In Contention

Tag: Alycia Delmore

  • Hey, the rest of the year counts too

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesAs we sit in the flurry of festival season, with the even more flurry-ful (sorry, I’m tired) awards season upcoming, everyone’s eyes are pointed forward, as we impatiently await the supposedly Oscar-tailored collection of movies peppered across the next 3 or 4 months.

    At this point, it’s easy to forget that the year is actually 12 months long, and that the warmer seasons offer their (admittedly, usually smaller) share of work worthy of celebration.

    So I’m grateful to friend, reader and generally superb film writer Nick Davis for assembling this handy (though very idiosyncratic) alterna-Oscar ballot of the best work released in 2009 thus far.

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  • EDINBURGH: ‘Humpday,’ ‘Adam’

    HumpdayMy last full day at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (which wraps up on Sunday) served up a pair of comparatively conspicuous U.S. titles. Both are comic ventures of a sort that made a splash (one via widespread critical and audience enthusiasm, the other via a high-profile pickup by Fox Searchlight) at the Sundance Film Festival, but otherwise represent opposite tonal ends of the spectrum of American independent comedy.

    Before I get into those, however, a quick shout-out for another marvelous French title, Sylvie Verheyde’s “Stella,” which merits further discussion down the line. A loose-limbed, autobiographical picaresque of sorts following the misadventures of a neglected working-class 11 year-old girl in a posh Parisian school, the film transcends standard coming-of-age territory via the protagonist’s mordant wit and an astonishingly assured lead turn from young Leora Barbara. This one’s also playing at the L.A. fest — catch it if you can.

    HUMPDAY (***)

    Since its attention-grabbing debut at Sundance in January, “Humpday” has become one of those odd items whose premise far precedes it: even those with only a scant working knowledge of American independent cinema can tell you that it’s a comedy about two straight dudes who get it into their heads to make a gay porno, even if they couldn’t supply a single other detail about the film.

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