Mill Valley Film Fest Brings Musk, Muhammad Ali, & a Lost Wu-Tang Album to the Bay Area

A 4-hour biography of the Musk Rat, an unfinished Federico Garcia Lorca play, and reminiscences by Harlem Renaissance survivors are just some of the reasons to check out the films being shown at Mill Valley Film Festival 49 (hereafter “MVFF49”). MVFF49 runs from October 1-11, 2026 at such venues as the Smith Rafael Film Center, the Lark Theatre, and the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive.

Opening this year’s MVFF49 is Martin McDonagh’s newest comic thriller “Wild Horse Nine.”  CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) have helped set up the notorious September 11, 1973 coup that would topple Chile’s Salvador Allende.  Now the older veteran CIA agent is slowly dying of cancer, and he wants to fulfill his dying wish. So the pair of spies are flying to Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) to see its famed statues.  But CIA higher-ups want Chris’ trip to be purely one-way given his plans to publicly air a lot of CIA dirty laundry.

Latif (Mahershala Ali) is a professional killer like CIA agents Chris and Lee.  Bassam Tariq’s “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” shows that Latif’s also a family man and a devout Muslim.  When he learns he’s become a widower, his life starts falling apart.  His newborn needs breast milk.  He’s tasked with protecting his boss’ pornographer nephew from a Christian pastor (John Cho) on a violent anti-porn crusade.  And his kids haven’t forgotten that Latif’s not the most attentive of dads.

Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve), the heads of the Gheorghiu family, definitely don’t have problems neglecting their children.  They’ve emigrated from conservative Romania to Lisbet’s progressive Norwegian hometown.  But as Cristian Mungiu’s newest film “Fjord” shows, the Gheorghiu family’s visible Evangelical leanings make them stick out like proverbial sore thumbs.  The discovery of bruises on the body of one of the Gheorghiu children eventually results in Norwegian child protective services taking away all the Gheorghiu children and the couple’s faith getting severely tested.

There’s no question that the parents (Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan) of “Josephine” love their 8-year-old daughter and want to protect her.  But as Beth de Araujo’s incredible Sundance award-winning drama shows, fulfilling those desires becomes more difficult after the titular child becomes both fascinated and traumatized by a horrific event.  The little girl accidentally becomes the sole witness to a rape in Golden Gate Park. 

A different type of lifelong trauma befalls actress and director Pegah Ahangarani.  In her stunning personal documentary “Rehearsals For A Revolution,” she recounts how the legacy of the Iranian Revolution left long scars on her, her family, and her friends.  Old audio recordings, animated cartoons, and terrifying handheld camera footage provide grist for the director’s reminiscences.   

Remembering the legacy of a cultural revolution describes the throughline for William and David Greaves’ must-see documentary “Once Upon A Time In Harlem.”  In August 1972, director William Greaves (“Symbiopsychotaxiplasm”) filmed a gathering in Duke Ellington’s New York apartment where the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance remembered and talked about their movement’s legacy.  It would fall to Greaves’ son David to finish this passion project.

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s acclaimed Cannes winner “La Bola Negra” draws from the titular unfinished Federico Garcia Lorca play and a play about Lorca’s legacy (“La Piedra Oscura”) for this century-spanning tale.  One story thread concerns the love affair between a soldier forced to fight for the fascists and a Nationalist soldier with personal connections to Lorca.  Another tale adapts Lorca’s play about a wealthy man who gets blackballed from his father’s casino.  The final metafictional story shows what happens after the screenwriter of the “La Bola Negra” movie acquires the missing pages of the Lorca play.

Another giant of world literature, Thomas Mann, is the protagonist of Pawel Pawlikowski’s (“Cold War”) newest film “Fatherland.”  Its setup of Mann returning from exile in America to post-World War II Germany to accept the Goethe Prize may be a “Wild Strawberries”-like road-trip movie.  But the film’s also about Mann’s children Erika (Sandra Huller), who’s been denied U.S. citizenship for her anti-capitalist views, and the gay Klaus, whose novel about an actor who joins the Nazis (“Mephisto”) gets banned in Germany.

