Telluride Film Festival Day 1: Daydream Believer

2022 marks my second year attending the Telluride Film Festival representing Awards Daily. This year, I came prepared.

Last year, I basically, foolishly, ignored all of the online advice about hydrating once in the high altitudes. On night one, I drank a little too much. Bad idea (on multiple levels). I became very sick. Not life-threatening sick, of course, but persistent headaches, constant shortness of breath, and waking in the middle of the night gasping for air. None of that this time around. Not when Bardo was waiting…

But more on that later.

My first day kicked off with the annual patron’s brunch. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to attend the brunch both years now. It takes place in a relatively secret location, a gorgeous plateau tucked away high in the impossibly beautiful Telluride mountains. You’re at a higher elevation, a good bit above the town of Telluride itself. That means, even if the forecast indicates a mild 60s-ish temperature, it will feel like 108 and you’ll fry. The crowd assemble did not want for celebs and filmmakers who were mixed in with assembled press and ticket-buying patrons. Both years, Sasha and I have played a guessing game of sorts because so many of the wealthy patrons in attendance actually resemble celebs. This year’s toughest competition was “Is that Kathleen Kennedy?” (We think it was.)

Some of the artists I saw included Michael Ardnt (great guy), Sam Mendes, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley (impossible to miss with that vivid shock of blonde hair), Claire Foy, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Sarah Polley. Somehow, I missed Robert Downey, Jr, who was wearing a fire engine-red jumpsuit. Paul Mescal was there too as his Aftersun will screen this weekend as a special, unannounced screening. Festival programmers were more explicit this year with their “no photos” policy, although some bloggers were very eager to break that. Rather than focus on the “selfies with celebs” game, I managed to have a nearly 10-minute conversation with Anne Hathaway about her work and our children. She’s a very poised, fiercely intelligent, and truly beautiful actress in person, and I came away from that conversation an even bigger fan that I was before. Also, I did grab of picture of her standing very close to me for proof. I’m good like that.

After the brunch, we headed back down the mountain. I needed a nap knowing that I intended on seeing all three hours of Bardo later that evening.

The first screening of the festival was Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. This is where Sasha and I suffered for not having Mark Johnson in attendance. We spent too long at “The Feed,” the big meal in the center of town for festival goers. By the time we made it to the Palm Theater, we weren’t able to score seats up front. I didn’t mind, though. By the time I sat down, I was fully bewildered by the most odd, and oddly hilarious encounter I’m likely to experience over the course of the festival.

When Sasha and I entered the lobby of the Palm Theater, Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy were waiting to go into the theater and take their seats. Claire looked absolutely fantastic in person. Because I had previously acknowledged having a huge crush on her to Sasha, Sasha uncharacteristically jumped into action as Claire walked by us. She said something to the effect of (forgive the lack of literal translation as this all happened within the span of 3 seconds), “Excuse me Claire. Would you mind taking a picture with Clarence Moye?” To properly gauge the shock of this moment, we must pause momentarily and understand that Sasha never does this. She’s incredibly introverted in real life and rarely interacts with celebrities. But there she was, jumping into action to help me achieve a goal I’d admitted to having earlier in the day.

Startled, both Claire and I looked at each other with blank expressions. She then quickly blurted out, “I’m so sorry. I really have to pee. Perhaps after the screening?” She may have said “use the loo,” I can’t be sure, but she was 100 percent doing the pee-pee dance. But she shook my hand, and that was enough for me. Once we found our seats, Sasha profusely apologized for embarrassing me, and I must have seemed embarrassed as I was very quiet, which is uncharacteristic for me. But I wasn’t embarrassed. I was in shock. That’s kind of how Telluride goes, I’m finding. You never know when you’ll have a random encounter like that. You have to be ready for anything.

Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is a very good film. It’s a film that had to sit with me for a few hours to fully absorb its message and its merits, but it’s one I’m still contemplating a day later. That’s no short feat considering all of the information and sensory input you’re slammed with at a quickly paced film festival. Likely triggering for some viewers, the film details a day-long debate among the women of an isolated Mennonite community regarding how they want to respond to years of targeted sexual abuse. Flee or fight are the topics up for discussion.

Polley’s direction and screenplay generate a great deal of intriguing debate, and the film is at times very surprising in the course it takes. I quibbled with a few plot points and choices Polley makes with the film, but by the end, it’s impossible not to appreciate the incredible skill and talent on display. I particularly admired the moment when she shockingly uses a pop song (The Monkees’ Daydream Believer) to pierce the timeless world these characters inhabit. Really interesting and smart choice, I thought.

My personal favorite performances were, of course, Claire Foy and Judith Ivey, but the entire cast is uniformly good and seems a likely contender for SAG ensemble early next year. Awards-wise, it likely receives a good amount of recognition, particularly for Polley’s screenplay, some performances, and the beautiful score by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Picture and Director kudos will be a “wait and see” for me right now. I have a hard time imagining the Academy, who recently shunned the complex and brilliant The Power of the Dog in favor of the heart-warming CODA, broadly embracing the film. It will get number one votes for sure, but I’m not sure it’s a “Best Picture frontrunner.” We’ll see though. Overall, Women Talking accomplishes what it sets out to do, and it should be celebrated for that.

Bardo — my Telluride great white whale, my Everest — followed.

The reviews coming out of Venice were not good. Certainly not what director Alejandro González Iñárritu wanted for what is clearly an intensely personal labor of love for him. Still, I knew I had to see it, and particularly, I had to see it on the big screen free from distractions likely present when watching on Netflix. Bardo is full of grand ideas. Iñárritu tackles Mexican culture and history, immigration, Mexican-American relations, the impact cultural assimilation has on the family, and so much more. Not everything comes across successfully. Before the screening, Iñárritu described the film as a traditional Mexican soup (the name of which I did not capture) which has a little bit of everything in it. That’s 100 percent accurate. That feast of ideas will work for some and won’t for many. For me, the scenes with Silverio (an incredible Daniel Giménez Cacho) and his core family worked so well that I longed for a cut of the film that focused solely on them. I didn’t even really mind the infamous newborn baby as the intent of those scenes — handled strictly in a broad, metaphorical manner — becomes heartbreakingly clear later in the film.

Bardo is a work of an incredibly talented filmmaker who has more ideas than most directors working today, but I longed for focus. I longed for some pushback on his grand scope. Coming in at just under 3 hours, Bardo offers several scenes that were simply stunning in their execution and cinematic vitality. Ultimately, it was just too much for this viewer, although I’m proud to say that I managed to stay completely awake the entire time even seeing it close to midnight.

I cannot say the same for some writers seated near me, but I don’t kiss and tell…

Today, the world premiere of Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light, Emmy-nominee Emma Corrin in Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and a tribute to Cate Blanchett followed by a screening of TAR.

Busy day. Great festival. Can’t wait for more.