Category Archives: 2017

Their Finest

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“Their Finest” is sold out but there remains limited series passes that include all 25 films as well as opening night, along with the party and also will allow you to enter in a priority line for best seats. Click here to purchase limited series passes or visit the Vogue Box Office.

Films about how movies get made form a fascinating genre unto themselves. To classics like “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Bad and the Beautiful” add the delightful comedy “Their Finest”—the story of the British film industry during the war, charged with buoying the spirits of people living in fear of the Blitz. A film crew is depicted chasing upbeat stories like the twin sisters who rescue soldiers after the retreat at Dunkirk. Standout performances from Gemma Arterton as a fledgling scriptwriter hired to bring a woman’s perspective to the big screen, and the dryly amusing Bill Nighy as a past-his-prime, but still pompous actor, who latches onto the young scenarist. The set design and clothes are rich in period detail. Accomplished director Lone Scherfig (“An Education,” “Italian for Beginners”) brings her special light touch to the proceedings, which are sure to leave you smiling.

Bill Nighy will be interviewed following the screening by ACT artistic director Carey Perloff

UK, 2016 (117 minutes)

Shepherds and Butchers

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Steve Coogan proved in “Philomena” that he can do drama as well as comedy, and he is impressive in this Apartheid courtroom drama as a jaded lawyer who takes on a seemingly hopeless case of a prison guard in South Africa charged with multiple murders. As the attorney probes  into this case he comes to believe the accused has been traumatized by his job as a security guard overseeing executions.  Winner best narrative feature, Woodstock Film Festival  

South Africa, 2016 (80 minutes)

The Rehearsal

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A compelling coming-of-age drama from New Zealand, “The Rehearsal” starts with a country boy named Stanley (James Rolleston, star of “Boy”) auditioning for a prestigious Auckland drama school. You immediately see what the teacher sees: Stanley is a star. This winning  film, based on the first novel by Mann Booker Prize winning author Eleanor Catton, follows Stanley and other recruits through their first year as they struggle with inner conflicts, and Stanley is forced to make a moral decision about whether a steamy scandal in his girlfriend’s family is fair game for him to dramatize in a school project.

New Zealand, 2016 (102 minutes)

Adult Life Skills

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Debut films can be hit and miss. Rachel Tunnard’s first film  definitely is the former. She won the Tribeca Film Festival’s prestigious Nora Ephron Award for “Adult Life Skills” which focuses on a confused teen, played with just the right degree of kookiness by the adorable Jodie Whittaker (“Broadchurch”). Grief stricken by the death of her twin brother she has fled to the seclusion of a shed in her mother’s garden. Facing her first birthday without her brother, she questions if she still qualifies as a twin. Its heart-felt emotions are sure to impress.

UK, 2016 (96 minutes)     

Handsome Devil

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Two very different Irish high school outsiders learn to be true to themselves in this contemporary coming-of-age story. From the geek pariah to the secret gay jock right down to a rugby match as a tease of outsider self-affirmations–versions of this story are familiar to audiences. But the sweetness, poignancy and breezy humor of this popular Irish film make it pretty darn impossible to resist. Energetic directing by John Butler, charming performances, vibrant widescreen cinematography and an eclectic soundtrack cleverly used elevate this light-hearted but surprisingly nuanced- festival hit above the typical “feel-good” films of this genre.

Ireland, 2016 (94 min.)

The Daughter

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In this poignant and unsettling contemporary family drama, loosely based on Ibsen’s 19th century play “The Wild Duck,” a wayward son returns from America to attend the wedding of his father to his much younger former housekeeper. The picturesque rural background belies the fact that these are the last days of a dying Australian logging town. Getting reacquainted with a childhood friend, the son accidentally uncovers a secret that could be destructive to family relationships. This is the first full-length feature from famed Aussie theater director Simon Stone, who became intrigued with the cinematic possibilities of Ibsen’s play while directing it onstage. He has a golden touch with actors; Geoffrey Rush as the groom and Sam Neill and Miranda Otto (“Homeland”) as an uneasy married couple are at the top of their game. From the producer of “The Piano” and “Lantana.” Variety calls “The Daughter” “low-key yet achingly intense.”

Australia, 2015 (96 minutes)