Newport Film Festival boasts week of intriguing films


When one thinks of Los Angeles-area film festivals, the Newport Beach Film Festival isn’t the first to come to mind. With Hollywood just a short drive up the 101, a affluent beach town a good ways down the 405 doesn’t strike one as the first choice for a film festival.

Nonetheless, the town of 87,000 has hosted a yearly film festival since 1999. The festival has developed a reputation as a home for quality films away from the bustle of the city. Perhaps its most notable screening was the U.S. premiere of 2005 Best Picture winner Crash. With critically-acclaimed prestige pieces, horror films, family films and classic film retrospectives, the festival might actually live up to the oft-repeated claim of “having something for everyone.”

Held from April 23 through April 27, the festival will kick off Thursday night with a presentation of the decorated directorial debut of Russell Crowe, The Water Diviner. The film follows Crowe’s character as he travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons at the infamous Battle of Gallipoli. The film won three awards, including Best Film, at this year’s AACTAs, the Australian equivalent of the Oscars. Crowe’s performance has been lauded as a vintage performance for the Oscar-winning star.

Friday’s slate is highlighted by a showing of the Michael Fassbender western Slow West. The film follows a young Scottish teenager, played by Nightcrawler actor Kodi Smit-McPhee, as he travels across the untamed west. He soon meets Fassbender’s character, a road-weary cowboy who agrees to protect the teenager as he seeks to avoid the aggressions of bandits on the road. The trailer is a treat, featuring a fiery guitar track over numerous stylized gunfights and beautiful cinematography reminiscent of Roger Deakins’s work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Slow West will not be the only great film on display on Friday however. Set Fire to the Stars features Elijah Wood playing an aspiring poet who spends a week with Dylan Thomas. In A Little Chaos, Kate Winslet plays a landscape designer in the 18th century court of Louis XIV. She is sucked into a vortex of court intrigue and romance. Also, the first of three free film retrospectives will be screened, with a showing of classic cheerleading film Bring It On.

Saturday features another intriguing slate of films. Perhaps the most interesting screening set for display is the 7 p.m. screening of A Nightmare on Short Street, which is a collection of critically-acclaimed horror short films. With horror usually getting the short end of the critical stick, it is refreshing to see a horror presentation at a relatively prestigious film festival. If anything, a screening like this will end up feeling like a better version of those horror anthology films, such as The ABCs of Death, which have gained popularity recently.

There are other films to watch out for on Saturday’s slate. For example, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl currently boasts a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. The film follows a high schooler, played by Project X actor Thomas Mann, as he befriends a cancer-striken classmate payed by Olivia Cooke. Slow Learners has the makings of a charming romantic comedy, starring two unlucky-in-love friends who go take a vow to turn their lives around.

Sunday features one of the biggest draws of this year’s festival: the Orson Welles centennial celebration. Celebrating the Citizen Kane master’s long career, his adaptation of Othello will be screened at 11 a.m., followed by a portrayal of Welles by Danny Huston in Fade to Black. These will be followed by an in-depth panel discussion on Welles’ life, with particular emphasis on his life abroad.

The festival will continue into the week with day-by-day tour of the world. Monday starts things off with a showcase of films from around the Pacific Rim. Korea’s A Hard Day, China’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 and Japan’s Twilight: Saya in Sasara will comprise the lineup for this celebration. Tuesday will feature a European showcase. This will include Sweden’s Blowfly Park, France’s Love at First Sight, Italy’s Do You Remember Me and Germany’s Who Am I: No System is Safe. Wednesday concludes the tour with a Latino films selection. Chile’s El Cordero, Brazil’s A Despedida and Mexico’s One for the Road make up the lineup.

On Thursday, the eighth and final night of the festival, the closing night film will be No Stranger than Love. A romantic plot, mixed with inter dimensional travel, the film appears to be a charming genre-straddling flick. Starring the very talented Alison Brie, the film looks to be a refreshing change of pace to close out the film festival.