With 100+ titles spanning 11 days and three venues, the 34th edition of the Philadelphia Film Festival was undoubtedly its biggest yet. Featuring a newly renovated Film Center, merch from the incredible Super Yaki, and a Colman Domingo homecoming, the festival was nothing short of a spectacle for Philadelphia’s filmgoing community.
To celebrate the best of the fest, here are my top 10 of the 23 films I saw at PFF34.
10. Nouvelle Vague, dir. Richard Linklater
As a Richard Linklater completionist and French New Wave admirer, Nouvelle Vague was catnip in movie form for me. It has all the charming qualities of a classic Linklater hangout movie in the form of a Parisian film set run (or mostly not run) by the highly regarded Jean-Luc Godard. I thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment of its behind-the-scenes spectacle and staging, but I also can’t help but feel that Jean Luc would’ve despised its existence.
The day-by-day process of recapturing the principal photography for Breathless can feel a bit repetitive at times, but Linklater and the cast are always clever enough to work their way out of any potential slowdown. I wish there were a stronger tactic to integrate more of Breathless itself into the images to make it feel less like cosplay and more documentary. Still, it’s hard to deny the appreciation that Linklater pours into retelling the absurd practices that led to one of film history’s most influential products.
9. Jay Kelly, dir. Noah Baumbach
One of the most impressive things about Jay Kelly is how over-the-top schmaltzy and clunky its presentation can be, yet still able to cut through its uppity self-importance with charisma to spare. Baumbach’s step into bigger-scale filmmaking hasn’t been entirely seamless, but he’s proven capable of pulling off natural human emotion, even if the scope has transferred from intimate small-scale family dramas to globetrotting A-list celebrity family dramas.
There’s no doubt it can be up its own ass quite often with a whole lot of Hollywood “inside baseball,” but it’s also funny and endearing about the choices we make between family, friends, and career. George Clooney is convincing as a version of himself, Adam Sandler is operating among his best, albeit above a low bar, but Laura Dern was particularly affecting in her limited supporting role (and first of two mentions on this list).
8. LifeHack, dir. Ronan Corrigan
Say what you will about “screen” movies (we’ve seen versions that range from great to atrocious), but I’m a sucker for the concept. It’s one of those niche subgenres that I will always show up for, just because it’s naturally entertaining for a digital native-adjacent like me. Thankfully, Ronan Corrigan’s LifeHack is easily one of the better examples of the subgenre thanks to the 27-year-old director’s understanding of internet culture and his capability to capture it in a believable way.
Call me gullible, but I was fully sold on the thriller Bitcoin-heist scheme and thoroughly enjoyed the inner dynamics of the group as they rose and fell amidst their online conniving. It becomes far-fetched even for the fictitious reality of hacking, especially when the scheme transcends the screen into a physical, real-world break-in, but it was more than convincing enough for me to buy into some truly clever internet navigation and made me want to improve my cybersecurity knowledge.
7. Is This Thing On?, dir. Bradley Cooper
In comparison to Bradley Cooper’s two previous directorial efforts (A Star is Born and Maestro), he’s clearly shifted gears from the theatrical grandiose to the grounded and modest. You can say he reigned it in (insert Maestro meme) and for good reason; his most recent Oscar campaign has been criticized to death for its in-your-face “I want to win an Academy Award” brazenness. Although Is This Thing On? is clearly branded with a visible flavor of upper-middle-class domestic problems, it’s also incredibly honest and makes someone as larger than life as Bradley Cooper seem much closer to your average Joe (even when his character is named Balls).
It’s familiar territory for a relationship drama where a married couple embroil themselves in mid-life monotony to the point of asking for a divorce, only to be reawakened by artistic pursuits and emotional empathy, but it’s moving, honest, and endearing work for a director who is clearly capable of delivering something more transparent and human than his previous efforts. Will Arnett and Laura Dern are terrific, and Balls (Bradley Cooper) takes a worthwhile back seat.
6. It Ends, dir. Alex Ullom
Alex Ullom’s SXSW breakout is both one of the most minimalist and most clever entries on this list. The story presents itself as a small-scale horror amongst four friends on a road trip into a vaguely forested region of Florida, but slowly transforms into something else altogether. Ullom’s nimble ability to toy with genre and ultimately deliver an introspective journey that relies on the charisma, chemistry, and personalities of its four co-leads is impressive.
