Searching the Sundance Lineup

Michael C from Serious Film here.

This Tuesday the Sundance Film Festival announced its 2011 Dramatic Competition lineup. It's ironic that a festival devoted to independence and originality has me looking over the list of films like the crassest studio boss ever to chomp down on a cigar behind a giant desk. You can't help but gravitate towards big stars and familiar concepts. "You've got fifty words, kid. Wow me!"

One can't help but run over the list trying to spot the future of filmmaking somewhere in there. Last Winter's festival had Blue Valentine, which is still a big part of the conversation, and Winter's Bone, which gains momentum by the day. In fact, the roots of the current awards season goes all the way back to the 1998 festival where Darren Aronofsky was awarded for directing Pi and Lisa Cholodenko won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Prize for High Art.

History has shown that festival hits come out of nowhere and can't be predicted. The flick that was supposed to be the hot ticket ends up barely limping into release, while the film no one had their eye on ends up with lines that resemble the run on the bank scene from It's a Wonderful Life.

That said, if I were filling out my dance card now here are three films that I would make a point of catching based on nothing but their capsule summary and my gut instinct. We can check back in a few months to see how sharp my intuition is.

Terri: (Director Azazel Jacobs; Written by Jacobs and Patrick Dewitt) Described as a story about an orphan "mercilessly teased by his peers and roundly ignored by his teachers" Terri has echoes of previous festival winner Welcome to the Dollhouse. The fact that it goes on to describe an unlikely friendship between Terri and a vice-principal played by John C. Reilly suggests it doesn't follow too closely in that films emotionally bruising footsteps. Still, films that can accurately capture the hell of high school life are few and far between, and for all his familiarity I am still not immune to Reilly's goofy charms. Mark me down as curious.

Higher Ground: (Director Vera Farmiga; Written by Carolyn S Briggs and Tim Metcalfe) Vera Farmiga has been one of the most welcome presences in movies in the past few years. I was one of those who thought she deserved a nomination for The Departed for the way she made a somewhat thin role three-dimensional and plausible. The fact that she is transferring that powerful perception to the director's chair is reason enough to pique my interest. That the story of a mother trying to break free from a religious fundamentalist community sounds topical and rich with potential seals the deal. The presence of current Oscar dark horse John Hawkes (go John Hawkes!) doesn't hurt either.

On the Ice: (Directed and Written by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean) The film with the briefest description of any in competition: "On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, two teenagers try to get away with murder." It features unknowns in front of and behind the camera, but then the first Sundance Film Festival was won by two unknown brothers from Minnesota and their efficient little murder story Blood Simple. I'm always a sucker for lean and mean thrillers that strip suspense down to its essential elements and this one looks like it has a unique setting to boot. On the Ice has my attention.

Here's the complete lineup from Sundance.org
Which film grabs your attention?

Sundance Winners

Nathaniel's on the road so I don't think he has the time to post the winners from this year's Sundance film festival. I hope y'all have been following Nathaniel's Sundance writings and you'll recognise some of the names from the winners list. Debra Granik took home top honours for her film Winter's Bone, which has people crying "Frozen River!" Frozen River was my #1 film from 2008 so if Bone gets anywhere close to being as good as that one then I will be happy.

For me, however, the bigger news was that David Michôd's Melbourne-set crime saga Animal Kingdom took home the World Cinema Jury Prize. Last year that very prize was won by The Maid, so hopefully you'll see Animal Kingdom pop up at more festivals and maybe even at your local cinema (NY/LA only, natch) some time over the next year. Kingdom has big buzz down here at the moment within film-watching circles with it's big ensemble cast and zeitgeist-y plot.

Grand Jury Prize (U.S. Dramatic): “Winter’s Bone”
Grand Jury Prize (U.S. Documentary): “Restrepo”
World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic): “Animal Kingdom”
World Cinema Jury Prize (Documentary): “The Red Chapel”
Audience Award (Dramatic): “happythankyoumoreplease”
Audience Award (Documentary): “Waiting for Superman”
World Cinema Audience Award (Dramatic): “Undertow”
World Cinema Audience Award (Documentary): “Wasteland”
Directing Award (Dramatic): Eric Mendelsohn, “3 Backyards”
Directing Award (Documentary): Leon Gast, “Smash His Camera”
World Cinema Directing Award (Dramatic): Juan Carlos Valdivia, “Southern District”
World Cinema Directing Award (Documentary): Christian Frei, “Space Tourists”

Read the rest of the winners at InContention and IndieWire.

Sundance Wrap-Up: Blue Valentine and the "Best Ofs"

Three more movies... But in truth I'm not sure which day we're on. I may have scrambled up the chronology just like Blue Valentine does. I am typing this on Saturday for publication on Sunday about movies from Friday. Where am I? WHEN AM I? I spent today being sick so no more movies. The sickness is why, even though it seemed like i was seeing a bajillion movies, I really wasn't. I worry that I missed a few great pictures and that I saw too many that ended up with or already had distribution deals that I could have seen later. But it's my first Sundance trip. I was doin' it wrong. Better luck next time.

