THE DON’T-MISS FILMS OF HIFF
By Linda Lee—
The Hamptons Film Festival runs from Opening Night, “Martha,” on October 4 through October 14. It is so filled with juicy films that we can’t include them all or we would be discussing their entire program. So I’m not going to include “The Piano Lesson,” based on August Wilson’s play, starring Samuel L. Jackson, because you can figure that one out yourself. Here are what I think are the most exciting films up through Oct. 7. In another newsletter I’ll do cleanup with films from Oct. 8 through 14.
Note, if you have not done this before, let me give you a tip about buying tickets. You must register before you can buy a ticket. Instructions are confusing. You are told that, in order to register online, you must click on the “button” in the “upper right hand corner.” But there is no registration button there. Instead there is this:
In order to register, you click on “sign out,” then insert your email address and a password, any password. The system will ask if you need a new password, and you do. That’s how you register to buy a ticket.
Or you can buy a ticket by calling the box office ( 631 825 0050 ), which will suggest you try the website.
Ok, back to the films:
A scene from “Martha” (2024) by R.J. Cutler
“Martha,” the opening night film, Friday night, is a two-hour documentary about Martha Stewart. She will be there, natch. And so will the director, R.J. Cutler, who has done a revelatory documentary about Dick Cheney. “Martha” is not a simple trot through Martha Stewart’s life. (For that, see her new book, which contains her memories behind 100 favorite recipes. Coming in November.)
“The Hollywood Reporter” said of Cutler’s doc, “Stewart makes ‘Martha’ into almost a collaboration: half the story she wants to tell and half the degree to which Cutler buys that story. And the latter … is entertaining.”
Tickets ($40) for either of two locations, 6:30 and 7:15 pm, are rush only, but the documentary will be on Netflix starting Oct. 30. Since opening night is a Friday night, if there is traffic on the LIE, or a problem on the LIRR, or terrible weather, it might be worth getting into the rush line.
HOT TIP
October 6 1:30 The East Hampton Middle School
Selena Gomez in “Emilia Perez”
“Emilia Pérez” was a sensation at Cannes (“It’s like no other movie at all,” said the reporter from The New York Times) and at every film festival since then. “The best musical of the decade,” said “Vogue France.” It stars Selina Gomez, a sizzling Zoe Saldana and, at its center, in dual roles as a drug lord and then the title character, the trans actress from Argentina, Karla Sofia Gascón.
Karla Sofia Gascón, who plays two roles in “Emilia Pérez”
It is by the celebrated French director Jacques Audiard, and in Spanish. “Emilia Pérez” will play on Netflix starting November 13, and there will be another screening at Guild Hall at 2:15 on Saturday, October 12. Tickets are still available at this writing for both screenings. $30.
BIG NAMES
If you are into seeing celebrities, there are these. Because of popular demand, your best chance might be to stand outside and watch them go in.
Liev Schreiber to be interviewed by Alec Baldwin Oct. 5. (Image courtesy HIFF)
October 5, 6 pm Liev Schreiber will be honored with the Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award, with an interview by Alec Baldwin. Schreiber’s maternal grandfather emigrated from Ukraine, which has long been a focus of his attention. “Everything Is Illuminated,” the 2005 film he directed, is set in Ukraine and he is deeply involved in support for Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Thus his recognition for humanitarian work. His artistic work need not be listed. Most recently Schreiber plays the studly but scowling husband of Nicole Kidman in “The Perfect Couple” on Netflix. The conversation takes place at the East Hampton Middle School. Tickets ($35) are gone but there will be a rush line.
Oct 5 & Oct 6 there is a documentary about Kenneth Cole (“A Man with Sole”) on Friday at 5:15 pm and Sunday 11:30 am with Kenneth Cole at both screenings. Tickets $15.
Saturday 5 – Sunday, Oct. 6 “American Cats” – Is it a mistake to declaw a cat? The comic Amy Hogggart thinks so. In this documentary, told with humor and shots of cute kitties, she lays out the arguments. You might recognize her from her appearances on “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.” Tickets ($15) are available for Saturday at noon and Sunday at 11:45 am.
Jesse Eisenberg (left) and Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain” (Searchlight Pictures)
Monday Oct. 7 at the East Hampton Regal UA on Main Street, meet Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) a costar of “A Real Pain” with Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed the film. This one is a hot ticket, so you will have to get in the rush line for Monday ($30). It plays again on Oct. 13 at the Sag Harbor Cinema (without Culkin), but once again, the rush line. However, “A Real Pain” opens in theaters, Nov. 1.
