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Awards Buzz, Spike Lee & Springsteen: Montclair Film Festival 2025
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The Bellevue Theater is back and so is the Montclair Film Festival. We sit down with Montclair Film’s Artistic Director, Tom Hall, to break down the 14th edition: what’s bold, what’s risky, and what’s bound for awards season.
Highlights include opening night's Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach’s meta comedy starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler. Nicholas Britell who scored the film will be there for a Q&A. Get tickets for headline events with Spike Lee and Stephen Colbert, and Pam Abdy on Hollywood’s future. Cinephiles can dive into Rebecca Miller’s Scorsese portrait, Richard Linklater’s black-and-white Godard homage, Jesse Plemons in Bugonia, and Palme d'Or winner It Was Just An Accident by Jafar Panahi.
Docs bring the emotional punch with Come See Me In the Good Light (Tig Notaro + Ryan White), while Saturday pairs the deeply moving (Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value) with the urgent (Laura Poitras’s Cover Up). Brendan Fraser shines in Rental Family, and the festival closes on Christy, a fierce Sydney Sweeney performance that refuses the easy sports-biopic arc.
Grab your tickets, join the Q&As, and meet us in the dark—this year’s festival promises films to argue over, cheer for, and remember long after.
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Let's talk movies. Tom, what year of the festival is it?
SPEAKER_0014th annual Montclair Film Festival, my 11th.
SPEAKER_02How is this one compared to the first one that you did?
SPEAKER_00Number four, I guess, was my first one. Uh it's much bigger. We have a lot more going on. That was in the days before we had year-round programming, before we had the Claridge, before we'd acquired the Bellevue. So things have gone exponential on us all of a sudden. And it's um it's a lot. Our team is relatively the same size.
Festival Scale-Up And Rebuild
SPEAKER_00So we've added some folks here and there, but you know, not at the same rate that we've added work for everybody. So everyone's busy. We're stretched, we're getting bigger, we continue to grow. Because we've moved to October, there's a lot of interest and demand in the festival with films. And so it's an exciting time, but it's super, super busy.
SPEAKER_01It is. I'm sure you guys are busy. I mean, it's so exciting about the Bellevue reopening. I mean, everybody's sort of, especially in the neighborhood, has been waiting and waiting, staring up to see what's gonna happen, who's gonna get it, when is it gonna open? And you guys are gonna open it.
SPEAKER_00That's right. We worked on that for uh quite a while in very quiet conditions to make sure we got things done properly and ready to go. So we are right now, if you walked into the Bellevue, the floors are being leveled, they're ripped up, everything's being painted and touched up. It's we're right in the process of renovating
Bellevue Reopening Strategy
SPEAKER_00for the opening. So we're opening it on the 18th during the film festival. It'll be the first public screening at the Bellevue since it closed in 2017. We're really excited about that. Um, I think the focus of the Clarage will be more independent and have more capacity for independence, and we'll take some studio chances up at the Bellevue that we may not have taken down at the Clarage. So that I think is the in the you know, maybe a high profile indie like Sinners, which is not a studio movie, but maybe a riskier proposition, not based on you know IP that people know or whatever. Might go up to the Bellevue. So what do you do with the Bruce Springsteen movie? Like, are we gonna open that one? I don't know where we're gonna put that yet. Like that's right on the line for me. It's like uh it's a big Bruce Springsteen movie. We're in New Jersey, we want to do that, but do we I don't know where we're gonna put it. Do people want to see it at the clear edge?
SPEAKER_01That's a very good question. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we're like, we're figuring all that out now. And while we're doing construction and putting on the film festival, we just hired a new executive director. Nothing, nothing's happening over at the office right now. No, it's it's while trying to figure all this out at the same time.
SPEAKER_02So you're starting the festival off on October the 17th. Is that correct? Is that right? That's opening night, and you have the governor and his wife coming to kick it all off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so they're the um honorary chairs of the festival this year. So as you guys know, Governor Murphy was crucial in the film tax credit incentives that went into returning film production to New Jersey. So, in honor of that, and this is his you know last couple of months in office, we wanted to thank the governor for supporting film
Opening Night: Chairs And Film Choice
SPEAKER_00and film creatives and the first lady as well for her advocacy for nonprofit art. She was crucial during COVID uh at a really tough time for nonprofits rallying the state and and getting us organized as a as an industry. So they're coming to be our honorary chairs on opening night. I'm thrilled about that. Um, they've been incredible allies and supporters of the work that we've done at Mockware Film. And we're opening the festival with Jay Kelly, which is a film by Noah Baumbach, terrific movie that it could be more meta in terms of the theme of the film, which is George Clooney going to a film festival to be honored, right? So I was like, this is a perfect opening night film festival movie. It's a movie about film festivals, kinda. So uh we're thrilled to have it. The composer of the film, Nicholas Bertel, who did this theme of first succession. I think everyone will know him from that. Yeah. Uh as well as some of his other terrific scores. Um, he did Moonlight uh for Barry Jenkins and uh Bill Street could talk for Barry as well. Terrific composer. So he's coming to be honored for his score for Jay Kelly. I love this movie. I'm really excited to see it with a big audience. It's a terrific comedy, but also sort of melancholy comedy. Uh incredibly, like I
Baumbach’s Meta Comedy And Cast
SPEAKER_00said, it's gonna be incredibly meta to watch a film about people watching films at a film festival.