The Romantics
Old college friends gather at a seaside home to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel). Laura (Katie Holmes), their maid of honor, used to be Tom's girl and it's immediately clear that that relationship hasn't fully run its course. The other friends (Malin Akerman, Elijah Wood, Adam Brody, Rebecca Lawrence and Jeremy Strong) know this. Lila even knows it in a way. What follows is a curiously artificial dramedy, with a few diverting moments and a central question that is provocative (do you marry the person you want deeply or the person who you obviously need). I couldn't connect with this movie from the beginning and knew I was in trouble when I started enjoying Malin Akerman more than the other actors. Maybe Rachel Getting Married spoiled me forever but after that film's gloriously complicated conflicting real time wedding awkwardness everything else involving toasts, rehearsal dinners and wedding jitters, excitement just feels pedestrian and canned.

The biggest problem here might be the casting. At first it didn't bother me as these are all adequate to good actors, but I realized midway through that I didn't buy for a second that they had all known each other for years. They're all TV pretty without the movie star soulfulness required to hurtle this type of material or make it sing. When I began to write this I had completely forgotten that Adam Brody was even in the movie. The characters make reference to their past incestuous dating history -- that's where they get their name "The Romantics" -- but none of the performance outside of maybe Lila/Laura/Tom convey anything like past romantic history. The performances convey general horniness for other hotties instead. Where is the backstory textural performance stuff? Worse yet, moody evasive Laura and nearly mute Tom supposedly have a fiery deep sexual connection that we're meant to believe springs from their love of poetry, English lit and deep philosophical conversations. I don't know about you but when I think about Katie Holmes and Josh Duhamel, intellectual all-nighters and poetry recitation aren't the first or even the two-hundred and thirty-first thing that spring to mind. D+

Blue Valentine
Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) have been married for years. The marriage isn't what it used to be. This beautifully rendered film, twelve years in the making, is co-written and directed by one-to-watch Derek Cianfrance. The lived-in feeling of the acting reminded me of Mike Leigh so it didn't surprise me to hear that Williams and Gosling had both been involved with the project for years, and helped shape their characters in substantial ways. We follow Cindy and Dean through two parallel linear chronologies charting both the birth of their relationship and the death of it. In the best moments, this plays less like a conceptual gimmick and more like a revelation, allowing you to see how the past and future are always connected. This reminded me of the brilliant stage musical The Last Five Years. Since I love both Years and Mike Leigh a great deal, trust that these comparison points are enormous compliments.


Michelle Williams proves again why she's one of the best young actresses working and Ryan Gosling is straight up fantastic nailing often daringly conflicted character details: he understands Dean's confidence and inferiority complex as well as both his volatility and gentleness. He's as specific here as he was in Half Nelson but the characterizations don't feel at all alike.

<-- Gosling, Williams and their screen daughter Faith Wladyka at the premiere in Park City

Two hander dramas only sizzle if the actors are in synch and the chemistry is strong here. As an added bonus both young stars are entirely believable in parenting scenes with their screen daughter and that isn't always the case [*cough* Brothers]. Blue Valentine isn't perfect, the ending feels only halfway worked-through and I understand Katey's quibble about the confusing geography (where are we exactly in both past and present?). It's often depressing and I know the movie won't play for everyone. But though it might be a minor achievement, it's definitely an achievement. A must see for fans of either actor and of romantic dramas in general.
B+/A-

happythankyoumoreplease
This is the writing and directing debut for Josh Radnor, better known as "Ted Mosby" on How I Met Your Mother. This is a touch like watching a mumblecore film performed by the cast of Friends. I don't mean to sound mean or glib, since it's a harmless and even optimistic movie. But there's a lot about it, from Malin Akerman's alopecia -- I don't understand how Malin Akerman is an indie actress now? Help me! -- to a huge plot thread involving a little foster care black boy, that plays in an artificial overscripted way rather than lived-in and felt. In short, it's a situation dramedy, that might work better as a TV show.

Best in show: Pablo Schreiber, brother of Liev, who has done a lot of television but who I was unfamiliar with. He plays a late twentysomething man who really loves his commitment-phobe girlfriend (Zoe Kazan) but is aching to take a next step of one sort or another in his life. He provides one of the most endearing, openly emotional reactions to a pregnancy announcement, I've ever seen captured on film.

happythankyoumoreplease was the last film I saw and when it ended I knew I had had enough so perhaps I was just grumpy (no movies for a week!). But I do think it provided welcome takeaway positivity. Whenever you're feeling grateful to the universe, say "thank you" and chase it with "more please." C

If I were passing out prizes

Best Pictures: The Kids Are All Right, I Am Love, Blue Valentine and Please Give
I'm not really sure how much I loved these four movies. I like to let things settle but I'd love to see each of them again as soon as possible. The festival climate sometimes messes with your reactions to movies.
Documentary: Last Train Home (runner up: Catfish)
Screenplay: The Kids Are All Right (runner up: Cyrus or Please Give)
Art Direction: The Runaways (runner up: Nowhere Boy)
Costume Design: The Runaways (runner up: Nowhere Boy)
Best Cinematography: I Am Love (runner up: The Runaways)
Best Editing: I Am Love (runner up: Blue Valentine)
Best Use of Music/Score: Blue Valentine (runner up: I Am Love)

Actress: Annette Bening for Mother & Child and The Kids Are All Right (runner up: Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine)
Actor: Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine (runner up: James Rollston, Boy)
Supporting Actress: (tie) Kristin Scott Thomas & Anne-Marie Duff in Nowhere Boy (runner up: Rebecca Hall, Please Give)
Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right (runner up: Jonah Hill, Cyrus)
Ensemble: The Kids Are All Right (runner up: Please Give)

Some people's favorite movie moments tend to be centered around action. I am more turned on by musical numbers so I have to shout those out... along with a couple other categories.


