The Top Five Movies to See at the Atlanta Film Festival 2009

A film festival is an unpredictable affair. Most of the time, you don’t really get a sense of what’s buzzy until you’re on the ground talking to fellow festivalgoers. Or, often, some of your favorite films end up being ones you just stumbled into. Maybe you have a gap between two preferred choices and a film just happens to fit the slot, so you go see it on a whim. Or maybe you can’t get into the film you wanted to see, but another one is showing in the next theater over. The serendipitous nature is part of what makes a festival so exciting.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t, or shouldn’t, plan ahead. For this year’s Atlanta Film Festival, there are five films I’m especially looking forward to. They are as follows:

Sunday, April 19, Landmark Midtown @ 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 21, Landmark Midtown @ 4:00 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

The crown jewel. Scott Teems’ That Evening Sun has won the Audience Award at both festivals it’s been in so far (including South by Southwest), and also won Best Ensemble Cast at SXSW. Hal Holbrook is already getting early Oscar buzz for his portrayal of a senior citizen who walks out of his retirement community and goes to the farm that is his home only to find it rented out against his will to a family he disdains. The supporting cast is also impressive, featuring Ray McKinnon (Deadwood), Walton Goggins (The Shield), Carrie Preston (True Blood) and Mia Wasikowska (In Treatment), and the soundtrack features songs by Patterson Hood and a score by Michael Penn. Based on a short story by William Gay. The showing on Sunday features a meet-and-greet with the director as well as McKinnon and Goggins.

Tuesday, April 21, Landmark Midtown @ 7:30 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

Marc Webb’s gem starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel was one of my two favorite films at Sundance, and I cannot wait to see it again. Suffice it to say that it’s the film everyone will be talking about this Summer. At the least, it's the best Summer romantic comedy of the past few years. At best? Maybe this generation’s Annie Hall.

Sunday, April 19, Landmark Midtown @ 12:15 p.m.

Thursday, Apr 23, Landmark Midtown @ 4:15 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

Documentaries on inner-city schools hit home with me; I used to teach in one of those schools. But even if you don’t have a similar draw, Beth Toni Kruvant’s documentary transcends the genre. It’s the story of Weequahic High School in New Jersey, once one of the top schools in America and immortalized by alumnus Philip Roth as an ideal high school, but which by 2000 had become one of the most dangerous schools in Newark. Ron Stone’s struggle to bring the school back from the edge of the abyss by working with the gangs to create a “non-violence zone” around the school, and his recruitment of older Jewish and younger African American alumni, make for compelling cinema.

Saturday, April 18, King Center @ 2:30 p.m.

Monday, April 20, Landmark Midtown @ 2:15 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

Karin Hayes’ tale traces the friendship of two men, one white and one black, over more than 50 years. In 1948, they are the top athletes at their respective (segregated) high schools in Annapolis, and being competitive teenage boys, they seek each other out and actually become good friends. In 1968, Pip has become the mayor of Annapolis and Zastrow is in jail. But when Rev. Martin Luther King is killed, they come together to save Annapolis from being destroyed by riots. Finally, in 2005, Zastrow runs for public office for the first time (at 71!) and Pip, now struggling with Parkinson’s Disease, comes back into the public eye to try to help his old friend overcome some old racial divisions. It’s playing for free at the King Center on Saturday, and the director, along with Zastrow himself, will be at both showings.

Friday, April 17, Landmark Midtown @ 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 21, Landmark Midtown @ 1:00 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

I am inexorably drawn to mindbending movies about memory. Maybe I saw Rashomon at too young of an age, or maybe it was the later influence of Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Thomas Verette’s new film looks to be a proud addition to that tradition, as it tells the story of a young man who awakens from experimental brain surgery (performed by his father, interestingly enough) and tries to piece his life, and memories, back together. What is real and what is “only” in his head? I can’t wait to find out.