Chicago Critics Film Festival – Day Six Report

The Chicago Critics Film Festival Runs May 17th – 23rd. Stephen Tronicek is covering the event for We Are Movie Geeeks

The penultimate day of CCFF proved to be one of the most affecting this year, given the continuing quality of the films provided. Three new films were shown, each capturing a different kind of excitement, whether that be that of holding a rattlesnake, listening to Bruce Springsteen, or attempting to wrap your brain around a decade old conspiracy.

Them That Follow, directed by Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, is a terrifying reckoning of a movie about coming to terms with the fact that your world is broken and myopic. Mara (Alice Englert) is part of a small church sect who show their allegiance to God by holding venomous rattlesnakes. As tensions boil between her and her father (Walton Goggins, The Hateful Eight) and extenuating circumstances push her further and further from the community, Mara must decide if she will leave or stay.

The film is a minor miracle. Englert and Goggins are showstoppers, but they are supported by the likes of Olivia Colman (Best Actress Winner this year) and Jim Gaffigan (star of tonight’s CCFF closing night film Light From Light). More than that, the film’s script builds to two parallel climaxes that play off of each other with virtuosity. Them That Follow could slip under your radar. Don’t let it.

It’s a miracle Them That Follow even exists. Two producers went up on stage and discussed the process of getting the script three years ago, not being able to pay the actors very much (if anything) and best of all, how Olivia Colman threw one of their credit cards across a restaurant as they dared to pay for lunch.

The centerpiece of the night was Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded by the Light about Javed (Vivek Kalra), a teenager in 1987 Luton, who has an adolescent awakening when he listens to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Blinded by the Light is exciting because Springsteen is exciting and the energy of the music drives the project forward. Sentimental in just the right way and endearing in many others, Blinded by the Light presents a familiar story of family and growing up, but that familiarity doesn’t hurt it. All present flaws melt away with the music. Each time a new song of Springsteen’s monumental career appeared, the audience cheered.

Kalra spoke after the show about his experiences in becoming an actor, listening to Springsteen, and how Bruce reacted to the film itself.

And then… Mads Brugger’s Cold Case Hammarskjold happened. I’ve tried to phrase that last sentence as epically as possible because CCH manages to be not only the best documentary of the festival but also one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen. Buoyed by Mads Brugger (the director and star), CCH is about Brugger and Goran Bjorkdahl search for any information about the cold murder (?) case of Dag Hammarskjold, the former Secretary General of the United Nations. While flying to the Congo, Hammarskjold’s plane crashed killing him. Brugger has reason to believe somebody was behind it. That’s all I’m going to say about the content of this film. CCH has a lot of information to cover in its 128 minutes but all of it rolls out in an easy to follow the way, never getting bogged down in the sheer amount of exposition the story requires. It helps that Brugger is a great real-life character, honorably determined on one hand, and hilarious on another. I can’t even begin to explain the horrors he delves into, nor the incompetence and psychopathy. You have to see it to believe it and once you believe it, you’ll see the world in a different way.

Finishing the sixth day of the 7th CCFF, I’m sad that the marathon of movie watching will end tonight. I hope that the last day will provide as many good films and good times as the rest of it.