No, the pandemic was not still going on in 2022. (Er ... define "going on.") But my trip to America almost perfectly coincided with the festival's start and end dates, meaning I only got to clean up the leftovers that were made available streaming for a week afterward on what they call MIFFPlay.
I was ready and available to go to the cinemas to see MIFF movies in 2021, but days before the festival was set to begin, they canceled the theatrical screenings. That left MIFFPlay as the only option, as it had been in 2020 when we were in the thick of it.
All obstacles appear to have been cleared this year, so I'll be out seeing movies this Saturday, next Friday, the following Wednesday and the Saturday after that, which is also the penultimate day of the festival. Double features on three of those days.
In years past, I would have gone more than that. But living farther outside the city -- and the reduction of the number of free tickets I get as a critic -- has made me focus in on just a few select titles. Which isn't easy, given that there are more than 300 titles playing, if you include old movies put under the spotlight as well as shorts and VR experiences. (MIFF always excavates the work of some beloved older directors, and this year they are doing Dario Argento. I'll be seeing his The Bird With the Crystal Plumage for the first time on Saturday night.)
I'll write about what I've seen as it occurs, but today I'm writing about the head start I got in order to do my end of the quid pro quo that gets me free tickets to MIFF.
The challenge in reviewing movies that are playing at MIFF is always to review them with enough time for someone to read the review and still be able to go see them. Movies that only play the first weekend are pretty much not candidates to get covered, then -- which is fine, because as I said, 300 other titles.
However, I got the idea that it would help fulfill my end of the bargain if I did promote movies only available on the first weekend -- assuming I could watch them another way first. That would relieve some of the pressure of being sure to cover movies that are still playing later in the festival -- a pressure made all the more difficult by the fact that I'm only see two movies in the entire first week, only one of which is new. (More on that on Sunday, probably.)
Biosphere is a film that was on my radar even before the MIFF lineup was released about three weeks ago, and when I saw it on there, I knew it wouldn't be one of my MIFF choices, because it's already available from U.S. iTunes. That's the only reason though. I flock to anything starring/written by Mark Duplass, and Sterling K. Brown has become a favorite since I first saw him on This Is Us about ten years ago.
The film, though, is only playing on Friday and Sunday. Because director Mel Eslyn is going to be in attendance, it seemed like a pretty good thing to tell my readers about.
So I rented it and watched it last night with my wife. We both enjoyed it. If you'd like to get a sense of how much, check out my MIFF preview here.
But because I thought it was sort of weird to focus on only one movie in a preview designed to prepare my readers for more than 300 titles, I gave the pre-MIFF MIFF treatment to one other movie: BlackBerry, which I already discussed here, so I don't need to get into it again. Prospective viewers will at least have until next Wednesday to see that one.
Now that I've assuaged some of my anxiety about what they are expecting me to produce in exchange for letting me see four movies for free (and another three online), I'm really excited to crack the seal on 2023 MIFF proper, and getting back to the familiar theaters, some of which only screen movies for this festival, as I last did four years ago.
Especially since the first movie I'm seeing is one of the year's most acclaimed.
If you want to know more about that, check back Sunday.
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