SPEAKER_02So Adam Sandler's in this film is right, right?
SPEAKER_00It's terrific. Yeah, I've heard that he's yeah, he plays George Clooney's basically a George Clooney character. So it's like a famous actor who sort of everyone, you know, takes care of him and everything he does in his life, and he's committed to working, but he he has a family and doesn't pay enough attention to them. And his team sort of, you know, he just floats from place to place and is a celebrity and gets to do all the celebrity stuff. And Adam Sandler's basically the person who, as his manager, makes all that happen for him and is sort of also trying to juggle a family and has a completely different experience uh doing that because he's not a celebrity and he's not famous, and he has to attend to the needs of a very needy celebrity person played by George Pitty. Some part is really terrific, and it ends up being quite moving their relationship, thinking about sort of family and how we relate to one another in our families and what's important in life. I don't know if you guys are Noah Bomback fans, but this is not as dark or as sort of um, I don't know, cynical as some of Noah's movies that I love. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm curious, do you think since I went to Enora's opening at the Welmont last year? Well, I I feel differently in the audience this year than I did.
SPEAKER_00Oh, how did you feel in Honora? I don't know how you felt.
SPEAKER_01Well, I just love your introduction to the film. I lost it when you walked out and you're like, okay, everyone. I hope everyone's comfortable watching a lot of sex together on screen. Bye.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Enjoy. I was like, well, what does that mean? That's what it was. It's a lot less sex in this movie.
SPEAKER_00So you can be comfortable knowing. Also, Enora was another opening night. That was just at the Welmont.
SPEAKER_01I I'm sorry, I uh I have uh blacked out after that.
SPEAKER_02So it was a long, but it was Yeah, but it was it was a winner. Tell us what is the next featured film that you'd like to spotlight. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So uh on Saturday we have Spike Lee coming, which I'm really excited about. I am a Gen Xer to the core. Do the right thing is the movie of my generation, in my opinion. It's the one of the masterpieces of Gen X. He is an incredible filmmaker who basically has defined cinema for me and for a lot of people, I think, uh, over the years. Uh he's a very cinematic. I don't know if you guys got to see highest or lowest this year, but he's like it's on Apple TV Plus right now, I think, but
Spike Lee Tribute With Colbert
SPEAKER_00it's so visually interesting and engaging. And all of his films take huge risks and huge chances. He's a real artist. I could not be more thrilled that he's coming to Mock Clarity. He's talking to Stephen Colbert at the festival. That's going to be great. Like their dynamics are gonna be great. Spike is super funny. That's gonna be on Saturday, uh the 18th, I think at 3:30 at the Wellmont. And then we're doing a conversation with Pam Abde, who is a Jersey uh native and is the CEO of Warner Brothers. And when I mentioned all those movies that saved movie theaters this year, uh she produced all of those. So I know.
SPEAKER_02I was reading about her ordinary. I was like, what? Who is this person? Why do I not know who this person is? I get to get to interview her, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm really excited about that. Her first job was with Danny DeVito, she was an office assistant and then ended up like over the production company and then produced Garden State. So, like, she's got real Jersey. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01She's all real Jersey cred.
SPEAKER_00Yes, for sure. She also produced One Battle After Another, which opens at the Claridge this week with a new Leonardo DiCaprio Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Um that's gonna be in the conversation, I think, for a lot of awards this year as well. I highly recommend everyone see that film. So I'm really excited to talk to her. I can't believe she's coming and there's like you.
SPEAKER_01Speak speaking of that, how did that come about? Like, how did you decide? Pam? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I she um works with our publicity firm, Frank PR, who does our publicity, also helps out with Pam Abdi
Spotlight On Pam Abdy And Warner Bros.