What’s it about? Two cousins on a trip to Poland to explore their family roots. Petty arguments, pretty scenery.
Film Festival Films
Some films, like “American Cats,” may never get distributors, or will not turn up on major cable networks, or will not play in the United States because they are in a foreign language. “Emelia Peréz” (above) is the not-to-be-missed exception.
Home-grown films similarly give insight that is missing from sitcoms and Network series that are based on novels optioned by Reese Witherspoon.
So let’s look at what I call “Festival Films,” little movies that festival programmers, who see hundreds of films every year, adore, even if they are sometimes “difficult.” Not surprisingly, tickets are usually available.
“Adult Best Friends”
Here is one that is not difficult.
“Adult Best Friends.” This is not about a childhood friend, someone you hear from once a year. This is a about a gal pal. She’s part of your daily life. You hang out with her. See her all the time. If you want to do something, she’s the first person you call. Now you are going to get married, and you have to break it to her, because this changes everything. But how do you tell her? It’s a comedy. The two stars based the film on their own lives. “Adult Best Friends” plays on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 8:30, and Monday at 5 pm; tickets ($15) are available. You won’t be seeing this on Netflix next week. See it now.
Sat-Sun Oct 5-6 “Antidote” a film in Bulgarian, Russian and English.
A documentary that plays like a thriller, “Antidote”
People of the United States, you think you know what a whistle blower is? No. You. Do. Not.
Consider being a whistle blower against Vladmir Putin. Three men (two journalists and one scientist) decide to document Putin’s war on his critics. James Jones makes a documentary about them. At this writing they are all still alive. The scientist had worked in a laboratory creating poisons, until he learned what they were being used for. One of the journalists was serving a prison sentence during the four years of filming, so his wife stood in for him. The third, a Bulgarian journalist named Christo Grozev, ends up investigating an assassination plot against himself. The review in Variety says “Antidote” “unspools like a propulsive thriller.” Tickets are available. $15.
A still from the documentary “Homegrown”
“Homegrown”
Saturday & Sunday Oct. 5 & 6
Here is one for the Conservative Curious. The director Michael Premo follows three men vérité style as they pursue their belief in Donald Trump. One man from New York City, one from New Jersey, and one from Texas are followed in demonstrations, some violent, marching with the Proud boys, leading up to the 2020 election. One man is at the Capitol on January 6, and the camera is there with him. After the election the men remain convinced it w as stolen. Screendaily (UK) said: “Illuminating his subjects without ever rationalizing their mindset or sympathizing with their situation, journalist and filmmaker Michael Premo offers a blunt assessment of a rising threat fueled by a poisonous worldview and unchecked anger.” Tickets ($15) are available.
“The Girl With the Needle”
Saturday Oct. 5 7:45
Based on historic events in Denmark, this is a gothic horror story set just after World War I. Karoline is pregnant. Her husband is missing but not declared dead. And she has no money. A woman stops her from ending her pregnancy with a knitting needle in a public bathroom. Instead, she tells the girl, she can be a wet nurse to babies up on their way to foster homes. And then the horror begins. According to the Daily Beast “[I]t’s as grim, and transfixing, as they come.” Deadline Hollywood said the film, “a poetic and dark fairy tale” was “an unequivocal and beguiling triumph.” Denmark’s entry for Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars. In Danish. Tickets are available. $15.
OK, SOMETHING CHEERY
Terry Masear with one of the rescued hummingbirds
“Every Little Thing”
Saturday Oct 5 2:30 at the Regal UA on Main Street: Here is the audience favorite documentary at Sundance, a movie about a woman, Terry Masear, in Beverly Hills, who for 18 years has been rescuing and rehabilitating hummingbirds. Yes, some female hummingbirds are less colorful than the males.
Viewers get to know four birds individually and learn quite a bit about the woman who cares for them. It is hard not to root for Jimmy, the baby hummingbird who fell out of his nest when his mother abandoned it. Or Raisin, the one with brain damage.
Trigger warning: not is all happy endings here, but children can accept that. They’ve seen “The Lion King.” The Guardian (UK) said of “Every Little Thing,” which is directed by Sally Aitken: “It’s a shimmering, densely layered film about love and resilience, about how we live with and recover from trauma, and about letting go.”
The title, if you haven’t figured it out, is from the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds,” (…”they say, ‘Don’t worry/ ’bout a thing/ ’cause every little thing /gonna be alright”) Tickets are available. $15.
