Below are 8 capsule reviews. I've also seen The Grandmaster and The Great Passage. Each have something to recommend them but weren't in my top recommendations for 2013. The rest aren't in any particular order - so do read through if you'd like to get my fullest set of suggestions.
One request to readers - please do post your Palm Springs 2014 faves in the comments. Need to do my own planning for the rest of the year. :-)
A slow, absorbing and occasionally blackly comic meditation on life and the loneliness it can encompass. Oh, and death of course. Deeply touching in unique and occasionally shocking ways. Of what I've seen so far at Palm Springs, Still Life is what I'd recommend most. A man's job is to search for family and friends of the deceased who don't seem to have anyone - in order to ensure their funeral is as complete as can be. He puts his back into his work, perhaps unconsciously recognizing that he himself is in such a high risk demographic. When budget cuts threaten his job he sets out to do right by one last unclaimed body. His Sherlock level detective work would make any police department proud, and maybe gives him back some joy in his own existence. What transpires is a short but very engaging piece of filmmaking that I suspect will be a hit at this years festival.
