Strange, off-putting, sick in the head; these terms only begin to describe Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman. Troubling, thought-provoking, unpredictable…those fit, too. But they still aren’t enough. Jones’ second directorial effort is an elusive experience, difficult to pin down in many ways, though it comfortably belongs to the genre of Western. Here’s the most important thing I can say: What becomes of the film’s hero, a tough-willed frontierswoman by the name of Mary Bee Cuddy (played by a top-form Hilary Swank), left me stunned, confused, haunted, and sick to my stomach. Jones took me somewhere I didn’t want to be, somewhere deeply unsettling that; I find that admirable.

The story comes from a Glendon Swarthout novel, set in 1855 Nebraska. This isn’t a tall tale of cowboys with big guns, big britches, and big egos, but rather a solemn, contained story about a handful of sad, broken souls, bound together by circumstance. When we meet Cuddy (on her farm, which she built herself and takes pride in having done so), she’s dug herself into a sorry situation, offering her hand in marriage to a man over dinner. He calls her “plain” and “bossy” before hitting her with a stiff rejection. The townsfolk view Cuddy with much respect (though they too find her to be “plain” and “bossy”), and the local minister (Jon Lithgow) addresses her with particular admiration and thinks her work ethic and toughness make her as good a man as any. Why a “good man” and not a “good woman”?

The film’s commentary on gender inequity (an imbalance which tragically isn’t much different today than it was back then) is, like everything else in the movie, underplayed and largely expressed between the lines. In our eyes, as a modern audience, Cuddy is an extraordinary woman who has literally built a life for herself with her bare hands. To describe her as “plain” is laughable to (most of) us, but back then, women were only of interest if they fit a certain mold, looked a certain way, and fulfilled specific, “ladylike” societal requirements. Cuddy didn’t meet the requirements, so to everyone around her, she was of no interest. I think that’s what they mean by “plain”.

Cuddy’s entrusted with the task of transporting three mentally disturbed women across the frontier expanse between Nebraska and Iowa on a wagon to deliver them to a reverend’s wife. It’s a risky endeavor, even for the thick-skinned Cuddy, but just as she’s about to embark on the trek she comes across a man about to be hanged, the horse between his legs the only thing saving him from the noose. The man is a drunkard claim-jumper called George Briggs, who agrees to help Cuddy on her escort mission as payment for saving his sorry hide. We then follow the five travelers through the snowy, barren trails they hope lead to a better place, their minds and mettle pushed to the breaking point as madness slowly poisons them all.

Their journey isn’t exciting or full of grand heroic acts like the ones you’d find further West in John Ford’s Monument Valley; it’s full of sorrow, unanswered prayers, and bitter reality. Jones isn’t interested in pleasing crowds; the horrors the travelers encounter are grisly, blunt, and come at the most unexpected times. I found myself reeling every time the plot refused to go in directions that seemed most logical or convenient. Almost every plot twist and turn is an unpleasant one. One key revelation mid-film is an absolute knockout, its stark grotesqueness so shocking you could practically hear every jaw in the theater hit the floor.

That being said, the film is beautiful: the painterly landscapes are drop-dead gorgeous, and even though there’s a sense that doom lurks behind every tree and under every rock, there’s a strange, fatalist serenity to that. There are moments when the characters support each other (one in a river is tearjerking), but they fail each other more often.

The role of the cantankerous Briggs is right up Jones’ alley. Much like Jeff Bridges’ turn as Rooster Cogburn in the Coens’ True Grit, Jones’ Briggs is an unstable madman with more heart and moral fiber than you’re led to believe he has the capacity for. While there are some big names making brief appearances in the story’s periphery (Lithgow, Meryl Streep, and James Spader, all of whom do a fine job), Swank is the one who mesmerizes, the one who rips out your heart and tramples it. A fireside confession by a stripped-down Cuddy (literally and figuratively) to Griggs is so elegantly under-expressed that you won’t know what’s truly going on until it’s too late and you’re clobbered right in the gut. The way Swank slowly chips away at, then smashes Cuddy’s walls of strength into a pile of rubble, is inspired.

You could look at The Homesman as a subversion of the American West mythology, with most of the key narrative events pointing to the reality that the bad guys are more often then not rewarded for their crimes. Its more compelling form, however, is as a feminist Western, a sobering reminder of how little has changed in society since the dark days the story covers. The societal pressures put on the women on Cuddy’s wagon drove them to lose their damn minds. Are things really so different these days?

