Telluride Film Festival

The 35th annual Telluride Film Festival starts today. And the LA Times provides this this preview of the movies that will be unspooling there:

Films to unspool at the Telluride Film Festival were announced today: Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” Lone Scherfig’s “An Education,” Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” and Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or champ at Cannes “White Ribbon.” Curiously missing: “Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” which was rumored to be among the offerings. Nonetheless, it will make its official debut the following week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Read Variety’s report here. Also check out the preview by L.A. Times scribe John Horn, which was penned before the official announcement was made that “Up in the Air” would not be included.

For those of you excited about The Road, which also debuts at Telluride, here is the Daily Variety review from Todd McCarthy:

This “Road” leads nowhere. If you’re going to adapt a book like Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 bestseller, you’re pretty much obliged to make a terrific film or it’s not worth doing — first because expectations are high, and second, because the picture needs to make it worth people’s while to sit through something so grim. Except for the physical aspects of this bleak odyssey by a father and son through a post-apocalyptic landscape, this long-delayed production falls dispiritingly short on every front. Showing clear signs of being test-screened and futzed with to death, the Dimension release may receive a measure of respect in some quarters but is very, very far from the film it should have been, spelling moderate to tepid B.O. prospects after big fest preems.

Ouch. However if you’re in Telluride to screen it, how bad can the movie be in the brilliant sunshine, expansive skies, the majestic mountains, and that wonderful town?

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