Middleburg Farewell: Nicholas Brittel, Greta Gerwig, and "American Crime Story"

Day 1 (Darkest Hour), Day 2 (James Ivory, Mudbound, A Fantastic Woman) in case you missed them, Day 3 (Last Flag Flying)

Ann Hornaday and Greta Gerwig talk after a screening of Lady Bird. photo src

The last moments of Middleburg were a blissful blur that it's taken me a week to recover from. Before I left the splendor of the country at this under-the-radar festival in Virginia, I managed to attend three more events.

Lady Bird
I caught some of Lady Bird again (one viewing is definitely not enough). Just enough to give me that rush of pre-college feels again before meeting one-on-one with Greta Gerwig. We'll share that interview next week as Lady Bird begins its theatrical release. Gerwig is such a singular actress that we don't want her to give that up (please never leave our screens!) but it's a joy to know that she writes and directs just as beautifully. 

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Since Middleburg largely takes place at a single resort, there are several panels and discussions in their coziest event space. The last on the menu was a discussion about the forthcoming miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story which is the second season of that anthology series which began with the Emmy-winning The People Vs Oj Simpson...

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NYFF: Sing For Me, Lady Bird

by Jason Adams

Have you ever gone back to visit the school you went to as a little kid and realized how small it all looks now? I think we've all had that moment - you walk down the hallway feeling like Godzilla; you'd have to get on your hands and knees to use the drinking fountain. And yet as goofy as it seems - and depending on your experience filled with conflicting emotions as it may be - it pulls at you anyway, yanks at your heart. It is part of you. The pictures might've gotten small but they have crawled inside and curled up and they're not going anywhere.

Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird - that is her given name; she gave it to herself - thrums with that strange and bittersweet nostalgia...

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Soundtracking: "Mistress America"

The Meyerowitz Stories comes to Netflix this week, so Chris looks back at Noah Baumbach's last farce...

It's not uncommon for a hip song to singularly define a film, but rarely do they also unlock or embody a character with equal force. When Mistress America does so with “You Could’ve Been A Lady” by Hot Chocolate it’s working with a character that wants to similarly been seen as a lot of things, but most importantly cool. As if Great Greta Gerwig could ever be seen as something less than complex and cool as heck.

Mistress America takes off musically with a more subdued approach. Lola Kirke’s Tracy arrives at college, one of the times where we we allow music to outwardly define us, whether it’s a dorm poster or conversation starter. It's no surprise that college films lean in heavy on contemporary musical hipness for their identity. This film instead first relies on Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham’s score instead, presenting impressionable Tracy as a somewhat blank slate. That is until the film’s signature track busts in and dominates just like Gerwig’s Brooke.

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Middleburg Festival 2017: James Ivory, Dee Rees, Greta Gerwig and More...

by Nathaniel R

Awards season is really heating up now that release dates (or lack thereof) are firming up, and various pre-Oscar honors are being announced. Last year, you may recall, The Film Experience was invited to attend the Middleburg Film Festival and we're invited for a second round next month.

The fest, now in its fifth year and closer to something like Telluride than Toronto or Cannes considering its Oscar focus and brevity, is growing each year and all takes place at one well-heeled resort. Last year they had big events for La La Land and Lion as well as very crowded talks with Cheryl Boone Isaacs on the Academy's diversity efforts as well as a fascinating discussion of US presidents and cinematic depictions with Janet Maslin and David Gergen where the danger of Trump was discussed at length (before the election - sigh). At that event they spent a lot of time on Nixon's disproportionately large place in cinema as presidents go. (Unfortunately since we're in Nixon Round Two only much more vile and, well, stupider... we can safely expect there to be many many films on Trump and Trump's corrosive effect on the nation for decades to come! "Wheeee," he squealed with much sarcasm)

More info about this year's festivities to come but for now we know this...

Special Honorees:
The legendary James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name's screenplay, Howard's End, Maurice, Room With a View etcetera)
Director Dee Rees (Mudbound)
Composer Nicholas Britell (Battle of the Sexes, Moonlight) with an orchestral concert of his work!

Opening Night: DARKEST HOUR (Ben Mendelsohn in attendance)

Saturday Centerpiece  LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig in attendance)

Sunday Centerpiece  THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI 

Other Screenings:  CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, MUDBOUND, and I, TONYA 

A Beautiful Trailer for "Isle of Dogs"

Chris here. I'm one of those oddball folks that considers Fantastic Mr. Fox as Wes Anderson's best film, so next year's Isle of Dogs has me very excited for the auteur to take another dive into the stop motion pool. And by the looks of the first trailer, Dogs will be very aligned to Fox's humor and visual aesthetic but with the added unexpected intrigue of its Japanese setting. The potential troublesome optics and use of language here gives me some pause, but we'll wait until the film arrives to access. Let's hope Anderson doesn't end up in the cinematic doghouse by delivering our worst fears here.

As you can tell from the poster, Anderson has assembled a massive cast even by his standards. Regular players like Edward Norton and Bill Murray are back, but can you believe this is his first collaboration with Scarlett Johansson and Greta Gerwig? Yoko Ono is also in the lineup if you aren't already fascinated enough.

But what a visual treat, even if it looks like it will be Anderson's most muted color palate. On the other hand: doesn't this trailer just remind you how thin this year's Best Animated Feature race is?