2017 Films

This year’s feature films – all in current theatrical release

Click on the photographs and titles of movies below to view film trailers.  Days and times for the screening of these films are noted below and a  complete Festival schedule is available by choosing the schedule menu at the bottom of the page.

Step

Step documents the senior year of a girls’ high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. As each one tries to become the first in their families to attend college, the girls strive to make their dancing a success against the backdrop of social unrest in the troubled city.

  • The film is inspiring and funny and lovely, and you may find the words of one of the girls lingering: “If you come together with a group of powerful women, the impact will be immense.”  Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times, June 15, 2017.
  • This movie fires on every cylinder, investing viewers in personal stories that couldn’t have higher stakes and inviting them on a journey that pays off in ways expected and utterly surprising.  Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, August 3, 2017
  • There are many films that attempt to illuminate the world through pain, but Step is most instructive in its moments of joy.  Emily Yoshida, New York Magazine, August 4, 2017.

Step was directed by Amanda Lipitz and released in theaters August 4, 2017.  Rated PG with a runtime of 83 minutes, Step screens Saturday at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm, Sunday at 1:00 pm, and Monday at 7:00 pm.

 

Maudie

Maudie, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. MAUDIE charts Everett’s efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie’s deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.

  • What shines through is the beauty of Guy Godfree’s cinematography – the light has a lovely, soft stillness to it, like a painting – and a remarkable performance by Hawkins, whose impossibly wide smile seems to bring the sun. Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times, July 6, 2017.
  • What an immersive and strangely transporting picture this is. Eleanor Ringel Cater, Saporta Report, Atlanta, August 10, 2017.
  • Maudie is a work of art. Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 2017.

Maudie was  directed by Aisling Walsh and written by Sherry White and stars Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.

Released by Sony Pictures Classics on June 16, 2017, Maudie is rated PG-13.  Runtime 115 minutes.  Maudie screens Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9:25pm, Sunday at 3:15pm, and Wednesday at 7:10pm.

 

The Big Sick

Based on the real-life courtship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart. The Big Sick is directed by Michael Showalter (Hello My Name Is Doris) and producer by Judd Apatow (Trainwreck, This is 40) and Barry Mendel (Trainwreck, The Royal Tannenbaums).

  • It’s funny, touching, and perceptive. Ray Berardinelli, ReelReviews, July 11, 2017.
  • All the best romantic comedies get even better upon repeat viewings. I’m fully confident The Big Sick will pass that test the next time I see it, which will be very soon. Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times, June 30, 2017.
  • What sets the film apart is an oddness that could only have sprung from real life. That and sincerity, compassion, humanity. Donald Clarke, The Irish Times, August 7, 2017.

The Big Sick was directed by Michael Showalter and written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon and it stars Kumail Nangiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, and Holly Hunter.

Rated R and released in theaters on July 14, 2017 by Amazon Studios.  Runtime 119 minutes.  The Big Sick screens Friday at 7:00pm, Saturday at 1:00 pm, and Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 7:00pm.

The Hero

 

 

Lee Hayden (Sam Elliott) is an aging Western icon with a golden voice, but his best performances are decades behind him. He spends his days reliving old glories and smoking too much weed with his former-co-star-turned-dealer, Jeremy (Nick Offerman), until a surprise cancer diagnosis brings his priorities into sharp focus. He soon strikes up an exciting, contentious relationship with stand-up comic Charlotte (Laura Prepon), and he attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), all while searching for one final role to cement his legacy.

  • Rarely has a mainstream film taken as unflinching a look at aging and illness without losing its sense of humor. Nick Kisonak, Seven Days, July 14, 2017
  • Elliott and Prepon effortlessly navigate the script’s occasionally clunky or clichéd moments, and I repeat that their May-December romance isn’t the usual contrived stuff. They’re the genuine article. Tim Appelo, AARP Movies for Grownups, July 11, 2017.
  • Elliott does some of his finest work in one of the best movies in his career, a drama that feels like a biography. Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 22, 2017.

Directed by Brett Haley and written by Brett Haley and Marc Basch.  Stars Sam Elliot, Nick Offerman, Laura Prepon, Kristen Ritter, and Katherine Ross.

Rated R.  In limited release from Orchard Studios beginning June 9, 2017, The Hero has a runtime of 93 minutes. The Hero screens Friday at 7:10 pm, Saturday at 1:15 pm, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 7:10 pm.

Lost in Paris


Fiona is a Canadian librarian who flies to Paris and discovers that her 88-year-old aunt is missing. As Fiona scours the city looking for her, she encounters Dom, a friendly but annoying tramp who won’t leave her alone.

Filmed in Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s signature whimsical style, Lost in Paris stars the filmmakers as a small-town Canadian librarian and a strangely seductive, oddly egotistical vagabond. When Fiona’s (Gordon) orderly life is disrupted by a letter of distress from her 88-year-old Aunt Martha (delightfully portrayed by Academy Award (R)-nominee Emmanuelle Riva) who is living in Paris, Fiona hops on the first plane she can and arrives only to discover that Martha has disappeared. In an avalanche of spectacular disasters, she encounters Dom (Abel), the affable, but annoying tramp who just won’t leave her alone. Replete with the amazing antics and intricately choreographed slapstick that has come to define Abel and Gordon’s work, Lost in Paris is a wondrously fun and hectic tale of peculiar people finding love while lost in the City of Lights.

  • Cruel comic mishaps may be this movie’s raison d’être, but they are softened at every turn by the gentle humanity of the city’s inhabitants, and by the unspoken sense that everything will turn out fine in the end. Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2017.
  • Thank goodness for Belgian duo Abel and Gordon. They are, simply put, the two funniest clowns working in cinema today. Peter Debruge, Variety, May 16, 2017

Starring Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Pierre Richard, and Emanuelle Riva and directed and written by Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon.

Not rated. Released June 16, 2017 by Ocilloscope Laboratories. Runtime 83 minutes. Lost in Paris screens Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9:15pm, Sunday at 3:00pm and Wednesday at 7:00pm.

 

Beatriz at Dinner

 

Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.

  • It’s rare that a film will come along and synthesize the era we live in so succinctly. Hazem Fahmy, Film Inquiry, July 7, 2017.
  • It’s a film filled with unexpected beauty: the “wishing lanterns” that giddy guests send up into the night sky; the vision of an exquisite, cloud-flecked dawn on the morning after; the frequent, steady close-ups of Hayek’s eyes, as they slowly harden. Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times, June 14, 2017.
  • The seriousness of its themes in no way detracts from the delight in watching Ms. Hayek and Mr. Lithgow perform their eccentric, intricate dance. A.O Scott, New York Times, June 8, 2017.

Directed by Miguel Arteta and written by Mike White and starring Salma Hayek and John Lithgow.

In limited release from Roadside Attractions beginning June 9, 2017, Runtime 83 minutes.  Rated R.  Beatriz at Dinner screens Saturday at 3:15pm and 7:10pm, Sunday at 1:15pm, and Monday at 7:10pm.