Even though we’re at the halfway point of the 2022 Seattle International Film Festival, there’s still plenty of time to soak up an array of movies leading into the final weekend. Films continue to play all around town as well as online through the SIFF channel.  

The citywide sprint through a massive program concludes when Phylis Nagy’s Call Jane closes the festival on Sunday (6:00 pm, SIFF Cinema Egyptian) followed by the traditional closing Gala at MOHAI, Seattle’s fanciest attic of beloved local treasures. With a cast led by Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, the story of the Chicago-area Jane Collective and their efforts to provide safe abortions in the pre-Roe era remains both inspiring and perilously timely. Tickets to the film and party are $85 ($75 SIFF Members), but if you already caught the film at Sundance or have another film calling your name that night you can still catch up with fellow festival fans at the party for $40 each ($35).

In the meantime, keep an eye on SIFF’s festival updates page for changes to the schedule (note that the final TBA slot has been filled with I Love My Dad. The excruciatingly  embellished true story of a dad who catfishes his depressed son cleaned up at SXSW this spring, taking home both the Audience and Jury Award for narrative features.)

Below, we scrutinized the remaining program and came up with a few movies each that we either recommend or can’t wait to see for ourselves. 

Jenn: 

Hatching (2022 | Finland | 86 min | Hanna Bergholm)

The final midnighter of the fest involves a Finnish tween girl’s coming-of-age and the discovery of a strange egg in the forest, in what SIFF calls a “fractured fairy tale”. At the 4/22 (midnight at the end of Friday) screening, they’ll even be giving away passes to the upcoming horror convention, Crypticon Seattle!

• Available Online: No 
• FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Egyptian  – 11:59 PM
• SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 – AMC Pacific Place – 8:00 PM

Watcher (2022 | USA | 91 min | Chloe Okuno)

This psychological thriller puts Maika Monroe (The Guest) in Romania, as a recent arrival who becomes convinced she’s being followed. I was excited about this one’s debut at Sundance this year but wasn’t able to get to it; excited to correct that oversight now!

• Available Online: No 
• THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown  – 8:30 PM
• SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 3:30 PM

Neptune Frost (2021 | Rwanda | 105 min | Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)

I did catch this film at this year’s virtual Sundance; I didn’t get a chance to write about it then, although Morgen did (I think I personally ended up even a little bit more on its wavelength than she did, although I agree that it’d benefit from repeat viewings). It’s a musical, co-written by the musician and slam poet Saul Williams, set (and entirely shot) in a futuristic and dystopian Rwanda, and featuring one character who’s played by both a male and a female actor. It’s remarkable, one of the most unique films I’ve ever seen. Truly beautiful and original on every level. That’s what happens when we finally let people from diverse backgrounds tell their own stories!

• Available Online: Yes
• THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 – Ark Lodge Cinemas  – 6:00 PM
• FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 3:00 PM

Josh:

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2021 | USA | 89 min | Dean Fleischer-Camp)

I missed this at Telluride even though it was the buzz of the lines, if only because of how fun the title is to say. After missing the cute little mollusk with footwear, maybe SIFF is where I finally see this little shell? The feature-length adaptation of Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate’s popular stop-motion mockumentaries finds the adorable one-eyed, one-inch-tall seashell dealing with internet fame. So meta.

• Available Online: No 
• SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Egyptian  – 6:30 PM
• SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 11:30 AM

Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022 | USA | 107 min | Cooper Raiff)
I wasn’t the only one whose heart was melted by Cooper Raiff’s follow-up to similarly-beloved auteurist zoomercore celebration of emotional availability Shithouse. His story of a wayward college graduate making a name for himself on the bar mitzvah hype scene while falling into something with a beautiful and sad older (!) woman played by Dakotah Johnson, helping out with her neuroatypical daughter, and coming to recognize his own cluelessness took both Sundance’s audience award as well as fifteen million of AppleTV’s dollars. It plays closing weekend at SIFF; see it on the big screen before it comes to your favorite new streamer. 