SPEAKER_00and with some of the Warner Brothers things in their terrific. And I went to Frank PR and I was like looking at the box office at the Clarage, and I'm like, Warner Brothers is having a year, like, and everywhere I was reading online was like, will they keep their jobs? Pam and Mike at Warner Brothers, are they in trouble? Because they had, you know, a film that didn't do so well. And I'm like, they are crushing it right now. So I went to them, I went to her very early and I said, I think Warner Brothers deserves a lot more, or Pam and Mike in particular deserve a lot more credit. Is there any chance I know Pam's from New Jersey? Is there any chance she'd want to come to Montclair and let us honor her? Because, you know, she's basically flipped the Claringe by herself. Like that's the F1. Like, what didn't they do this year? It's an insane, an insane year. So they put it, we got on a call and I was like, this is coming from a really authentic place as like a person who loves movies. I know everything you've produced, and I would love to talk to you and welcome you to the festival. And she's like, Great, let's do it. I was like, Great.
SPEAKER_02That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it'll be terrific. I'm very excited to talk to her.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk about the panelists and then we'll talk about films.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, sure. For um, yeah, so we have some panelists uh during the festival. We're partnering with the Anchor once again. So Richard Rushfeld and Sean McNulty of The Anchler, which is a sort of up-and-coming trade publication. So a lot of like the trade, I don't know if you guys read Variety or the Hollywood Reporter or Deadline or IndieWire, but it's all like breaking news, putting out a press release, and they'll run the press release and they'll tell you the news that's happening or whatever. But the Anchor is like more like thoughtful, opinion-driven, analysis-driven, data-driven stuff. Um, they have a great Sean McNulty who lives in New Jersey also is coming to do a panel with us, does a daily email called The Wake Up, which is box office numbers, TV ratings, gives you the comings and goings. It's like really terrific. And we love working with them. So they're they're hosting a couple of panels on the opening weekend with us. Uh the first one is Sean and then Richard Rushfeld, who's a legendary Hollywood journalist who started The Anchler, is coming from California to be here for the opening weekend. And then uh on Sunday, the Prestige Junkie, which is their awards season newsletter and podcast, are recording a live session at our festival as well. So we're excited to be working with The
Trade Panels With The Ankler
SPEAKER_00Anchler again. I love them. We have on the first Saturday a couple of things I wanted to highlight were um Mr. Scorsese one and two, which we're screening.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00That film is directed by Rebecca Miller, who, as many of your listeners will know, is the daughter of Arthur Miller and married to Danielle Day Lewis and an incredible filmmaker. She's made this sort of five-part portrait of Martin Scorsese, who we had at the festival as our tribute a few years back. This movie is outstanding. It's so good. If you're a Scorsese fan, it's unmissable. Okay. Um, I'll just pick up the video.
SPEAKER_02I was wondering about that one. I was wondering. So you're a high recommendation on this film. Okay.
SPEAKER_00It's a five-part thing. So I think part two ends right before Raging Bull. So you're gonna have to watch the rest of it. I was like, we can they will do the whole five hours, so it leads right up to that. You get taxi driver and New York, New York, and all the early stuff, but it's anyway, it's great. His life, it's all beh all family and behind the scenes and all the stuff you'd want to know about him as a person. Really good. And then I have to highlight Begonia.
SPEAKER_01I wanted to ask about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Will Tracy is the screenwriter. We're honoring him. Uh, it's an adapted screenplay. He is a great writer to the movie The Menu a few years ago.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I remember that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So if you saw the menu and you're like, how can this be darker and weirder? Welcome to Begonia. This is for me personally, like one of my favorite films in the festival. It is not gonna be for everybody. I just want to flag there's violence in it for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um all of his movies
Scorsese Portrait And “Begonia”
SPEAKER_02uh filmmate are not for everyone. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. Jesse Plemens is, I think he'll get nominated for best actor.
SPEAKER_02It's time. It's time. It's yeah.
SPEAKER_00So he's incredible in this movie.
SPEAKER_02So time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He plays a conspiracy theorist who thinks Emma Stone's character is like a female Elon Musk uh billionaire science-y type, is an alien, and so he kidnaps her and it gets crazier from there.
SPEAKER_02I love it. Yeah. The trailer makes me wonder whether she is an alien.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00I am not gonna say anything about anything about this movie other than it has to be seen to be believed. I can't wait for the QA. The first question is like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_02It's on my short list. I can tell you that.
SPEAKER_00Sunday's the most elite day. I don't know how people are gonna make any choices. But we've got the Palm Door winning, It Was Just an Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi, who of whose work I've programmed several films. I'm a huge fan, huge admirer of his work. This is another great film in the Panahi Canon. Must see.
SPEAKER_02Must see. I can't wait to see it. I'm I have to that is his like number one on my list. Great.
