What are film critics watching at Philadelphia Film Festival?

More than 100 films are scheduled to play at this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival . There are shorts, documentaries, and features that have either toured the world or are making their debuts. Here’s what former Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey and frequent Inquirer contributor Stephen Silver are most excited to see at this year’s festival.

The first two Knives Out movies, the 2019 original and 2022’s Glass Onion, both played at the Philadelphia Film Festival, with director Rian Johnson in attendance. This year, the third film is set for opening night, with Johnson once again on hand as a “special guest” at the Film Society Center showing.

Daniel Craig returns as unorthodox private detective Benoit Blanc, this time unraveling a mystery involving a charismatic monsignor, played by Josh Brolin. Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Mila Kunis are also on board. − SS

In Paolo Sorrentino’s film about a fictional Italian president facing the end of his term, Toni Servillo inhabits the role of an erect, correct, former judge, the embodiment of Aristotle’s belief that the law is reason free of passion.

Though the president resembles one of Magritte’s self-contained and topcoated figures, he has his passions.

The last months of his presidency weigh him down. Should this pious Catholic sign a law permitting euthanasia? His confessor, the Pope, suggests that the president unburden himself of the unbearable heaviness of being.

Servillo’s acting is so deeply felt, Sorrentino’s direction so physically palpable that it feels as if the laws of gravity are suspended. — CR

Hilarious and heartbreaking, Richard Linklater’s incisive study of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) plays out the night of the 1943 premiere of Oklahoma! As he waits for reviews of the first collaboration between his former partner Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Hart performs a fan dance of publicly lauding a musical he privately disdains, positioning himself to continue to work with Rodgers, and pursuing a collegienne (Margaret Qualley) who doesn’t love him “that way.” Hart critiqued love as “the self-deception that believes the lie.” His romanticism animates the poignant film written by Robert Kaplow. — CR

A roof is pried off a building like the cap from a beer bottle, leaving what’s left to the elements. That’s how Icelandic director Hlynar Palmason opens his domestic drama about a couple on the brink of divorce.

Anna is an artist whose works, made of rusting metal and fabric, bear the traces of harsh weather. Magnus is an industrial fisherman at sea in more ways than one. They are parents of three. Their story is an unusual hybrid, a straightforward, almost documentary-like, narrative of an uncoupling, punctuated with surreal moments embracing his obvious pain and her playful eye.

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up,” observed Charlie Chaplin, “but a comedy in long-shot.” — CR

Filmmaker Laura Poitras has made films pointing her lens at such controversial figures as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. For this film, codirected by Mark Obenhaus, the subject is veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, who has broken stories of tremendous national security significance, including that of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

This long-in-the-works documentary features the 88-year-old Hersh discussing big stories from throughout his career, including ones he got wrong, and sometimes getting combative with his interviewer. − SS

Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel made this omnibus true-crime documentary/ anthropological history about the lingering effects of European colonialism on her country, a nation believed to have eliminated its Indigenous peoples.

It begins with the murder of Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar in 2009 when landowners tried to seize his property for a mining venture. It then turns to the 2018 trial of the accused, where 21st-century land deeds take precedence over historic agreements.

The strongest part of the film is its third act, where Martel shows a kaleidoscope of opinion about what constitutes “Our Land.” — CR

Canadian director Matt Johnson made the BlackBerry movie in 2023, and now he’s back with Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a spinoff of Johnson and Jay McCarroll’s web series and later TV series, which includes elements of rock ’n’ roll, mockumentary, and even time travel. Johnson and McCarroll, who cowrote and costar as versions of themselves, will be on hand for the Oct. 25 showing. − SS

The Norwegian director Joachim Trier has become a leading figure of world cinema, with his 2021 film The Worst Person in the World bringing the house down at the Philadelphia Film Festival that year.

Now, Trier is back with Sentimental Value, which will close this year’s film festival. The director reunites with Worst Person’s leading actress, Renate Reinsve, for an English-language film about an actress who reunites with her estranged filmmaker father (Stellan Skarsgård). − SS

Philadelphia Film Festival runs Oct. 16-26 across three venues: the Film Society Center, Film Society Bourse, and Film Society East. filmadelphia.org/festival/