The Atlanta Film Festival ended its in-person run on May 4. While the virtual rendition of the festival will run until May 12, I feel now’s a good time to run down through some of my favorite movies that played.
Ahead of the festival, I released a list of seven movies to watch out for. All my praise for those films still applies, but this list includes five new films that I came out of the theater loving. Keep scrolling for more.
“Vulcanizadora” (dir. Joel Potrykus)
I had never seen a Joel Potrykus film before “Vulcanizadora,” which serves as an unofficial sequel of sorts to 2014’s “Buzzard,” visiting the same characters a decade later. Considering how much I liked it, I’ll have to check out his other work.
The film, which follows two friends who travel into a Michigan forest in order to carry out a disturbing pact, is bleakly, uncomfortably funny, particularly considering what the pact in question entails. It’s hang-out cinema, but with an undercurrent of dread laced throughout its languid pace – one of my favorites at the fest.
“Withdrawal” (dir. Aaron Strand)
Full disclosure: Aaron Strand hosts the podcast Crash Zoom with me, so that should give you an inkling as to my biases. That being said, “Withdrawal” was one of the best things I saw at the film festival this year – and I believe I would have thought so even if I didn’t know Aaron.
“Withdrawal” follows two heroin addicts (played by Brent Michal and Millie Rose Evans) who decide to get clean, the events of the film playing out over a single night as drug withdrawal begins to set in. What follows is a frequently upsetting, often funny, equal parts realistic and fantastical take on what addiction feels like. And I mean feel – this film is visceral in every sense of the word.
“Mongrels” (dir. Jerome Yoo)
A feature debut can be a tricky thing. I often feel like first-time feature filmmakers understandably feel like they need to get everything out of their system in that first movie, just in case the opportunity never comes again. But “Mongrels,” from Canadian filmmaker Jerome Yoo, feels far more patient than most – comfortable with its strangeness rather than self-conscious about it.
The film, which follows a Korean immigrant family living in rural Canada in the early 1990s, features a three-act structure, each from the perspective of a different member of the family. Because we eventually move away from each character, there are loose ends that never get picked up again, some heartbreaking tensions that are never quite resolved. But “Mongrels” is so certain of those decisions, and so sensitive in its portrayal of complicated family dynamics, that the movie never feels like it’s losing its footing. It’s the work of a very confident filmmaker, and I can’t wait to see what Yoo does next.
“Your Tomorrow” (dir. Ali Weinstein)
I find observational documentary – documentaries that aim to capture real life events without interference from the filmmaker, or talking heads, or narration – to be one of the most difficult forms of documentary to do well. But with “Your Tomorrow,” Ali Weinstein shows us what can happen with a whole lot of footage, a little luck, and a ton of time spent in the editing room.
“Your Tomorrow” follows the final year of Ontario Place, a Toronto park, before a redevelopment that would turn parts of the park into a spa facility. The film is an important look at what we lose when we lose public spaces, but Weinstein also manages to capture the uniqueness and vibrancy of Ontario Place through a quirky cast of characters that breathe life into every minute.
“Lockjaw” (dir. Sabrina Greco)
In “Lockjaw,” Raina (Blu Hunt) – newly sober and dysfunctional – attempts to fake her way through her first night out following a drunk-driving accident that renderer her jaw wired shut. Thus begins a one-crazy-night saga of miscommunications and embarrassments galore.
I recently interviewed filmmaker Sabrina Greco about the process of making this film, and one thing she said that stood out to me was about her love for writing unlikeable characters. The magic trick that “Lockjaw” somehow pulls off is making Raina both annoying and funny, alienating and sympathetic, all at the same time. As you follow her through all the mishaps of her night, you’ll cringe, and you’ll want to yell at her – but you’ll also never stop hoping that she comes out on the other side.
