What’s the best way to approach the annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival? Let me count the ways.
- You could choose from among the dozens of little-known films by going for big-name directors, with Xavier Dolan, Alison Maclean, Thomas Vinterberg and Terence Davies all in this year’s lineup.
- You could opt for movies that were submitted by their native countries for the foreign-language Oscar last year, which would lead you toward Finland’s “The Happiest Day in the Life of Ollie Maki,” Canada’s “It’s Only the End of the World,” Russia’s “Paradise” and Hungary’s “Kills on Wheels.”
- You could steer toward special events such as screening of the first Oscar winner, “Wings,” with live musical accompaniment.
- Or you could pick a genre (comedies from Albania, anyone?).
- Or just show up on any given day and take potluck.
No matter when you go to MSPIFF, you’re bound to find something surprising and intriguing, even if it doesn’t end up being your favorite movie of all time. The fest’s website is a good place to start making choices and here are a few previews to steer you toward (or away from) titles I have seen:
Austerlitz
At first we don’t know where we are. The opening images of this black-and-white documentary show crowds of people, clad in summer wear, talking on their phones and munching on snacks. Are we at a theme park? A zoo? “No” to both. Turns out it’s a concentration camp, but one of the messages of this oddly hypnotic film is that, by now, visits to concentration camps are not terribly different from any other tourist destination. There’s no commentary, other than what the tourists and guides say on screen, often in overlapping monologues. With its long takes and lack of judgment, the film is content to observe and leave it to us to decide what we think about, for instance, a tour guide telling visitors that prisoners were better off if they did not hold onto hope. (And about the ethics of how the footage was captured, since it appears the people in the film were not aware they were on camera.) 2:15 p.m. April 20, 1 p.m. April 24 and 4:50 p.m. April 26.
Center of My World
German director Jakob M. Erwa clearly is a fan of festival fave Xavier Dolan and his boldly expressive films (“Laurence, Anyways” and “It’s Only the End of the World,” which is in this year’s MSPIFF). Like most of Dolan’s work, “Center” has a vibrant and unapologetic gay protagonist. Teenage Phil lives with his sister and unconventional mom. It’s summer and the siblings are trying to wheedle out of their mom the secret identity of their father while Phil also embarks on his first relationship in a film that feels over-directed, over-narrated and glib. 4:20 p.m. April 14, 7:10 p.m. April 17 and 2 p.m. April 26
The Commune
When a married couple inherits a huge house and decides to invite a bunch of attractive friends to move in for deep chats and impromptu skinny-dips, what could possibly go wrong? Yeah, that. Marriages are challenged and friendships fractured in Thomas Vinterberg’s ’70s-set comedy/drama. It’s a surprisingly light-spirited affair, especially in comparison to his fierce “Celebration,” reflecting the fact that Vinterberg still has warm feelings about the friendship and sharing in the commune where he grew up in the same time period. 7:15 p.m. April 18 and 9:40 p.m. April 26
Crazy Horse
At about two hours, Frederick Wiseman’s observational documentary does go on, so you may end up feeling like you know more about its cast of classy strippers (think Antony and the Johnsons for the music, rather than Britney Spears) than you really need to. But this beautifully photographed look at the denizens of Paris’ titular nudie show offers insight into the process of putting together shows that want to intrigue viewers as much as titillate them. 2:10 p.m. April 26
A Decent Woman
Think of the title of this wicked comedy as meaning “decent,” as in “Are you decent?” because the movie has a lot to do with who’s wearing clothes and who isn’t. The first third of the film is blank and uneventful as a middle-aged Argentine woman begins a job as live-in help for a self-centered woman who lives in a gated community. But the maid becomes curious about what’s going on behind an enormous hedge and, when she finally takes a peek, she discovers a nudist community that welcomes her with open, naked arms. Life there is not exactly about sex — although it’s not not about sex. Instead, “A Decent Woman” uses nudity — a lot of nudity — as a metaphor for freedom, equality and living without shame, values which may not be compatible with those in the gated community. 10 p.m. April 19, 9;35 p.m. April 26 and 1:45 p.m. April 28
The Distinguished Citizen
An Argentine novelist, fresh from receiving a Nobel prize for literature, quixotically decides to go back to the home town he has not visited for four decades, even though it’s been the inspiration for all of his work. He’s probably expecting a hero’s welcome in the backwater village but his reception is more complicated than that and it forces him to confront his own prejudices. I like the idea and the performances are excellent but much of the film’s humor doesn’t translate and its pace is too pokey. 4:30 p.m. April 16 and 4:30 p.m. April 23
