PARISA TAGHIZADEH, COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, plays SLIFF November 19.
Appropriately, the cinephile’s autumnal high point is headquartered at Hi-Pointe Theatre, now the forever home of Cinema St. Louis, which has helmed the festival for more than three decades. This year’s fest launches at the historic cinema this Thursday, November 9, with a party honoring the intersection of film culture and hip-hop. (That’s one of several SLIFF tributes to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, of which the Saint Louis Art Museum also fetes until January 1.) The 1990 comedy House Party, directed by East St. Louis native Reginald Hudlin and starring none other than hip hop legends Kid ‘n Play, will be screened after a cocktail reception.
Hudlin, along with Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Alexander Payne, is bestowed with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Both filmmakers will be in town to receive their awards; Payne will attend screenings of both his latest film The Holdovers (November 14) and his 2012 The Descendants (November 15), and Hudlin will be present at the awards ceremony culminating the fest on November 19.
This year’s Race in America: The Black Experience spotlight features 27 films that tackle topics both heavy and light, from maternal mortality to space travel to the rise of Black Barbie. Fourteen spotlight films are free to attend at Washington University’s Brown Auditorium, sponsored by the Trio Foundation of St. Louis. Also free is Rawstock, a screening of Washington University’s archive of wacky and wonderful documentary and educational 16mm shorts, held at the Arkadin, a “microcinema” in the heart of Bevo Mill.
While the Tivoli (sigh) is no longer a venue, Midtown’s new Alamo Drafthouse has joined the roster of local theaters hosting the festival: Washington University’s Brown Auditorium, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library Auditorium and the Contemporary Art Museum in Grand Center.
Per usual, it’s impossible to narrow my list of recommended films to fit the space allotted by a print alt-weekly. But here are the films that most resonate for me this year — for reasons both entirely justifiable and downright quirky.
SEACIA PAVAO © FOCUS FEATURES LLC
The Holdovers, starring Dominic Sessa and Paul Giamatti, is one of this year's SLIFF headliners.
Narrative Feature
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Saturday, Nov. 11): A festival favorite written and directed by 33-year-old photographer and poet Raven Jackson, this lush, image-driven film chronicles intergenerational grief and joy among a Black family struggling, reveling and surviving in rural Mississippi. Produced by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, The Underground Railroad), this is a debut film by a singular talent you don’t want to miss.
All of Us Strangers (Sunday, Nov. 19): No eyes will be dry by the end of Andrew Haigh’s heart-aching fantasy drama about two London men, Adam (Andrew Scott) and Harry (Paul Mescal), who fall for each other on the anniversary of Adam’s parents’ death. Part 1980s-drama, part contemporary queer romance, Haigh’s knack for capturing the subtleties of intimate connections is on full display (he’s the director behind 2015’s 45 Years, starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a married couple in their 70s).
The Holdovers (Tuesday, Nov. 14): Alexander Payne’s latest dramedy, set at a sunless New England all-boys prep school, genuinely feels like it was filmed in early winter 1970. Chronicling the unlikely friendship between history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) and gangly student gadfly Angus (Dominic Sessa), the film scans as a cross between Rushmore and Dead Poets Society. Playing a curmudgeon scholar of Greek antiquity who boasts of his “toe-curling” sexual exploits, Giamatti proves yet again why he is, at 56, a national treasure worthy of the full marquee.
La Chimera (Saturday, Nov. 18): Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s irreverent epic features Isabella Rossellini, who is but one reason to check out this rollicking film about an Englishman who can divine the location of profitable, relic-filled Etruscan graves. “We almost rehearsed like a choir singing … and shot the film in half a day,” Rossellini shared after the film’s screening at the New York Film Festival. “I was surprised how natural it all looked.”
Perfect Days (Saturday, Nov. 18): German auteur Wim Wenders takes his penchant for pedestrian depth to Tokyo, Japan, in a meditative story about a public toilet cleaner, Hirayama (screen legend Koji Yakusho), who befriends a young girl (not in a creepy way). Wenders’ fans of Paris, Texas will be sated, and possibly saddened, by this quiet drama told in four connected vignettes.
The Taste of Things (Sunday, Nov. 13): In Trân Anh Hùng’s sumptuous, sensuous period piece (France’s official selection for this year’s Oscars) Juliette Binoche stars as a personal cook for an acclaimed chef in the late 19th century. Arrive hungry at your own expense (the Hi-Pointe is not known for foie gras popcorn, but maybe they could be?).
The Teacher’s Lounge (Saturday, Nov. 11): Ilker Çatak’s trenchant exploration of power asymmetries within a Berlin middle school is the only German film slated for this year’s SLIFF and is also the country’s Oscar submission. Leonie Benesch gives a blazing performance as a first-time teacher overwhelmed with the moral stakes of her vocation.
Documentary Feature
Bad Press (Tuesday, Nov. 14): This Sundance hit, directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, tells a classic underdog story perfect for Native American Heritage month. When journalist Angel Ellis tries to fully and fairly report the news on the Muscogee Nation, not everybody’s happy; her crusade to regain a “free press” for her tribe reveals a web of corruption that implicates both native and non-native leaders. A must-see for anyone concerned with journalistic integrity, the film also shatters a number of common stereotypes. When this played at True / False in the spring, the audience leapt to their feet by the finale.
Birthing Justice (Saturday, Nov. 18): Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are three times higher for Black women than their white counterparts. Director Monique N. Matthews moves beyond these alarming statistics for a more holistic, human-centered approach; an observational camera style invites the families affected by racial medical injustice to speak for themselves. Embracing Black joy as a source of healing, this doc is free.
Chasing Chasing Amy (Thursday, Nov. 16): Sav Rodgers’s debut film reveals, and duly celebrates, how a fraught piece of art (in this case, 1997’s Weinstein-funded cult classic Chasing Amy) can do beautiful things that its creator (indie bro-dawg Kevin Smith) never fully intended. Rodgers contributes a vital trans Midwestern voice to this excavation of the queer canon; Joey Lauren Adams speaks to the enduring complexities of #MeToo.
Plan C (Monday, Nov. 13): Unsettling as it is informative, Tracy Droz Tragos’ expose is a must-see for the post-Dobbs era, in which so many poor, rural and working class people now lack access to family planning. No matter where you stand on abortion, this film encourages a more compassionate, nuanced outlook on whose “plans” matter.
The 32nd St. Louis International Film Festival runs from November 9-19. Tickets start at $15 ($12 for Cinema St. Louis members), with multi-film passes beginning at $80 ($60 for members). See cinemastlouis.org/sliff/festival-home for more information.
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