SPEAKER_00You have elite, you have elite taste. That's it's great. It's great.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm just a big fan of his. I mean, I know that I just want to mention that you also have an Iranian film festival going on at the Montclair film right now, and you're gonna have one of his great films also showing. I think it's in December, uh No Bears, which is also a terrific film of his. Also is Taxi, which is also a terrific film of his. So anyway, so just want to say that I think everybody should go see this film for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's been a prisoner of the regime multiple times as a filmmaker. We had the same conversation, I think, last year with Cita the Sacred Fig and and Mohammed Rusulaf, who had to flee Iran, but uh Panahi stayed and fought. And I know he's out and about now. He's in the States, I think, going to be at the New York Film Festival. But uh, I'm happy to see that he's a free man uh and continuing to challenge censorship by the state, which is terrific. So that's a really like I said, a really good movie.
SPEAKER_02And it's about, do you want to say what it's about? It's about a guy who has a car accident, hits a dog, tries to go get his car fixed, and the mechanic thinks that this might be a guy that might have tortured him in the past. And they all and it's a question of his identity. It's kind of like the Yorgos thing. Is it or is it not this person?
SPEAKER_00You know, you know, so interesting to be absolutely that I never even thought about that parallel that parallel, but that's right. You know, it's the not knowing that it's a very much a
Cannes Winner And Iranian Cinema Thread
SPEAKER_00thriller that comes from a very simple, small thing that sort of spirals into something much bigger and more meaningful. Yeah. Um very powerful. Um a couple a couple of other things on this day I just have to point out. Um, Nouvelle Vogue, which is playing at the Welmont, which is Richard Linklater's new film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. It's a fictionalized version of that process. And it's if you are a French New Age, it's great. If you're a French New Wave fan or film history fan, this movie is for you. It's black and white, it's beautifully shot, uh, it's the performances are great. And you can tell how much he loves the filmmaking process from watching this movie, Link Later himself. Just the idea that he would get to recreate how they're making breath, like filming someone filming your favorite movie as like a fiction idea is so terrific. And he does it in the style of, you know what I mean? So it's like an homage, but also his own thing. It's just really lovely.
SPEAKER_02With a great cast, too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's got a great cast, but also just like the idea that Jean Luc Godard, like, is his first film, he doesn't know what he's doing, kinda. He was like a theoretical critic, smart guy who had to like figure out how to make a movie. And so you watch him sort of doing things that everybody around him is like, what is this guy doing? Like he doesn't know what he's doing, and then he ends up making breathless, and you're like, oh, okay. Uh he knew what he was doing all along. So it's really quite I I loved it. Wake up Dead Man. I'm very excited for people to see, which is the knives out follow-up with Daniel Craig, who's our past guest, and that we did the the last uh Glass Onion was our opening night film a few years back. And I love Ryan Johnson in these, you know. I don't know if you guys are.
SPEAKER_02Those are fun. Those are fun.
SPEAKER_00I do like totally 70s children who would like watch, like, you know, the Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express, all-star cast movies or Sheila, like with a boat with all the 70s actors. I just love those big all-star movie cast 70s homages, and I love a good mystery.
Linklater’s Godard Homage
SPEAKER_00But the movies of the day are probably Train Dreams, which is gonna be, I think, a contender this year was at Sundance. We saw it, and it's beautiful, which is playing at MKA at two o'clock. And then Hamnet. I cannot wait to see. Yeah, it's probably gonna be a best picture nominee. And you've read the book.
SPEAKER_03You guys have both read the book? Yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So I don't know about the audience, but basically it's the story of uh Shakespeare and his wife, who had a son named Hamnet, uh one of multiple children who died when he was very young, and about which potentially Hamlet was written. And I don't know, I didn't read the book, so I only saw the movie, but I can and it's Chloe Zhao who did Nomad Land, um, which opened the festival during the pandemic. Actually, we showed it at a drive-in that we built out in a parking lot somewhere. I'm a big fan of her work, The Rider, Nomad Land are both films that I really like. This is just next level moving, powerful, profound. I've seen five film versions of Hamlet, three or four stage versions of Hamlet, and I've never considered the play in the way that this movie presents the play uh in the end of the film.
SPEAKER_02So it also it highlights the wife, his wife, more than any it kind of makes her the the the story that was never told.
SPEAKER_00So I think
Crowd-Pleasers And Awards Picks
SPEAKER_00Jessie Buckley, who came for our opening night in 2019 for Wild Rose and won our breakthrough performer award at the festival, plays her in the film and gives a heartbreakingly incredible performance. But I'm crying thinking about it.
SPEAKER_02She's so talented.
SPEAKER_00People are gonna bring your tissues.
SPEAKER_02I heard I had read some early reviews a while back, and uh it it was a cry, uh it's a crier.