Best One Liners: Please Give (runner up: Cyrus)
Best Sex Scene: Tilda Swinton and Edoardo Gabbriellini in I Am Love (runner up: Gosling and Williams in Blue Valentine)
Best Use of Nudity: Body art in Vegetarian
Best Gimmick: Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for the entirety of Buried
Seven Best Musical Moments: "You Always Hurt the Ones You Love" (I think that's the song?) performed by Ryan Gosling (with an assist from Michelle Williams) in Blue Valentine ; "Thriller" performed by the cast of Boy; "Blue" performed by The Bening in The Kids Are All Right; "Cherry Bomb" performed by Dakota Fanning and cast in The Runaways; "Aborigine" performed by Rocky McKenzie and cast in Bran Nue Dae; "Don't You Want Me" performed by John C Reilly (with an assist from Marisa Tomei) in Cyrus. Dancing at the Late Night Lodge performed by Nathaniel and Parker Posey. Sorry, I'll shut up about that now. But can you blame me for obsessing?
*
SUNDANCE IS OVER. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. i.e. Oscar nomination hoopla and this site's own Film Bitch awards.

Sundance Day 8: Parker Posey, Cyrus and Nowhere Boy

In which all celluloid begins to bleed together, sickness wins out, and Nathaniel loses his mind (from now on, shorter festival trips!). But, just when all hope for sanity is lost as Sundance winds down, Nathaniel dances with Parker Posey at a party! Nathaniel is elated. And no, I don't know why Nathaniel is speaking in the third person either.

Awesome Parker. As friendly as she is talented.
And fun to dance with, too. She was on the competition jury

Cyrus
The Duplass brothers (Mark and Jay), have been steadily rising stars in the indie scene with contributions to films like Humpday, Baghead and The Puffy Chair among many others. Their latest, which they wrote and directed, looks like a breakthrough... at least where mainstream attention is concerned. This is why people cast "name" actors. It wins attention and quite often name actors are names for a reason: talent. There's not a dud performance in the film. John C Reilly plays a sad sack divorcee, Catherine Keener is his ex-wife who worries about him, and Marisa Tomei is the angel he falls for. Because this is a movie, she falls right back. It's all quite funny and just off kilter enough to be surprising. All this despite being the umpteenth billion flick to reinforce that venerable straight male fantasy: yes, any type of guy no matter his appearance, serotonin levels, aspirations, past history or employment status, can and will win incredibly hot chicks. One wonders where homely girls are supposed to go for love?

A few notes on the performances: Catherine Keener is playing warm Catherine Keener [there's two primary modes: smart-bitchy and smart-warm. Both are wonderful... though the most exciting are the performances that veer off into complicating Keenerisms like in Capote and Please Give]; Marisa Tomei continues to be one of the most enduring and endearing actresses of her generation. She's wonderful here as a fun-loving woman who loves too fiercely and impulsively not be blinded by it; Jonah Hill plays her needy manipulative son (he's very funny) and John C Reilly her needy and only slightly manipulative boyfriend. The film is smart enough to see the parallel even if it finds that more amusing than worrisome. B/B+

Finally, I ask you this: Parker Posey was the queen of '90s indies and Catherine Keener the queen of '00s indies. When exactly is Keener going to be dethroned? It seems like she's still pretty comfy on that throne. Or am I forgetting someone...

Nowhere Boy
Director Sam Taylor Wood, who previously made the great short Love You More (see previous post) and her star Aaron Johnson (soon to be seen in Kick-Ass), pictured right, were much talked about at Sundance. Both of their stars are rising (this is her first feature but she's already a famous artist, this is his first high profile role with a probable blockbuster to follow) and they're also engaged and pregnant... not just with possibility. She's 42 and he's 19 which helps with the 'much talked about' bit.

Nowhere Boy, which has already been up for film prizes in Britain, will make it to the States in 2010 hopefully and it's well worth seeing. It's a biopic on John Lennon. The Young John Lennon as it were. Like Capote, it gains a lot of impact by tightly focusing on one specific time period and arc in its subject's life. Taylor Wood definitely has a gift with visuals and the film is always pleasing to look at. Johnson holds his own in the central role as the cocky but emotionally confused Lennon but the true stars of the picture are Kristin Scott Thomas as "Mimi" (interviewed here a year ago) and Anne-Marie Duff (James McAvoy's wife) as "Julia" who play estranged sisters -- Lennon's aunt and mother respectively -- and the most formative women in the musician's life. Pre Yoko that is. Both actresses are wonderful, refusing any standard biopic reduction into "mother figure" and becoming as compelling and three-dimensional as John Lennon himself, without the aid of the audience's pre-identification or projection. The Beatle's teenage anger at his mother figures gets a little wearying before the movie is over (grow up already!) and it ends rather abruptly but, all in all, it's a fine first film. I can't wait to see what Taylor Wood does next.


