First Man, Roma, The Favourite Soar Out of Venice, Will Touch Down in Telluride

I’ve always thought the best movies inspire the best writing. The thing I most love about covering the Oscars is falling in love with films and filmmakers that inspire the kind of writing worth reading.

Usually there is one disappointment in the highly anticipated films coming out of Venice but the first Big Three, First Man, The Favourite and Roma all have done exceptionally well with critics who have posted the early reviews.

In addition to our own Zhuo-Ning Su’s review, here is great stuff from Stephanie Zacharek on Roma, “Roma is filmmaking as gesture, an invitation to generosity that we perhaps didn’t know we could feel.” And Peter Bradshaw’s five star review, “Roma is his best film so far: a thrilling, engrossing and moving picture with a richly personal story to tell, beautifully and dynamically shot in pellucid black and white.”

The Favourite hits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and inspires its own kinds of reactions, as did First Man. Both films, like Roma, appear to be coming out of Venice and poised to take Telluride by storm. It all starts happening here Friday. It is often the double hit of the two movies that makes them so formidable heading into awards season. We like to call it the Venice/Telluride one two punch.