I’m heading home from one of the best festivals I’ve been to. I’m not sure if I just got lucky, or if the slate of titles was actually that much better.
A quick recap of my last day of movies includes Miss Representation, a good doc about how women are treated in media and how it shapes our perceptions. I especially recommend this film for young girls and women. Read More
I’ve forgotten what day this is, but it was another beautiful day. Plus I got that unexpected surprise I always like to have at Sundance.
First film of the day was exactly the type of thing you expect here, an indie comedy with a bunch of unknown actors, and then John C. Riley was thrown in to steal every scene. Terri is a funny little story about outsiders and the confusion that comes along with adolescence. Read More
Sunday at Sundance was a gorgeous day in Park City. The sun was out and other than the walk home around midnight, it wasn’t too cold. I also saw a few more movies to recommend.
First up, I saw The Music Never Stopped. This was a nice little film and J.K. Simmons did a great job. Simmons plays the father of a 40-something amnesiac, played by Lou Taylor Pucci. The son’s memory loss is restored for brief moments of time by listening to the music he loved in his late teens and early twenties. I connected to this film because of my love of music, and thought the father’s desire to connect with his son made for an excellent story. Read More
Saturday was the kind of day that makes Sundance what it is. I saw two great movies, one okay movie and one bloody mess.
Win Win is a great little film that’s already been picked up by Fox Searchlight, starring Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan. I liked the way this film straddles the line between drama and comedy. It’s exactly the type of film I’ll fight to get into our Blockbuster Recommends program. Read More
The first day of Sundance wasn’t my best movie day. I started the day with Martha Marcy May Marlene, a title that rolls off the tongue. I did enjoy parts of the story, which follows a young girl played by Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of the Olsen twins), who escapes from a cult. It centers around the anxiety she and her sister must deal with as she attempts to return to an upper middle class lifestyle. Read More
Sundance is cold. But I can’t complain — a day spent in the theater is better than a day chained to a desk, or in my case five days in the theater. I have 20 movies in 5 days, and I’m seeing just about every genre imaginable: horror (Kevin Smith’s Red State), comedy (My Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks), documentaries, and of course it wouldn’t be Sundance without the great indie dramas. I’ll try to keep my reviews “Rich” free (that’s the Blockbuster office version of the guy who always gives away the ending). But, just so you know, Project Nim is not a sequel to Matthew Broderick’s great monkey escape film Project X.
Joe is flying the friendly skies back to Blockbuster World Headquarters as I type this. Here is his final dispatch from Sundance 2010.
I’m now leaving Park City and heading back to Dallas, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the last few films I saw.
Blue Valentine, starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, is the story of a marriage falling apart, interspersed with scenes of how the couple fell in love in the first place. So it’s very much a character piece, and the two leads are great — they definitely pull it off.
The Runaways documents the rise of the 70s band of the same name featuring Cheri Currie and Joan Jett. Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart play the two young musicians, detailing their journey from teenage girls to rock stars. The movie was based on Currie’s autobiography. Both the actresses did a really good job, and it was one of the better films I saw at this year’s festival.
HIGH School stars Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, and Adrien Brody. As you can probably tell by the title, it’s a stoner comedy. The audience I saw it with was made up mostly of the cast and their friends and family, so there were a lot of laughs that obviously came from inside jokes, but I did think the movie was pretty funny. It almost seemed liked Tom Hanks told his son to make his own Bachelor Party. It’ll be a fun rent.
The final movie I saw before I left this morning was The Killer Inside Me starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson. It’s a serial killer movie set in a small town in the 50s. Affleck plays the sheriff of the town, and he’s a little off, to say the least. Everything kind of spirals out of control as the bodies pile up. It was definitely one of my favorite movies of the festival.
I’m also hearing good things about Buried, a story that depicts a man (Ryan Reynolds) who has been buried alive in Iraq. It seems impossible to make a 90-minute film set entirely in a coffin, but people are saying it’s really good. It starts with the first five minute or so of total blackness and sounds of someone panicking, but then the main character begins to interact with people on his cell phone, etc. Sounds like an interesting one.
To sum up, I would say Sundance 2010 wasn’t the best I’ve been to, but it was a good one. Of course, you have to keep in mind that I only saw 14 movies out of the well over 100 titles being screened, so I could have had a very different experience from others.
I’ve seen four movies since my last update:
Get Low was a period piece based on actual events. Robert Duvall plays a hermit who throws a funeral party and invites everyone in the town to come tell a story about him. Duvall was really good, and Bill Murray was a little out of place but still a good comedic presence. Interesting side note: I heard Murray was at a restaurant Saturday night giving foot massages. I did not get a foot massage.
The next film I saw was Cyrus. It’s from the Duplass brothers, who have been at Sundance quite a few times — they did The Puffy Chair, and Mark Duplass was in Humpday last year, which was a festival favorite. Cyrus has a great cast, with John C Reilly, Jonah Hill, and Marisa Tomei. At the Q&A afterwards they talked about how the actors were given a lot of room to explore the characters. You definitely see it in the movie. There are some parts that don’t really go anywhere, but Reily and Hill are really good.