Cyrus: B/B+ (leaning B+)
Nowhere Boy: B/B+ (leaning B+)
Dancing with Parker Posey: A/A+ (leaning A+)

Which celebrity would you most like to dance with? Do tell in the comments.

Previously
Day 1: Travel Nightmare
Day 2: Late Arrival for Asian Day: Last Train Home, Vegetarian
Day 3: Marathon Day: Waiting for Superman, Splice, Bran Nue Dae, Boy, Please Give
Day 4: I Am Love, Buried
Day 5,6: Holy Rollers, The Runaways, Mother and Child, Catfish
Day 7: Gay Day: The Kids Are All Right and Contracorriente

next: a few more movies and my personal awards for the fest.

Sundance Day 7: The Kids Are All Right & Undertow

I wrote up the the two best gay films, the lesbian dramedy The Kids Are All Right (which sold to Focus Features) and the Peruvian closeted romance Contracorriente "Undertow" (which sold to Wolfe) for Towleroad, so click on over and read my reviews.


But for those of you who are hopeless Oscar addicts (I feel and share your pain), I'm certain you've already begun thinking about Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. I'd advise more caution with its awards prospects than you're hearing 'round the net.

This is already a case study in how buzz becomes immediate deafening hype through the speed of online regurgitation and hyperbole. The movie is definitely a charmer but one of its best and most curious attributes is the laid back and breezy way it approaches complicated people and tense situations.

Laid back and breezy, as you may know, aren't Oscar's favorite moods. And they're also fragile feelings, the type that excessive expectations can smother. I hope that Focus releases it in the summer actually, a la Little Miss Sunshine, rather than building a year of crushingly heavy expectations onto a small and frisky film.

<--- God visiting Park City to promote Kids

It'd be politically satisfying if Oscar went for a funny lesbian family film but they're generally more conservative than that. The initial reaction to The Kids Are All Right at Sundance was compared in several articles to the Little Miss Sunshine premiere a few years ago. That's not a bad comparison point when it comes to the performances, which have definite dramatic detailing but are also comedic. No one towers above anyone else so any golden attention will have to develop organically, with no obvious slam dunk "roles", the kind that win instant awards traction. We'll see how it shakes out.

Annette Bening's performance felt unusually authentic to me. What's more you already know that darkly comic family dinner sequences are a Bening specialty. Mark Ruffalo has the most difficult role in the film I think. There are so many ways this performance could have gone wrong and he makes splendid highly specific choices about his character. It's his best work since You Can Count on Me. Julianne Moore, on the other hand, has the Oscar advantage of having the film's big climactic monologue and the most screen time. But that's a minor point since this is truly an ensemble film, all five characters getting plenty of the movie's attention.

Unless Julianne or Annette have other roles released this year that interfere with this film's eventual campaign, I assume that they'll demote Moore to supporting and push Bening as lead. It's the same "top/bottom" situation I accurately predicted for Brokeback Mountain's Oscar campaigns (before anyone knew what that movie was like) only with women so we're speaking figuratively: Bening is the bread winning head of the household and Moore, her younger flightier wife, is more of a big sister type of mom.

I hope you all see and enjoy it but I really hope this warm funny experience isn't spoiled by expectations of golden statuettes.

once again, my review.
*

Sundance Day 5 & 6: The Runaways, Mother and Child, and More...

The day in which Nathaniel got sick (cough sneeze), wanted to jump on Ari Graynor (with love!), saw Paul Dano at a party (quite adorable), went to a gay party by himself (absolute torture) and saw a few movies. Which is what we're here to talk about. So here goes...

Holy Rollers
I've seen more than enough drug dramas in my lifetime but this one is about an ecstasy smuggling ring with Hasidic Jews as couriers. So ...that's new. Movies with unusual premises or angles win initial "potential" points right off the bat. Jesse Eisenberg plays Jesse Eisenberg again... only with payot. (somebody needs to start stretching. I'm just sayin'). He plays Sam Gold who, despite the fact that he's living an Orthodox life, he soon dives deep into crime with an older friend and fellow Hasid (Justin Bartha), as his guide. Ari Graynor, whom I love yet more with each new movie, plays their bosses arm candy. She enjoys torturing (i.e. flirting with) the Jewish boys and delighting me in my theater seat. There's a certain punch to a couple of the performances and the milieu is interesting, but I wish the movie were stronger. It lacks a certain urgency that's necessary for crime dramas (even non-violent ones like this) but the religious backdrop was refreshing. Holy Rollers also accepts and doesn't judge the way that people often retreat into religious ritual and habit, whenever they feel threatened by the waters they've tested outside. C+

P.S. At one point Ari Graynor offers Jesse ecstasy on her tongue. I've never done E but I've never been more tempted. I am becoming obsessed with Ari Graynor. Help me!

Mother and Child
The premise goes like so: Mother "Karen" (Annette Bening), pregnant when she was only 14, gave up Child "Elizabeth" (Naomi Watts) for adoption. Both of them live the next 37 years deeply affected by this decision. Mother spends the rest of her life thinking about this girl and who she might have become. Bening's performance, typically strong, is all brittle self-punishing defeat. Karen's anger isn't only internal, she's got enough of it to spread around, keeping potential friends and would be lovers at a (safe) distance. Bening has played icy women before but Karen feels like a fresh creation. There's no theatricality to her rudeness, no joy in her solitude.