• Available Online: No 
• SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown  – 8:00 PM
• SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 1:30 PM

Flux Gourmet (2022 | United Kingdom | 111 min | Peter Strickland) [North American Premiere]

It’s not a film festival if I haven’t forced myself to see at least one gross or scary film. Peter Strickland’s is in the Official Competition; so it might as well be the one that gets me squirming in my seat in an actual theater.  Here Peter Strickland follows up on works about a haunted dress (In Fabric) and erotic lepidoptery (The Duke of Burgundy) with a “delectably vulgar provocation” whose action takes place in an arts collective “devoted to culinary and alimentary performance.” Gwendoline Christie and Asa Butterfield star in a send up of the art scene that promises to be nothing if not outlandish. 

• Available Online: No 
• THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Egyptian – 3:45 PM

Morgen:

Talking About the Weather (2021 | Germany | 89 minutes | Annika Pinske) [North American Premiere]

I wouldn’t say this film is about a midlife crisis, but more like a philosophical crisis. A philosophy teacher, already battling the stress and pressures of her career, goes to visit her parents with her teenaged daughter in tow. Every relationship is fraught with frustrations and deep-seated emotions that no one wants to dig up. It’s about time they did some excavating.

• Available Online: Yes
• FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 8:30 PM
• SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 – AMC Pacific Place – 12:30 PM
  

Inu-Oh (2021 | Japan | 97 minutes | Masaaki Yuasa) [US Premiere]

The only anime-style full-length entry in this year’s SIFF, I was eager to see this beautifully animated tale. On top of having a highly-acclaimed director it’s based on a true story from fourteenth century Japan about a masked performer, and a blind musician. If you can manage to go tonight and get there a little early you can take part in an Exquisite Corpse game (sounds incredible!) with the comic/arts space Push/Pull.

• Available Online: No 
• WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2022 –  SIFF Cinema Egyptian – 6:30 PM
• FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Uptown Cinema – 3:00 PM
  

The Ghastly Brothers (2022 | Belgium | 105 minutes | Michael Van Ostade) [World Premiere]

A cross between Ghostbusters and Goosebumps, this silly take on the supernatural already has me in stitches. A young girl in a new town finds her calling despite naysaying and derision: she wants to be a ghost hunter. With the help of the Ghastly Brothers, a one-stop ghost busting shop, she discovers there’s more to ghosts and ghost catching than she realized.

• Available Online: Yes 
• SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 11:00 AM
  

Tony:

The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021 | Australia | 109  minutes | Leah Purcell [Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri)

Despite its massive collateral influence on the modern action film, the western remains a rare bird on today’s cinema screens. Here’s hoping this female-directed revisionist opus lives up to Australia’s small but impressive list of indigenous westerns, alongside The Proposition and The Man from Snowy River. 

• Available Online: No 
• SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 6:00 PM
• SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022  – AMC Pacific Place – 12:30 PM

Execution in Autumn (1972 | Taiwan | 99 minutes | Hsing Lee)

SIFF’s archival presentations have yet to disappoint. That batting average makes me excited to see Hsing Lee’s drama about a condemned man awaiting his execution. This looks to be the kind of grand period drama that’ll look eye-popping on a big screen. 

• Available Online: No 
• SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2022 – AMC Pacific Place – 3:00 PM

The House of the Snails (2021 | Spain/Peru/Mexico | 104 minutes | Macarena Astorga)

Folk horror’s become a legit phenomenon in genre-nerd circles, what with a massive Folk Horror box set from Severin Films making an epic splash recently. Macarena Astorga’s take on the subgenre looks atmospheric and ineffably creepy—my kind of dark candy/catnip.

• Available Online: No 
• THURSDAY, APRIL 21 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 1:00 PM
• SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2022 – SIFF Cinema Egyptian – 9:30 PM

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