This year’s festival has music, dramas, legends, and a Great Dane who’s great.

I had another visit to the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF), which has celebrated its 21st anniversary and gave Jane Lynch the Entertainer of the Year award. I didn’t watch every movie there, because even film critics need to breathe, but there are a few I have seen and would love to talk about. These are just short summaries of each review, but when they do get their release dates, you’ll get more content. This is just a taste of what to expect in the future.

“Poison” (Release Date: TBA)

Before our viewing of this movie, my cousins almost thought it was a romcom based on the two leads being a man and a woman. But I corrected them saying it was a drama. And after our viewing experience, we were able to acknowledge the emotions and how it reflects on life based on how some stories are given uncertain fates.

The movie opens with Tim Roth as a man named Lucas, who is driving at night, and during the daytime, he sees a happy little boy, a lost ball in a dam, and a funeral. And we also see him leaving seashells on a grave. We can tell it’s his dead son, based on those hints, and we’re right about that.

We also meet his ex-wife Edith (Trine Dyrholm), who doesn’t know how to process her emotions about their reunion after a decade. How did they both handle their turmoil? He drove away, and she was addicted to sleeping pills. And the movie has them arguing about how they respectively have dealt with it. And she thinks that saying “I think of him every day” is not really the same answer as “I miss him.”

“Poison” needs a little more ambiance, but it is expressive in the way these people have dealt with their tragedy through the years. It’s not too angry and it’s not too sad; it’s more somber in that notion. And the performances from Roth and Dyrholm are excellent with their convictions and emotions.

“One to One: John & Yoko” (Release Date: April 11)

This doc focuses on John Lennon and Yoko Ono, their relationship during a turbulent era, and their collaboration on the “One to One” concert dedicated for children with special needs from Willowbrook. My cousins and I had mixed feelings about it, because while it has good intentions, its structure was underdeveloped.

It uses unused archives, home movies, and restored footage, but it also has to use phone calls, which seem repetitive. A documentary on these two people and what was happening during the 1970s should be inspiring and informative, and there are fine moments, but it doesn’t justify itself.

There are many challenges in John and Yoko’s lives, such as him being threatened with deportation and her losing custody of her daughter. There are also some colorful lighting for the music segments, including “Come Together” being shot in light blue, and “Mother” being shot in blue, red, and orange. And there is the canceled “Free the People” tour, which was dedicated to raising money to free innocent African-American prisoners who couldn’t afford bail.

“One to One: John & Oko” is also presented in the style of changing channels. There are very few snippets of classic commercials, but bigger attention to such names as the title singers, Shirley Chisholm, John Sinclair, and Richard Nixon, and the Vietnam War, which sparked major protests. At least this style of filmmaking is more interesting than the phone calls, which basically go on repeat, especially with talk about flies, which I believe was for the short film John and Yoko were making.

I’m a Beatles fan, and my reaction to this doc has nothing to do with my age. It has to do with the filmmaking techniques presented by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards.

“The Friend” (Release Date: March 28)

Winner Best Performance: Naomi Watts

In this latest feature from writers/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, there’s a chemistry between a writer dealing with a tragedy in her life and a giant Great Dane whom she must take care of. How complicated would their relationship be? Well, few things. One: the writer is trying to finish her book. Two: she doesn’t know how to train him properly. And three: her apartment is not pet friendly.

Based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel, Naomi Watts plays that writer named Iris, whose best friend and mentor-the celebrated author Walter (Bill Murray) commits suicide, and is informed by one of his widows Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) that she must take care of his dog named Apollo. She is conflicted about being his guardian, given her circumstances, but she must take care of him until she can find a better living situation for him. And a kennel is not really an ideal choice, based on the dog’s emotions.

This dog misses Walter so much, that only spoken words of his work and his shirt seem to motivate him. Even finally eating food out of his dog bowl. And Iris’ challenges of finding him a new home becomes so complicated, that she’s threatened with eviction in her apartment. And you know how pricy apartments are, and how not every place is dog friendly.

The minute the audience saw that giant Great Dane (played by Bing), they were laughing, and so was I. There’s a certain kind of honesty in this dog and his new owner, and there’s a lot of heart within this relationship. Watts delivers a fine performance as her character deals with the challenges of it all, including how her mentor’s death has affected her greatly. Murray is also funny, even after death, and Pidgeon is also charming with her deadpan attitude.

It doesn’t delve deep into the matter of suicide, but there are going to be sad, touching, and funny moments in the story. “The Friend” earns a treat for what it does.

“The Summer Book” (Release Date: TBA)

The movie opens with a shack off the Gulf of Finland and during the winter when no-one is there and the water is icy. It begins to set the mood and ambiance for the story, based on Tove Jansson’s book, especially if it gets windy in the summertime.

Even though “The Summer Book” is set in that country, I was still reminded of my summer trips to Maine and even my one trip in Ireland a decade ago. Not only because of the windy and peaceful vibrance, but also because of what qualities and difficulties people deal with. Now, that sounds like my kind of movie, but the story doesn’t justify itself the way it should.

