Photos: Virginia Film Festival
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Every artist who hits it big faces an inevitable question: What do I do for a follow-up? Bruce Springsteen confronted it after his fifth album, The River, topped the charts in 1980. Instead of trying to create another commercial smash, he produced Nebraska, a deeply personal acoustic album that surprised fans and critics alike with its lo-fi sound and lyrics influenced by Woody Guthrie, Flannery O’Connor, and films such as The Grapes of Wrath and Badlands.
Director Scott Cooper, an Abingdon native and Virginia Film Festival Advisory Board member, adapts Warren Zane’s 2003 book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, which spotlights Springsteen at a pivotal point in his career. Jeremy Allen White plays Springsteen, with Jeremy Strong as the Boss’ longtime manager Jon Landau, and Paul Walter Hauser as Mike Batlan, who was the recording engineer on Nebraska. 10/22, The Paramount Theater
The Choral
This is what’s known in the film industry as a class act: writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner (The Madness of King George, The Lady in the Van), in their first cinematic collaboration in 10 years, plus Ralph Fiennes, fresh from his Oscar-nominated role in Conclave. And, as a special bonus, the music of Edward Elgar, too. Mark Addy and Roger Allam co-star in this comedy-drama, set in 1916 Yorkshire, where the arrival of an eccentric new choir master Dr. Henry Guthrie (Fiennes) creates discord among the locals, most of whom are already on edge because of the ongoing war against the Kaiser. Gossip about Guthrie having spent years in Germany and possibly being an atheist does not endear him to the already suspicious residents. Guthrie navigates many tricky personal issues to assemble a choir and get this particular show on the road. 10/26, The Paramount Theater
Hamnet
That’s not a typo in the title: Hamnet is adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 best-selling novel, set in 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) directs Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as a couple struggling to hold together their marriage in the face of crushing challenges. Agnes is a healer (although some whisper she’s a witch). William is a tutor and a frustrated would-be writer. And they are known as the Shakespeares.
While Zhao’s mega-budgeted Marvel extravaganza Eternals was certainly less than marvelous, Hamnet looks like a solid comeback. The film is already generating awards-season buzz after its screenings at the Telluride and Toronto International film festivals (where Hamnet collected the coveted People’s Choice Award) last month. “Altogether magnificent,” says Toronto Star critic Peter Howell, while Monica Castillo of rogerebert.com says, “It almost feels like a romantic fairytale.” 10/26, The Paramount Theater
Urchin
With his performances in Beach Rats, Triangle of Sadness, The Iron Claw, and opposite Nicole Kidman in the screen-scorching Babygirl, Harris Dickinson has cultivated a reputation as a versatile, always compelling actor. With Urchin, he’s hoping to make his mark as a screenwriter and director. Dickinson is off to an auspicious start: Urchin won the International Federation of Film Critics prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and its leading man, Frank Dillane, was chosen as best actor in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
Dillane plays Mike, a Londoner struggling with addiction and homelessness, hoping to change his luck. Further complicating his quest are unsettling visions and disturbing memories that keep surfacing when Mike least expects them. Los Angeles Times critic Glenn Whipp: “a filmmaker to watch.” 10/23, Violet Crown 6 and 7
The Plague
Adolescence can make anyone feel like they’re constantly on the verge of drowning, as they try to deal with changing bodies, fickle friends, parents who never seem to understand, and the crushing weight of peer pressure. So it is with Ben (Everett Blunck), a 12-year-old who is desperate to fit in at Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp. As Ben tries to win favor with charismatic big fish Jake (Kayo Martin), he realizes that clicking with the popular clique may be far trickier—and perhaps dangerous—than he anticipated: He’s swimming with sharks, and there’s no lifeguard on duty.
The Plague marks the directorial debut of Charlie Polinger, who also wrote the screenplay, which has drawn comparisons to Lord of the Flies and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. It was inspired by Polinger’s own less-than-heartwarming personal experiences at sports camps 20 years ago. 10/24, Violet Crown 5
Sentimental Value
Four years ago, Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier brought The Worst Person in the World to the Virginia Film Festival, and the comedy-drama went on to garner Academy Award nominations, as well as numerous accolades for its leading lady, Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve. Reinsve and Trier have reteamed for Sentimental Value, a look at two different sisters trying to come to terms with each other and with their father, a once-renowned film director.
Anxiety-rattled stage star Nora (Reinsve) inherited her dad’s obsession with building a career. Her much mellower sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), chose marriage, motherhood, and domesticity. Their selfish, self-absorbed and long-estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), is planning a cinematic tribute to his own mom, much to the dismay of Nora and Agnes. Elle Fanning plays the American star Gustav wants as the lead for his comeback picture. 10/24, Culbreth Theatre
Nouvelle Vague
Director Richard Linklater shook up the indie cinema scene 35 years ago with his debut feature Slacker. So, who better to examine the salad days of Jean-Luc Godard, another auteur who sent out cinematic shockwaves in 1960 with Breathless (A bout de souffle), his first movie? Shot in black and white, Nouvelle Vague sweeps us back to the boulevards of Paris in the late 1950s, as the defiantly unconventional Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) nonchalantly shatters all the rules of filmmaking. Who needs a script? Godard prefers to scribble down ideas on café napkins. Who needs to record dialogue? The actors can dub in their lines later. Godard’s stars are former boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) and American ingenue Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch). Although it could have been an unsalvageable mess, Breathless became a worldwide hit, turned Belmondo and Seberg into icons, and helped to ignite the French New Wave. 10/26, Culbreth Theatre
Train Dreams
Train Dreams is based on Denis Johnson’s novella about a logger who joins a railroad crew in 1917 Idaho. Joel Edgerton plays hard-luck victim Robert Grainier, who observes an ever-changing world over the course of 50 years; Felicity Jones plays his devoted wife, Gladys, and the supporting cast features sterling character actors including William H. Macy, Paul Schneider, and Kerry Condon.
The industry buzz says director Clint Bentley has finally given Edgerton the role that may propel him into the awards spotlight, after years of superb performances in everything from The Great Gatsby to Master Gardener to The Green Knight. “In a largely quiet role, Edgerton must convey everything through his face and body language,” writes Screen Rant critic Mae Abdulbaki, “and he’s captivating.” 10/25, The Paramount Theater
