Five (more) movies to watch from the Atlanta Film Festival

The Atlanta Film Festival ended its in-person run on May While the virtual rendition of the festival will run until May I feel now s a good time to run down through several of my favorite movies that played Ahead of the festival I published a list of seven movies to watch out for All my praise for those films still applies but this list includes five new films that I came out of the theater loving Keep scrolling for more Vulcanizadora dir Joel Potrykus A still from Vulcanizadora Photo via Atlanta Film Festival website I had never seen a Joel Potrykus film before Vulcanizadora which serves as an unofficial sequel of sorts to s Buzzard visiting the same characters a decade later Considering how much I liked it I ll have to check out his other work The film which follows two friends who expedition into a Michigan forest in order to carry out a disturbing pact is bleakly uncomfortably funny particularly considering what the pact in question entails It s hang-out cinema but with an undercurrent of dread laced throughout its languid pace one of my favorites at the fest Withdrawal dir Aaron Strand L-R Brent Michal and Millie Rose Evans in Withdrawal Photo provided by Atlanta Film Festival Full disclosure Aaron Strand hosts the podcast Crash Zoom with me so that should give you an inkling as to my biases That being explained Withdrawal was one of the best things I saw at the film festival this year and I believe I would have thought so even if I didn t know Aaron Withdrawal follows two heroin addicts played by Brent Michal and Millie Rose Evans who decide to get clean the events of the film playing out over a single night as drug withdrawal begins to set in What follows is a frequently upsetting often funny equal parts realistic and fantastical take on what addiction feels like And I mean feel this film is visceral in every sense of the word Mongrels dir Jerome Yoo A still from Mongrels Photo via Atlanta Film Festival website A feature debut can be a tricky thing I often feel like first-time feature filmmakers understandably feel like they need to get everything out of their system in that first movie just in affair the opportunity never comes again But Mongrels from Canadian filmmaker Jerome Yoo feels far more individual than greater part assured with its strangeness rather than self-conscious about it The film which follows a Korean immigrant family living in rural Canada in the early s features a three-act structure each from the perspective of a different member of the family Because we eventually move away from each character there are loose ends that never get picked up again selected heartbreaking tensions that are never quite resolved But Mongrels is so certain of those decisions and so sensitive in its portrayal of complicated family dynamics that the movie never feels like it s losing its footing It s the work of a very confident filmmaker and I can t wait to see what Yoo does next Your The upcoming day dir Ali Weinstein A still from Your The coming day Photo provided by Atlanta Film Festival I find observational documentary documentaries that aim to capture real life events without interference from the filmmaker or talking heads or narration to be one of the greater part tough forms of documentary to do well But with Your The coming day Ali Weinstein shows us what can happen with a whole lot of footage a little luck and a ton of time spent in the editing room Your The day after follows the final year of Ontario Place a Toronto park before a redevelopment that would turn parts of the park into a spa facility The film is an fundamental look at what we lose when we lose community spaces but Weinstein also manages to capture the uniqueness and vibrancy of Ontario Place through a quirky cast of characters that breathe life into every minute Lockjaw dir Sabrina Greco Blu Hunt in Lockjaw Photo provided by Sabrina Greco In Lockjaw Raina Blu Hunt newly sober and dysfunctional attempts to fake her way through her first night out following a drunk-driving accident that renderer her jaw wired shut Thus begins a one-crazy-night saga of miscommunications and embarrassments galore I in recent times interviewed filmmaker Sabrina Greco about the process of making this film and one thing she reported that stood out to me was about her love for writing unlikeable characters The magic trick that Lockjaw somehow pulls off is making Raina both annoying and funny alienating and sympathetic all at the same time As you follow her through all the mishaps of her night you ll cringe and you ll want to yell at her but you ll also never stop hoping that she comes out on the other side The post Five more movies to watch from the Atlanta Film Festival appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta