Telluride 2013 Day Four

From Michael Patterson on the Telluride front lines...

Telluride Day Four

This will be my last report until Wednesday...driving back to the real world tomorrow.

Day Four was very good.

Started late with Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" about which I had some reservations after some of the reviews I had seen after it premiered at Cannes. Shouldn't have been concerned. "Nebraska" is warm, funny, genuinely touching. It's beautifully shot in black and white and the aging is quite good. Bruce Dern shines as a cantankerous 70+ year old Montanan named Woody Grant who believes he has won a million dollars and must travel from his home in Billings, MT. to the contest headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. The route will take him and his son, played surprisingly well by SNL alum Will Forte across the prairie and through Woody's old hometown. Family history and secrets emerge. June Squibb shines as Woody's long suffering and sharp-tongued wife.

Payne continues to add to his canon of quality films.

Midday, I caught Errol Morris' documentary "The Unknown Known", an examination of the career of two time Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Morris, who generally turns even what seems to be the driest material into something provocative and entrancing, seems to lose his way a bit in the sea of words that Rumsfeld deploys.

Late Night-Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" which has been tearing up the critical world in terms of Venice as well as Telluride was my final TFF #40 film. It is a fantastic ride. The film offers jaw dropping effects and pulse pounding tension. Sandra Bullock leads the way and is sturdy as an astronaut in serious trouble in Earth near orbit. My only issue with the film comes with some of the dialogue choices in the screenplay. Cuaron co-wrote the screenplay with his son Jonas and this is the one place that seems to occasionally fall into cliché. It sometimes seems to me that it tries a bit too hard to entice empathy.

That's my take anyway.