Twin Cities Film Fest: 10 Days. 150+ Movies. 2 Theaters.

My stats: 7 Days. 6 Movies. 2 Theaters.

This was my second ever festival experience and my first at TCFF and it’s safe to say there are many ups and downs to the whole thing. Here I will get into both sides of the coin and offer up my thoughts on all the films I saw, whether it was in person or at home with the screening pass.

Before the fest even started I had the director of I’ve Seen All I Need to See reach out to me for a collaboration. This was such a cool opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I was able to create a post for a competition on instagram and thankfully two people won the chance to go see the movie. I was unable to see the movie in person but watched it on the streaming pass. If you like moody dramas and metal music, it’s worth checking out!

I went through my first day scenario and Hamnet thoughts in a separate blog that you can find on my page, but I will touch on that a little more. I firmly believe sitting front row for a big time awards film affected my thoughts on it and that sucks. While the story wasn’t my typical cup of tea, everyone involved in it was, and I didn’t like it as much as everyone else seemed to have. Now I’ll never see it again for the first time and I might not ever want to in general. I’ve had a few situations where an important movie was watched in undesirable circumstances and I never take the time to go back to them. To end this paragraph I do want to give anonymous shoutouts to a few TCFF employees that reached out to me to discuss my issues that night, you were truly helpful and understanding.

My second day was a much better time all around, as I was placed in a better seat and got to see one of the better surprises of the year in Christy. Can you believe Sydney Sweeney made a better combat sport biopic than The Rock this year?? Sweeney is likeable, at least to me, for the first time in her acting career. If you ignore her on again, off again accent, this is by far her best and most dynamic performance that we’ve seen from her. Sure, it’s not the greatest in the realm of biopics and its over two hour runtime isn’t ideal, but this does a lot of different things right. Seek it out when it hits theaters very soon.

I know I said my second day at the fest was better all around, but that was a lie. That’s because I walked up on a guy actively breaking into my car as I was leaving the movie. I heard a car alarm go off in the direction of where I was walking and took the time to hit the lock button on my fob just in case it was mine. Sure enough, it was for me! And there was a guy standing at my car asking if the alarmed car in question was mine. Now listen, I’m a person with a pretty calm demeanor, so I wasn’t immediately upset or yelling at this guy. I just asked him what he was doing at my car and he tried to gaslight me by saying he walked up to it with the windows and door already open. At this point I had already locked the car again, yet his hand was still on the door handle. I told him “I can take care of my own car” and he said okay and got into his own car (which of course was right next to mine) but not before a few more seconds of spouting lies. I slammed my door shut and headed home.

I took a few day break from the fest and returned back to the theater on Tuesday night to check out a movie called Cotton Candy Bubble Gum. The only reason I chose this one was because of its timing (my fiance was working) and it was a comedy, so I thought I would give something different a chance. This night was a disaster to say the least… Ten seconds into the movie, I knew this wasn’t for me. It’s a bad sight when a writer makes a comedian unfunny on screen while using every curse word and Final Cut Pro filter to only bring the movie down even more. I say all this with having only watched ⅔ of the films because of technical issues. Twice within the middle section of the movie, it cut to black. On that second instance, I cut my losses and left the theater knowing nothing could have changed my mind on the thing anyway.

Now Wednesday night was a big night, I was seeing Bugonia. The Newest film, and most recent collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone. I knew nothing about this film going in, except Stone was bald in it and that’s all I needed. I knew a lot of people at this screening and for the first time, this felt like a community event. There was a photobooth set up from the studio and they were handing out free t-shirts. These things brought a memory I will never forget.

Now as far as the movie goes, I wasn’t quite as impressed. I will start with the things I was impressed by though. Emma is sensational.This was the most I have liked her in the Yorgos era. Not only was the shaving of her head worth it, it was necessary. The score is brilliant and magnifies the intensity of everything happening on screen. Yorgos also knows how to make the small things feel huge. Now Jesse Plemmons, he was out of place. I usually love him, but this felt like something he would have done early on in his career. The story also felt too similar to a different film that I won’t spoil (and yes I know this is a remake* of a 2000’s film). I can admit this is a very weird film while also feeling too accessible for the “normies”. Usually you walk away from a Yorgos film talking about how little you understood but how you still loved the ride. Here I understood everything and was left a little unimpressed with the outcome. I’ll score this one a 3 out of 5 here because of how much I loved Emma in it.

The screening of the fest for me ended up being Rental Family. I had plans to see a couple more on the final night but life happens.

Now Rental Family. Starring Breandan Fraser, this immediately became one of my favorites of the year. Brendan has recently been such a sweet presence on screen and this movie was no different. It takes this story in lovely directions that I was not expecting. I don’t have too much to say on it, mainly because my eyes hurt, but seek this movie out when you get a chance. It’s the feel good movie of the year with performances that will steal your heart, and I’m not exclusively talking about Fraser. I was so happy I was able to make a movie at the Edina Mann theater work in my schedule.

Thank you to everyone that put these films on at TCFF. Thank you TCFF, MNFCA, and everyone that has read this. I will always be grateful for the opportunities to attend events like this. My experiences weren’t the most ideal at times, but some things weren’t in anyone’s control.

Final Ranking of Films

1. Rental Family
2. Hamnet
3. Christy
4. Bugonia
5. I’ve Seen All I Need to See
6. Cotton Candy Bubble Gum

Maybe if I ever become a full time movie person, I will have time for more films at festivals.

Until next time.