Best of 2023 Palm Springs Film Fest
After the two-year delay of on-site screenings due to COVID-19, the Palm Springs International Film Festival returns to the Coachella Valley, featuring notable work from more than 60 countries. Including online and in-person screenings, here is an amalgam of cinematic artistry, both from the US and internationally.
Bardo, False Confessions of a Handful of Truths (dir. Alejandro G. Inarritu, Mexico)
The master lenser of the Oscar winning Birdman turns his eyes toward the amorphous nature of cultural identity. Daniel Gimenez Cacho leads a superb cast as a documentarian who breaks rules, including living in LA while traveling back to Mexico City with his fractured family, to begrudgingly accept an award. As with Birdman, Inarritu’s magical realism visual panache makes him one of the most exciting directors today in international film.
Beautiful Beings (Guomundur Arnar Guomundsson, Iceland)
The title belies the brutality these Icelandic boys mete out upon each other and inevitably, a rival, older gang, fomented by broken homes and hopes. But the aforementioned beauty certainly is apropos of the kindness and loyalty some of the boys learn to show each other when interceding in domestic abuse of one of their own. Not really bloody but overwhelming in fisticuffs, Beautiful Beings, by its hard-earned conclusion, is spiritually uplifting and transcendent.
Il Boemo (Petr Vaclav, Czech Republic)
The sumptuous, sexually steamy intrigues of a previously underappreciated composer-conductor of 18th century opera, Czech Josef Myslivecek, became the happy obsession of director Vaclav. As the cagy hero, using his love affairs and artistic connections to further his career, actor Vojtek Dyk is surrounded by gifted singer-actresses whose own voices carry the viewer away. It is a worthy biopic for a brilliant artist who at one point trades serious advice with a child by the last name of Mozart.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, USA)
The redoubtable Poitras, Oscar winner for her doc on whistleblower Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, has deepened her well of filmmaking compassion with this tribute to photographer-social activist Nan Goldin. The director brilliantly weaves Goldin’s own narration and photos of her Bowery roots with her Oxycontin addiction, the tragedy of her own family and how she channeled it into castigating the Sackler family and Purdue Pharmaceuticals, making the public more aware of the half a million deaths from the highly addictive Oxycontin.
Body Parts (Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, USA)
Laden with scores of clips from films sexually objectifying actresses, Body Parts goes far beyond mere protest, investigating the shift in production consciousness with the use of so-called intimacy coordinators for safety during erotically charged scenes. Also providing perspective in this post-Weinstein world are the likes of Jane Fonda, Rose McGowan, Rosanna Arquette and David Simon.
Born in Chicago (Bob Sarles, John Anderson, USA)
A who’s who of blues greats connected to the Chicago sound, including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Charlie Musselwhite, Elvin Bishop and on and on. The directors provide historical context via the white bluesmen Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Barry Goldberg and their efforts to concretize the black musical artistry that came from the Windy City. An important music related doc whose time was overdue.
The Grab (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, USA)
This must-see doc tears the cover off the international, sub rosa war to control land for food and water by China, Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia. Its most startling revelation is Russia’s desperate need for water supplies, which has colored Putin’s involvement in the Crimean Peninsula and, more immediately, the war in Ukraine. Opening with American companies that are involved in selling off land to the highest international bidder, The Grab does not let go of the viewer.
Subject (Camilla Hall, Jennifer Tiexiera, USA)
The penetrating concept behind Subject is the follow-up investigation, decades later, of the lives of those featured in important documentaries, including Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans, The Square and others. At times enobling, at other times crushing in depicting what has not improved in the lives of subjects, the work also challenges the concept of ethics and objectivity in the creation of docs, an issue that must always be wrestled with for the betterment of the form.
The Judgement (Sander Burger, Netherlands/Germany)
Based on a major crime and trial in Dutch history that was the salacious equal to the O.J. Simpson murder case, this thriller centers around a TV journalist who is first convinced of the guilt of an imprisoned murder suspect, but then finds evidence to prove who is really guilty. But by then, the public, the media and the criminal court system don’t seem willing to re-investigate the issue.
The Origin of Evil (Sebastien Marnier, France/Canada)
Worthy of the work of Patricia Highsmith, this twisty, darkly amusing crime drama seems to be about two female lovers, one in prison for murder, the other posing as the abandoned daughter of an ultra-rich family. But a midway twist and the dark intentions of the uber-rich themselves keep one glued to the screen, constantly weighing the shifting and complex morals of these deliciously disturbed denizens.
