MVFF47 - RSVP Guide

Summer. Suburbia. Everyone is out having fun…except our 14-year-old hero, who in his pretentious precocity aims to write and stage the Great American Stage Drama. Even he gets distracted, however, once mom hires a hunky young handyman.

“Basically, it’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets American Beauty,” says the titular figure of his magnum opus Regrets of Autumn, a searing expose of the tarnished American Dream involving alcoholism, infidelity, and abortion. Rehearsals are just starting, but one senses the playwright probably already has that Pulitzer acceptance speech prepared. Trouble is…Griffin (Everett Blunck) remains as yet a pubescent suburban middle school student whose few friends and long-suffering mother (Melanie Lynskey) are already tired of his humorless devotion to the dramatic arts. While they reluctantly bend to his will, he faces distraction from "the work" this summer when mom hires young handyman Brad (Owen Teague, Eileen), who’s like a latter-day James Dean with better abdominal definition. Surprisingly, it turns out this monosyllabic hunk has theatrical ambitions, too. Nicholas Colia’s alternately hilarious and discomfiting debut combines an eccentrically singular coming-of-age (and coming out) story with elements of poignant insight.

Expected In Person Guest

MVFF47 honoree Mikey Madison’s breakthrough performance as a sex worker who impulsively marries a Russian oligarch’s son powers Sean Baker’s latest indie marvel, Cannes’ Palme d’Or winner.

The winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Sean Baker’s latest indie marvel explores a familiar subject from the writer-director—the lives of sex workers—but in a far more propulsive and, ultimately, heartbreaking manner. Mikey Madison delivers a breakthrough performance as Anora, a New Yorker working at a strip club, who meets and impulsively weds young, rich Russian Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). Anora’s Cinderella story seems destined for a happy ending until Ivan’s corrupt oligarch father sends his goons to annul the marriage. As it segues from screwball comedy to one-crazy-night thriller, Anora offers further proof that the auteur behind The Florida Project (MVFF40) and Red Rocket (MVFF44) has a distinctive perspective on those residing on the margins of American society, who fight to stay afloat while trying to reach their dreams. So hilarious, yet so sad—swooningly romantic, yet so sobering—the film is powered by Madison’s comedic, gripping turn. Few characters this year are more messily alive or more ferociously rendered.

Expected in person guest.

Painter and sculptor Titus Kaphar brings his sense of wonder to the big screen with this affirming debut. The writer-director delivers a wrenching and deeply felt excavation of family, particularly the bonds that exist between fathers and sons.

André Holland delivers a tour de force performance as Tarrell Rodin, a successful painter, husband, and father haunted by nightmares of childhood abuse suffered at the hands of his hard-tasking father La’Ron (John Earl Jelks in a breakthrough performance). While preparing for a new gallery installation, Tarrell encounters a rude awakening when his father suddenly reappears in his life, a development that sends him spiraling. But with the insistence of his long-suffering mother Joyce (Oscar® nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) and support of his wife Aisha (Andra Day), Tarrell confronts buried memories in his path to healing. In observing Tarrell’s complicated journey to self, the film teases out the usefulness of art as a medium for breaking the cycle of generational trauma. Radiating pain and love, tenderness and bitterness, sometimes all in the same scene, Exhibiting Forgiveness confronts the limits of unconditional love while withholding judgment of its characters.

Expected In Person Guest

MVFF47 honoree Mikey Madison’s breakthrough performance as a sex worker who impulsively marries a Russian oligarch’s son powers Sean Baker’s latest indie marvel, Cannes’ Palme d’Or winner.

The winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Sean Baker’s latest indie marvel explores a familiar subject from the writer-director—the lives of sex workers—but in a far more propulsive and, ultimately, heartbreaking manner. Mikey Madison delivers a breakthrough performance as Anora, a New Yorker working at a strip club, who meets and impulsively weds young, rich Russian Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). Anora’s Cinderella story seems destined for a happy ending until Ivan’s corrupt oligarch father sends his goons to annul the marriage. As it segues from screwball comedy to one-crazy-night thriller, Anora offers further proof that the auteur behind The Florida Project (MVFF40) and Red Rocket (MVFF44) has a distinctive perspective on those residing on the margins of American society, who fight to stay afloat while trying to reach their dreams. So hilarious, yet so sad—swooningly romantic, yet so sobering—the film is powered by Madison’s comedic, gripping turn. Few characters this year are more messily alive or more ferociously rendered.