Elizabeth, meanwhile, has become a skilled successful lawyer. Like her mother she also lashes out, only she knows she's doing it. There's an unsettling 'I dare you' challenge in her gaze and she seems to greatly enjoy undermining the happiness of neighbors and angling for power in her relationship with her boss (Samuel L Jackson). It's a difficult unlikeable character to wrap your head around. Watts is typically intense but she doesn't find a way to make the ice queen thaw feel like more than a forced screenplay choice. There's a third would be Mother in the film "Lucy" (Kerry Washington) and the film also runs into some trouble here. All the parallels and connections began to feel too schematic and less than organic.

Writer/director Rodrigo García's career from Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her through his television work and to Nine Things suggests that he loves actresses as much as I do. I thank him for that but next time I hope he loves them more spontaneously and energetically. Mother and Child has both sorrow and warmth but it needed more fire in its (pregnant) belly. C+

The Runaways
Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart all came to town for the festival to promote this rock star bio film. And Sunday night Jett even performed -- she still loves rock and roll -- but I was not invited. The universe is cruel that way.


Though I had my worries about Kristen Stewart portraying this iconic 80s rock star, the mimicry seems to have encouraged her to drop some of the usual tics that she brings with her when playing fictional characters. She's fine here even though, as it turns out, she's nearly a supporting character despite her top billing. We meet Joan first but by the time Dakota Fanning takes the mic as the "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb" jailbait, the catalyst for their success as the film argues, the film is hers. Or maybe it's Michael Shannon's? He gives the only comic performance in the film as their manager.

Director Floria Sigismondi has fashioned a visually exciting bio that is refreshingly punk in spirit: she doesn't shy away from the unsavory reckless behavior, the sexually fluid promiscuity (yes, Dakota & Kristen get it on), or the money-minded exploitation of underage Cherie. Speaking of: what will people make of the parallel exploitation of Dakota Fanning in this role? For all the snap of the music, the fun of the period details and the colorful aesthetic, The Runaways is hit and miss. Like many biopics, it suffers from a repetitive nature and some missed opportunities in focus and character development, particularly within the supporting cast who barely seem to exist. B

Catfish
The next day sidelined by general sickness miserabilism, I only took in one movie: the extremely buzzy documentary about... well, here's the catch. You're not allowed to talk about what it's about. I wrote a little bit more about it in my weekly Tribeca column. B+

What have you been watching this past week? Have you ever been to Sundance.
*

Sundance Day 4: I Am Buried, Love!

An easy day for me after the day 3, 5 film marathon (scroll down). I saw just 2 films. There would've been 3 but for a bus mishaps. Boo. Have also developed an irritating persistent cough. I blame all this fresh mountain air. My lungs are citified.

lo sono l'amore (I Am Love)
I'll have more to say about this Italian stunner as it approaches release but I'm too sick to parse it at the moment. So for those of you who are tweetless, I share this exchange between Guy Lodge and I.


I've rediscovered here at Sundance that I tend to respond best to visually driven films. Another critic I sat with at I Am Love complained that it kept him at a certain remove and that's totally true so long as you're speaking about its narrative or dialogue but the emotional content was all in its at first stately and then increasingly baroque rush of images and score. B+/A-? [I also suspect that I liked The Runaways better than most because I dug the visuals from director Floria Sigismondi, another contestant in the long line of great music video directors who made their way into feature films. But that's a story for another post.]

One more thing about I Am Love. I find it amusing that the initial foreign poster and the American poster are basically the same thing but for the star-f***ing.


Not only do three characters get cropped out to focus on the nuclear family, but it's also becomes all about Tilda Swinton. The font obscures the other actors and loops around to create a Bust of Movie Star. Place her sculptural beauty on your mantle.

...by which I mean buy a ticket when the film opens later this year.

Buried
The announcement that this accurately named thriller had been bought by Lionsgate -- who made (tidal) waves for the Sundance acquisition Precious last year -- came shortly before the screening for critics. I don't usually do this but I spent some of the movie and a good deal of time after the movie, thinking about how they could possibly market it. The movie takes place entirely inside a coffin with Ryan Reynolds as the unfortunate American truck driver trapped inside. He wakes up to this nightmare at the beginning of the film with only a cel phone and a lighter (and unfortunately all of his clothing). Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés displays enough technical creativity here in sound, lighting and shot differentiation that the gimmick is sustained surprisingly well. But how will they ever do a trailer without revealing the onion being peeled as it were? The fun (if such a thing can be called fun) is in how the story, predicament and politics are parceled out. And if you see a lot of that in the trailer... B

P.S. [*light spoiler*] I'm tempted to pettily subtract a grade due to the completely unimaginative voice casting. You'll never believe this but ubiquitous character actor Stephen Tobolowsky (in one of the voice roles) plays an asshole! Shocking right? When you hear that voice you simply know, thereby ruining one of the film's nastiest surprises.

Sunday Day 3: Mad Genetic Scientists, Evil Unionized Teachers and Guilty Rich Folk

Five movies in one day is a common enough festival occurrence but I can't say I recommend it. It's fun to chat with fellow film fans when lining up for festival screenings but it can be highly embarrassing when someone asks you "Nathaniel, what did you see today?" and you can't remember. Speaking hypothetically [cough].

