Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 kicked off with a locally-made shorts doc + Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers

What a night!! The 2023 Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) kicked off with a festive evening last night. Typically they featured a single film on opening night, but this year they had two! I’ve mentioned it in my initial post talking about its exciting lineup that will screen until Saturday, October 28 in a hybrid format. As a reminder, for those who don’t live in the Twin Cities area, you can still support our local festival as more than 50 films will simultaneously debut online via the TCFF STREAMS platform at twincitiesfilmfest.org.

Here is the recap from Opening Night’s festivities at Showplace ICON Theatres in St Louis Park:

Quick Thoughts on Stories Behind the Menu + The Holdovers

Glad I was able to see the short documentary Stories Behind the Menu which was filmed locally here in the Twin Cities. It’s a shared experience celebrating culture and courageous conversation. What started as a dinner book club has expanded to a quarterly culinary adventure featuring a local chef who prepares a multi-course meal, and shares personal stories of their cultural traditions and history.

Directed by Amanda Brinkman & Matt Naylor, the 14-minute film shows the organization’s founders Chaz and Julie have an intimate sit-down dinner with 4 of their featured chefs to dive deeper into each of their culinary journeys. As one of the chefs said in the film, as people to know others outside of their ‘circles’ that they don’t typically interact with, they often find we have more things in common than our differences. Having cultural and racial discussions over a great meal is certainly the way to go as food can easily break barriers.

As for The Holdovers, I’ll reserve my full review until its wide release later in November but let’s just say I enjoyed it!! Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and newcomer Dominic Sessa make for an unlikely trio but they are terrific together. Love the performances and I find the film engaging throughout.

Stay tuned for my full review of The Holdovers next month!