As far as film festivals go, The Mill Valley Film Festival is a uniquely soul-soothing affair. I’ve covered a fair amount of festivals since I started here at Way Too Indie, and they’re typically full of head-spinning commotion (especially when celebrity guests are involved), but it’s hard to get flustered when you’re surrounded by the gentle, towering redwoods and verdant scenery of Mill Valley.

When the festival’s Opening Night special guests, The Homesman‘s Hilary Swank and Men, Women & Children‘s Jason Reitman, arrived on the red carpet that sat under a beautiful acorn tree, the atmosphere was calm and breezy. Swank noticed immediately: “Well, this is different!”

Home on the Range, Graves in the Dirt

Following her photo op on the red carpet at the beautiful Outdoor Art Club, Swank crossed the street to the Sequoia Theater to introduce The Homesman to a packed house of eager festival-goers. As festival Executive Director Mark Fishkin welcomed Swank to the front of the room, he gushed about how he and his festival programmers saw the film at Cannes and decided they absolutely must showcase the film at the 37th iteration of the festival. Lo and behold, here they were.

A look at the dark side of mid-19th-century frontier America, The Homesman, directed by and co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, sees a stalwart, strong-willed pioneer woman called Cuddy (Swank) partner with a madman claim jumper named Briggs (Jones) to escort three mentally-ill women from Nebraska to Iowa in a sturdy wagon. The premise is straightforward enough, and the film delivers on the expectations of a trek-across-the-frontier Western, but the film’s third act takes a pleasantly unexpected turn that will leave you reeling and disturbed. Oscar talk surrounding Swank is deserved; her physically tough, emotionally vulnerable performance is terrific and one of her best. Jones’ painterly imagery is at times jaw-dropping, though his turn as Briggs isn’t as revelatory as Swank’s.

The film’s most intriguing element is its subtle messaging about gender roles, particularly those of women. Cuddy has money in the bank, owns land, works hard in the fields, and can sing a fine tune. The tragedy is, she can’t find a man to marry her. Hell, she can’t even pay a man to marry her, which she tries to early in the film. Despite her virtues and the townsfolk praising her as “as good as any man”, she’s just not any man’s idea of wife material. “Plain as a tin bucket”, Briggs calls her. The real tragedy is how women still deal with the same gender inequity today.

Intimacy in the Internet Age

At a press conference held prior to the screening of his new film Men, Women & Children, director Jason Reitman dispelled the notion that the film was about anything other than human connection in the digital age. “The film doesn’t deal with social media,” Reitman said. “It deals more with the way we text and the way we search the web. There are plot lines devoted to Ashley Madison; There are not plot lines devoted to Facebook.”

A sprawling cautionary tale about the evils of the internet, Men, Women & Children examines the ways in which the internet affects the way we connect as human beings. From a married couple who get their kicks on romance sites (Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt); to a teenager who quit football to hang out with his friends on an online role-playing game (Ansel Elgort); to a mother who goes to scary lengths to monitor her daughter (Jennifer Garner), the spectrum of sad stories is exhaustive. It all becomes a bit overbearing, though: Though the actors in the ensemble cast are wonderful and turn in good work, the characters are too simply-drawn to connect with on a deep level, ironically. This is an honest depiction of the dangers of the digital age, just not a compelling one.

Out on the Town (Center)

After a full night of screenings (which also included Lynn Shelton’s Laggies, which I missed because I have yet to acquire my dream superpower of splitting myself in two), the crowds drove over to Town Center Corte Madera a few miles away for the sparkling Opening Night Gala. There was delicious food (the ridiculous, giant wheel of grana padano cheese was my highlight) and booze, and some bangin’ bluegrass jams from local outfit The Brothers Comatose. I brought my wife with me (always nice to prove to her I’m not as uncool as I appear), and we had a rollicking good time meeting with friends and talking about how disturbing The Homesman was. If you’re in the Bay Area in the next 10 days, come out to Mill Valley and say hello. I’ll be at the movies. (Or at the Mayflower Pub down the road in San Rafael, depending on my mood.)

The Mill Valley Film Festival has built a reputation as a showcase for future Oscar winners and emergent independent and foreign filmmakers. The festival has hosted five of the last six Best Picture Oscar winners, rolling out the red carpet for A-list actors and filmmakers while heavily supporting local filmmakers as well. Nestled in one of the most beautiful places in the world, filmmakers, actors, and attendees alike are drawn to Mill Valley every year by the easy, low-stress atmosphere, the gorgeous surroundings, the varied special events and, of course, the films. In its 37th year, the festival looks to deliver everything loyal festival-goers expect and more.

