I saw 15 films at the Telluride Film Festival and reviewed them all for CraveOnline. Now, to give you a better sense of how the films actually compared to each other, it’s time to rank them in order from worst to best. You can use this as a guide for when the films hit theaters, or just to recap the whole weekend at Telluride. I still missed some films: Carol, Beasts of No Nation, Taj Mahal, Only the Dead See the End of War, 45 Years, Time to Choose and more, so this is by no means a definitive list, but rather a way to summarize one Telluride experience.
Fred Topel is a veteran journalist since 1999 and has written for CraveOnline since 2006. See Fred on the ground at Sundance, SXSW, Telluride or in Los Angeles and follow him on Twitter @FredTopel, Instagram @Ftopel.
The Films of Telluride 2015 | Ranked from Worst to Best
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15. Taxi
Taxi could have been just another bad mumblecore movie, but it comes with a level of self-satisfaction that makes it far more aggravating. Restrictions on artists in Iran are terrible and I support Jafar Panahi making films in spite of his arrest, but the films still have to be good. Putting a camera in his taxi barely makes this little more than a Taxicab Confessions exposé in Iran. It is either a badly scripted series of talking points, or the most self-serving slate of real taxi fares Panahi could have coincidentally picked up. I vote the former.
Image via Jafar Panahi Film Productions
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14. He Named Me Malala
Malala Yousafzai is such an endearing and inspiring survivor, the documentary about her is getting a pass. You could just turn a camera on Malala for 90 minutes and have gold, and that might’ve been worth more than an unfocused, manipulative documentary. The problems in Davis Guggenheim’s film arise from a nonlinear chronology that isn’t clear and some unfortunate interfering with the story on his part. At least he captured the Yousafzai family on camera, but I think you could learn more about them by doing your own independent reading.
Image via Fox Searchlight
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13. Black Mass
The highly anticipated crime drama starring Johnny Depp as James “Whitey” Bulger is just completely mediocre. You can tell Depp is loving playing a volatile killer, but the film never quite gives us a sense of who Bulger really was. A collection of gangster movie cliches and some re-enactments of Bulger’s most shocking crimes don’t add up to a whole movie.
Image via Warner Bros.
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12. Heart of a Dog
We’re transitioning into the good stuff with this challenging art film. This is the kind of movie you definitely won’t see playing at the same moviehouse as The Avengers, although HBO is still going to put it on the same channel that airs Game of Thrones. Laurie Anderson’s experimental art film combines stock footage, re-enactments, still photos, text and narration to discuss deep subjects. Stemming from the love of her dog Lolabelle, Anderson tackles NSA data mining, religion and her own childhood ailments. Basically, it’s an extended art installation, but given the time to explore these deep subjects, she leaves us with enough ideas to start triggering our own thought processes.
Image via Canal Street Communications
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11. Ixcanul
This Guatemalan film portrays life on a coffee farm with a Mayan family. In my review I said it was more about the atmosphere than the drama but I’m reconsidering now. The story is a universal one about dreaming of the world outside your own, and making some youthful mistakes along the way. So while the images of Guatemalan vistas and culture are what stuck with me, the story of Maria (Maria Mercedes Coroy)’s unplanned pregnancy and her struggles with the coffee crop are a vital vehicle through which to experience them.
Image via Kino Lorber
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10. Marguerite
This French version of the Florence Foster Jenkins story has an inherently hilarious premise and gets a lot out of it, but just dilly dallies for a little too long to achieve optimum comic timing. Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot) is being told she is a great opera singer, but she actually can’t sing on key or hit high notes. There is a farcical ruse that maintains Marguerite’s delusions, and as we realize the butt of the joke is still a human being, it is poignant. It takes a bit too long to get going and finally resolve, but that middle chunk is comic gold. This is one movie where we won’t want the soundtrack.
Image via Cohen Media Group
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9. Viva
Viva would have been great if it were a film about a gay man finding his home with a club full of drag queen performers, but Viva is also more than that. The biggest hurdle to Jesus (Hector Medina) becoming a star as his sage alter ego Viva is not his own talent. It’s the return of his father Angel (Jorge Perugorria), who creates a very intense, volatile situation. As the film starts to defuse that situation, it’s a rather amazing journey on which to take the audience.
