The Fall festival season is coming to a close, unlocking certain question marks surrounding the awards race and, more importantly, exposing the movie-going demographic to some exciting titles that are coming to general audiences in the near future. For its 50th anniversary, the Nashville Film Festival, typically running through April each year, was apart of the Fall festival circuit, with access to some of the year's most anticipated releases. I had the good fortune of attending the festival's semi-centennial, albeit only in sporadic doses. I missed out on major Oscar contenders like Noah Baumbach's
Marriage Story and Taika Waititi's
Jojo Rabbit, while some of the more under-the-radar indies like
Burning Cane,
Gay Chorus,
Sequin in a Blue Room, and
Standing Up, Falling Down played at inopportune times for my schedule. I will be catching up on each of those (and others) when I can, but now I would like to discuss the three films I was able to see at this year's festival:
A Hidden Life, the latest from Terrence Malick,
Atlantics, the directorial debut of Mati Diop, and
Clemency, the buzz-filled Sundance vehicle for Alfre Woodard.
