Kicking off tonight with the Latin American premiere of Wild, the latest from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, the third edition of Mexico's Los Cabos International Film Festival (CIFF) promises to be a fantastic way to end the year of festivals.
In 2014, Los Cabos renovated entirely its image - it was previously known as Baja Film Festival - and made an effort to secure the Mexican or Latin American premieres of some of the most anticipated films of the year. It's also important to mention that Los Cabos was recently affected by hurricane Odile and the festival is representing the city's recuperation.
This sure looks like their best edition yet, with homages to Denys Arcand, Atom Egoyan, Guillermo Arriaga, and Roger Ebert, prestige films like Boyhood and Mommy (with Xavier Dolan in person), a dose of genre filmmaking (i.e. the vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows), and several movie stars visiting Los Cabos, such as Wild's Reese Witherspoon and The Captive's Rosario Dawson.
For those who will be attending the festival, I put together a list with 10 films that you just can't miss. As usual, the selection is mostly based on the extremely positive reaction that some of my ScreenAnarchy colleagues had when watching these films. Find more about each title in the gallery below (including links to full reviews).
Los Cabos 2014 takes place from November 12 to 16.
Boyhood (d. Richard Linklater, US) - November 15 (8 PM) & November 16 (12 PM)
Richard Linklater’s 12-year-in-the-making epic is absolutely one of the year’s finest films. We follow Mason (Ellar Coltrane) since he’s a 6-year-old kid until he leaves home to go to college. It could very well be called as another title from this list, Life Itself, because indeed, Boyhood is life itself.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (d. Ana Lily Amirpour, US) - November 13 (12 PM) & November 14 (7 PM)
“Cinema's first Iranian vampire western, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature basks in the sheer pleasure of pulp. A joyful mash-up of genre, archetype, and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films, and the Iranian New Wave.” I really, really like how that synopsis sounds, and I’m eager to watch this film even when our own Ben Umstead’s review was not entirely positive. The plus at Los Cabos is that director Ana Lily Amirpour is attending the fest.
Life Itself (d. Steve James, US) - November 13 (4:15 PM) & November 14 (11 AM)
The most renowned film critic ever, Roger Ebert, passed away in early 2013. Consequently, Hoop Dreams director Steve James launched a crowdfunding camping to finish a documentary based on Ebert’s memoir Life Itself. The result has been widely acclaimed since its debut at Sundance, and now it will premiere in Mexico with Ebert’s widow Chaz Ebert in person.
Mommy (d. Xavier Dolan, Canada) - November 13 (10 PM), November 14 (2 PM) & November 16 (6 PM)
Xavier Dolan finally gained popularity in Mexico with the release of Tom at the Farm earlier this year. His most recent film, Mommy, shared the Jury Prize with Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language at Cannes and is considered by many experts as one of the year’s best films (it’s also Canada’s entry for the Oscars). Dolan is only 25 and our own Jason Gorber said that with Mommy, he “solidifies himself in the pantheon of great directors.”
Dolan will be in Los Cabos for the Mexican premiere of Mommy, in an event that’s definitely one of the highlights of the festival that nobody attending should miss.
It’s worth noting that the film will be also playing in Mexico City as part of Cineteca Nacional’s Muestra 57.
Over Your Dead Body (d. Miike Takashi, Japan/France/China) - November 15 (6:30 PM) & November 16 (7:30 PM)
It’s kind of surprising to have some Miike Takashi at a festival like Los Cabos, but it’s definitely great.
Miike’s Over My Dead Body, which just premiered in North America last September at TIFF, was called by Twitch’s founder Todd Brown a great mixture of the prolific director’s both sides.
“There are those who wish the old, anarchic Miike would make a return while others are more than happy to see him grow into something more mature. But there's no need to have that discussion with Miike's latest because Over Your Dead Body fuses both sides of the director into an immensely satisfying whole in a way none of his previous work has even attempted”, said Brown.
Spring (d. Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, US) - November 13 (6:30 PM), November 14 (2 PM) & November 16 (5 PM)
Resolution directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead returned with Spring, a film that has been called “Before Sunrise with a supernatural twist” (a quote by TIFF’s Colin Geddes). Can’t wait!
The Incident (d. Isaac Ezban, Mexico) - November 13 (12:30 PM) & November 14 (5 PM)
I watched Isaac Ezban’s debut feature length film The Incident (El Incidente) way back in May. It is one of the best Mexican films I’ve seen this year, and I’ve seen plenty, including the vast majority of major releases. In a time when the Mexican film institutions seem to be only interested in docu-fictions or formulaic romantic comedies, Ezban’s science fiction effort is definitely a breath of fresh air.
The film arrives to Mexico with huge praise from over the globe, as it successfully played such festivals as Fantastic Fest, PiFan, and Sitges. Ezban is set to personally present the first screening at Los Cabos, so if you want to check out some Mexican cinema, this is by far the best bet.
The Overnighters (d. Jesse Moss, US) - November 15 (11 AM & 7:30 PM)
A documentary about post-recession America that, for Twitch’s Jason Gorber, is “a shattering experience; a masterwork of unbridled honesty as it delves into the messy ambivalence of regular lives. Easily one of this year's best documentaries, it is both provocative and unsettling, energizing and immensely sorrowful. It is an exceptional, haunting film, and one not to be missed.”
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (d. Takahata Isao, Japan) - November 14 (1 PM) & November 15 (7 PM)
Mexican fans of Studio Ghibli were wondering when the latest from co-founder Takahata Isao was going to get a release in Mexico. That will likely happen in 2015, but meanwhile, Los Cabos is hosting the first screenings of The Tale of The Princess Kaguya in Mexico.
Twitch’s Asian editor, James Marsh, chose this film as one of his favorites from Asia of 2014, and said its “a magical and quietly profound story, that highlights the innocence of childhood, the struggles of parenting and the horrifying challenges and expectations placed upon young women, particularly in Japan.”
What We Do in the Shadows (d. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, New Zealand) - November 14 (7 PM) & November 15 (2 PM)
A vampire comedy from New Zealand that uses the mockumentary format? I’m in!