The 45th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival concluded and with so many of our members in attendance, it was only fitting for the group to name their favourite films. In total 36 different films received votes. Ones that just missed the cut included Behemoth!, Fjord, Look Back, Possible Love, Dao, NAZA, A Safe Distance, The Dreamed Adventure, Queen at Sea and Run Terry Run. Expect to see some of these titles on our year end list!
Check out this Letterboxd list for every title that received votes, and check out the full reviews by members as well.
10. Everytime
Directed by: Sandra Wollner
Written by: Sandra Wollner
The otherworldly shock of certain tragedies and the after-aftermath of grief, once its first few waves have passed and the sadness has sunk into your bones. How loss turns daily life into an unreality defined by absence, where memories are like visions you wish you could reach out and touch. In this lush, enigmatic, extraordinary film, Wollner explores these things in various ways.The mix of visual media—iPhone photos, home videos, a pixelated computer game that accrues emotional and symbolic significance—adds a distinctively modern element: the effect and meaning of digital legacies.
– Michael Clawson
Read Michael’s full review of Everytime
9. Wild Horse Nine
Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Written by: Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh may not be American, but he certainly understands what makes American’s so — let’s say — unique. Wild Horse Nine, his newest feature, may be set on Easter Island, but it’s as American as they come. The jingoistic egoism, the flippant disrespect, the collective obsession with the Kennedy assassination, the eating. Helmed by a hysterical Sam Rockwell and (dare I say) career best John Malkovich, Wild Horse Nine takes all of these American qualities and eviscerates them with the balance of wit and weight that only McDonagh can pull off.
– Todd Pengelly
8. La Gradiva
Directed by: Marine Atlan
Written by: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet and Wilhelm Jensen
The entire structure of La Gradiva essentially runs on “people talking in rooms” for nearly three hours. And somehow, this creates an atmosphere that feels incredibly lived-in. At times, it feels almost painfully real. Utilizing long takes, some lasting more than 15 minutes, Atlan simply allows us to sit with these characters as they talk, argue, joke, flirt, and interact with one another. What initially appears to be a simple coming-of-age story becomes something much richer: a film about entering a new era of your life, the friendships we form in our youth, and how even the smallest of comments can carry devastating consequences.
– Elizabeth Mulloy
Read Elizabeth’s full review of La Gradiva
7. The Diary of a Chambermaid
Directed by: Radu Jude
Written by: Radu Jude and Octave Mirbeau
Radu Jude has never exactly lacked bite, and I’d argue that he’s even sharper when he isn’t detonating every ten minutes. His latest, The Diary of a Chambermaid, works precisely because it keeps things at a gentle simmer. The film follows Gianina, a Romanian live-in nanny and domestic worker employed by a wealthy family in Bordeaux. Then comes a killer formal idea: when not working for them, Gianina spends her evenings literally performing The Diary of a Chambermaid. The heat never needs to be cranked higher. The longer Chambermaid simmers, the uglier all that good liberal hospitality begins to look.
– Marta Djordjevic
Read Marta’s full review of The Diary of a Chambermaid
6. Paper Tiger
Directed by: James Gray
Written by: James Gray
It’s New York in 1986 and engineer Irwin Pearl is worried about money. Irwin’s brother Gary is an ex-NYC cop who now runs a security assessment firm and has an idea for the two of them to finally work together. Gary has a lead that a new group of Russians, who purchased an oil company, are looking to do an environmental study. Paper Tiger is a masterful work of tension building, leading to a sequence that is legitimately one of the scariest ones of the year as the Russians prove just how close they can get to the Pearl family home. Gray’s work is phenomenal here giving us an all time shoot out scene and numerous other moments that will be highlights of the year.
– Dakota Arsenault
Read Dakota’s full review of Paper Tiger
5. La Bola Negra
Directed by: Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo
Written by: Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi and Alberto Conejero
La Bola Negra is a grand epic that immerses the audience in Spanish history and queer identity with an intricately plotted story that delivers a profound cinematic experience brought vibrantly to life by sweeping cinematography, outstanding music and excellent performances to create one of the year’s most ambitious and rewarding cinematic experiences. Delivering intimate storytelling on a grand scale is no easy task, but Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo do that and more with La Bola Negra, conjuring up a queer epic that has earned its rightful place in cinematic history.
– Darren Zakus
4. The Debut
Directed by: Jesse Eisenberg
Written by: Jesse Eisenberg
The Debut soars with a powerhouse lead performance from Julianne Moore opposite a formidable Paul Giamatti, infusing writer and director Jesse Eisenberg’s latest film with an infectious energy that delivers uncontrollable laughter, big heart and a true love letter to the theatre community that makes for a show-stopping dark comedy that audiences won’t ever forget!
– Darren Zakus
3. All of a Sudden
Directed by: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Written by: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Maho Isono and Léa Le Dimna
All of a Sudden is a breakthrough for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who has always made interesting character studies, but struck me as a functional stylist. Time is paramount in All of a Sudden, which is structured via unevenly distributed date cards and features multiple scenes that are measured in real-time through toasting bread, brewing coffee, and making noodles. By having some days last 10 minutes while others last over an hour, Hamaguchi’s elastic play with time reflects the relaxed timescale of care. All of a Sudden is itself about the articulation of utopia, depicting its progression from the artifice of the stage to the artifice of the cinema.
– Eric Zhu
Read Eric’s full review of All of a Sudden
2. Tangles
Directed by: Leah Nelson
Written by: Sarah Leavitt, Leah Nelson and Trev Renney
Poignant, bittersweet, and the type of film that made me lunge for the phone to call my mom as soon as it wrapped up. To put it bluntly, Leah Nelson’s Tangles absolutely wrecked me. The film follows illustrator Sarah as her mother, Midge, begins showing signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s. On paper, this could have become a relentlessly grim tale. What Nelson does with the script, however, with the help of Sarah Leavitt and Trev Renney, is make it come astonishingly alive. Tangles is funny, romantic, warm, occasionally sexy, and deeply attentive to the ways ordinary life must keep moving, even when something devastating has entered it.
– Marta Djordjevic
Read Marta’s full review of Tangles
1. Club Kid
Directed by: Jordan Firstman
Written by: Jordan Firstman
Long Island native and gay comedian Jordan Firstman makes his impressive directorial debut in the surprisingly touching adult queer comedy, Club Kid. It’s an intensely heartwarming indie comedy about loving yourself through someone else. Firstman’s hilarious yet moving portrait of reluctant fatherhood and embracing love proves to be a real tearjerker despite its often explicit material about alternative LGBTQ lifestyles. Club Kid celebrates the flaws and weaknesses of anyone being overcome by the love of a child.
– Rick Chung
Read Rick’s full review of Club Kid
Special thanks to Bill Harris, Dakota Arsenault, Darren Zakus, Elizabeth Mulloy, Eric Zhu, Marta Djordjevic, Michael Clawson, Rick Chung and Todd Pengelly for particpating.