Yes, I did have to look up what I saw yesterday in order to share it with you now. Let's take them in ascending order of preference.

Waiting for Superman
This documentary about our nation's education crisis was riding a solid wave of buzz when I saw it. I can't share in the enthusiasm I kept hearing on buses and in lines. It's an easy familiar sit, using talking heads, animation interludes, and familiar TV history moments in the pursuit of its thesis. It's hard not to feel for the struggling adorable kids and parents that the film follows, though one has to wonder why the filmmakers chose to follow so many of them given how much statistical ground and educational ideologies the film also wants to cover (the sidebar issues are forgotten and revived haphazardly throughout). These kids are dreaming of college but statistics are against them. Most of them will end up in poorly performing middle schools and and "dropout factory" high schools. A lot of salient points were raised but this was one of those documentaries that left me wondering how much they'd left out in order to make their point, especially because the last act plays like a commercial for charter schools and constructs a clear movie villain out of teacher's union. C-

Splice
This horror/thriller was part of the 'Park City at Midnight' series. If you've ever been to a film festival you'll know that the midnight section is basically the punk rock bin. The films are meant to be raucous, offensive, strange or violent. They dream of "cult classic" status. Splice follows a romantic couple (played by Sarah Polley & Adrien Brody), who appear to be rock stars of the genetic engineering world. They even dress like they're about to perform for a club's worth of inebriated worshipful fans when they head in to the lab.

Sarah Polley makes a new friend. Literally.

The film kicks off with a smartly filmed "birth" sequence. The scientists create "Ginger and Fred" (hee), two lumpy slugs created from mixed and matched DNA. I won't bore you with the sci-fi gobbledy-gook science or spoil the icky surprises. Let is suffice to say that things don't go the way the scientists plan and their corporate sponsors ask them to redirect their efforts elsewhere. Our rock star engineers pretend to do just that. Meanwhile they continue playing god, making an animal human hybrid they name "Dren". Movies always punish scientists for playing god so you know where this is going. The best I can say for the feature is that Dren is spectacularly disturbing. Director/co-writer Vincenzo Natali manages to sustain a level of creepiness surrounding this... thing... that's pretty impressive. If anything Dren becomes more and more disturbing with familiarity, something you can't say for most movie monsters. Unfortunately, the other parts of the movie don't play as well: the acting seems stilted but insufficiently stylized, the humor often falls flat, and some important backstory details are only brought in as plot devices. But still... creepy. C+

Bran Nue Dae
This wacky Australian musical is about an aboriginal boy who doesn't want to stay in his religious boarding school. He'd rather be at home romancing his girl. This is not okay with Father Benedict (Congratulations hambone Geoffrey Rush. For once, you're not the most over-the-top thing in one of your films!) who chases after the runaway. Bran Nue Dae is contagiously enthusiastic but I wish it were better. It's sloppily assembled and its over the top antics begin to grate before it wraps up. But it is fun. I'm not denying that. It's particularly great counterprogramming at a film festival since film festivals aren't known for "silly". And 24 hours later I'm still humming the sardonic spirited closing number

There's nothing I would rather be than to be an aborigine.
And watch you take my precious land away..."

There's nothing like musical comedy so long as you're in the right mood for it. B-

Boy
Did you ever see the Oscar nominated short Two Cars, One Night? It simply watched children in parked cars, and the way they communicated as they waited for their parents to finish up with adult activities in a local bar. This feature from the same director Taika Cohen is inspired by that wonderfully suggestive short. You're still dealing with the way children react to the adult world that confuses them and the way they treat each other. Your protagonist this time goes by "Boy" (played by the wonderfully expressive James Rolleston, pictured right). He's obsessed with Michael Jackson and his own loser father, who he idolizes. When his father returns from a stint in prison, Boy's world is upended and he's forced to grow up a little, even though he's already essentially parenting his little brother and a swarm of cousins whose parents are never at home.

The film gets a good dose of laughs from its 80s era obsession (E.T., a number of hit American TV series, and the whole Thriller phenomenon) but Cohen also has a finely tuned visual comic sensibility as a director. He knows when to let a joke play out, when to cut away and when to let loose with imaginative childlike flourishes. He's not as successful at directing himself (he plays the often buffoonish father) and though the film sometimes struggles to find the right balance between comedy and pathos, it's a sweet well rendered coming of age story. Future sleeper hit status awaits. B

Catherine Keener is a giver. Oliver Platt not so much

Please Give
This comedy is quite a rebound for writer/director Nicole Holofcener. It's not that her last feature Friends With Money didn't have its charms but it amplified what can sometimes be schematic in her work: her titles are right on the nose with the characters as variations on its theme. On the other hand this obviousness has its charms. Why conceal your theme when it's so unusually specific and delivered with such a distinct voice? Please Give manages the neat trick of being sharply unsentimental and also loving and, better still, very funny.

