Telluride Film Festival Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

“The Royal Hotel” just had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival (our review coming soon), and it’s definitely one to watch for several reasons. For one, it’s filmmaker Kitty Green’s follow-up drama to her excellent narrative debut film, “The Assistant,” which tracked the Harvey Weinstein story from a lowly assistant POV.

TELLURIDE – The most intriguing aspect of Kitty Green’s new thriller “The Royal Hotel” is what she doesn’t tell you. Set in a town in the middle of the Australian outback, this is a movie that simmers in culture clashes, dangerous misogyny, and sexual tension.

TELLURIDE – The life of Diana Nyad is the sort of true story that’s absolutely ripe for a movie biopic. A record-setting distance swimmer in her 20s, she retired at the age of 30 to pursue a career in sports journalism.

What is the fine line between altruism and narcissism, and what happens when “higher-calling” religious beliefs blur those demarcations? That vague space is not exactly what celebrated doc filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine are trying to resolve in their compelling new documentary “The Mission.” Honestly, their story is more subtle and nuanced; a fairer and balanced look at the ideas of self-sacrifice, an empathetic examination of a tragedy, and yet a sobering probing of good intentions and the paths that lead us astray.

TELLURIDE – We’re just gonna get the bad news out of the way first. There is perhaps no movie more personally – and emphasis on “personally” – disappointing at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival for this critic than Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails.” As a big fan of his exquisite 2020 debut, “Apples,” we were crossing our fingers that he’d avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.

TELLURIDE – At a festival full of gutsy films Daina O. Pusić’s directorial feature debut, “Tuesday,” may be the most visionary of them all.

One viewing of “High & Low – John Galliano, “a documentary chronicling the impressive rise of British fashion designer John Galliano and his equally jarring fall from grace, should be more than sufficient to convince even the most uneducated of the influence he’s held throughout the industry; bolstered by a plentiful amount of talking head interviews from celebrity associates Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz and an abundance of footage showcasing model after model walking the runway in the apparel he brought to life, it’s clear how the man commanded a wealth of respect and love from those who adorned his garments and knew him as both a designer of inspired attire and a dear friend to those who considered themselves as such. Venice Film Festival 2023: The 17 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch The film utilizes a structured signature of so many similar efforts, seemingly going through the motions as it shows him working his way up the ladder throughout the 1990s, initially as his own brand and through his eventual work with the likes of Dior as his own personality is shown growing alongside his body of work; it’s interesting to see the vast number of shots showing a confident Galliano strutting the catwalk as self-assured as any of the models in his employ.

Based on a true story, they said, based on actual authentic events, but what does any of that matter if the actual story presented on screen doesn’t really resonate clearly or deeply? That’s the frustrating part of “Baltimore,” an intriguing but uneven new period-drama about an heiress turned Marxist revolutionary and radical, written and directed by Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor, two Irish filmmakers (sometimes known as the creative pair Desperate Optimists) who emigrated from Ireland to England in the fraught and tumultuous 1980s during the Troubles when the IRA continued to mount their violent campaign aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland in order to create a united Ireland.

TELLURIDE – Considering the success and adoration of the “Sideways,” it’s sort of surprising it took Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti this long to find another film to make together. Almost 20 years later, the director and actor have reteamed for “The Holdovers,” which debuted at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

TELLURIDE – Every year, almost without fail, there is an American hero, somehow lost to history, who finally gets their moment on the big screen. This year’s honoree is Bayard Rustin, a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement who was a primary organizer for the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

TELLURIDE – Since screening Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet,” which had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival on Friday, we’ve been wracking our brains with an unexpected query. When was the last time someone who has so mastered the stage – Baker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, mind you – crafted a directorial feature debut of such artistic confidence? A film that feels a million miles from the confines of a sterile theatrical setting.

Early in his new film “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Errol Morris creates one of the most vivid images of a career packed with them: a man in a suit walking through a meadow filled with mirrors. He’s always had a gift for finding specific and memorable visual metaphors for the stories he tells and the themes he’s drawn to; here, what’s noteworthy isn’t just the mirrors but the way the man keeps moving away from them.

TELLURIDE – Let the record show that Emerald Fennell is an utterly fearless filmmaker. I mean, we already knew that to an extent after her audacious debut, “Promising Young Woman,” but to say she’s taken that to another level with her latest extravagant concoction, “Saltburn,” is an understatement of epic proportions.

Not only a beautiful destination, the Telluride Film Festival is a cinephile’s paradise; a secluded city in the Colorado mountains that’s hard to get to and then rather exclusive, which is probably partly the draw and the reason so many filmmakers and actors adore Telluride. But it’s also a cinephile’s haven in terms of community, there’s a knowing togetherness, lack of hierarchy and you can easily be in line for a film with a random science teacher from Albuquerque who is also a massive film nerd as you could be next to legendary director Werner Herzog.

The pandemic-fueled era of bingewatching was really beneficial to the current age of documentaries. Had a great documentary film idea? Well, folks like Netflix, Apple, etc.

