DesertScape International Film Festival Highlights
Here are a few of the titles you’re likely going to be hearing about in the near future!
The 2024 Desertscape International Film Festival has come to a close, and after the dust has settled, the 6-year fest showcased over 40 films from around the world, shorts and features, to passionate film fans.
THELMA
Mark my words; You will find few 2024 films as charming, as entertaining, and as downright adorable as Josh Margolin’s wonderful ode to grandmas, “Thelma.” Featuring a delightful June Squibb in the title role, this golden years-inspired action movie finds an elderly woman taking matters into her own hands after falling prey to a dastardly telephone scammer. Ultimately, Thelma teams with an old friend (played by the late, great Richard Roundtree) and heads out on a dangerous Tom Cruise-level mission all in an effort to get back what is rightfully hers. This irresistible movie also features a warm and undeniably affable performance by Fred Hechinger as Thelma’s adoring grandson. Back when “Thelma” made its debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Margolin was quick to point out that watching your elderly grandmother make her way up a flight of stairs can be every bit as terrifying and intense as watching Tom Cruise dangle from a building several stories up, and he perfectly captures this sense of danger throughout this crowd-pleasing gem. At the very least, if the enthusiastic reaction from a sold out crowd at a recent Desertscape International screening was any indication, action has a brand new name…And it’s June Squibb! Find out for yourself when “Thelma” hits theaters on June 21st.
“Thelma” took home the Best Action Award.
BREAKUP SEASON
One of the most magical events at DIFF 2024 was the world premiere screening of H. Nelson Tracey’s “Breakup Season,” a movie that manages to be funny, dramatic, and bittersweet in equal measure. This dramedy finds twenty-something Ben (Chandler Riggs of “The Walking Dead” fame) and his twenty-something girlfriend Cassie (Samantha Isler of “Molly’s Game”) at a crossroads in their relationship while visiting his family in his rural Oregon hometown during a turbulent Christmas break. What could have easily descended into cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie of the week territory gradually transforms into an honest, authentic, and often heartbreaking movie about the messiness that can sometimes come with relationships. Isler brings real emotional weight to this film and she’s beautifully complimented by a wonderful supporting cast that includes the likes of Riggs, James Urbaniak (“Oppenheimer”), Jacob Wysocki (“Terri”), and relative newcomers Carly Stewart and Brook Hogan. Kudos to Tracey for resisting the urge to go the on-the-nose route with this most thoughtful relationship movie. It definitely goes in directions you won’t be anticipating and it all culminates in an ending that is as poignant as it is unexpected. This film is more in the tradition of bittersweet relationship movies like “(500) Days of Summer.” This is to say that “Breakup Season” is hardly your quintessential romantic comedy and it is all the stronger for it. Tracey and his cast and crew were on hand for the screening and that only added to the magic of the proceedings. “Breakup Season” hasn’t locked in a distributor yet but I have no doubt that that’s going to change once it starts making the rounds on the festival circuit.
“Breakup Season” took home awards for Best Picture, Best Ensemble, Best Actress, and Audience Choice!”
HE NEVER LEFT
DIFF 2024 screened “He Never Left” as part of its increasingly popular After Dark category and in short, the late night crowd ate it up! This spin on slasher films comes to us courtesy of “Witching Season” founders James Morris and Michael Ballif. This thriller finds a town gripped by fear thanks to an urban legend revolving around an infamous masked killer known at “Pale Face.” But rather than jumping on the slasher bandwagon, “He Never Left” goes in an entirely different direction. Instead of taking all of its time building up the Pale Man mythos, this film opts to zero in on fugitive Gabriel (ferociously played by an undeniably charismatic Colin Cunningham of “Falling Skies” fame) and his complicated relationship with conflicted girlfriend Carly (wonderfully played by Jessica Staples.) A great deal of the movie stays on Gabriel as he barricades himself in a run-down motel waiting for the right time to flee. Of course, what he and Carly don’t realize is that there might be something sinister going on in this particular hotel. With odes to works of John Carpenter with a dash of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” thrown in for good measure, “He Never Left” gets a hell of a lot of mileage out of its lead players. Further still, this whole film smacks of Halloween spirit and that’s because Morris and Ballif are incredibly fond of the witching season in every sense of the term. This is the second feature from Ballif and Morris, and while I prefer the story at the heart of their debut, “They Live Inside Us,” “He Never Left” certainly has a pair of charismatic leads in Cunningham and Staples. It’s also the perfect movie for the midnight crowd. This is more than obvious given the reaction it received at the DIFF 2024 screening. “He Never Left” has yet to acquire distribution but its multiple wins on the film festival circuit suggest that it’s only a matter of time before this one gets released!
“He Never Left” was the winner of Best Midnight Movie!
Other noteworthy features that garnered quite a bit of buzz at DIFF 2024 included “Chicken Coop,” an understated, beautifully acted story of a man who attempts to re-connect with his estranged father, and the DIFF 2024 closer, “Film is Dead. Long Live Film!,” a wonderful ode to a handful of colorful film print collectors who will stop at nothing in the name of film preservation.
Of course, these movies only scratched the surface. For a look at all the winners, kindly click here.