The next thing I saw was Jack Goes Boating. It’s always nice to see an actor like Phillip Seymour Hoffman grow into the role of director. This was his first time directing, and he allows the cast to really showcase the character development. His directing let the actors’ talent come out. There wasn’t really much of a plot, but that wasn’t really what the film was about — it was more about the characters and the actors. It was almost like an actors’ workshop in that it was so focused on what they did and how they interacted together.
Next I saw Welcome to the Rileys, and it was far and away my favorite film I’ve seen so far here. Great acting from James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, and Melissa Leo. It’s kind of a heavy drama about parents (Gandolfini and Leo) who lose their daughter and how they cope with that. Some years later they come across an underage prostitute in New Orleans (Stewart), and the father takes her under his wing and helps her as a way of getting over his grief.
Another movie I’m hearing good things about is Bran Nue Dae, which is an aborigine musical starring Geoffery Rush. That might sound a little odd, but a lot of people have said they liked it. The buzz for Catfish has been really good, too, so I’m glad people share my opinion of it.
Joe is back with another update from the frozen slopes of Park City.
I saw four movies yesterday, and generally enjoyed them.
First was the documentary Catfish, which was really good. I won’t spoil the plot — it had some surprising twists — but it’s definitely worth seeing when it comes out.
Next up was Hesher, which I was a little disappointed with. It was good, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a good job in it, but I thought the character development was lacking. None of the characters really developed much past who they are in the beginning of the film. Rainn Wilson played the grieving father, and that’s all he really was throughout the movie. I thought there might be a comedic side to the character with that casting choice, but it never materialized. The main character was played by Devin Brochu, who did a really good job. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I was expecting more.
The next movie was Please Give with Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt. The whole movie had a very Woody Allen feel, since it kind of dealt with New Yorkers and their neuroses. The title comes from the face that Keener plays an estate buyer who is constantly guilting about buying things from grieving families. In addition, she and her husband have bought the apartment next to theirs and are waiting for the little old lady who lives there to die so they can add on to their place. She deals with her guilt by over-giving to charity. It kind of had the look of a dark comedy, but ended up having some comedic elements, but not really in a dark way. The ending was a little flat, but the movie was pretty good.
The last movie I saw yesterday was The Company Men, which had a great cast. Ben Affleck was excellent as the lead character who gets laid off from his job. The movie was a little formulaic, but overall probably my favorite of yesterday. Although I don’t know how many people will rush out to see a movie about corporate downsizing right now.
I’ve already seen one movie this morning, called happythankyoumoreplease. It was written by, directed by, and starred Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother). It’s about youngish New Yorkers dealing with love and friendship. I thought some of the plot was unbelievable, but overall it was a really good effort for Radnor’s first movie.
I’ll bee seeing three more movies today: Get Low, Cyrus, and Jack Goes Boating.
Two movies I’m not scheduled to see but I’m going to try and work in because I’m hearing such good buzz are Douchebag and Homewrecker.
Our Man At Sundance is back with another report from Park City.
Last night I saw Howl, which was good. It’s centered around the obscenity trial to determine whether it was legal to publish Alan Ginsberg’s poem Howl.
It had a little bit of everything — some animation, documentary footage in some parts, and then a narrative feel with the actors for the trial scenes. The trial uses the actual transcripts. David Strathairn plays the prosecutor and John Hamm is the defense lawyer.
Howl was not only a good start to the festival, but it really showed what Sundance is about. The movie’s directors took it to the Sundance Institute here and workshopped it for around a year and a half. With the help of Robert Redford and others at the Institute, the film continued to grow and evolve into a finished product. It served as a really good showcase of the Sundance Institute.
Today I’ll be seeing four movies.
First up is Catfish, about a photographer who is contacted via MySpace by an 8-year-old girl in rural Michigan who wants to paint one of his photographs. They develop a relationship online, and the artist also develops a relationship with the girl’s older sister. It’s about how people interact via electronic communication.
After that I’m seeing Hesher, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is about a boy dealing with the loss of his mother who connects with a loner. I’m looking forward to it because I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I think he makes some pretty good choices in his movies.
Then I’ve got Please Give with Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt. They own an apartment in New York and buy the apartment next to them with plans of combing the two, but they have to wait for the little old lady who lives there to die. I’m not really sure what to expect — whether it’s going to be a dark comedy or more of a dramatic movie.
Finally I’m going to see The Company Men, which I’m really looking forward to. It reminds me a little bit of Up In The Air, because it’s all about the casualties of corporate downsizing. It’s got a great cast, with Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, and Ben Affleck. I’m interested to see that cast all together.
That’s it for today. It’s snowed here yesterday, so the streets are a slushy mess, but luckily we have a shuttle service to get us to all the screenings. I’ll file another post soon.