Holofcener's chief muse Catherine Keener is front and center as a well off antiques dealer. She's constantly beset by guilt and assuages it with generosity. She and her husband (Oliver Platt) are waiting for their ancient next door neighbor Andra (a wonderfully tart Ann Gulbert) to die so that they can have her apartment but they throw her birthday parties to make nice. What makes Please Give such a generous movie is how fond it is of all of its characters and their hangups, too. Keener and Platt work well together as a couple who've lost the spark, their marriage flatlining into a friendship and business partnership. Even better are Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet (pictured) who play dissimilar sisters reacting to the "vultures" waiting for their grandmother to kick the bucket and dealing with issues of their own. Highly recommended. Especially if you like talky neurotic comedies. B+

Sundance Day 2: Last Flight Train To Vegetarianism

Time travel with me to yesterday
(and be back tonight for txtcritic's SAG liveblogging!)

So I did actually make it to Utah. Picked up press badge -- they apologized that my lanyard was pink. I promise you, festival volunteers, I'm not offended. Although I prefer the term 'lavender' -- and collapsed in hotel room for an hour. Went to first movie which, as it turned out, was a major slap-in-face perspective wise: it's tough to think about how much complaining I did about my 19 hour trip to get to a film festival in a resort town in the face of the world's largest hellish annual migration to places far less glamorous.

Last Train Home
Every year in China, millions upon millions of migrant workers travel out of the cities en masse for the Chinese New Year. It's the only time they see their families in the country all year. A more traditional documentary might have opened with a ton of onscreen text or talking head facts to tell you about this chaotic commuting phenomenon. Instead the film opens with evocative images of the migration, instantly engaging this Westerner's curiosity with only the slimmest factual details in text form, the rest you fill in from the drama you're watching. After the stunning opening, the film backtracks to watch a husband and wife working in the city and struggling to get tickets for this annual journey. Once we've settled in with the chatty worried mother and the quiet dad with unconcealed sadness all around his eyes, we travel with them to the bittersweet family reunion. It quickly sours. Their teenage daughter resents their annual lecture-heavy visits "stay in school, don't become like us" since she feels she barely knows them and they didn't raise her, their young son, who seems to have a bright sense of humor, might soon feel the same way since they harp on his grades continually. The family argues and everyone makes vague future promises everyone else knows they won't keep. And just when we're settling into the family drama, we're back in the city, the family separated again with the parents working their hands to the bone to provide cheap clothing to Westerners.


The subject is so rich that it could have easily prompted a multiple character examination or a lengthy complex fact-oriented talking head style docs. There's no 'talking heads' as it were, and even when the family members speak for the benefit of the camera, they'll rarely look at it... all of which makes this an intimate fly-on-the-wall experience. It's so hands off observational that it feels thisclose to being a dramatic narrative feature. For the most part this aesthetic is a strength but its not without its drawbacks. There's one breaking of the fourth wall moment that I'm not sure works -- despite taking place within the film's most gripping heartbreaking scene, since it makes you realize how much of the family story you might be missing since people know they're being filmed and all stories can be manipulated in the editing.

It's a heartbreaker but it's not without levity. We occasionally hear brief conversations among other migrant workers about their jobs, about the "fat" Westerners they know they're working for (the waist sizes on the jeans they make alarm them), about the Beijing Olympics (One man in a bar proclaims that the United States shouldn't win that many medals because they only have like 3 million citizens. Um...) and more of this would have been welcome since there's a lot of context and information that's only inferred but that we come closer to understanding in these tangential moments. This film was directed by a Canadian filmmaker and in addition to being quite a documentarian he also has one of the coolest names ever "Lixin Fan". A-

In other migration news... more important news apparently, he said sarcastically, considering the percentage of tweeting about it, Kristen Stewart arrived in Utah today. Didn't her mother tell her to dress warmly? This won't do.

photo src

I'm trying to find a way to love the Bella because I'm desperate to see The Runaways but the paparazzi (and Kristen) never help me in this goal. Does any super famous person today seem more bored by their fame? Note to Kristen: If you're bored with it, why shouldn't we be? The celebrity/civilian relationship is tricky and sacred and requires abstract reciprocation. When you enjoy it, we enjoy it. That's how it works, generally speaking. There are several ways to play the non-enjoyment of it and still delight fans but boredom is the trickiest one to get away with. That one usually only works if you're bored by it because of your principled devotion/obsession/commitment to something else.

But back to the movies.

Because I was exhausted after my 19 hour trip, I met Katey briefly for a cocktail party (turns out its hard to maneuver through crowded industry events when half the people are wearing huge winter coats. Who knew?), and then took in only one more film before sleep hit. Actually while sleep hit.

Vegetarian (Chaesikjuuija)
Lim Woo-seong's Korean debut feature was just weird enough to be thoroughly engaging despite the nodding off I was doing. [I can't say how well paced it was. It felt 7 hours long but I was struggling with heavy lids. not the movie's fault!] Vegetarians will definitely take issue with the movie for the simple reductive fact that the title character is gaunt and unhealthy and her diet is never separable from her mental illness: which, its immediately clear, is considerable.Why this isn't clear to her family members at the outset of the film is hard to gauge. Maybe they're all crazy, too?

All of the characters make questionable choices, but especially her violent domineering father and her brother-in-law who takes over the latter half of the movie with a new art project involving nude floral body art. Naturally, he wants his sister-in-law for the job.

