Telluride 2024: The 7 Best Movies We Saw at the Film Festival

TELLURIDE, Colo. —

A mining town in the mid-19th century, this Colorado Rocky Mountain outpost has since become a ski resort, a hiking destination and, coincidentally, a different kind of mining town come Labor Day weekend, when journalists, producers and publicists seek out a different kind of gold: Oscar gold. Our three correspondents saw plenty of titles and came away with a few nuggets of their own.

'Carville: Winning is everything, stupid'

James Carville in the documentary “Carville: Winning is everything, stupid”

(Altimeter movies)

This year’s festival featured a bumper crop of excellent politically themed documentaries tackling hot-button issues such as reproductive rights (“Zurawski v Texas”), climate change (“The White House Effect”), the near-collapse of democracy in Brazil (“Apocalypse in the Tropics”) and the Trump administration’s border family separation policy (“Separated”). But for entertainment value, none topped Matthew Tyrnauer’s profile of famed Democratic consultant James Carville. The eccentric, shrewd strategist known as the “Ragin’ Cajun” — who rose from humble beginnings to prominence as a general in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign war room (and as one half, with Republican strategist Mary Matalin, of an unlikely D.C. power couple) — is a magnetic and often hilarious subject. But “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” is about more than one man’s trajectory in politics. It also offers a fascinating portrait of a marriage forged in the fires of partisanship and an inside look at how Carville infuriated many in his own party by pushing early on for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. The film has been picked up by CNN Films for an October release ahead of the election. Just watch it, stupid! —Josh Rottenberg

'Conclave'

A cardinal in red considers important papal matters.

“Conclave” begins with the death of the Pope and ends… well, I can’t tell you how it ends, only to say that this film’s final revelation will be thoroughly discussed, debated and savored by anyone who enjoys trashy movies. Ralph Fiennes does most of the heavy lifting here, playing Cardinal Lawrence, a dutiful, dubious man overseeing the vote for the next Pope. Ambition and malice complicate the proceedings. The candidates who are most dangerous, Lawrence notes, are the ones who want the job. Edward Berger adapts Robert Harris’s gripping 2016 film employing the same propulsive editing technique and bombastic soundtrack that made his last film, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” a hit with audiences, awards voters and earplug salesmen. It’s a thriller about petty men destroyed by aspiration — mostly dumb, sure, but also sometimes clever in its parody of electoral politics. “Is this what we’re reduced to, considering the least bad option?” That line drew knowing laughter at the premiere, and the quirky performances by a cast that includes Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini were a lot of fun. We can’t completely distract ourselves from the stakes of the upcoming election, but “Conclave,” which opens Nov. 1, will be a welcome momentary respite. Glenn Whipp

'The end'

Two smiling people in colorful clothes sit at a dining table.

A family sings about its memories, as families in musicals often do. This one lives in an underground bunker, and it’s been 25 years since most of the world’s inhabitants died. Time to confess: I’m a connoisseur of post-apocalyptic movies. (This summer, the stunningly depressing “A Quiet Place: Day One” earned high marks, and last year The Times spoke to “Testament” director Lynne Littman.) What’s often ignored in the weaker examples of the subgenre is the psychology — the guilt and shame that survivors would undoubtedly feel for doing too little and depriving their children of a future. Joshua Oppenheimer’s stunning “The End,” a kind of grim masterpiece that most viewers will find too disturbing, is all psychology. The songs (Oppenheimer’s own lyrics, set to music by Joshua Schmidt) play like nervous distractions, like mantras, leading to an unspoken horror — one for which the patriarch of this clan (Michael Shannon) may be more to blame than most. Meanwhile, his wife (an extraordinary Tilda Swinton) elevates self-deception to an art form. Remember those survivors in “Dawn of the Dead,” holed up in the mall eating fancy food but staring in the mirror, nauseated and trapped in a waking nightmare? This movie is like that. Joshua Rothkopf

'The Friend'

A woman leaving a New York City building holds the leash of a very large Great Dane.

