SBIFF Film Recommendations During Quarantine

Dear Cinephiles, “You’re on your way to something, don’t stop.” I previously recommended to you the documentary “Time” (2020) which documents the 20 year ordeal of a wife trying to get her husband paroled from Angola. Garret Bradley has been reaping awards, and it was...

Dear Cinephiles, “The boy needs a female figure. Someone who commands respect.” Lola, the trans prostitute stops in to visit her son Babu who’s being looked after by 86-year old Mama Rosa, as she’s known to everyone. Rosa doesn’t get paid much for the favor, so Lola’s...

Dear Cinephiles, Palmer: “I know what it feels like to be left alone.” One of my dearest friends is a top chef, and a few days ago I was surprised to hear that he was making mac and cheese for dinner. “Roger, once in a while we need some well-made comfort food,” he...

Dear Cinephiles, Julian Marsh: “Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It's the lives of all these people who've worked with you....

Dear Cinephiles, “One of the things I love most about this life is that there’s no final goodbye. I’ve met hundreds of people out here, and they don’t ever say a final goodbye. They’ll just say, ‘I’ll see you down the road.’ And I do. I see them again. And I can be...

Dear Cinephiles, “You can murder a freedom fighter, but you can’t murder freedom.” Last fall, Aaron Sorkin delivered his timely and compelling “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which covered the federal government’s 1969 charging of seven activists with conspiracy arising...

Dear Cinephiles, Woman outside store: "Were you really Mac Sledge?" Mac: "Yes ma'am, I guess I was." That exchange happens in “Tender Mercies” (1983), and like the film itself, it is a very understated moment. But then you start thinking about it, and the question...

Dear Cinephiles, “Suo tempore.” (Everything in its time.) Midnight on a Friday evening meant creature feature on television in Panama. My brother and I would get dispensation from our parents to stay up late and watch. The station would repeat some titles, and I...

Dear Cinephiles, “Things that hide are more dangerous and scary,” says grandma to the unruly seven-year old David as they come across a snake in Lee Isaac Chung’s kindhearted and far-reaching “Minari” (2020). She’s recently arrived from Korea with seeds in her pockets...

Dear Cinephiles, Dr. Alec Harvey : “I do love you, so very much. I love you with all my heart and soul.” Laura Jesson : “I want to die. If only I could die...” Dr. Alec Harvey : “If you'd die, you'd forget me. I want to be remembered.” “Brief Encounter”(1945) is one...

Dear Cinephiles, “Is it the frank or the beans?” We see the set-up – something so outrageous -- and it doesn’t stop. Everything up until this moment has been raunchy –– but you laugh. We all enjoy bathroom humor at some point in our lives – and this is taking it to...

Dear Cinephiles, “I just didn’t know how to tell you how I felt. And I think I’m not used to needing anyone. But I need you.” As we head into Valentine’s weekend, I’ve been thinking about love stories on the screen and wanted to find something new. I’m glad I found...

Dear Cinephiles, “I want to be with you. And that what’s needed to be said.” I think one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with is allowing myself to fall in love and be loved. I was a loner most of my life – and enjoyed being that way. I was always very private...

Dear Cinephiles, Damiel : “It's great to live by the spirit, to testify day by day for eternity, only what's spiritual in people's minds. But sometimes I'm fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above I'd like to feel a weight grow in me to...

Dear Cinephiles, “You always wanted to hold my hand when you were little.” I was meeting with the SBIFF staff via Zoom on Friday when we heard of Christopher Plummer’s death. There was a pause in our conversation, and a sinking feeling. Everybody loved Mr. Plummer –...

Dear Cinephiles, “Everybody has a mother.” One of Hollywood’s legendary actresses, Joan Crawford campaigned to get the role that would ultimately yield her Best Actress Oscar, for “Mildred Pierce” (1945). She hadn’t worked in two years. Her 18-year career at Metro...

Dear Cinephiles, “And when you say ‘No, no, no it's not true, nothing is missing from the relationship,’ the person you're involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with, which you probably are. I mean, come on, who...

Dear Cinephiles, Ramona: “Desperate, I love that word. It’s so romantic.” I think everyone has felt at some point or another like switching places with someone else or trying to understand how someone else lives. The grass is always greener, isn’t it? In the beguiling...

Dear Cinephiles, “I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within. Here is where the birds sing. Here is where the sky is blue.” The above sentiment is what has gotten me through the worst moments of the past 11 months. Being confined to our homes – to staring at...

Dear Cinephiles, “I just want something for myself.” Those words are expressed by Turquoise Jones in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ phenomenal debut – “Miss Juneteenth” (2020). She is a black woman in Fort Worth, Texas who has had her dream deferred. Sixteen years ago,...

Billy Ray Valentine: “What if I can't do this job, Coleman? What if I'm not what they expected?” Coleman: “Just be yourself, sir. Whatever happens, they can't take that away from you.” My dear Cinephile reader, I never expected to be writing to you on a consistent...

Dear Cinephiles, Jim Stark: “If I had one day when I didn't have to be all confused and I didn't have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know?” One of the positive things that have come out of the past year has been that...

Dear Cinephiles, “You call it luck. I call it destiny.” I can’t remember the last time I felt the sense of excitement and thrills I did while watching again John Huston’s “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975). It has a way of making you feel like a little kid all over...

Dear Cinephiles, Solange : “Sweetie, guys like that don't hang out in Rochefort.” Delphine : “Not right now. He's in Paris. He did my portrait.” Solange : “Who is it? You never mentioned him.” Delphine : “A painter. I don't know him. He exists and he loves me. But...

Dear Cinephiles, “You wanna believe there’s good guys and bad guys, and I’m one of the bad guys. But I give these men respect.” One of cinema’s greatest actors – Alfre Woodard – reaffirms her virtuosity in one of the last scenes in the powerful drama “Clemency”...