There’s a clear metaphor at play about grappling with the transition to adulthood and its never-ending road of obstacles, but it never feels overplayed or overexplained. Even its most glaring challenge (ending a film about a concept whose entire premise is in its never-ending-ness) is handled with confidence and clarity.
5. Redux Redux, dir. Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus
I went into the McManus brothers’ Redux Redux anticipating a fairly conventional action riff on the worn-out time loop/multiverse concept. It was anything but that. It’s a fresh, invigorating, and rigorous take that is willing to ignore the wider sci-fi worldbuilding and focus entirely on the dark foundations of its characters, which informs so much more about the world than multiverse exposition.
The script doesn’t shy away from the gruesome darkness looming at its core or even ignore the fine-grained details, such as the economic black markets built within a world in which universe jumping has been discovered. Irene (Michaela McManus) is forced to confront all of these obstacles physically and emotionally in a way that offers immense payoffs and high-stakes outcomes. It would not be easy to revisit, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who can stomach the action/sci-fi/horror blend it offers. Keep an eye on this one and future work from these directors.
4. Miroirs No. 3, dir. Christian Petzold
A recurring theme of this list and the movies that stood out to me at the festival were often from filmmakers pulling back on cinematic excess to present simple, elegant, minimalist stories that focus on textured, multidimensional characters. Christian Petzold does exactly that with Miroirs No. 3, one of his most economical films that opts to live in the aftermath of tragedy rather than linger on the event itself.
The offbeat, almost asynchronous tone to how it quietly approaches the grieving process and the unexplainable ways we convince ourselves of dealing with loss is spellbinding. The silent detachment may seem off-putting at first, but Petzold slowly evolves it into a melancholic character study that allows you to be fully immersed in the mundane space of psychological recovery, where every facial feature and body language detail is packed with meaning.
3. Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, dir. Matt Johnson
Michael Lerman, Artistic Director and Senior Director of Programming for the Philadelphia Film Society, introduced Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie by saying this movie was a “fucking miracle.” He couldn’t have been more accurate with that statement about Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll’s feature film extension of their popular web series, which thrives on pushing the legal boundaries of everything from copyright law to public peace in Toronto.
The pair’s mockumentary style of storytelling is taken to new heights (literally) with absurd gags that build upon themselves in ever-increasingly funny ways. The fact that it exists is enough to convince anyone (even a staunch critic of comedy like myself) into uncontrollable fits of laughter. I knew nothing about NTBTSTM coming in, but left the theater an enormous fan of the Johnson/McCarroll duo.
2. Resurrection, dir. Bi Gan
If there’s one outlier film on this list, it’s easily one of the greatest cinematic achievements of the year, while also being one of the greatest enigmas: Resurrection. Bi Gan’s odyssey through film history toggles between perspectives, styles, and narratives across six vignettes that function somewhere between memories, dreams, and visions. It would be impossible to say that everything Resurrection has to offer can be absorbed in one sitting, but the sheer cinematic chutzpah that he imparts into every frame, sequence, and image is nothing short of breathtaking.
The 160-minute sci-fi-fueled, noir-inspired epic is best consumed by letting its grandeur wash over you, and I was completely swept up in its magic. In typical Bi Gan fashion, there’s a oner that seemingly never ends. It may just be the single most tactile and immersive piece of filmmaking you’ll witness from a modern filmmaker.
1. The President’s Cake, dir. Hasan Hadi
Festival season is a lot of things—full of immense joy, deep exhaustion, and frenzied escapism. All the while sifting through world premieres, buzzy awards contenders, independent surprises, and everything in between, you can’t help but feel like you’re on a personal sojourn toward your discovery gem. The President’s Cake is that gem of my festival season. Finding harmony in your storytelling between the slice-of-life of a personalized, multidimensional character and the broader societal-level consequences of the world they operate in is a proven formula for success for me.
Hasan Hadi achieves that formula with flying colors in their visualization of Iraq from the eyes of a young girl determined not to let her family, friends, and teacher down when drafted to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday. Lamia (played by a brilliant Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) navigates the world around her with hopeful optimism that she’ll locate the ingredients for her cake despite the food shortages imposed on the people of Iraq by Hussein’s regime. The propagandized and corrupt barriers to her completing her task are present in the background and foreground, but Lamia is never deterred from her cake-baking goal. It’s a story told through an empathetic lens while also presenting a fully recognized world of authoritarian consequences.
List Courtesy of Danny Jarabek
Feature Image from ‘The President’s Cake’ via The Philadelphia Film Festival