (and likely last) film is further proof of that.
With Tender Loving Care, Leigh turns his empathetic gaze to two social workers, played by Kate O’Flynn and Alice Bailey Johnson. Their lives unfold alongside an elderly couple at the end of their days, played by Paul Jesson and Marion Bailey, who all but steal the show with a pair of charming, heart-melting performances.
Leigh isn’t interested in showcasing just one or two great actors, though. Instead, every performance in Tender Loving Care works together, forming a more richly layered snapshot of not just a single life but of many lives. It’s a beautiful swan song of a film for Leigh, who now appears to be closing out his incomparable career on a fittingly tender note. — C.O.
Ink
In his latest feature, British director Danny Boyle takes a break from the Rage Virus of his 28 Days Later franchise to focus on another form of infectious outrage: the news.
Set in 1969, Ink outlines the origins of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s early days as a newspaper magnate in London’s printing district. With his trademark kinetic camerawork, Boyle throws viewers into the story during a momentous meeting between Murdoch, played by Guy Pearce, and news editor Larry Lamb, played by Jack O’Connell. Together, the two hatch a plan to revamp an underperforming newspaper into a profitable publication that’s brash, raunchy and loud.
Boyle brings his distinct punk-rock style to the story, resulting in a movie that’s as brash, raunchy and loud as its subject matter. This energy propels the narrative for a while, but it ultimately ends up crashing into a messy combination of sex, drugs, murder and some regrettable uses of AI. — Nicole Baxter
The Debut
The Debut had one of the splashiest, well, debuts at Telluride this year, launching Jesse Eisenberg’s surreal and side-splitting comedy into the upper echelon of Oscar contenders. Featuring a suite of original songs penned by Eisenberg himself, The Debut stars Julianne Moore as Mona, a timid New Jersey housewife who musters up the courage to audition for a musical at her local community theater.
Her audition brings her into the orbit of Jerry, a tough but intensely passionate theater director, played by Paul Giamatti. Jerry puts Mona through the ringer as the opening night of the musical nears, pushing her out of her comfort zone and helping her unlock a previously untapped confidence that, at times, devolves into grandiose delusions.
The Debut marks a big step forward for Eisenberg as a director, who previously impressed with his Oscar-winning film A Real Pain. Here, he finds a perfect balance between broad comedy and pathos, shining a spotlight on the power of art — and, more importantly, community — to transform us from the inside out. — C.O.
Bucking Fastard
Werner Herzog was sadly not in attendance at Telluride this year, but his presence was certainly felt with his first narrative feature in seven years.
Bucking Fastard is loosely inspired by a news item from the 1980s, a bizarre account of a pair of twin sisters who had a restraining order placed on them by the same man. Herzog takes a number of liberties with this story, transplanting the incident to the current day and casting real-life sisters (but non-twins) Rooney and Kate Mara as the women in question.
The Mara sisters are mesmerizing in the dual roles of Jean and Joan, speaking nearly all of their dialogue in unison and bringing both a defiant intensity and childlike naivety to their characters. The film, while never dull, does stray away from a coherent plot at times, but Herzog (mostly) brings it all together in an extended cave sequence that feels like it could have been lifted from one of his breathtaking nature documentaries. — C.O.
Fjord
One of the most anticipated international films to screen at Telluride was Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, which months earlier was awarded the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, securing the Romanian filmmaker the second Palme d’Or of his career. Unlike his previous Palme d’Or winner, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which was set in communist Romania, Mungiu sets Fjord in present-day Scandinavia for an ultra-timely, conversation-sparking family drama.
At the center of it all are husband and wife Mihai and Lisbet, played by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who are forced to defend their parenting practices — and their religious beliefs — in the wake of abuse accusations.
Mungiu has a way of presenting a morally complicated story with a rare degree of neutrality, and Fjord may be his best execution of that kind of storytelling yet. The film has a specific setting and subject matter, but its core message remains universal, warning us of the dangers of political extremism all around us. — N.B.
You Can See Everything
I was lucky enough to be among the few hundred Telluride attendees to see the world premiere of You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder’s latest reality-blurring, mind-bending creation. And I’m still not sure what I experienced.
The nearly three-hour-long documentary is a roller coaster ride of a movie, opening with Fielder gaining unprecedented access to convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, roughly one month before her incarceration in 2023. Yes, that means this film has secretly been in the making for the past three years; but in typical Fielder fashion, where it started is far from where it ends up.
Beautifully shot, impeccably edited and utterly captivating, You Can See Everything marks the full arrival of Fielder as a major cinematic force. You won’t see anything else like it this year because, well, there hasn’t been anything quite like it ever before. — C.O.