“Variety has said once–probably more than once–that Mill Valley has the ambience of a destination festival and the clout of an urban festival,” said festival founder and director Mark Fishkin at yesterday’s press conference. “Change” is one of the themes of this year’s festival, with the folks behind the festival embracing the evolving landscape of film and film distribution. Said Fishkin: “For us, change is inevitable, but we are still part of a special division of the film industry, which is theatrical exhibition. We take our role as curators very seriously, whether it’s films that are coming from the Bay Area or films coming from Cannes.”

The Homesman

Tommy Lee Jones‘ latest offering, The Homesman, will open the festival, with star Hilary Swank set to attend. The film is a Western, following a claim jumper (Jones) and a young woman (Swank) as they escort three insane woman through the treacherous frontier between Nebraska and Iowa. Fishkin describes it as a “feminist Western” that is “extremely moving. We’re just so proud to be showing it in this year’s festival.”

Co-headlining opening night is Men, Women, & Children, Jason Reitman‘s new film starring Ansel Elgort, Adam Sandler, Judy Greer, and Jennifer Garner that explores the strange effect the internet age has on parents and their teens. Reitman will be in attendance to present. Lynn Shelton‘s Laggies will also play opening night, completing the killer triple-threat. The film, about a woman stuck in slacker adolescence, stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Keira Knightley, and Sam Rockwell.

The festival looks to finish as strong as it started, with Jean-Marc Valée‘s follow-up to Dallas Buyers Club, spiritual quest movie Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, who embarked on a 1,100-mile hike to heal deep emotional wounds. Laura Dern also stars, and will be honored with a tribute.

French favorite Juliette Binoche stars across Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria. Binoche plays an actress who’s asked to return to a play that made her famous 20 years ago, but this time in an older role, forcing her to reflect on the young woman she once was and what she’s become since. Another French actress who can do no wrong, Marion Cotillard is outstanding in the Dardenne brothers’ new film, Two Days, One Night. Recalling the best of Italian neorealism, the film follows a woman who’s got a weekend to convince her co-workers to forego their bonuses to save her job.

The Theory of Everything

Two emerging young actors will be spotlighted as Eddie Redmayne and Elle Fanning will be in attendance to discuss their respective new films. Fanning stars in Low Down, which views the troubled life of jazz pianist Joe Albany (John Hawkes) from the perspective of his teenage daughter (Fanning). Set in the ’70s, the film also stars Glenn Close, Peter Dinklage, and Lena Headey. In a breakout performance, Redmayne portrays legendary physicist Stephen Hawking in the stirring biopic The Theory of Everything, which is quickly generating momentum on the festival circuit.

Several other films that have been building steam on the festival circuit will play at the festival as well. English landscape painter J. M. W. Turner is played brilliantly by Timothy Spall in Mike Leigh‘s Mr. Turner, which we loved at Cannes. Also portraying a significant real-life figure is Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars in The Imitation Game, the story of English mathematician Alan Turing and his groundbreaking intelligence work during World War II. Steve Carell‘s highly-anticipated turn in Foxcatcher as John Du Pont, the man who shot olympic great David Schultz, will surely continue to stir up Oscar talk as the film plays late in the festival. Robert Downey Jr. stars as a big city lawyer who returns home to defend his father (Robert Duvall), the town judge, who is suspected of murder.

Metallica is set to play a pleasantly unexpected role in the festival as his year’s artist in residence, with each of the four members of the band presenting a film. Drummer Lars Ulrich has naturally chosen to highlight Whiplash, Damien Chazelle‘s drama about a young aspiring drummer and his relentless instructor. Chazelle will also be in attendance. Lead singer James Hetfield has chosen to present a classic, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, while guitarist Kirk Hammett, one of the world’s foremost horror aficionados, will offer up Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Bassist Robert Trujillo is showing a sneak peek at a documentary he produced himself, Jaco, which tells the story of legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius.

On the local side of things is a special screening of Soul of a Banquet, a documentary by filmmaker Wayne Wang  about celebrity chef Cecilia Chang. Wang and Chang, who both have deep San Francisco Bay Area roots, will be in attendance to celebrate their storied careers and present their film collaboration. Chuck Workman, another Bay Area legend who’s best known for editing the clip reels at the Oscars, will be honored at the festival as well.