Quest
The 2017 Nashville Film Festival kicked off tonight at Regal Hollywood 27. What did I see?
Actually, I was at the Belcourt catching the last screening of After the Storm. (Not much playing tonight at NaFF that interested me.)
But for the next nine days, I’m there. I actually spent hours researching every title to sort out the good, the bad, and the unreviewed. And boy, there are A LOT of films playing this year with no reviews. I call these “the wildcards.” Inevitably, a few will be great, but to find them, you’ll have to sit through a lot of stinkers.
And so, the films on my pick list are either:
- Well-reviewed
- On a topic that interests me
- From a director I like
Unfortunately, because of the way the films are scheduled against each other, you won’t be able to see them all. That’s a reality of all film festivals, but every year, I feel like the programmers have it out for me. For example, this year, I had to pick between the three buzz-worthy documentaries Last Men in Aleppo, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, and Quest. Tough, tough call.
I can’t guarantee you’ll like all my picks. (I’m a sucker for long, foreign films that most people find glacially-paced and/or pretentious.) But these are the films I’m reasonably sure will be worth our time. The ones with two trailing asterisks are my TOP TOP picks.
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Axis
Backpack Full of Cash
Dolores
La Soledad
Last Men in Aleppo**
Manifesto**
Menashe
Patti Cake$**
Quest**
Score: A Film Music Documentary
Small Talk
Some Freaks
Spettacolo
Step**
The Eremites (Die Einsiedler)
The Ornithologist**
The Road Movie
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
The Student
Tokyo Idols
Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming)
Tony Youngblood 