The 9 highly anticipated movies at the 2022 Montclair Film Festival

The 2022 Montclair Film Festival will be bringing some big names to town this year including movie stars Daniel Craig, Brendan Fraser, and Eddie Redmayne with conversations led by longtime festival supporter Stephen Colbert.

I got the chance to speak with Tom Hall, the festival Co-Head/Artistic Director, about what makes the Montclair Film Festival so unique,

"Our festivals really focused on community building in Montclair, Essex County throughout New Jersey, the tri-state area, bringing people into cinemas coming together, having conversations around the films that we're showing, and using that as a way to do community engagement.

 

So even though we're showing films from a wide range of distributors, and about a wide range of topics, we are really trying to find movies that speak to everybody, not just, you know, a certain type of movie, fiction let's say, or documentary.

 

We're trying to have a balanced program that allows us to find a way to bring as many different groups of people together as possible around movies, and to use that as a platform to have a conversation together, about what the films bring up for us in the community, the art of film itself, why it's important, et cetera, et cetera.

 

So that's really our focus. We work really hard to bring really great films, great filmmakers, and then get audiences in there with them to have an experience together."

The Montclair Film Festival has a well curated selection of films that each touch on different culturally relevant topics and a lot of the films have connections to New Jersey. The festival kicks off on Friday, October 21st and ends on Sunday, October 30th.

The festival will be featuring over 130 films, events, parties, and conversations this year.

Here are the most talked about films of the festival:

The Good Nurse

The long-anticipated film, The Good Nurse, directed by Tobias Lindholm, will be featured on Saturday and it is your best chance to see it before it is released on Netflix.

The film is inspired by the infamous New Jersey serial killer, Nurse Charles Cullen also known as “The Angel of Death” and nurse Amy Loughren who helped put an end to her colleague's killing spree. Cullen was responsible for killing at least 29 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania hospitals and nursing homes.

Eddie Redmayne will receive the festival's 2022 Performance of The Year Award for his chilling performance as Nurse Charles Cullen. Following the screening of the movie Eddie Redmayne and director Tobias Lindholm will participate in Q&A moderated by Stephen Colbert.

The film is being shown on Saturday, October 22 at 7:30pm in the Wellmont Theater. Click here for tickets. 

The Inspection 

Director and writer Elegance Bratton from Jersey City will be presented with the Breakthrough Award for his film The Inspection which is inspired by Bratton’s real-life experiences. The film tells the story of Ellis French, a young, gay, Black man who joins in the Marines in the 1990’s, post “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

In an interview with Variety Bratton said, “This is a story for anybody who’s ever felt disregarded, downtrodden and underestimated, to remind them of the power they have inside.”

The film features Jeremy Pope as Ellis French and Gabrielle Union as his mother. The Inspection was also selected as the closing film for the New York Film Festival. Following the screening of the film there will be a Q&A with director and writer, Elegance Bratton.

The film is being shown on Saturday, October 22 at 3:30pm in the Wellmont Theater. Click here for tickets. 

The Whale

After the video of Brendan Fraser receiving a 6-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival went viral, The Whale became one of the most talked about films of the year.

The Whale will be featured at the festival and the star of the movie, Brendan Fraser will be attending. Fraser will also join Stephen Colbert after the screening of the film for a Q&A.

The movie is an emotional story of Charlie, a reclusive English teacher who struggles with severe obesity and chronic binge-eating. Charlie is depressed, to the point where he is suicidal, and the only thing that is stopping him is his 17-year-old daughter, Ellie. The Whale takes us on Charlie’s personal and emotional journey with obesity and trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

The film is being shown on Sunday, October 23 at 7:30pm in the Wellmont Theater. This film showing is sold-out.

She Said

The closing film for the weekend has been a hot topic, She Said directed by Maria Schrader. The film recently had its debut screening at the New York Film Festival and will soon be released to the streaming service, Peacock.

She Said tells the story of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal and how the story broke in the New York Times. The film is about the process and power of good journalism and how we rely on reporters to bring injustice to light.

This film is being shown on Sunday, October 30 at 7:45pm at the MKA Upper School. This film showing is sold-out.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

The festival kicks off opening night with a sold-out showing of Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery starring Daniel Craig. In a thrilling follow up to Knives Out,the film follows Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new all-star cast of colorful suspects.

This film is being shown on Friday, October 21 at 7:30pm in the Wellmont Theater. This film showing is sold-out.

Daniel Craig is the 2022 Montclair Film Festival Tribute Recipient and on Saturday, October 28th, Daniel Craig will join Stephen Colbert on stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Click here for tickets to An Evening with Daniel Craig + Stephen Colbert.

I asked Tom Hall, the festival Co-Head/Artistic Director which other films people should definitely try to see and these were some of his suggestions.

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed

All the Beauty and The Bloodshed is directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras. It is the first documentary to ever win The Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED is an epic, emotional, and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin that explores the trajectory of her life and work. From downtown New York City’s legendary art scene through her visionary documentation of the AIDS crisis, to her struggles with opioid addiction and her personal campaign to hold the Sackler family, owners of the oxycontin-manufacturing Purdue Pharma, accountable for the devastation that the crisis has inflicted on countless lives around the world, Goldin’s unflinching refusal to defer to the powerful continues to astonish.

The film is being shown on Sunday, October 23 at 7:15pm in Clairidge Cinema 2 and on Friday, October 28 at 7:30pm in Clairidge Cinema 1. Click here for tickets. 

Aftersun

In AFTERSUN, Charlotte Wells’ beautiful portrait of a father and his daughter, Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a vacation she took with her father Calum (Paul Mescal) twenty years earlier.

Set on the beautiful beaches of Turkey, the young Sophie (Frankie Corio) navigates the distance between the joys of childhood and pressures of adulthood as she and her dad look to connect and build their relationship. But time changes everything, and memories real and imagined shape the past as Sophie tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t.

The film is being shown on Saturday, October 22 at 2:00pm in Clairidge Cinema 2 and on Wednesday, October 26 at 7:00pm in Clairidge Cinema 1. Click here for tickets. 

Women Talking

WOMEN TALKING is Sarah Polley’s eagerly anticipated return to the director’s chair, a powerful adaptation of Canadian author Miriam Toews’ acclaimed 2018 novel. Set in a fictional ultra religious colony, the film tells the story of a secret meeting among the women of the colony who have come to realize that many of them have a shared secret, one that will call into question their faith and the very fabric of their once-beloved community.

A searing critique of patriarchal power, WOMEN TALKING refuses to look away from the trauma and anger at the heart of its unforgettable story.

The film is being shown on Sunday, October 30 at 4:00pm at MKA Upper School. Click here for tickets. 

Remember This

In a virtuoso solo performance in Remember This, Academy Award® nominee David Strathairn (GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, NOMADLAND) portrays Jan Karski, who, after surviving the devastation of the Blitzkrieg, swore allegiance to the Polish Underground and risked his life to carry the first eyewitness reports of war-torn Poland to the Western world.

After escaping a Gestapo prison and bearing witness to the despair of the Warsaw ghetto and the inhumanity of a death camp, Karski endured unspeakable mental anguish and physical torture to stand tall in the halls of power and speak the truth, shaking the conscience of the world.

The film is being shown on Sunday, October 30 at 4:00pm in Clairidge Cinema 1. Click here for tickets.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Jordan Jansson. Any opinions expressed are her own.

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Who knows maybe The Good Nurse will soon be on this list of Netflix’s Most Popular TV Shows Ever.....