Pegasus News film guys pick their USA Film Festival “must-see” flicks

by Alex Bentley , John P. Meyer

Dallas' USA Film Festival kicks off its 39th annual event series this evening (Wednesday, April 29), and naturally - as film guys - Alex and I have been studying the schedule to pick out things that we simply HAVE to see.

(Since some of the featured events play concurrently in different Angelika theater auditoriums, decision-making can prove to be difficult.)

Below are our picks, listed in order of their appearance on the programming schedule. But - hey - we're just a couple of average dudes. You, being neither average (nor, perhaps, a dude), should check out the full listing of festival events and come up with your own must-do's.

The Yellow Handkerchief (John) - stars William Hurt, whose nuanced acting turns I've been enjoying since his Altered States and Body Heat days. Plus, it's a road trip story, which I always find entertaining, and the story line bears a remarkable resemblance (at least in print) to another road trip story (ref. The Other Side of Paradise) about a recently-released con. I've never seen anything before from director Udayan Prasad, so I'll be breaking new ground there. And there's the final inducement that Maria Bello, who I consider to be one of the hottest actresses working today (ref. The Cooler, and especially A History of Violence), has a part.

[O.K., that last thing really cinched the deal, if you must know.]

The Maiden Heist (Alex) - I'm a sucker for good actors pooling their talents, so when I saw that Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy, and Christopher Walken were starring together, it hardly mattered what the film was about. When you throw in that it's a comedy crime caper and that Marcia Gay Harden makes an appearance (making it four Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated actors in the cast), I'm sold like lemonade on a hot day.

Made in U.S.A. (John) - apart from the fact that my grounding in French noir is severely lacking (and thus, that this could be considered as something like homework), the story sounds fascinating: Jean-Luc Godard filters Raymond Chandler through the storytelling acumen of Donald E. Westlake. Plus, it's a new print of a film that's never been commercially screened in the titular U.S.A. (Intriguing, no?)

Tribute to Ray Liotta (John) - who would dare NOT attend a tribute to moviedom's most beloved over-the-top psycho bad guy? (He might hear about it and decide to pay a film guy a visit!) Ray's been doing the relentless, in-your-face evil bastard thing (witness Goodfellas, Unlawful Entry, Copland, Narc... we could go on) for so long that his divergences into sympathetic roles and light-hearted fare (Field of Dreams, Wild Hogs... and, um, Bee Movie) come as slaps to the complacent face of our expectations. And Ray certainly knows how to deliver a slap. (At least, on camera.)

The hour-long tribute will include clips from all of Ray's edgiest performances - and hopefully some of his lesser-known quirky ones - followed by a Q&A with the actor himself, who will be in attendance.

Must Read After My Death (Alex) - the premise of this documentary is what grabs you right away: the director discovered papers and audiotapes left by his grandmother that forever altered how he viewed his family. That he would then choose to turn those into a film is all the more remarkable ... and more than a bit chilling. Documentaries such as Tyson and Every Little Step are already generating a lot of buzz, and if this is as good as advertised, there may be quite a battle come Oscar time.