SBIFF Film Recommendations During Quarantine

Dear Cinephiles, Gaz : “So, uh, Horse... What can you do?” Horse : “I dunno, really... Let's see, there's the, uh... the bump, the stomp, the bus stop... My breakdancing days are probably over, but there's always the funky chicken.” One of the hardest things that...

Dear Cinephiles, “You guys are soft. You know what makes you that way? You’re up to your necks in IOUs. You’re suckers. You’ve always had it good, so you’re soft.” “The Hitch-Hiker” (1953) is a taut, nerve-rattling seventy-one minutes of pure cinematic pleasure....

Dear Cinephiles, “...Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything - real feelings, true happiness, real joy. They can't get through that fog. But you lift it, and buddy, you're in for the ride of your life.” A few weeks back I was chatting...

Dear Cinephiles, “It feels like something important is happening around me, and it scares me.” I don’t know if you ever been surrounded by a set of coincidences and events that feel unexplainable. Exactly three years ago while on vacation, my partner and I went to...

Dear Cinephiles, “What’s in the past is in the past.” The past plays an essential part in Jayro Bustamante’s impressive “La Llorona” (2019) which is Guatemala’s official selection for the Oscars Best International Feature, and has made the shortlist of fifteen films....

Dear Cinephiles, “Well to make it in this country, you need to be brave. And stupid, and ruthless, and focused, because playing fair, being scared, that gets you nowhere. That gets you beat.” She’s one of the most striking characters you’ve seen in a long time. When...

Dear Cinephiles, “We doctors are no longer human. It’s all about money.” “Collective” (2019) is one of the best documentaries. Scratch that, it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. In gripping fashion, it attentively follows the efforts of a heroic group of...

Dear Cinephiles, “No one can serve his parents beyond the grave.” For the past week, I’ve been thinking about Yasujiro Ozu and his lasting influence on cinema, and that it was about time I wrote about him. During a recent conversation with Lee Isaac Chung about his...

Dear Cinephiles, Edee: “Why are you helping me?” Miguel: “You were in my path.” In the days following March 17, 2020, I felt as if the walls were encroaching on me. I know we’d been told that we were supposed to shelter in place for only two weeks, but the idea of...

Dear Cinephiles, “The world is never as you expect.” In the opening scene of the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s new film, “Another Round,” which is currently shortlisted for the Oscar Best International Feature, a group of high school students participate in what...

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...