SPEAKER_00I mean, just thinking about it makes me tear up. It's really just the way that she pulls but it's like as a filmmaker to just bring the house down like that, like everybody, like you cannot not if you if you're really good at like choking back tears, you'll make it. You know what I mean? Yeah, if you can really hold it in, you'll be able to hold it in. But you know, in your throat, like you're about to cry.
SPEAKER_01I'll go, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna bring Bill. It'll be the Billow meter because he has been back and we'll see.
SPEAKER_00I would love to follow up and see if he was able to do it. As a parent and a person. Well, you mentioned Inora. Um Sean Baker produced and edited a film that we're showing the same day at the same time called Left Handed Girl. It's our Breakthrough Director Award for uh Shi Ching Su, who's the director and has worked with Sean a long time. It's set in um Taipei in Taiwan, uh about uh intergenerational mother-daughter drama comedy with that same sort of energy, street energy of like a Nora, but set in contemporary Taiwan. And it's uh a really great debut feature. I mean, I'm almost sad that we're showing it on this day because there's so much to see and so much to do. I wish we had like 50,000 people beating
“Hamnet” And The Power Of Grief
SPEAKER_00down the door to go to every movie, but like I don't know. This is a really I'm so sorry. This is when everyone was available. But if you get shut out or you have to make a choice, we're hoping that we can bring a lot of these films back to the cinemas, and like having the opportunity to do that makes me feel much better about the fact that you may not be able to see it during the festival because of your making another choice. So yeah, those are all great. What a great day. We were like as programmers, you know, we sit down, we put the schedule together, we just looked at each other like, oh man. On Monday night, Lucy Liu's coming to the festival with the film Rosemead, um, which is playing at the Bellevue at seven o'clock on Monday the 20th. It's a story of a mother who's a recent immigrant from China whose um son going through a mental health crisis and sort of how she as an immigrant reacts to that problem here in the United States. It's a really interesting I think there's going to be a really great talk with her about this movie. She's it's very different for her as a performance. I think there's a lot to talk about with it, especially at you know this time and place that we're dealing with immigration and families dealing with a lot of mental health, especially for young men. Uh, excited to talk to her on Monday. Um, the next one would I guess to highlight you know, there's great things playing all week. Um, so please come check stuff out on the weeknights. Um I could go, I could talk about every one of these films. We have the Head of Gobbler adaptation by Nia De Costa, starring Tessa Thompson. So if you're an Ibsen person, they move this forward.
SPEAKER_01I want to see that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So they move it forward to the 1920s, so it plays a little Gatsby-ish. It's really quite interesting uh adaptation. There's a the Sondheims uh Broadway production of Merrilly We Roll Along with Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff that's playing that night on on Tuesday. Surratt, which is a top three Tom movie at the festival. If you think Bagoni's crazy, um wait till you see Surat. Uh uh the sound mix alone is worth the price of admission. Um we've got the three-hour uh uh bio film about Magellan starring um Gael Garcia Bernal uh on Thursday, which is a very interesting movie by a Filipino director named Lav Diaz, who I'm a huge fan of. And this is a short film for Lav Diaz.
SPEAKER_01It's a recording film at clocking in at three hours.
SPEAKER_00They're usually over six, so this is like a short. Okay. Um and it's very much a straight you know, forward. I would say if you're gonna come see Magellan, check out the Wikipedia page about Magellan before you come because there's a lot of things that happen. Like I had I got to watch it at home, so I had like the Wikipedia open. I'm like scrolling along, where's what's happening now? Like trying to keep up with the movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I love that now. That's the way I remember.