What happens when the Virginia Woolf classic Mrs. Dalloway gets transposed to present-day Nigeria?  Chuka and Arie Esri offer the answer in their drama “Clarissa,” with Sophie Okonedo as the titular melancholic Lagos society woman.  She may be physically preparing for a high-profile party, but her mind’s on a youthful memory of a particular lazy but passion-filled summer.

Can you dream of the future when you live in a place lacking electricity?  As the teen Nigerian filmmaking collective known as The Critics demonstrate, the answer is a very loud yes.  In the documentary “Crocodile,” director Pietra Brettkelly works alongside The Critics to show how these Kaduna-based teens have for over a decade created films that mix present day concerns such as police brutality with practical effects wizardry (e.g. hibiscus tea as stage blood).

Dione Roach and Steve Happi’s “Jail Time Records” introduces viewers to a Cameroon music label dedicated to giving ex-prisoners and others failed by Cameroon’s social system a chance to use music to forge a different future for themselves.  Winner of three Tribeca Film Festival awards including Best Documentary Feature.

Remember the Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin?”  Only one CD of that album was made thanks to one man’s idea of treating a hip-hop album as a work of fine art.  But the person who wound up owning that album turned out to be notorious Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli.  Joanna Natasegara’s documentary “The Disciple” recounts the story of both the album and the man whose brainstorm produced the ultimate limited edition in music.

Like Shkreli, the Musk Rat can be properly labeled a notoriously arrogant wealthy guy.  His supposed tech innovator image is outweighed by his despicably loud-mouthed hatred of POC, women, and trans folk.  Alex Gibney’s new four-hour documentary “Musk” presents the Musk Rat’s life, warts and all.  Unsurprisingly, this rich egotist did not give any interviews for Gibney’s film, so his odious public statements are repeated verbatim.

Another welcome documentary appearing at MVFF49 is Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends Part II: Exile.”  At the end of Part I, its independent Russian non-state media journalist subjects were forced to flee the country in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  This 6-hour film shows these journalists’ hardships in exile.  Can they rebuild their organization and continue reporting the news?  How will they adjust to possibly never returning to Russia?

If “Musk” and “My Undesirable Friends” seem like daunting viewing commitments, Mark Cousins’ MVFF49 film “The Story Of Documentary Film” is definitely not for the faint of heart.  It recounts the 120-year history of documentary film from the silent film era to today’s world of ubiquitous phone and surveillance cameras.  However, catching the entire thing requires practically spending a week at MVFF49 as it’s a 16-hour series.

Documentary seekers who want a strong film requiring less of a time commitment might want to check out venerable documentary film maker Barbara Kopple’s newest film.  “Union Town” completes after 50 years her trilogy of films about workers fighting for their rights.  The delivery drivers for such incredibly profitable companies as UPS, Amazon, and Door Dash are treated as independent contractors who have neither benefits nor job protections.  Is there a way for these workers to secure livable wages among other basic labor demands?

Ho-seok and Mi-ok are a working class couple trying to bounce back from the disastrous conclusion of a labor dispute.  In Lee Chang-dong’s new film “Possible Love,” this working-class couple winds up working with ambitious documentary filmmaker Ye-ji on her newest project.  But is it a good thing when the workers’ lives become intertwined with the upper-class lives of the filmmaker and her business mogul husband Sang-woo?  Tensions rise as the project progresses, as issues such as who speaks for whom develop.

There’s no question who’s telling the story in Felipe Bustos Sierra’s rousing documentary “Everybody To Kenmure Street.”  A Glasgow celebration of the end of Ramadan gets rudely interrupted when Immigration Enforcement officers arrive to arrest two longtime neighbors.  That detention results in an incredible act of neighborly solidarity where residents face off against the authorities.  The incident is retold with (among other things) crowdsourced mobile phone footage and dramatizations starring Emma Thompson and Kate Dickie. 