The Fixer
All Romanian movies — at any rate, all of the ones we get in this country — are morally complex dramas in which intelligent, compassionate characters bump up against their own misconceptions and prejudices. That’s certainly the case with this terse, unsettling look at a team of three journalists who are bent on snagging an interview with a teenager who has been rescued from the sex traffickers who smuggled her into France. Now back home, she is skittish about talking with them — and for good reason, since their repeated insistence on uncovering the truth seems mostly to be motivated by the hunger for ratings. 11:50 a.m. April 16, 9:50 p.m. April 24 and 2:20 p.m. April 26
The Hippopotamus
Plenty of swell movies have been made about unappealing main characters but when that character is also boring? Dealbreaker. That’s the case in this adaptation of Stephen Fry’s comic novel, in which a cartoonishly bitter theater critic (Roger Allam, all too believable) is canned from his job in the opening scenes. Since he has time on his hands, he agrees to help a friend out by investigating the miracles that seem to be happening at her family’s enormous British estate. That the estate is presided over by the supposedly-British Matthew Modine is just the most obvious problem in this sour and unconvincing attempt at farce. 7 p.m. April 14 and 7:20 p.m. April 22
It’s Not the Time of My Life
At first, this Hungarian film feels like one of those one-set, “God of Carnage”-like plays about families behaving inappropriately, but then it gets weirder and more troubling. “It’s Not the Time of My Life” is based on a play written by Szalbolcs Hajdu, who wrote, directed and stars in the movie, all of which takes place in the apartment where he and his family actually live (most of the other cast members are also in his family). It makes for a startlingly intimate comedy/drama that pushes the camera in its characters’ faces as they grapple with questions such as whether Hajdu’s character will ever stop being jealous of the affection his wife (Orsolya Torok-Illyes, Hajdu’s actual wife) shows their 5-year-old son (yup, their actual kid). 9:50 p.m. April 16 and 2:40 p.m. April 19
The Lost City of Z
It cannot have been easy to turn David Grann’s riveting nonfiction book into a movie. The story sprawls over two continents and three decades, with an ambiguous ending of the sort Hollywood studios hate. All of which makes writer/director James Gray’s (“The Immigrant”) work even more impressive. Charlie Hunnam plays a British adventurer who heads to South America to map the Peru/Bolivia border but becomes obsessed with locating a fabled city of gold. (It’s the opening night film and it’s well worth seeing but, if you’ve missed it, don’t worry: It opens across the Twin Cities on April 21.) 7 p.m. April 13
May God Save Us
The first half plays out sort of like a Madrid-set “True Detective,” with mismatched cops (an emotional brute, an introvert) on the trail of what may be a serial killer who targets elderly Spanish women. Films set in other lands often play out a bit like travelogues, and that’s what is most fascinating about “May God Save Us”: Its story is quite specifically rooted in the details of day-to-day life in Madrid. The loneliness of its senior citizens, the slipperiness of its tile floors, the prevalence of stray cats, the tradition of lengthy lunch breaks and the importance of tourism are all key factors in the mystery, which is solved about two-thirds of the way through when we meet the Norman Bates-ish killer. From then on, the film is a riveting — and gruesome — ride, at times recalling such greats as “The French Connection.” As Spanish as a cool bowl of gazpacho, the gripping “May God Save Us” earned Roberto Alamo Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar as the violent half of the cop team. 9:35 p.m. April 14 and 9:50 p.m. April 18
The Rehearsal
My book club was sharply divided over Eleanor Catton’s peculiar novel, in which a bunch of gifted kids enter drama school and then lose track of what’s real and what’s not. Sexual assault and blackmail are part of the picture (or maybe they aren’t?), which gets even muddier when the students create a show that is based on events that supposedly happened to one of them. Alison Maclean’s first film since “Jesus’ Son” doesn’t live up to that great movie’s promise but it’s always compelling and Kerry Fox is electrifying as a fierce teacher. 2:20 p.m. April 15, 7:15 p.m. April 20 and 9:50 p.m. April 29
IF YOU GO
- What: Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival
- When: Through April 29
- Where: St. Anthony Main theaters, 115 SE Main St., Mpls., and other locations
- Tickets: $13-$6, mspfilm.org (package discounts available)
