United States • d: Alexander Payne • R • 2h 13m
Paul (Paul Giamatti), an aging classics professor at an elite New England prep school, is at odds with his students. His rigidly judgmental teaching methods are, to say the least, outdated. When he is thrown together for a long Christmas break with Angus (Dominic Sessa), a smart, charismatic and self-destructive teen, and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s grieving cook, we enter territory that reminds us of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club … but David Hemingson’s nuanced script has much more in its mind. Giamatti is effortlessly commanding from the start, and Sessa and Randolph are outstanding. In About Schmidt, Sideways and Nebraska, director Alexander Payne proved himself a master in depicting isolated people forced to confront their fears and illusions. Here, his uncanny grasp of the minute particulars of everyday conflict reaches new depths of both comedy and pain, in a blend reminiscent of Hal Ashby’s finest works.
Rated R for language, some drug use and brief sexual material.
About the Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival has been, for the last 49 years, a celebration of the art of film: honoring the great masters of the cinema, discovering the rare and unknown, bringing new works by the world’s greatest directors and the latest in American independent film to a small mountain town in Colorado. The New York Times called Telluride “the smallest, most original, and most stimulating of the major festivals,” while Entertainment Tonight simply said it was “the world’s best festival.”
About Telluride By The Sea
The Music Hall and the Telluride Film Festival collaborate on an exclusive presentation of six new features, brought directly from their Colorado debuts. This unique and intimate Portsmouth event treats audience members from across the Northeast to an exclusive peek into the Telluride experience—packing one September weekend in Portsmouth with the latest international cinema, private parties, great music, delicious food, and inspired conversations with other cinephiles of all ages, tastes, and backgrounds.
Schedule
Fri., 9/15 • 7pm • The Holdovers
Sat., 9/16 • 12:30pm • The Teachers’ Lounge
Sat., 9/16 • 3pm • The Promised Land
Sat., 9/16 • 7pm • Poor Things
Sun., 9/17 • 12pm • Fallen Leaves
Sun., 9/17 • 2:30pm • Anatomy of a Fall
Sun., 9/17 • 6:30pm • American Symphony