Although Robert Downey Jr. is currently one of the most famous actors on the planet, he reminds the audience early in the new documentary “Sr.”— about his late father Robert Downey Sr.— that for many years, he was simply just known as “Bob Downey’s kid.” Which is ostensibly the impetus of “Sr.,” directed by celebrated documentarian Chris Smith (“American Movie”), yet, essentially hosted and presented by RDJ, to put his father in proper cinematic and historical context.

TELLURIDE – Venice may be enraptured in gossip-y drama over a film no one will be talking about two months from now (and, clearly, a very frustrating ticketing system), but the 49th edition of the Telluride Film Festival was where the 2023 Oscar season truly kicked off. The annual Colorado set festival certainly has its fair share of world premieres and curated Venice and Cannes titles, but that’s only one reason it has solidified its reputation as an awards season staple.

Werner Herzog turned 80 on September 5, and he did so at a place that loves him dearly (and where he serves as an executive director): the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. There, you can be immersed in the festival’s fare thanks to a booming, massive theater named for the enigmatic director, smack-dab next to a mountain where you can tempt your own “Grizzly Man” experience.

Think of the most iconic rock album covers of all time from the 1970s: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy and Presence, T. Rex’s Electric Warrior, Paul McCartney & Wings’ Band On The Run, AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, all of Peter Gabriel’s early albums, etc.

Jeremy Strong has finally broken his silence on that infamous 2021 New Yorker profile. In a new interview with Vanity Fair from the Telluride Film Festival, where Strong is promoting his role in director James Gray’s “Armaggedon Time,” the “Succession” star didn’t hold back when discussing his feelings on the newsmaking profile, telling VF it amounted to a “pretty profound betrayal of trust” on the part of the publication and the article’s writer, Michael Schulman.

Jeremy Strong has finally broken his silence on that infamous 2021 New Yorker profile. In a new interview with Vanity Fair from the Telluride Film Festival, where Strong is promoting his role in director James Gray‘s “Armaggedon Time,” the “Succession” star didn’t hold back when discussing his feelings on the newsmaking profile, telling VF it amounted to a “pretty profound betrayal of trust” on the part of the publication and the article’s writer, Michael Schulman.

TELLURIDE – The events at a secluded Mennonite colony in Bolivia during the late ‘00s spurred headlines around the world. Men from the extremely conservative religious group had raped multiple women in their community while they slept.

For all its discussion of weighty topics such as morality, espionage, and whistleblowing, Bryan Fogel’s Oscar-winning documentary “Icarus” was, at its heart, a buddy comedy. Existential and, at times, terrifying? Sure.

TELLURIDE – The events at a Mennonite colony in Bolivia during the late ’00s spurred headlines around the world. Men from the extremely conservative religious group had raped multiple women in their community while they slept.

TELLURIDE – At this point in his career, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio continues to veer toward slightly unexpected choices. He broke through the global cinephile consciousness with 2013’s “Gloria,” a crowd-pleaser about a fiftysomething woman trying to find love in the discos of Santiago.

Over the past decade, The Telluride Film Festival has made itself something of an Oscar-kingmaker. Numerous Best Picture winners, including “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Argo,” “12 Years A Slave,” and “Moonlight,” each had their world premieres at the picturesque Colorado fest.

In recent memory, the American frontier has garnered popularity as a setting within cinema. The films of Chloe Zhao come to mind, from her acclaimed “The Rider” to “Nomadland,” which won her Best Picture and Best Director.

Actor/director Matt Dillon started going to Cuba in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He and his fellow vinyl-hungry friends would stay up late drinking and hunt for hidden gem albums, at times driving over two hours away to rifle through a particular record store stash that magnetized them.

If an alien came to Earth and wanted to know what the deal is with all these big, wet things crisscrossing the land, then Jennifer Peedom’s new documentary “River” would surely be of assistance. Its seventy-four minutes float by with the hazy ambiance that compels critics to dust off the time-honored descriptor of “tone poem,” the camera content to gaze at the magnificence of the natural world.

TELLURIDE – If you’re a cat lover, as I admittedly am, it almost goes without saying that a feline-themed film should pique your interest. And when it comes to a prestige biopic about influential artist Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, and Toby Jones? Well, in theory, those elements should combine into a delectable portion of cinephile catnip.

Directors mining their lives for a story is nothing new, but it’s always exciting to see that premise connect with viewers beyond its maker. Such were the audience reactions to Kenneth Branagh’s stirring revisit to the Belfast of his childhood: there were sobs, gasps, and so much laughter.

In the form-expanding documentaries of Robert Greene, the artifice of performance clears a path with higher emotional truth waiting at its summit. Still, the distance between the two has varied.

Swaddled in the vastness of the mountainous American West, two young women command the terrain and their own destinies in Emelie Mahdavian’s picturesque documentary “Bitterbrush.” The sturdy duo at the helm, Hollyn Patterson and Colie Moline, are, despite their youthful age, veteran hired farmhands heading on a four-month commitment in a remote area to herd cattle.

“Free Solo” thrilled the audiences and picked up a handful of awards along the way. Now, directors E.

TELLURIDE – Since it first debuted in 1897, Edmond Rostand’s original play “Cyrano de Bergerac” has been staged all over the world, adapted into numerous films, and seen its ingenious narrative used in almost every form of modern media. For a new version to triumph, it needs to equal or, hopefully, transcend what came before.

This week many people will head to the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York, to attend matches of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.