We meet an old woman (Glenn Close), her son (Anders Danielsen Lie), and her granddaughter Sophia (Emily Matthews), who spend the summer in that shack. The child feels that her father has been different with her since her mother passed away-that he doesn’t love her anymore-but her grandmother is a wise old woman and knows that’s not true.

Directed by Charlie McDowell and co-produced by his wife Lily Collins, the movie shows us a somber and sometimes very funny look at the connection between a little girl and her wise grandmother. Matthews is very good in her first movie role, while Close also delivers with the accent and sentimentality.

But the screenplay isn’t perfect, as we also get the father who, like in the book, is a reserved background character. I may not have read the book, but for a movie, they should give him more development, instead of having him rely on the rising action just to make his character meaningful. There are very good intentions for the right reasons I’ve mentioned, but my cousins and I still felt it was a missed opportunity.

“Devo” (Release Date: TBA)

Winner of the Best Music Film.

I think this is the more insightful music doc than “One to One: John & Yoko,” because it delves deep into the band behind hit songs as “Whip It” and “Working in a Coal Mind.” But it also deals with how they struggle to reach the top, but got boosts from music videos they made and cult followers of their work.

At the time, the band consisted of brothers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, brothers Gerald and Bob Casales, and Alan Meyers. And they had a lot of hardships to go through before they became more well known.

Like “One to One,” it deals with the protests against the Vietnam War, but “Devo” also talks about how Marshall Law was declared at Kent State University, and the National Guard went up against the protestors. Some of them were shot and/or killed in the process. And because of this, the band influenced the word “De-evolution,” and used that subject matter for the basis of their short film. This was before MTV, so it wasn’t as easy to get their work out there as much. But eventually, the station was created and their music videos went on the air to popularity.

As I’m sure many of you know, but Mark Mothersbaugh is also a composer for movies like “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and shows like “Rugrats” and “Regular Show.” So, it was nice for the film to talk about that a little bit, and I also appreciate how it sticks up for Whip It” and “Working in a Coal Mine.” And I thank “Heavy Metal” for that second song. And Mothersbaugh composes the documentary’s score, while talking about the psychedelic ambiance that comes within the music.

“Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” (Now Streaming on VOD and Premiering on PBS April 1)

My cousins and I don’t follow Liza Minnelli’s work as much, but we were interested to see how her story plays out as we watched this doc. Her father was Vincent Minnelli, whose directing techniques inspired the art in her, and her mother was Judy Garland, who tried to overshadow her during a live performance. Real mother of the year.

As an icon, she’s also had successful collaborations with Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Halston, and Charles Aznavour, among others, and her role of Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” came to critical and commercial acclaim. And there’s a sense of nostalgia that sparks her motivation.

In her personal life, Liza has had three miscarriages, but she managed to be a mother figure to other kids. She also had four husbands: composer Peter Allen, who turned out to be gay; Jack Haley, Jr. who is the son of Jack Haley (the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz” (That’s right. Dorothy’s daughter marrying the Tin Man’s son); sculptor Mark Gero, who was soulful and quiet; and David Gest, who took control of her life, until he left and died. And she, at one point, took her mother’s trait of drug and alcohol abuse, but at least she’s still alive today thanks to the right treatment.

“Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” shares its passion for the singer and actress, and she, herself, is able to express her life of joy and tragedy. Writer/director Bruce David Klein presents this doc with sincerity, laughs, and a tribute to what makes a singer a person. It’s all based on the legendary stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the impact they have on people. And Liza also knew a distinction between friendship and fame, and bravery and fear, which summons up the movie’s high spirits.

“Spacewoman” (Release Date: TBA)

This is the Closing Night feature at the festival, and it closes with plenty of oxygen. To put it bluntly, it was a documentary on Eileen Collins, who became the first woman to command and pilot a spacecraft. Before the screening began, I congratulated her on her success, and I also wished her and the director Hannah Berryman luck on the doc. And they both reach for the stars.

In her early stages, she had a drunken father who ran the Collins Pub and her mother who was stressed out by the pathos in her life. Eileen believed that flying was a source of escapism from it all. She wanted to overcome the cynicism of the belief that women weren’t capable of flying or going into space. Eventually, she earned her opportunity to do so, and she was willing to take a lot of risks.

“Spacewoman” also talks about how spacecrafts have suffered from accidents, which NASA was trying to examine how they can be prevented. It deals with the stress of the astronaut’s families, including Eileen’s daughter Bridget and her Delta Airlines pilot husband Pat. And it reminds us on Eileen’s persistence in making sure the space missions work out.

There’s plenty of oxygen in this space doc, especially with Eileen’s voice and courage and how her family dealt with things at the time. And through the archival footage of the space missions, it feels exhilarating. This is another entertaining way to close off the festival, and I’m glad I met the hero and director of “Spacewoman.”

Here’s to next year’s BIFF.