Indeed, there's enough disturbing behavior in Vegetarian to power three films. At times it feels like the premise has done just that, with a psychological thriller, erotic liaison drama and family portrait all vying for control of the film and none of them really winning the war. Chea Min-Seo's performance in the lead role is brave. For whole scenes this haunted woman will seem barely there (an audience unfriendly choice given that she has to carry the film) but then flickers of truly vivid emotion: pain, alarm, sadness, arousal will flash across her face. Which is basically how the movie plays too: haunted and remote, with suddenly intriguing moments to seize your interest. B-

P.S. Given that two of the last three films I've seen from Korea have given actresses incredible roles (and that doesn't even include this year's failed Oscar submission "Mother", pictured right, which I haven't yet seen), I'm wondering if Korea is an unexplored cinematic landscape for my actressexuality? Are any of you well versed in Korean cinema. Are there more actressy riches awaiting me? Or is this all coincidental?

Sundance Day 1: Howl at the Wind

My Sundance adventure is off to an extremely odd start. It's movie-less. I've been in Phoenix Arizona for so many hours now I feel like maybe I live here (gulp). And I don't know if you know this but Phoenix Arizona is not where the Sundance Film Festival takes place! Crazy ass rain and winds that want to grow up to be tornados have cancelled many flights. I was only supposed to switch planes! That was months ago.

Meanwhile, at the actual festival Howl premiered starring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg. They say he's pretty good in it, even if the movie is a mixed bag. I wanted to see this one but after last week I'm afraid I'll never be able to see Franco again without thinking of horny Japanese body pillows and threesomes with Liz Lemon. Oh 30 Rock you spoil us so!

A Japanese body pillow sounds awesome right about now. The airport floor is killing me. It's carpet that feels just like cement.

Sundance 2010 Preamble

I'm flying out to gorgeous Park City a week from today. I vow to not complain about the cold. I vow to not write boring posts about what I'm eating or the room in which I'm sleeping. I vow to try and complete at least the "oscar'ish" portions of the FB Awards before I leave.

Do me a solid and peruse the list of films on offer at Sundance. Let me know in the comments which films you're most interested in hearing about. Keep in mind that the star-laden films aren't always the ones to be at (Did you know Carey Mulligan's name at this time last year?). That said... Obviously I will see the Annette Bening / Julianne Moore lesbian epic (hey, it's epic to me) The Kids Are All Right. But what else should I make time for?

You can't see everything and there's a lot of cinema.

*

We Can't Wait #16 500 Days of Summer

Directed by first timer Marc Webb
Starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Synopsis Boy meets girl, boy and girl like each other, boy falls in love, girl doesn't quite yet.
Brought to you by The Sundance Film Festival
Expected Release Date July 24th

Whitney: Here in Salt Lake City, July 24th is "Pioneer Day," and I will be spending my Pioneer Day seeing 500 Days of Summer. Not only is the cast adorable and fairly trustworthy (All the Real Girls and Brick being two of my favorite recently released films) but this seems to be a romantic comedy done right. My husband and I covered the Sundance Film Festival for Film Threat and he got to see 500 Days of Summer. He's a romantic comedy person by nature (whereas I'm a horror gal), but he said it was the best one since Love Actually. That sounds pretty good.

Nathaniel: I'm suspicious. Are you sure you got that synopsis right. How does one not quite fall in love with JG-L?

Fox: If I was a kid and heard that a film called 500 Days of Summer was coming out, I would be ecstatic! Think about how over-the-top lovely and seductive a title like that is. It's like "300 Presents for Christmas", "800 Puppies on Your Birthday" or "2000 Coffee Dates w/ Nathaniel".

Hold tight Whitney... it's only 176 days until 500 Days of Summer!

Joe: I had started following this movie back over the summer solely because I liked the of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt headlining a movie, and I called them "Joooey" because I am also the kind of gay that means "lame."


But then I was pretty well knocked out by the trailer, and the word out of Sundance (including raves for JGL) has me very, very excited to see this. Even the negative reviews were saying things like "too precious," and I always end up liking those kind of movies.

JA: I've been in love with Zooey ever since she told that old lady to get peed on and I've loved JGL ever since he trolled for gay sex in a park bathroom. So these two seem like a naturally fun fit. Skinny emo indie kids in love! Watch them warble and bat their big eyes! I know that sounds smart-assy but I really can't wait to do just that.

Fox: I have spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out if "Joooey" should be pronounced like "Joe"-"ey" or "Jew"-"ey". I've never seen three Os in a row before and it's kind of freaking my sh*t out!

Joe: The preferred pronunciation of Joooey is "Joey," but you have to hold on to the "oh" sound for a little bit.

Nathaniel: Too precious ???


In case you missed any entries they went like so...
*
We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
*

We Have Nothing to Link but Link Itself

DListed Sophia & Daniel on location for Nine
A Room of One's Own "youth" in cinema
Coraline I love this new teaser with author Neil Gaiman (if you've never read his books, start doing so now. That's an order!)
/Film "extra pulp" t-shirts. I love
In Contention Oscar Race. Phase Two.


Trust Movies appreciates Michael Sheen (well, someone has to)
Buzz Sugar Sundance awards roundup
Defamer Michael Cera is the lone holdout for the Arrested Development movie?
Out in Hollywood talks to the producers of Milk

off cinema (just cuz it needs to be shared)
fourfour and the entitled homeless woman
i09 interesting piece on Battlestar Galactica. Is it still relevant in Obama America? (Though, isn't it a little early to be defining the Obama era? He's only been in office a few days)