US • d: Jesse Eisenberg • R • 105m
In Jesse Eisenberg’s immensely charming comedy, an anxious New Jersey homemaker (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a local community theater musical production. She finds herself at the mercy of a domineering, big-fish-small-pond director (Paul Giamatti). It might sound like a cookiecutter script, but Eisenberg’s sharply, slightly insane take brings us a memorable story of self-actualization through creative destruction. Moore runs through wild, wonderful extremes as a woman who, having spent her life as a shrinking violet, is determined to make her mark on the world. Giamatti matches her beat for beat as the small-time impresario who tries to introduce this hapless novice to the liberating potential of the stage—and then both marvels and shudders at what he’s created. As the characters change, so too does the world around them, and Eisenberg’s deft direction balances both the film’s expertly timed comedy and a gorgeous drift into surrealism. –Bilge Ebiri
About the Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival has been, for the last 50 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., 9/25 • 7pm • THE DEBUT
Sat., 9/26 • 1pm • FATHERLAND
Sat., 9/26 • 3:30pm • TENDER LOVING CARE
Sat., 9/26 • 7pm • INK
Sun., 9/27 • 12pm • WILD HORSE NINE
Sun., 9/27 • 3pm • ELSINORE
Sun., 9/27 • 6:30pm • BURGUNDY
