As I’ve been saying since I’ve been able to attend it, I am so happy that Cleveland has an it’s own film festival – and an international one at that! Sure, it’s not as huge at Sundance or TIFF, but it’s still very cool and the people who put it together really try to make it a robust experience.
This year, due mainly to time constraints, I was only able to make it to two films this year. I was lucky though that they both happened to be playing back to back on the same night! The first film I made it to was Griffin in Summer. Of my list of films, this one was at the very top of ones I wanted to see, so I’m really glad it was able to work out for the second screening. Given that Tribeca has no desire to have a virtual component to its festival anymore, I totally missed the fact that this film had it’s premiere there and actually managed to take home some prizes! At that particular festival it won the Best U.S. Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, and Special Jury mention for first feature director Nicholas Colia. I think CIFF was pretty lucky to get this one!
In the film, Griffin, a young teenager, is an ambitious playwright who is beyond excited to see his latest work brought to a real stage this summer. The play itself is called ‘Regrets of Autumn” and quite frankly, it’s terrific. For one, it’s actually well done, but it’s also so real and obscene for a teenager to have come up with that it’s hysterical. I know the lives of teens are much more different from when I was one, so that just makes this generational discrepancy that much more funny. And I give major props to his friends for being all in on this ride. They might not have quite the enthusiasm as Griffin, but the fact that they are dedicating any real time to it at all is a testament to their love of theater and their friendship.
Things start to go awry when Griffin’s frustrations with how progress is being made on the play coincides with a twenty-something neighbor is hired to clean up around Griffin’s home. Brad is a loser if I’ve ever seen one, but he’s a hot loser. That’s not to say he doesn’t have ambitions, but they are so out there that it’s no surprise he had to come back home from New York City. Griffin’s got a crush and somehow Brad shows a liking towards this play. But being a young teen with a new and all-encompassing crush leads to consequences young people just have no idea about. Layered on top of this drama is his own core family drama that seems to be a large inspiration for his play. This film was a hysterical delight and I can only hope that it gets a wide distribution sometime this year.
Next for the evening was TIFF film, 40 Acres. This particular film was fighting for a spot against many, many other films at the same time so naturally it lost out to We Live in Time. I was happy to see it make its way to CIFF especially since it doesn’t seem to have a distribution future outside of Canada at the moment. From a very surface level you could say this is a take on a zombie film given that there is cannibalism, but it’s really not. The film starts out with some dialogue informing the audience of a plague that has killed all animals, and then several years later famine struck the world. Farmland has become the most valuable resource available. From there we meet the Freeman family and the super tight ship of a farm they manage.
The Freemen’s themselves are a blended family with both young and old teens responsible for a lot of things on the farm. Their system is robust and thorough. A lot of that is to do with matriarch, Hailey, who spent much of her son’s youth in the military. She’s not warm and fuzzy, but it’s her goal to prepare her son for life when she’s gone, even at the expense of a closer connection. All of that is fine until cannibals start threatening and even taking down nearby farms. Once those scenes get going, everything is tense and high octane. There are plenty of action scenes, but this film excels at holding the audience at the edge of their seats. Danielle Deadwyler can’t seem to catch a break, but I hope Hollywood takes notice of this well-done film that she helped executive produce.
Both films for the evening were excellent in completely different ways, but they both confirmed that though it’s a smaller festival, it’s still one full of winners if you know where to look. I look forward to CIFF’s 50th installment next year!