SPEAKER_00The Jessica Chastain film Dreams could not be more timely about immigration and sort of the uh ability of uh certain classic people to not worry too much about it, and others who have to absolutely worry about it right now. It is a dark, dark movie, and I think it's gonna have a lot of conversation around it. I'd love to see what people think of that one. I I loved it personally. Um, she's a great performer. We did happen to have like all of the award winners
Breakthroughs And Weekday Highlights
SPEAKER_00from Cannes this year. So Sound of Falling, which is a German film, which is incredible about a house that handed down generation to generation, and it jumps through time to all the young women who lived in the house and how their histories as women overlapped with one another um throughout this house in different times from contemporary time to like the early 20th century. It's really smart, well done. It's like a what a breakthrough for for the director. And then that's the same night we're showing the Springsteen film Deliver Me From Nowhere with Warren Zane's coming. He's gonna do the QA with me for that film at the Bellevue on Thursday, the 23rd, the day before it opens in theaters. But we got it in. I'm really excited about that. Friday night, come see me in the good lights. We're showing that film as our documentary centerpiece. It's at MKA, it's the only film at MKA on Friday, the 24th. Tignataro, the comedian, is coming. She's uh producer in the film and in the film. Uh Ryan, Ryan White, who's the director, is also coming for the QA. So very moving documentary about Andrea Gibson and her wife, who are both poets. Andrea Gibson was like a spoken-word poet in the early 90s. I don't know if you guys are like Lilith Fair era feminists, uh, but she was definitely a part of that sort of nine early 90s grungy poetry uh women in rock scene. And she has terminal cancer in the film, and it's about her journey through that process at the end of her life as a poet, as a woman, and they stage a final performance for her, and it's um it's really again, bring your tissues, it's really great. Uh she's incredible. I really want to talk to them about it because it's one of the most intimate documentaries I've ever seen. Like again, I don't know how you deal with these life issues of end of life and care and love and marriage and threats against gay marriage and all of this with uh with a camera there, uh, and you're processing all this together as a couple. And uh I I'm very interested to find out from from Ryan about that process and sort of how Tig got involved and knew them and uh etc. So that one's a definitely a must see. Uh gotta say a word about Saturday's Sentimental Value, which is the most Tom film in the Montclair film.
SPEAKER_02It's the most Tom film.
SPEAKER_00It's my favorite movie in the festival. Okay. Um it's from Norway. It's from Joachim Trier, who did Worst Person in the World, which you may have seen with Renata Rensve. It's um very much in that sort of novelistic family drama vein. I loved it. She's incredible, he's incredible. I would like them to make one movie a year just for me, and I'll go see it by myself. And I love that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have to see this now. I have to see that. You've got two more people going to see it now. If you love it, at least.
SPEAKER_00I mean, if you don't like it, let me know, and then we have to assess our friendship. Um then a couple other things on that day that are, I think, gonna be notable. First, we're showing Ask Eegene. Eegene Carroll is coming to the festival at MKA with Ivy Mirapol, who's the director.
Big Thursday: Awards, Springsteen Doc
SPEAKER_00I don't know if you know Ivy, but her grandparents are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. She has made a film about Eegene Carroll, both uh about sort of the contemporary lawsuits against the president, but also her history as a advice columnist for women, um, and some of the bad advice I think she gave early on in her career and sort of the reclamation of her past and a reframing that she's had to go through as a woman uh as part of her public life. Um I'm thrilled that she's coming to be there with us. And uh I think it's gonna be a really great screening. She's an incredible just a character. Like I didn't know half of the facts and details about her life or her experience. And then I watched the film and now I like cannot wait to go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, most people just know the the news clips or you know the stories there, so you people can take a deeper dive into the backstory of that. I think that that I think that will get a lot of people interest for sure.
SPEAKER_00And I'm a great filmmaker as well. Uh just want to mention Sheila. She's got a lot, I think, to do with this movie is gonna definitely make waves. I'm just, you know, I hope someone picks it up and puts it out. I'm proud to be have been asked to show it. Really glad that we had space for it and that they're able to come and support it at the festival. So please be there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_00Um two other ones that are playing
Documentary Centerpiece With Tig Notaro
SPEAKER_00at the same time that night. The first is Cover Up, which is our David Carr Award recipient. We do a award for David's memory every year about a film that sort of deals with journalism or journalistic themes or processes. This is about Seymour Hirsch, the investigative reporter, who uncovered the May Lai Massacre, but also covered Watergate and has done, I don't know, a thousand incredible stories for the New Yorker, the New York Times over the years, like just an incredible uh investigative journalist who it turns out doesn't like to be uh personally investigated all that very much by the documentary filmmakers who he's agreed to work with. So it's really quite interesting to watch him sort of deal with Laura Poitris, who is an incredible documentary filmmaker. Her last film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which was about Nan Golden and her sort of war against the Sackler family for the opioid crisis. Nan Golden, the photographer. I saw them. So that was her like yes, that was Laura's last movie. Um, this is her new one. She's working with a director named Mark Oberhaus on this one, but they're both coming. We're gonna have a Q ⁇ A with them talking about cover-up, but it's uh it's really if you're I know there are a lot of journalists or people who are into journalism who live in Montclair. We'd love to see you at that one. And then Rental Family, which is our fiction center pieces that night, the return of Brendan Fraser. I'm working to get him to the festival. I it's really a beautiful movie about is he plays an American actor in Japan who uh goes to work for a company where he in they sort of insert him into people's lives to play a role in their lives. Like so a single mother whose daughter doesn't know who her father is but is a mixed-race child, he goes and uh shows up and acts as the dad, the mom sort of agrees like this is your father.
SPEAKER_01And so they' such an interesting premise of like okay, forget going to see a therapist, sweetie. We're gonna fix this the a a new way.
