With a smattering of films Morgen was able to see during SIFF, she tells us why these three, that are all set to have a wider release or show at a SIFF cinema near you, are worthy of your time… or at least strange enough to experience for yourself.
Year: 2024
Glen Powell is a hilarious master of disguise in Hit Man
Richard Linklater serves up a very tasty slice of an incredibly loopy premise. Glen Powell gobbles it up and makes it work through the power of pure, unrelenting, leading man handsomeness. Nothing wrong with pairing a director who knows how to have a good time with an actor who’s ascending to movie star supernova. Here the daffy vaguely-true story meshes with an intensely charming performance into a delightful gumbo.
After wowing Sundance and SIFF, I Saw The TV Glow opens wide in Seattle
Into each generation a new Donnie Darko is born. With Lynchian threads as applied to post-millennial trans awakenings, grounded in a deep love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and coming with its own slew of possible interpretations, Jane Schoenbrun’s eerie, visually entrancing, and sonically inventive cautionary love note to the nineties just might be it for the Zoomies.
On the road to somewhere, Furiosa delivers a furious deep dive into the desert
Ten years after introducing Charlize Theron’s iconic Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller once again revisits the post-apocalyptic Australia he created back in 1979. The latest entry fills in fifteen years of backstory for the title war rig driver-turned-liberator by way of five chapters of audacious set pieces. As fan service, it’s exceptional. As stunt coordination, it’s reliably jaw dropping spectacle. But in terms of storytelling, it’s about as essential as a Doof Warrior and a flame-throwing electric guitar on a desert-racing military convoy. Which is to say that even if you don’t absolutely need it, there’s nothing wrong with making sure that you’re having a good time.
SIFF 2024 Notebook: The Primevals
The Primevals (2023 | USA | 90 minutes | David Allen) It sounds strange with hindsight, but there was a time when …
Evil Does Not Exist: after a tantalizing festival circuit, Hamaguchi’s latest lands a local run
Catching up with the rest of the week at the Toronto International Film Festival.
SIFF 2024 Roundtable: Festival Exit Survey, Golden SunBreak Awards
The in-person portion of the Seattle International Film festival closed this weekend — first with a Gala screening of Sing Sing and a party at MOHAI on Saturday, then with the Golden Space Needle Brunch on Sunday morning. The festival continues through the weekend with about 50 titles still playing online, but we took this transition from theatrical to home-viewing to catch our breaths and share our experience with this year’s big birthday event.
SIFF 2024 Notebook: Sing Sing and Ghostlight
Two SIFF features with different approaches to portraying the transformative power of theater, be it in the carceral system or the prison of one’s own heart.
SIFF 2024 Notebook: I Saw the TV Glow, Dragon Superman, and Oddity
I Saw the TV Glow (2024 | USA | 100 minutes | Jane Schoenbrun) Jane Schoenbrun’s mesmerizing follow-up to We’re All Going …
SIFF 2024 Notebook: Grasshopper Republic, Scala!!!, the Critical Zone
A trio of imperfect films that nevertheless give viewers entry into the past and present of unfamiliar parts of our world.