Image via Treasure Entertainment
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8. Rams
If any of the descriptions of film festival movies sound a bit obscure, perhaps it is a good reminder that a good story is a good story, no matter what the subject is. It also speaks to the universality of good stories: the details are just the dressing. So this tale of two sheep farmer brothers in Iceland is a classic family drama, with a bit of industrial intrigue. Specifically it’s about how an outbreak in the herd has life-altering consequences, but really it’s about how people will do anything to protect what’s important to them.
Photo © Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
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7. Suffragette
Just a friendly reminder, it’s still been less than 100 years that women have had the right to vote. Suffragette paints a riveting portrait of the struggle in England, and it doesn’t take a film critic to point out the parallels to today. Peaceful protestors driven to violence, violence committed on peaceful demonstrators and an establishment terrified of change never seem to go away. I titled my review with the voting pun “Suffragette Wins By a Landslide.” A day later I thought of an even better one: "Suffragette is suffragreat!"
Image Via Focus Features
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6. Anomalisa
A Charlie Kaufman stop-motion animated film. Enough said, right? Based on his sound play, the film actually realizes the story visually for the first time. Yet it still allows Tom Noonan to play most of the supporting cast, because he can record all of their lines. The animation features every subtle nuance of naturalistic behavior, and the love story between Michael Stone (David Thewlis) and Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) portrays a mature adult connection. Then of course reality gets shattered. Come on, it’s still Charlie Kaufman.
Image via Starburns Industries
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5. Son of Saul
If audiences may be hesitant to watch a Holocaust movie, it might help them to know that the whole point of this one is how a concentration camp survivor manages to tune out the atrocities around him. Director Lazlo Nemes locks the camera on Saul (Geza Rohrig) so we never leave his side. He is a Sonderkommando, in charge of leading his people to the gas chambers and disposing of their bodies, but we rarely have to see much of it because it’s all out of focus in the depth of field. This is a striking way to portray a character compartmentalizing his world in order to survive.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
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4. Tikkun
Shot in beautiful black and white, with still and steady frames, the Israeli film Tikkun explores the temptations that a Hassidic student (Aharon Traitel) considers after an accident, which he barely survived. Full of striking images and surreal incidents, director Avishai Sivan has crafted an art film that works as a story of self doubt as well as a study of condemnation. It will be upsetting to some, not because of any religious context, but because of some of the lines it crosses. If you’re up for going there, Tikkun could be a haunting experience.
Image via Plan B Productions
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3. Room
Room was such an intense drama it actually gave me nightmares. That may have been the altitude too, but the disturbing themes and visceral experience of Room happened to coincide with a sleepless night and stress dreams. Brie Larson plays a woman who has been kidnapped and held in a single room for seven years. Two years in she had a baby, and she’s now raised Jack (Jacob Tremblay) until he’s five. The tensions that come with raising a child in such conditions and the risks pertaining to the kidnapper Nick (Sean Bridgers) enable Room to attack you from all sides.
Image via A24
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2. Spotlight
Spotlight is another “Win Win” for director Tom McCarthy. Ha! Here he makes the Boston Globe’s investigative journalist team look as awesome as the Fast and the Furious crew. The film chronicles their investigation of the Catholic Church molestation scandal which they ultimately published in 2002. Even though we know they’re right, the process by which they thoroughly investigate the church and the legal system is fascinating. It’s also interesting to see how everyone has an answer, even the wrong side; no one’s doing anything out of neglect or incompetence. This is a battle of wills and it takes the will of the Spotlight team to persevere.
Image via Open Road Films
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1. Steve Jobs
It’s no secret I was a big fan of the other Steve Jobs movie. Funny enough, I said that one stopped just short of being on par with The Social Network. Now the screenwriter of The Social Network gives us his take on Steve Jobs, directed by Danny Boyle. The two films both stand together as equally valid takes on a complicated man. The other movie was a chronological biography that gave us a sense of how Steve Jobs evolved and what his innovations cost his soul. Sorkin and Boyle’s movie is an electrically paced impression of the Steve Jobs experience via three turning points in Apple computers. Both movies stopped at the iPod. Someone could still make a movie that goes to the iPhone and iPad from there.
Image via Universal Pictures
