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Live from Beautiful Portsmouth – NHFF 2015

There’s actually a lot to see in Portsmouth besides all the stellar movies playing this weekend. It’s practically idyllic in its autumnal glory, just stupidly beautiful. One of the main venues is on Chestnut street, and I can’t believe that something so quaint actually exists outside of a TV set. How lucky are we? The Asshole in me is actually itching to find fault with this place!

Now for a few more of the New Hampshire Film Festival’s bountiful offerings:

A Light Beneath Their Feet: A high school senior must choose between enrolling at the college of her dreams (across the country, natch) and remaining at home to take care of her bipolar mother. This movie is proudly packed with strong women – the mother is played by Taryn Manning (Orange Is The New Black, Hustle & Flow); the fabulous SNL alum Nora Dunn appears as a good doctor; director Valerie Weiss started her film career while completing her PhD in Biophysics from Harvard Medical School, you know, in her spare time; and screenwriter Moira McMahon has shown herself a fan of working with strong females as production staff on Grey’s Anatomy, and as a writer and researcher on Private Practice. It’ll be nice to see these ladies hard at work, and kudos to NHFF for highlighting so many female directors this year!

The Witch: Robert Eggers, first time film writer and director brought home the prize for Best Director at Sundance this year, and this is why. The Witch is set in New England, circa 1630. William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, isolated on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another, unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil…or, you know, it’s just their overactive imaginations. You know the kind of shit that went down in New England back in the good old days (*cough*Salem*cough*). This one sounds super duper creepy!

Founded in 2001, NHFF began as a small, grassroots organization to support local, regional and student filmmakers. It now attracts over 10,000 festivalgoers to Portsmouth each year, and holds a place as a viable and recognized festival that showcases the brightest talent on the international film festival scene.

A little slice of happiness courtesy of John Michael Higgins from the New Hampshire Film Festival

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NHFF:

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The New Hampshire Film Festival is screening all kinds of really great movies we’re looking forward to seeing and talking about.

Manglehorn: starring Al Pacino as the titular character, an eccentric small-town locksmith heartbroken by the woman he loved and lost many years ago. Now he’s only got his cat for companionship but a kind-hearted bank teller (Holly Hunter) might just thaw his crusty little heart. This one’s brought to us by director David Gordon Green, a man with a resume so varied it features Our Brand is Crisis and Pineapple Express – for real. Pacino’s career has taken some interesting turns of late (yes, that’s a euphemism) but I was kind of into Danny Collins, and I like him embracing these older, washed-up, gritty kinds of characters, so who knows – maybe there’s hope.

The Wolfpack: this documentary’s about 6 brothers who were raised in total isolation in the middle of Manhattan. Their parents are eccentric, let’s say. So these boys have seen very little of the world outside their home, and have compensated by falling in love with the movies. They recreate entire scripts with realistic costumes and a lot of heart. The film doesn’t offer a lot of commentary but is fascinating all the same.

Anomalisa: Sean and I were lucky enough to see this one at TIFF last month but we’d completely be up for seeing it again because it’s a beautiful film, and one of Charlie Kaufman’s best – and I believe that’s saying a lot. He and co-director Duke Johnson use stop-motion animation to breathe life into a quirky, smart script full of dark humour. I can’t wait for this to hit wide-release so we can all chat about it, but I’m telling you, if you have love for movies that think outside the box, you need to keep your eyes peeled for this gem.

The Stanford Prison Experiment: we were just discussing this one a couple of weeks ago (in fact, I’m still sporting the same cold that caused me to dump an entire bottle of Nyquil into my purse during this movie, and my phone has still not completely recovered), so let me refresh your memory. Billy Crudup plays the real-life Stanford professor who recklessly recruited students to re-create a prison. He pitted the young men against each other – prisoners vs. guards and the situation got mental in less than 24 hours. It’s still a black mark on psychology research and an important lesson in personality vs environment. This one’s really well-acted and faithfully recreated.

The New Hampshire Film Festival

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Live from the lovely town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire is the 15th annual New Hampshire Film Festival. What sets this one apart from others is its genius focus on independent film. Yes, it showcases some great international films such as Anomalisa (so good!), The Witch (can’t wait!), and Chicken, but it gives the opportunity to lots of local talent to highlight their own independent films as well, and I hope to catch plenty of those while I’m here.

Over the past few years alone, it’s screened some of my favourite foreign movies, like The Broken Circle Breakdown, and Force Majeure, and also some major award contenders, like Boyhood, Blackfish, Life Itself, and Last Days in Vietnam.

There’s a lot to look forward to this time around, but is it crazy that one of the things I might be most anticipating is a comedy panel featuring John Michael Higgins.

If you don’t know his name, you’ll certainly know his face. He’s Elizabeth Banks salty-tongued co-host in Pitch Perfect, appeared in almost every great TV series – including his turn as “professional” lawyer Wayne Jarvis on Arrested Development, and of course if you know anything about me at all, I’m extra partial to everything he’s done with Chris Guest, including Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. This guy is a real scene stealer, and funny as heck, so seeing him will be a real treat.