I’m a dog lover, but not a dog movie lover. Dog movies are bad. They’re cheesy and sentimental, and their goal is to reduce the audience to a puddle of tears. “The Friend,” which opened at Telluride and, at press time, was looking for a distributor, is largely an exception, though the woman sitting next to me at the Palm Theater was whimpering for the entire last half hour. The dog featured in the film is a Great Dane named Bing, who weighs 151 pounds and can look pensive when called upon. I won’t reveal whether the dog dies, but it’s fair to say that his owner, a famous author played by Bill Murray, does pass away early on. He’s requested that a former student and lover who became his best friend (Naomi Watts) take care of his other best friend. That sets up an odd-couple arrangement in which Watts must make room for this little horse of a dog in his life and in his New York apartment. Cute. But as the film progresses, it becomes a moving meditation on grief, both human and canine. Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel have stayed true to the sweet spirit of Sigrid Nunez's light-hearted novel, giving Watts (and, yes, Bing) incredible opportunities to shine. This crowd-pleasing film shouldn't have to beg to find a home. GW

'The Nickel Boys'

A film I enjoyed writing about, “Nickel Boys” has also become the one I’ve thought about the most — a valuable way to confront the situation, informed by Glenn Whipp’s insightful interview with his co-star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. According to the actor, it perhaps makes sense that the viewer might be a little (or a lot) disoriented when watching films about systemic abuse and racism. Grammatically speaking, I’ve contemplated the power of the close-up, which is both a reification and a privilege. Director RaMell Ross uses them sparingly, choosing instead to put us inside his characters’ heads, making us first-person witnesses to both horror and compassion. I don’t know if the latent fury of Colson Whitehead’s novel is fully expressed in Ross’s strategy, but there’s no doubt that the filmmaker has made something strange and compelling, a drama that forces you to do the work and provide its catharsis in retrospect. Not in vain, the New York Film Festival, an event I hold in high regard, opens its next edition with “Nickel Boys,” a challenging choice that I applaud and that the Telluride audience was able to experience for the first time. Like “Uncut Gems,” it is an example of the more daring side of the festival’s programming. J. Rothkopf

'September 5th'

The story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which Palestinian militants kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes, has been told numerous times on screen, most notably in the 1999 Oscar-winning documentary “One Day in September” and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 “Munich.” But “September 5” offers a new angle on these horrific events, unfolding entirely through the eyes of the ABC Sports crew, who were forced to cover the crisis live on television. Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum deftly crafts a nail-biting, real-time thriller without ever leaving the sweaty confines of a television control room, as ABC Sports head Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) make risky, ethically thorny decisions on the fly with incomplete information and potentially momentous stakes. With its documentary-style verisimilitude, “September 5” is a film that deserves to be taught in journalism classes, and like Paul Greengrass’s “United 93,” with its suspense and historical roots, it has the potential to be an awards contender. Filmed before the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and the subsequent Israeli war in Gaza, the film has added layers of relevance and resonance. But first, someone has to pick it up for distribution. After its enthusiastic reception in Venice and Telluride, it should be only a matter of time. J. Rottenberg

'Zurawski vs Texas'

Four women stand, determined expressions, outside the Travis County Courthouse.

Of the dozen films I saw in Telluride this year, “Zurawski v Texas,” Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s riveting documentary about the fight for women’s reproductive rights, was the one that struck me the most. The crowd of about 700 people (hundreds more were turned away) cried, cheered and at times screamed their anger and disbelief at what they were seeing on screen. The film opens with Amanda Zurawski testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that because of Texas’s abortion laws, she was unable to terminate her nonviable pregnancy, ended up going into septic shock and suffered permanent damage to her uterus. (The camera catches Sen. Lindsey Graham rolling his eyes at one point during the proceedings.) Zurawski becomes the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit asking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office to clearly define the medical exceptions under which the state would allow a woman to terminate her pregnancy. We follow Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, as she prepares the lawsuit; as other women join in, we hear their harrowing stories. “Zurawski v. Texas” makes its case clearly and reasonably about how these laws, which many states have enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, are creating a health care crisis. The film has come to Telluride looking for a buyer. It’s so good, I imagine it will soon find one. GW