SPEAKER_00It's really and it is, it's basically, I mean, he also has to grapple with the fact that he's sort of forming bonds and connections with people. And what does it mean about his own life and what does performance mean? He's an actor, he wants to be acting, but like what does that mean in the context of like having this real relationship with people? And there's another character in the film who's
“Sentimental Value” And Personal Picks
SPEAKER_00like a sort of elderly man who's losing his memory, and um, the family hires him to pretend he he's researching a documentary about him as an artist. Um, and so he goes and talks to that uh gentleman and they have this sort of experience together, and it ends up being transformative for everybody and um in a in a good, like really feel-good, interesting way that makes you examine the roles you play in other people's lives and how you interact with other people and very thoughtful and lovely. Uh I think we need a little bit of that for sure right now. So I I really like that. And then I guess the last thing I don't know. Why do we need thoughtfulness?
SPEAKER_02I don't think about it.
SPEAKER_00The last day of the festival, uh, just a couple things to highlight there. We're doing a conversation with Bobby Brown. About her new book. I know she just had a book a book launch in Montclair, but uh this is I think open you know to the public and more a little bit more accessible and working to make that a a a great day for her. We did Ina Garden last year. Um and I just, you know, we we love what Bobby does in Montclair and want to support that book and and help her out and uh get some attention on it. So I hope people will come.
SPEAKER_02I went to her book uh launch uh event and it was really very interesting to listen to her talk about her story.
SPEAKER_00I just last wanted to mention the the closing film, which is Christy, the Sydney Sweeney movie, co-starring Ben Foster, who plays one of the all-time bad guys in this film. This is a true story.
SPEAKER_01She's a little too good at that role.
SPEAKER_00This is the story of Christy Martin, who, when I was uh in the 80s and 90s, was I think the only female boxer. I mean, like the only one I knew of. Like, she really invented women's boxing as a celebrity-driven. I mean, she was on Mike Tyson cards, and she's a real deal boxer or whatever. So Sydney Sweeney plays that part in the film, this is her story. I did not know her whole story, and I don't want to spoil this movie for people who come and see it. So I'm gonna say as little as possible as I can about it. But I will say, if you know the film Star 80 with Muriel Hemingway
E. Jean Carroll Doc And Journalism Award
SPEAKER_00and Eric Roberts from the early 1980s, which was about a husband who grew jealous of his wife becoming a Playboy Playmate and became famous, and he was not ended up murdering her, uh, Dorothy Stratton, who was like the playmate of the year or whatever, Playboy model. Um, this film has a lot of that same sort of vibe to it uh as it goes. It's it's a it's a sports film on the surface, but it's definitely a film about domestic abuse, women, and sort of the mixed message that Christy Martin sent as a woman because she was trying to hide some dark facts about her own life from the public as she was dealing with her own shame about multiple things that I again don't want to spoil in the film, but it takes a very dark turn. This is not like uh my daughter uh is 15 and loves Sydney Sweeney and I want to bring her to the movie movie. This isn't that movie. Um, this is really uh a powerful drama and not what I was expecting at all. I thought it was gonna be like Rocky or something, like uh, and you know, Sydney Sweeney's like, I put on weight, I'm looking tough. I got buff for the role. It's a boxing movie, and it's so much more than that. Like I said, Ben Foster, kudos, like the uh absolute worst person um as a uh character in the film festival. This is like bad guy number one.
SPEAKER_01He wins, he wins the award for the worst person. Is it Merritt Weaver in that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she plays her mo she plays her mother.
SPEAKER_01I like her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's terrific, also not really supportive, also a bad guy. Um I'll leave it, I'll leave it at that. Yeah, no, but it's you're you'll be I I walked out of there incredibly surprised because I knew her career, like she fought, she was a champion, she had a big comeback
Fiction Centerpiece “Rental Family”
SPEAKER_00or whatever. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be like yay, and it is, but it's not, it's really uh the the politics behind it are you know, given what we know about like what's happening with Sydney Sweeney uh in the zeitgeist or whatever, very interesting and worth seeing. And I know people might dismiss her because of that, or may think, oh, I don't want to go see a Sydney Sweeney movie because XYZ and the culture, but the film sort of almost addresses that about prejudging women and not giving them space to articulate who they really are, and it almost like it comments on the contemporary idea of womanhood that is being addressed by those concerns in real life with Sydney Sweeney. So it's really quite an interesting movie. And again, I I think people should put their judgments aside and see it.
SPEAKER_02We want to touch on one film that we are spotlighting in our panel that we're gonna be doing for the first time on our live Lost in Jersey live, which is the business of trouble. Is that Shine Global is bringing it? Oh, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a short, and we're interviewing them and possibly the director on October 23rd at 7 p.m. It I mean, you might know that time and date because there's a little Bruce Springsteen film happening at the same time. I mean, rough choice, I get it.