Dear Cinephiles, “Get your hands off them guns. I’m Orvis Goodnight! Record producer, you understand?! I live right across the street from here. Well, I don’t get this kind of service. No sir.! Two weeks ago a thief tried to break into my house. I called the police....

Dear Cinephiles, “Barry was one of those born clever enough at gaining a fortune, but incapable of keeping one, for the qualities and energies which lead a man to achieve the first are often the very cause of his ruin in the latter case.” My father proudly displayed...

Dear Cinephiles, “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” One of the greatest plays of all time was successfully adapted into film: “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) is exemplary and even if you’ve seen a production of Tennessee Williams’ drama, the movie version is...

Dear Cinephiles, “I like it here. It’s safe.” I like the full spectrum of cinema. I like the high-brow stuff – diving into profound subjects that startle me and keep me on my toes. I also like commercial fare. I like escapism – the idea of disconnecting and letting...

Dear Cinephiles, “It’s land Sandra, going to waste. Use it. Build a house for you and your girls.” If life as you know it is crumbling around you and you need to rebuild its foundation – not just for your own sake but for your children’s, why not go and literally...

Dear Cinephiles, Clyde Barrow: “You know what you done there? You told my story, you told my whole story right there, right there. One time, I told you I was gonna make you somebody. That's what you done for me. You made me somebody they're gonna remember.” ...And...

Dear Cinephiles, “You’re aware of all your behavior yet you continue doing things that aren’t good for you. That sounds sort of foolish.” People who love each other and spend a lot of time together develop a banter between them that if witnessed by outsiders would...

Dear Cinephiles, “At times, life is hard, as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and painful moments. Like the ever-flowing water of a river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the...

Dear Cinephiles, “You see the important thing is the rhythm. You must always have rhythm in your shaking. Now, a Manhattan, you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time. The dry martini you always shake to waltz time.” As someone who loves shaking cocktails as...

Dear Cinephiles, “You cannot capture a man's entire life in two hours. All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.“ A few weeks back I wrote to you about Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” (1941) and its importance. I also mentioned that I would recommend you...

Dear Cinephiles, Mr. Green: “Have you come here to hurt me?” Cassie: “Do you want me to hurt you?” “Promising Young Woman” (2020) is going to entertain and keep you riveted as it makes unexpected turns, but it’s going to definitely make you feel uncomfortable at...

Dear Cinephiles, “You ain't dealt me no cards in a long time. It's beginning to look like you got things fixed so I can't never win out. Inside, outside, all of them... rules and regulations and bosses. You made me like I am. Now just where am I supposed to fit in?”...

Dear Cinephiles, “I’m a ballplayer.” I’ve talked to you about movies that I love and then watch again only to find my admiration grow. But recently I got to sit down to revisit “Love & Basketball” (2000), a film that I had seen and gave a passing grade when it came...

Dear Cinephiles, Karen: “I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide. But I didn’t. I got to admit the truth. It turned me on.” It is exhilarating - and it’s a continuous three...

Dear Cinephiles, “There’s a cure for everything – except death.” Vittorio DeSica’s “Bicycle Thieves” (1948) is another film that every serious cinephile needs to have checked out at least once. This film has not aged a bit. The opposite. Given the heightened poverty...

Dear Cinephiles, “And remember don’t give your heart to any boys. You’re mine. until you get married. Then you’re still mine.” Early in Sofia Coppola’s newest gift (and yes, I consider new films from my top five directors to be gifts) Felix, an irrepressible Bill...

Dear Cinephiles, “I’ve never healed anything this bad before, it’s going to take time.” The idea that we cannot find commonality, that we have to destroy what we don’t understand or don’t like – that instead, we should unite to help our neighbors – to combat fear and...

Dear Cinephiles, “Do you ever feel your life has turned into something you never intended?” Tom Ford is a great designer – but the man also knows his cinema, and how to make good movies. I’ve been frustrated that he’s only made two – but they’re both exemplary....

Dear Cinephiles, 'The blues help you get out of bed in the morning. You get up knowing you ain't alone. There's something else in the world. Something's been added by that song. This be an empty world without the blues.' - Ma Rainey George C. Wolfe is one of the best...

Dear Cinephiles, Ali: “Why do you cry?” Emmi: “Because I’m so happy on the one hand, and on the other I can’t bear it anymore. All this hatred from everyone. I always pretend I don’t care, but I do.” Rainer Werner Fassbinder has always had a special place in my...

Dear Cinephiles, Professor Siletsky : “I wonder if you really know what Nazism really stands for?” Maria Tura : “I have a slight idea” Professor Siletsky : “In the final analysis, all we're trying to do is create a happy world.” Maria Tura : “And people who don't want...

Dear Cinephiles, Andy Dufresne: “There are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.” Red: “What're you talking about?” Andy: “Hope.” In 2020, we’ve been battered –...

Dear Cinephiles, Su Li-zhen Chan : “You notice things if you pay attention.” Heed that wisdom. “In the Mood for Love” (2000) by maestro Wong Kar-wai is on my top-ten. The list shifts, but this one always remains in it. I’m not alone in claiming this film to be one of...

Dear Cinephiles, Will : “My life is made up of units of time. Buying CDs - two units. Eating lunch - three units. Exercising - two units. All in all, I had a very full life. It's just that it didn't mean anything.” Evolving is not an easy thing. From the moment I was...

Dear Cinephiles, “Eddie and Jean met and fell in love. Eddie and Jean got married and bought a house. Eddie and Jean were gonna have a kid but didn’t. So, every morning, Eddie kisses Jean, Eddie leaves the house, and Jean’s alone.” There’s quite a dazzling moment in...