Telluride Film Festival Days 2 and 3: Man On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

This will be a short journal entry, despite covering two days of the Telluride Film Festival. I’m not quite accustomed to the rapid-fire pace of a film festival, let alone one that comes lovingly packaged with jet lag issues. Maybe I’ll never be one of the lucky few, but I’m challenged with seeing multiple films back to back to back without time to absorb them — let alone write about them.

For me, films need time to ruminate, to soak in, to age like fine wine (although I can’t stand wine, so that’s a terrible analogy for me). Still, I mentally cannot shift from a sensitive, old-fashioned drama about the love of cinema to a film about cannibalism. I think a break should exist between the two. Silly me.

Days two and three brought only three films, despite a much more aggressively planned schedule: Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light, Todd Field’s TAR, and James Gray’s Armageddon Time. I have heard great things about other films that were on my list, but I’ve yet to be able to squeeze in including The Wonder (which I should be able to squeeze in tomorrow), Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and Luca’s Bones and All, which I will be seeing tomorrow.

One of my very favorite memories this year that didn’t directly involve Claire Foy happened on the way to the Herzog Theater to see the world premiere of Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light. Along the dusty trail to the theater (you have to cross through the town park and baseball field to get there), we ran into Frances McDormand. Now, I will approach celebrities if they’re looking amiable and open to conversations. I’m very sure that Frances McDormand is a nice and well-meaning person. However, due to no fault of her own, she doesn’t project vibes of accessibility to me, and that’s 100 percent fine. She was there, after all, to promote Women Talking and to see films just like the thousands of other festival goers in attendance.

I passed by McDormand quickly as I walk fast. I stood next to the door of the theater to wait for the rest of the team. McDormand needed to walk by me to enter the theater, of course. As she did, my mouth involuntarily opened and blurted out “Hello, Frances. I’m a huge fan.” Smooth. So smooth to the one person who is most definitely not here for your bullshit. Still, she smiled politely and said, “Thank you.” Then, my wits came about me, and I followed up with the oh-so-clever “I loved your performance in Almost Famous.” That is a true statement. It’s actually one of my personal favorite performances of hers. She smiled briefly and said, “I love that one too.”

Then, without missing a beat, she turned back and said, “Don’t do drugs.”

Readers, my heart stopped. Another perfect Telluride moment.

It seemed that nearly every filmmaker attending the festival found their way into the Herzog for Empire of Light. Mendes introduced the film with a lovely, slightly deadpan speech before introducing its stars — Olivia Colman and Michael Ward — via Zoom. Both were incredibly excited for the audience to see the film, and Colman had the house rocking with her quick wit. The film was, in my opinion, a beautiful tone poem to, yes, the magic of film but also to friendship and love. To the power of connections. To the friends you make on your journey. To the power they have to literally save your life. Is it a perfect film? Well, I initially thought I wouldn’t have changed a single frame, but many voices here at the festival have convinced me that it would have been more impactful if it had ended on a different scene. I believe they may be right. You all will have to weigh in once you see it later this year.

Olivia Colman does indeed give a career-best performance. That’s saying a lot considering her magnificent work in The Crown, The Favorite (Oscar win), and even last year’s The Lost Daughter. Yet, I sincerely believe she’s one-upped herself here. She blends her ability to tone down her vibrant personality with a sequence of manic fury. And I’m not sure I can think of an actor working today who uses their eyes to such amazing effect. Her performance feels as lived-in as any I’ve seen. She breaks your heart with every action whether she’s taking tickets or serving popcorn in the theater or falling in love in all the wrong ways. It’s a master class performance. Michael Ward, Colin Firth, and Toby Jones are all great as well with special shout-outs to Tom Brooke and Tanya Moodie in smaller, yet incredibly impactful, roles.

Next up was the Cate Blanchett tribute and the North American premiere of Todd Field’s TÁR. It’s an odd thing to see Empire of Light and TÁR back to back, but that’s what you have to deal with at a film festival. I need to see TÁR again. It’s a challenging film, one for which I wasn’t prepared. Blanchett plays Lydia Tár, a world-famous conductor whose potential sexual proclivities prove controversial to say the least. On first viewing, one of the more frustrating aspects of the film is its refusal to reveal key details of her story. Rather than fleshing out the story into a more traditional narrative, Field molds Tár into something resembling a Roman Polanski psychological thriller of the 1970s. This film will be debated and discussed for years to come, and it’s one that I really do need to see again with my expectations appropriately shifted so that I can operate on its wavelength. One thing is not up for debate: Cate Blanchett gives a tremendous, towering performance. But you already guessed that, right?

Day three started early with a screening of James Gray’s Armageddon Time. I was not prepared for this film. It is a simple coming of age story directly honed from the director’s personal life. I knew I would love this film the minute Sir Anthony Hopkins appears onscreen as the film’s loving grandfather. In fact, seeing Hopkins, becoming increasingly frail each time I see him, brought a tear to my eye. It made me briefly imagine a world in which we wouldn’t have a new Anthony Hopkins performance to devour. It also made me long for the kind of connection his character had with his grandson Paul (Banks Repeta, an astonishing talent). See, I never knew my grandfathers. Both died long before I was born: one to cancer and one to suicide. Armageddon Time, in effect, became a way for me to use the power of film to briefly experience that grandfather/grandson bond that I never had before. To say I was a wreck by the end of the film is no exaggeration. I had intended to stay for the Q&A session with the brilliant Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, and Gray. I could not.

I left the theater trying to control myself. I walked back to our shared condo fighting back tears, frequently crying and laughing at the same time. Wondering all the way if I was having a nervous breakdown. It’s been a long, long time since I’d connected with a film on such a purely emotional level. I wrote about a slightly similar experience recently in a Reframe of The Age of Innocence. The only other film that moved me on first viewing like Armageddon Time was, weirdly, Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence. That end. Teddy. I simply cannot watch it without melting down. Back to Armageddon Time: I loved this film. It may be my favorite of the year. You will likely not love it as much as I did because I connected with it on such an intensely personal level.

Fortunately, I collected myself in time to attend a Focus Features brunch in celebration of Armageddon Time and Tár. There, I gleefully listened to James Gray talk about film for at least 30 minutes. He’s a wealth of cinematic knowledge and wickedly funny. So funny, in fact, that both Sasha and I think he should hone that voice with a comedic screenplay. I also spoke to Jeremy Strong about his intense, yet deeply loving, performance, one that I hope — along with Anthony Hopkins — sees some kind of awards attention later in the year. And then Cate Blanchett arrived, and she was a pleasure. She’s immediately approachable, looks you directly in the eye when she’s talking to you, and radiates intelligence.

I finished day three with a second viewing of Armageddon Time to see if it would hold up. It does. As I was walking out of the theater, I passed by a crowd of festival goers who gushed about how much they loved the film. It has the air of an underdog because it is a very small, quiet, and sharply focused film. Awards attention aside, I’m happy to hear people are reacting positively to it. Although I have no stake in The Game, it’s at least nice to have your opinion validated once in a while.