It was an absolute privilege to attend the lively Film Fest 919, founded by industry professionals Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall, one of the most poignant events in Chapel Hill, if not the entire state of North Carolina.
(Director J.D. Dillard and Producer Rachel Smith at the Premiere of their film Devotion (2022).
Here are my film takeaways of the festival starting from the premiere of Devotion (2022) to Women Talking (2022) on Day two of the Festival. *Minor spoilers*.
The 919 Film Festival opened with what many would consider a surefire crowd pleaser that did very little for me once the layers of saccharine sentimentality and sanitized war scenes were unmasked to reveal a very poorly crafted propaganda piece for the US Navy corps masquerading as a feel good bromance. The script falls into the trappings of trying to be so politically correct to modern sensibilities that the film wants you to believe the Marines were almost a bastion of racial tolerance in the 1950s except for a few microagressions. Jonathen Majors is the stand out of the film as Jesse Brown, the first Black man in the aviator program in the Navy, while Glen Powell is unfortunately sidelined in the woefully underwritten role of Tom Hudner. This is a film that depends on viewers to believe a fanciful notion that a proxy war is necessary and that joining the Navy will be a benefit instead of a form of being sacrificed for the military industrial complex. A fallacious propaganda piece that is destined to be used as a recruitment tool for future recruits, especially for young disenfranchised Black youth who will come to falsely believe that dying for their the United States (which continues to slide further back to Jim Crow era politics in present day) is a great honor and not the egregious tragedy it clearly is. Grade: D. Skip it.
The Quiet Girl (2022)
The Quiet Girl (2022) is an emotionally life affirming social drama that harkens to the works of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh in its evocation of social realism, and it is remarkable that this is the first theatrical film directed by Colm Bairéad. Bairéad masterfully directs first time actress Catherine Clinch (Cait) in a devastatingly heart wrenching performance that will tug at your heart strings. I found myself wanting to leap from my seat to hug the poor girl and affirm to her that everything will be okay. Thankfully, salvation comes in the form of her cousins who take the young girl in for the summer of 1981 Ireland, Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach (Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet). They pamper her, teach her how to work their farm, dress her, and give her the childhood she could never receive in her home a striking contrast that is conveyed with the color grading, as Cait’s rural Ireland home is shot in tones of gray, while the countryside of Ireland is awash in striking hues of yellow and orange, reflecting a rebirth for Cait . Another striking contrast is also the choice of language spoken, as Eibhlín and Seán always speak to Cait in her native Gaelic while her neglectful and brutish father Athair (Michael Patric) refuses to speak in the native Gaelic, always speaking in English, the language of the colonizers and Thatcher sympathizers. These minute details may be lost to many American viewers, but are there to enrich the experience and breathe life into this affirming story and combine together to make one of the most exceptional films of the year. A Quiet Girl was one of the winners of this year’s Audience award at the 919 Film Festival and a well deserved win overall. Grade: A-. See it.
Women Talking (2022)
Sarah Polley has Crafted One of the Most Devastating Portraits of Feminine Communal Grief in the Awe Inspiring Adaptation of Women Talking
“Without a language for it, there is a gaping silence, and in that silence is the real horror”, narrates Autje (Kate Hallet) and one of the youngest victims of the harrowing sexual violence perpetutated on the women, young and old alike, in the colony of which Women Talking takes place. They are led to believe they are being processed by demons for not praying enough or being following the duties said to be ordained by God in their community. The realization that it is not demons or possessions, but instead their male relatives and friends who have been tranquilizing them at night and viololating them strikes a harsh dissonant chord, the film cuts to the after effects of the attacks, blood curdling screams from the victims as they wake up with blood on their nightgowns, sheets, one even having a miscarriage and terrified as she believes shes bleeding to death, and shaking the very foundation of the beliefs of the colony. These despicable acts of violation upend everything the women and many of the men have thought to be the divine truth ordained by God and coming to terms with the fallout crafts the bulk of the narrative, which finds the Women conversing and voting on whether to leave the colony and all they have known For the first quarter of the film, the audience is then drawn to reality when a truck driver passes the colony playing a contemporary song, the creeping horror sets in for the audience that this act is not a part of a long forgotten beastly part of the past, but a part of the modern present.
The titular Women, with the main group consisting of Ona, Salome, Mariche (Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, and Jessie Buckley) are forced to choose whether to forgiven their rapists and be guaranteed a pathway into the kingdom of Heaven, or to refuse and be banished from the colony for life with the gateway to Heaven closed. Tension is spun into the narrative as the men of the colony have gone to the town where the assailants are locked up to post bail and will be back in a day or two. Only that short amount of time is granted the women to decide if they will leave all they know to settle into a new life to obtain safety for themselves and their children. The note taker August (Ben Whishaw) is the notable exception to the colonies’ male population, being portrayed as sensitive and never trying to talk over the women. His presence provides an excellent counter balance to the true toxic men of the colony, and provides hope to the women as he grew up as part of the outside world of the colony.
The book upon which the film was adapted is based in the harrowing true case of a Mennonite colony in Bolivia, but Polley wisely chooses not to name the colony as part of the Mennonite faith so that the audience will not ascribe a certain religious belief system as being inherently sexist or capable of producing monsters upon hapless women. Every society whether, advanced or not, is capable of producing men who indulge in toxic masculinity, drawn towards perpetuating horrific acts against the innocent female, male, trans and cis, because if they are taught to dismiss their feelings, its much easier then to dismiss the feelings of others. Instead of leaving the audience feeling despair about the human condition, Polley gives the audience hope in the communal friendship and families that come together to comfort each other in the face of the evils of the world. Grade: A-. See it.
More Film Festival reactions and reviews will be incoming in the next few weeks so make sure to check back to see my reactions to the upcoming features.
Mollywood Reviews 