While I had a great time attending and covering the 40th Santa Barbara International Film, I could not stay for the whole two weeks. That said, while I look forward to staying for the entire festival next year, I do have a few more films I intended to cover, including perhaps my favorite of the fest. The following features write-ups for Trifole, My Dead Friend Zoe, Lucky Star, Spider & Jessie, and To Kill A Wolf.
See Also: SBIFF 2025 Review: ‘I Hate Myself And Want To Die’ Is Seriously Funny
Trifole
The Setup: In this bittersweet portrait of a vanishing rural way of life, Dalia (Ydalie Turk) travels to a hilly region of Italy, Piedmont, to care for her aging grandfather Igor (Umberto Orsini), an expert forager. Armed with his loyal dog Birba, she hunts for a prizewinning truffle to save his home.
Review: I’m just going to come out and say upfront that this was my favorite film of the festival. That’s not slight on the several other excellent films, but with one exception, I’ve really held onto the thoughts I’ve had regarding Trifole. Whether that speaks to the Italian Realism-inspired photography, the nature of presenting a modern fable, the character work coming from both younger and veteran actors, the approach to its subject matter, some terrific sound design, or, yes, the wonderful dog. It was easy to get wrapped up in the storyline presented, but seeing how co-writer/director Gabriele Fabbro revealed additional layers and further complications to the story (in a good way) really spoke to my sensibilities. Funny, sad, adventurous, and even surrealist to a point, there was plenty I found to admire about Trifole.
My Dead Friend Zoe
The Setup: Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a U.S. veteran who keeps seeing the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her best friend who died in combat. When her estranged grandfather (Ed Harris) is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she decides to become his caretaker while also trying to heal herself.
Review: While the film utilizes an abstract element in the form of a woman’s deceased best friend serving as a supporting character she can converse with, I admired how much this movie feels like it appropriately handles human struggles with real emotion. I can’t speak to Merit’s bout with PTSD-related issues when it comes to her service in the way I’m sure writer/director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes can, but struggling to deal with the loss of someone closest is more recognizable. At the same time, watching a film continually hold out on what led to Zoe’s death does mean knowing the film is keeping the audience at a distance with purpose for most of the run time.
Of course, it’s also easy to be distracted by this terrific cast, including Morgan Freeman as a sympathetic doctor/therapist. Martin-Green has great chemistry with both Morales and Harris, despite the different relationships she has with both, and the film, as a whole, knows how to ride the line between its sense of humor and the depths of what it’s after.
Lucky Star
The Setup: Former gambler Lucky (Terry Chen) has settled down with a mortgage, a wife (Olivia Cheng), and daughters. After falling for a tax scam, he goes all in at the card table. Gillian McKercher helms a tense and gripping narrative about Asian-Canadian familial bonds, deceit, and sacrifice.
Review: I got so livid watching some of this movie play out, and I mean that in a good way. I tend to think that the kind of frustrations I have when it comes to gambling or addiction movies stems from just how connected I feel to the characters. That’s not based on life experience but more on how a proper movie can easily lean into my empathy when it comes to complications rooted in things people have a tough time controlling. The premise for Lucky Star is so unfortunate as far as what puts things in motion. Still, it’s also an interesting study of a family that likely needed something to push them toward a reckoning anyway.
Chen and Cheng are both great in their portrayals of people who seem so comfortable exploring the actions of these characters, let alone how they interact with each other. Adding in the gambling component, director McKercher wisely doesn’t lean too heavily on specifics, instead letting the results be more of a key to keep track of. That’s enough to make the movie’s toughest moments resonate as well as they do, with hopes of seeing these characters find some light at the end of the tunnel.
Spider & Jessie
The Setup: After their mother suffers a fatal overdose, two sisters (Mckenna Grace and Jojo Regina) fear that the foster system will separate them and decide to hide the body. But their lie may be discovered, and they must decide how far they are willing to go to keep their secret.
Review: I got the sense that director/writer Dan Kay wanted to tell a coming-of-age story by way of Winter’s Bone with this one. It certainly has its merits and continues to show what a strong young actress Grace is becoming (she’s gone from playing the younger version to every young blonde actress to a ghostbuster to indie movie star in quick succession). At the same time, I see these kinds of movies now and again, and the success comes from what helps it stand out. Spider & Jessie ultimately knows what it needs to get right, which comes in the form of the sisterly bond we see in this film and the efforts to show which characters actually want to have a say in being helpful.
The drama that stems from the deceased mom’s jerk of a boyfriend (Dacre Montgomery), on the other hand, pushes the story so far in intensity that it takes me away from what I was appreciating more about the subtleties utilized. Ultimately, while I didn’t have too much issue with how far-fetched the film may seem (mainly because there are worse scenarios involving living arrangements for youths in reality), the stronger the focus was on how these young girls would deal with things, the better the movie was.
To Kill A Wolf
The Setup: In a modern re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood, a social pariah (Ivan Martin) discovers a teenage runaway (Maddison Brown) in the Oregon Wilderness and does his best to help her find a way home – a troubling exploration of trauma and redemption.
Review: Writer/director Kelsey Taylor delivers a strong feature debut here, which brings together a few elements in a meaningful way. Part quiet drama, part fable, the fact that this movie can hint at a darker story, not unlike the more adult version of the Little Red Riding Hood story not often told to children, speaks to what Taylor delivers in the way of subtleties and implications. That’s getting ahead of things, however. While the movie becomes a bit more complicated once actors Kaitlin Doubleday and Michael Esper become involved, adding more of an understanding of Brown’s Dani, the film is at its best when focused on the relationship between her and Martin’s Woodsman character.
The Oregon wilderness adds the right kind of atmosphere to the proceedings, with the natural world feeling like an appropriate extension of the emotions at play. Effectively lived in, To Kill a Wolf shows plenty of confidence from Taylor, with a knowing way to balance tension with gentle character work.
***
The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will be taking place from February 4 to February 15, 2025.
