Fast Five Film Fest Faves: PBS Critic & NPR Host Bill McCuddy's HIFF Picks

Now that Martha doesn’t like her doc Martha, I want to see it more than ever. Sorry, Netflix. Maybe she’ll still come out here and that would be a “good thing.” But in the meantime, once again, the gang at the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) have made all our Oscar picks a lot easier to slim down in one 10-day sitting. My colleague Neil Rosen says it’s his favorite time of the year. A “cheat sheet” he calls it. I think they just get good movies. Here are the five I’m looking forward to in no particular order.

It’s no surprise that an August Wilson classic play with Samuel L. Jackson reprising a smash Broadway run would top my list. But The Piano Lesson, about family struggles, has Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm at the helm and HIFF gave him a Breakthrough Award (and made it their Centerpiece Film), so I will be front and center for this one. The cast also includes John David Washington, the incredible Danielle Deadwyler and Erykah Badu so this piano could ‘play all the way’ to the Oscars. #SorryNotSorry.

I think trailers give away way too much, so if you haven’t already, please don’t watch the one for A Real Pain because it’s a real plot point(s) spoiler. That said, the tale of two cousins traveling through Poland to remember their grandmother looks like the real deal. Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed. He also stars opposite Kieran Culkin. That’s right, a dramedy-road-trip starring Mark Zuckerberg and Roman Roy. Yes, Chef! Spoiler alert: They have history. Not all good. Even better!

I’m late to the party on praise for the musical Emilia Perez because this one is already thick in the Oscar chatter. France submitted it for consideration but the other buzz is about who is a lead and who is a supporting actor in a film that has four storylines and a cast that includes Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascón (“Who?” Trust me, you’ll remember her after this) and Selena Gomez. Songs, shoot-em-ups and dancing! What could go wrong? Plenty, but I’m told it doesn’t. HIFF Executive Director Anne Chaisson raved about this on a PBS special I did with Bridget LeRoy. She’s rarely wrong (Anne, not Bridget).

I was in high school when Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975 on October 11, so it’s very cool that HIFF is screening Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night on October 11 this year. A cast of relative newcomers for the film is also charmingly and cleverly spot-on. Reitman has us believing a lot happened the night of the premiere, but it’s probably mostly all true. Like something Roseanne Rosanneadanna might get partially accurate. Expect the Chevy Chase character to trip a lot, and serve up extra helpings of smug all around. I’m hoping the real Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase and GE Smith drop by for the screening. And throw an after party.

Lots of actors live in the Hamptons and turn up in festival films. But this year, a Hamptons building costars in The Premiere which appropriately gets its world premiere here. The building is the Bay Street Theater and it was the shooting location for a deranged musical version of Scream. The whole thing is executed (had to) as a mockumentary and stars the two people who wrote and directed it, Sam Pezzullo and Christopher Bouckoms. These two I don’t know, but the building? We go way back. For the record, another premiering film, Barron’s Cove, is not about the hotel around the corner. Duh, two R’s.

Finally, sometimes just a title grabs you, and from the moment I heard about this film almost a year ago, I wanted to see it. Doesn’t a documentary called Secret Mall Apartment beg to be seen? Okay, maybe it’s just me. Fine. But in 2023 eight people were discovered living in, yes, a secret room, in yes, a mall. Oh, and they’d been there for four years. Getting its New York premiere here, I am coming out of my secret room in the Sag Harbor Cinema (okay, a bar on the fourth floor) to see how they got furniture, cable, appliances and electricity into this hidden space. I know Mrs. McCuddy will come just to see if they went shopping every day.

Honorable Mentions: Conclave, Lilly (my daughter’s name but also sounds cool), Sing Sing, The Last of the Sea Women, Checkpoint Zoo (Ukraine zoo smuggles thousands of animals out of war zone), Mistura, Daytime Revolution and Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme.

Bill McCuddy covers film festivals and other odd stuff for Dan’s. He’s also a film critic on PBS and cohosts a radio program on WLIW-FM. He loves the Hamptons Film Festival and will “miss Anne Chaisson.”