A different power struggle over telling a story is at the heart of Peter Farrelly’s MVFF49’s Centerpiece Film “I Play Rocky.”  When journeyman actor Sylvester Stallone witnesses the heavyweight title fight between champ Muhammad Ali and the overmatched Chuck Wepner, he’s inspired to write the script for a film about a hard-luck boxer.  Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff love the script, but studios want a star to play the lead character Rocky Balboa.  However, Stallone wrote the part of Rocky for himself, and this demand is non-negotiable.  This film dramatizes what happened next.

While Farrelly’s film is the story of someone who’s catapulted to stardom, the tragicomic “Tender Loving Care” goes in the opposite career direction.  Director Mike Leigh declares this will be his final film.  In it, Amy bounces back from a nasty breakup by moving in with best friend and social worker colleague Rosie.  In between her dealing with her clients in need, a personal challenge arises when Amy’s beloved father takes a turn for the worse, and she and her mother must adjust to a new reality.  Fortunately, Rosie is there to provide support.

Sarah Leavitt, the protagonist of Leah Nelson’s animated film “Tangles,” also adjusts to a new reality regarding a parent.  In her case, it involves her mother Midge.  Leavitt remembers her awesome mother as doing everything from waving a flashlight like a light saber to marching with her daughter at Pride rallies.  But Midge’s small changes of behavior soon turn into blaring signs that she’s developing Alzheimer’s. 

Alzheimer’s also plays a central role in “All Of A Sudden,” the new film from Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”).  French research doctor Marie-Lou studies new treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases.  Mari is a young Japanese woman whose theatrical performance connects to Marie-Lou’s work.  When the two women meet, they slowly form a bond that is intellectual, creative, and spiritual.

Will disease dominate theater artist Jimmy (Rami Malek)’s life?  He’s living with AIDS, and he’s not the only one dealing with this illness in late 1980s New York City (the setting for Ira Sachs’ new film “The Man I Love”).  This theater artist decides to jettison emotional paralysis caused by fears of painfully dying, and throw himself into rehearsing a new stage production.  Can his determination and that of other friends and fellow artists to live, have sex, and make art help better the odds of survival?

Sonja, the sassy twenty-something protagonist of Genevieve Clay-Smith’s rousing “Boss Cat,” may have been born with Down’s Syndrome.  But she dreams of achieving both independence and developing a means of artistic self-expression.  However, Sonja’s grandmother Doris plans to have her locked up in a board-and-care facility.  All is not lost as Sonja’s Sudanese refugee friend Hakim shows her an outlet for her grief and anger in krump street dancing.    

The Harlem Park Three have far different reasons for feeling grief and anger.  They were wrongfully serving life sentences for allegedly murdering a Baltimore teenager in 1983.  How does one deal with the emotional toll of that imprisonment after the chief witnesses recant their testimony 36 years later?  Is it possible to achieve reconciliation?  Dawn Porter’s documentary “When A Witness Recants” shows the answers.

There’s little possibility of justice in Andrey Zyvagintsev’s new film “Minotaur.”   It draws from such sources as Claude Chabrol, Nikolai Gogol, and Greek myth for this drama set in provincial post-Ukraine invasion Russia.  Mini-oligarch Gleb suspects his beautiful but unhappy wife Galina is cheating on him.  But he’s more concerned about providing a list of disposable male employees who can be drafted to fight in Ukraine.  His plan to solve both problems at once involves hiring some new truck drivers who can be coincidentally drafted before he has to pay them a dime.

James Gray’s newest period New York City family drama “Paper Tiger” plops viewers into 1986 Reagan-era America.  Irwin Pearl (Miles Teller) and wife Linda (Scarlett Johansson) want a better life for their family.  So they get involved in ex-cop brother Gary’s (Adam Driver) dodgy business prospect.  Things unsurprisingly go south as the Russian Mafia happen to be involved in Gary’s “business prospect.”

Archeologist Veska has her own unwanted encounter with an underworld figure courtesy of local Svilengrad criminal bigwig Ilya.  She just wanted to supervise an archeological dig at this one-horse town near the world’s second busiest border crossing.   But when former flame  Said disappears and leaves his dodgy diesel delivery business behind, Veska wants to discover his fate.  Ironically, despite the noir movie scaffolding, Valeska Grisebach’s Cannes Jury Award-winning “The Dreamed Adventure” takes the story in non-genre directions.