SPEAKER_02For the non-Springsteen fans, the people who are really into uh moving storytelling that focus on the crisis of the children and the filmmakers that are trying to bring this to the forefront. And this particular film is about um teens having either psychological or addiction problems that are put into rehabilitation industry, and it's unregulated. That industry is an important topic right now, especially with the the crisis that's happening, you know, amongst the youth today that we talk about, and where do you go for help?
SPEAKER_01We're really looking forward to being a part of Montclair film in another dimension this year. So thank you for that.
Closing Highlights And Bobby Brown
SPEAKER_00I'm so grateful to you guys for doing that. And I just want to add, I expect tickets for the Bruce Springsteen movie to last about four minutes. So if you are not one of the 130 people who get a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen, this podcast recording is absolutely gonna be on the table for you. So please go because I there's gonna be a lot of capacity to attend the podcast. We have the the mezzanine upstairs over the Claridge this year as a new space that we're offering, and it's got a lot more room and seats, and we'd love to see it filled up for the panels. And I'm so grateful to you guys for taking the time to be a part of the festival and and joining us this year. It means a lot. So thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's really it's really fun. Thank you. What I'd like to end with is to let people know that many of these films that we've been talking about have not hit the theaters yet. A lot of them are films that you're gonna be hearing about talked about for the awards. This is an opportunity to see some of them early.
SPEAKER_01And be in community. Talk about it with your friends. You see everybody that you rarely see in town because you're all busy, but you get to go out and really be proud of Montclair. It's such a wonderful opportunity to bring the entire town together. So uh get out there, get your tickets. If you're a member, which you should be, you can buy tickets early. So just become a member. And then if you didn't, it's okay, but you could then buy a ticket later.
SPEAKER_00And the good thing about being a member is you know, that membership is year-round. So the Claridge tickets, the Claridge Popcorn, Bellevue tickets, Bellevue Popcorn are fundraising events. You
“Christy” And Rethinking Sydney Sweeney
SPEAKER_00get first crackett tickets for all that, first cracket tickets for the festival, discounted tickets at the festival. It really pays for itself and it offers us a lot of year-round support. And like I always say, if everyone in Montclair bought one ticket to see a film at the Montclair Film Festival, it would be two to three times bigger than it's ever been. So uh if we just got everybody to check out one thing, it would be a huge Montclair Film Festival for everybody. So please come take a chance. It's not like it's you're going to Broadway for 150 bucks. It's like a 15, 17 dollar ticket to take a chance on art. The director might be there. We're having a ton of QA's. Yeah. You get to have a conversation, see people in your community who might be interested in the same thing. We have a whole slew of documentaries, fiction. We have something for everybody, I think. There's family movies. Um, I hope people feel welcome.
SPEAKER_02Well, yes. Everybody's gonna be part of the revival of going to the movies. I know we're towards the end, we're over time, but you're quite the musician as well. So tell people a little bit about your band.
SPEAKER_00God, I see. I dabble every five years. We're like cicadas. Every five years, my REM cover band gets together and we sing the early music of REM. And I know there's a Montclair REM cover band. And um, if they are looking for just like a guest vocal uh ever, I sing in this band. I'd be happy to sit in with you guys.
SPEAKER_01Contact Tom Hall.
SPEAKER_00Contact Tom at Montclairfilm.org. Um, I'd be happy to sing one. I mean, I'm not trying to take the lead singer's job or anything. I just I can Mike Mills it for you. Anyway, we have a we're we played a show recently, uh, and so in 2030 probably is be the next time we play another.
SPEAKER_02I'm always surprised when I see your post. I'm like, that guy is already so busy and he's out, you know, seeing bands, he's in a band, he's doing so. I you have uh a lot of energies. I'm always really impressed with it. So but I'm my secret passion.
SPEAKER_00I also read books. Like those are my three things music, books, and movies. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01So you must not sleep very much.
SPEAKER_00I don't sleep well.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you for taking the time to join us and tell us about the this year's festival. We're excited to be part of it and excited to go to the films and looking forward to it. I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_00I'm so grateful to you guys for the opportunity to talk about this. And I hope I didn't blather on too much, but you guys are the best, and we really appreciate you shining a light
Youth Crisis Short And Live Panel
SPEAKER_00on our work because you know we we really struggle and every day and want to connect with people and the kindness that you've shown us over the years, really appreciate it. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks, Tom.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Tom. This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian. You can find us on Spotify, iTunes, and Buzz Sprout. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
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