It’s been 20 years since the Palm Beach International Film Festival launched its premiere event, and in celebration of this landmark anniversary, executive director Randi Emerman is bringing a knockout lineup of premieres to South Florida, along with parties, galas and appearances by celebs including Tom Arnold and “Boyhood” star Ellar Coltrane.
It’s a lot to take in, but we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 don’t-miss films, in increasing order of excitement. The films run from tonight through April 2; for a full schedule of screenings and events, visit pbifilmfest.org.
10. Michael Clarke Duncan has been dead for three years, but through the magic of movies (and the vagaries of release dates), the affable actor with the infectious smile and teddy-bear heft is back on the big screen in “The Challenger” (6:30 p.m. March 28 at Cinemark Parisian at CityPlace), an inspirational drama enjoying its world premiere at PBIFF. He plays a boxing trainer who instructs a poor auto mechanic to punch his way out of poverty.
9. If you’re of a certain political bent—the tree-hugging leftie kind—then you need no introduction to the work of John Fugelsang, the comedian, actor and liberal commentator who previously hosted a nightly program on Current TV. When that gig expired, Fugelsang hit the asphalt for an ambitious project: to retrace the steps of Alexis de Tocqueville’s landmark tome Democracy in America to discover if the American dream is still alive. The result is the unique docu-road movie “Dream On” (4:15 p.m. April 2 at Cinemark Palace in Boca).
8. The “Swank Table” fundraising dinners at Loxahatchee’s own Swank Farms have become legendary foodie events, and are much beloved by the staff here at Boca Raton. But they didn’t emerge from a cooking vacuum: They are the result of years of hard work from the farm’s passionate founders, Jodi and Darrin Swank, who went from jobless victims of the post-9-11 recession to arguably our region’s most powerful voice for hydroponic, sustainable farming. As it should be, the Palm Beach Film Festival will present the world premiere of their story, in the hour-long documentary “Swank Farm” (5:30 p.m. May 30 at Parisian at CityPlace).
7. Long relegated to menial roles in supbar pictures, Malcolm McDowell is featured in one of his meatiest parts in years in “Bereave” (5:45 p.m. March 29 at Palace). He plays a terminally ill, inevitably prickly man who is resigned to die alone, even if it means disappearing on his wife (Jane Seymour) on their anniversary. Crime and sex loom in the shadows of this mystery, which is pitched as a dark comedy—even though scant laughs accompany its broodingly effective trailer.
6. Talk about an unexpected discovery: When Ricardo Adler, a former tech CEO in Palo Alto, found himself navigating a traumatic divorce, the last person he thought to seek advice from was a rabbi. But it turns out Rabbi Manis Friedman is a sexologist as much as a holy man, and his knowledge of the Kabbalah’s ancient secrets has saved couples on the brink of an intimacy collapse. Adler’s debut feature as a director, “The Lost Key” (7 p.m. March 31 at Palace), explores this most unusual of Jewish leaders, in a therapeutic film that has been seven years in the making.
5. Good thrillers are hard to come by, to say nothing of good horror films. But“The Red Robin” (8:15 p.m. March 29 at Palace) appears to achieve both of these distinctions, making it stand out in a festival heavy with comedies, period dramas and inspirational narratives. This movie, by contrast, plumbs deeply into a shameful project in American history: The government’s notorious MK Ultra experiments into mind control, which return to haunt a high-profile psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) in his twilight years.
4. The Festival scored a doozy for its closing-night film: The latest piercing comedy from indie darling Noah Baumbach. “While We’re Young” (7 p.m. April 2 at Palace) offers an intelligent new vehicle for Ben Stiller, an actor never better than in Baumbach’s “Greenberg,” and Noami Watts as a couple receding into middle age who attempt to recapture their youth by befriending a collegiate couple. See it at the festival first, before it opens in our region April 10.
3. Remember “The Sessions,” the masterful 2012 dramedy with Helen Hunt as a “sex surrogate” for a man in an iron lung? The PBIFF’s French comedy“Indesirables” (8:30 p.m. March 27 at Parisian at CityPlace) treads similar thematic ground, following a young male nurse who, after losing his job, discovers a new calling as a sex surrogate for the disabled. Seemingly more graphic in its depictions of sex than “The Sessions,” this provocative film shows that sex isn’t black-and-white—even if this monochrome movie is.
2. Fans of the Coen Brothers and vintage David Lynch don’t need to wait until “Fargo” returns for its second season, or for “Twin Peaks” to make its own vaunted TV encore next year. The offbeat thriller “Cut Bank” (6:45 p.m. March 29 at Parisian at CityPlace), about a mysterious crime in a tiny, freezing Montana town with a police force unaccustomed to brutaity, will fit that niche quite nicely. The supporting cast is a who’s who of splendid character actors from yesterday and today, including Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Dern, Michael Stuhlberg and John Malkovich.
1. “I’m responsible for hundreds of people on the ground in Syria.” This is not a statement you’d expect to hear from a 19-year-college freshman in Chicago, but it’s the reality for Ala’a, an American Muslim who has, for years, been fomenting revolution in this war-torn Middle Eastern country using nothing but the social media tools the rest of us employ for funny cat videos and snarky memes: Facebook, Twitter and Skype. She’s received both death threats and praise for her bravery and boldness, and the documentary “#chicagogirl” (6:45 p.m. March 30 at Palace) provides Ala’a a much-needed spotlight and offers an invigorating study in the positive ramifications of social media.