Pirati, protagonist of Abinash Bikram Shah’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner “Elephants In The Fog,” also searches for a missing loved one: her trans daughter Apsara.  The daughter apparently disappeared during a nightly patrol intended to keep their  southern Nepalese village safe from the wild elephants that traverse the forests outside the village.  But the search for Apsara reveals cracks in the Kinnar community Pirati heads, including the matriarch’s own desire to abandon this trans community for the man she loves.

The new Pedro Almodovar film “Bitter Christmas” intertwines storylines about personal loss and busted taboos.  Elsa is a filmmaker who retreats to Lanzarote thanks to a couple of overwhelming problems: grief over the recent loss of her mother and a series of crippling migraines.  Celebrated screenwriter Raul decides to transform the life of his collaborator Monica into a screenplay…without necessarily getting her consent.   But what happens when Monica recognizes herself in Raul’s work?

Turning to a different season, Alessandra Sanguinetti’s Locarno award-winning documentary “The Illusion Of An Everlasting Summer” follows cousins Guillermina and Belinda’s coming of age in the Argentine Pampas.  Their days of dreaming of vast futures and playing dress-up soon yield to the responsibilities of adulthood and the narrowing of life options.  But then these two cousins have daughters of their own, and something magical happens… 

Discoveries both internal and external share equal weight in Nanette Burstein’s newest documentary “Carl Sagan: We Are Made Of Star Stuff.”  The film recounts the life of the university professor and NASA advisor who wound up popularizing space exploration through such works as “Cosmos.”  Covered in the film are both Sagan’s involvement in the Voyager space probe program, and the personal cost of becoming a popular iconoclast.

Physical and emotional discovery also forms the core of Marine Atlan’s Cannes Critics Week-winning debut “La Gradiva.”  A field trip to the ruins of Pompeii becomes for one French high-school class the spark for erotic revelations.  The film focuses on a quartet of characters: working-class Toni, who believes he’s descended from Neapolitan aristocrats; rich kid lothario James; nerdy but coolheaded Suzanne, who feels invisible; and their animated teacher Mme. Mercier.  It’s partly a portrait of present-day sexual fluidity and partly a study in the dangers of fantasizing about romance or family history.

A different sort of coming-of-age tale is Will Ropp’s “Brian.”  The title character is a 17-year-old high school loner with more than a touch of social anxiety and self-loathing.  He’s also prone to frequent angry outbursts, especially when his classmates set him off.  When Brian messes up a drama club audition, he decides to bounce back by running for Class President.  This campaign is an excuse to be closer to Miss Brooke, the teacher he has a crush on.  But Brian’s scheme is about to blow up in his face.   

Jesse Eisenberg helms MVFF49’s Closing Night Film “The Debut.”  Mousy housewife Mona (Julianne Moore) wants to perform a small role in her New Jersey hometown’s newest musical theater production.  That’s all well and good, but as gruff veteran director Jerry (Paul Giamatti) finds, the big challenge is getting Mona to cut loose on stage.  Eisenberg incidentally also wrote the songs and music for the fictional production.

Sharp-eyed readers of the MVFF49 schedule may wonder why “NAZA” is mentioned down here.  It’s not out of fear of threats from Netanyahu or the IDF.  It’s because broke-ass readers can catch the film at the New People Cinema from October 9-11, 2026 and then at the Roxie Theater from October 12, 2026 onwards instead of needing to go to San Rafael.

This Venice award-winning documentary from Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (“No Other Land”) is a must-see.  It’s a series of interviews with anonymous IDF personnel who plan deadly air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza by using AI.  The title happens to be IDF jargon for “collateral damage,” which in practice means figuring out if IDF decisionmakers are ok with the number of Palestinian civilian casualties a particular air strike will generate.  Netanyahu may call the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”  But his statement’s only true if you consider that morality to derive from a credo of “The only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian.”   .