The American Film Institute (AFI) announced the three Centerpiece Galas and Tribute that will take place at AFI Fest 2017. The Centerpiece Galas are: Call Me By Your Name (director Luca Guadagnino) on Friday, November 10; The Disaster Artist (director James Franco) on Sunday, November 12; and Hostiles (director Scott Cooper) on Tuesday, November 14. On Saturday, November 11,
Additionally Academy Award®-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris will be honored with a Tribute following a screening of Wormwood. All Gala screenings will take place at the TCL Chinese Theatre and the Morris Tribute will take place at the Egyptian Theatre.
Morris’ revered credits include the Oscar®-winning The Fog Of War (2003), as well as Gates of Heaven (1978), The Thin Blue Line (1988), A Brief History of Time (1991), Tabloid (2010) and The Unknown Known (2013). Morris serves on the AFI DOCS Film Festival Advisory Board and, in 2013, was the AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
CENTERPIECE GALAS
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME — The new film from Sony Pictures Classics by Luca Guadagnino is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th-century villa, transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
THE DISASTER ARTIST — Director James Franco reimagines the tragicomic true story of aspiring filmmaker and infamous Hollywood outsider Tommy Wiseau — an artist whose passion was as sincere as his methods were questionable — as a celebration of friendship, artistic expression and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds. Based on Greg Sestero’s bestselling tell-all about the making of Wiseau’s cult-classic disaster piece The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”), The Disaster Artist is a hilarious and welcome reminder that there is more than one way to become a legend — and no limit to what you can achieve when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. Franco directs, produces and stars in the film, delivering a transformative performance as Wiseau in this A24 release.
HOSTILES — Set in 1892 at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, the buffalo gone, America’s indigenous population vanquished and the frontier rapidly disappearing into settlements and cities, two bitter adversaries of the Indian Wars are forced into a final, unexpected encounter. Cavalry Captain Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale), a former war hero turned jailer, and Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), a Northern Cheyenne war chief turned prisoner, are forced to partake in a hollow publicity stunt to bolster the personal and political fortunes of Blocker’s commanding officer. Stuck in Fort Berringer, a miserable New Mexican prison outpost, Yellow Hawk is to be released to Blocker and returned to the Cheyenne homeland in Montana. It’s a particularly cynical gambit, as Yellow Hawk is dying and upon his death, his family will be imprisoned on a reservation. A belligerent Blocker believes the Chief should die in prison and is threatened with court martial when he refuses to accompany his enemy home. The plan is set in motion and Blocker, his men, Yellow Hawk and his family become complicated traveling companions. Not long after their departure, the group happens upon Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike), a traumatized survivor of a Comanche massacre, and she reluctantly joins. Blocker, Yellow Hawk and Quaid turn into the unlikely heart of Hostiles. They are tenacious fighters who have been shaped by suffering, violence and loss. Compelled to work together to endure and survive a 1,000-mile journey of Odyssey-like proportions, they’re forced to confront their preconceived notions of one another, and realize that the worst of their differences were created by forces beyond their control. Their transformation from a place of antagonism and fear to one of compassion and tolerance is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and our capacity for change. HOSTILES features cinematography by AFI Conservatory alumnus Masanobu Takayanagi (Class of 2002).
TRIBUTE SCREENING
WORMWOOD — Directed by boundary-breaking filmmaker Errol Morris, Wormwood explores the limits of knowledge about the past and the lengths we’ll go in our search for the truth in a twisting, evolving story of one man’s 60-year quest to identify the circumstances of his father’s mysterious death. Combining a virtuosic performance by Peter Sarsgaard with Morris’ legendary interview style, Wormwood examines this case from every possible angle, bringing the viewer face to face with some of the United States’ darkest secrets. A Netflix Original Story told in six chapters.
AFI Fest takes place November 9–16 in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and other events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre, Dolby Cinema at the Vine, the Mark Goodson Screening Room at the American Film Institute and The Hollywood Roosevelt. The full festival lineup and schedule will be unveiled on Friday, October 27.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More