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 The 2017 Sundance film festival starts tomorrow and I'm going, like I have been doing the last seven years. Usually I go and try to write a topic for it after the fact and sometimes I manage it and sometimes I get lazy and don't do that because it's a ton of writing (especially all the shorts). This year I thought I'd make the topic now and post about the movies during the down times in the festival (which there are many) so the movies will be fresh and also so when I fail to do that it will be more shameful than when I just don't have a topic at all. This shouldn't just be about me though. If anyone else is going, feel free to take over and post about your experiences and what you're seeing and if you're not going just post about what you're hearing from the festival and what you're hyped about. If you hear about something that sounds awesome, let me know and I'll try and see if I can manage to get a ticket in the times when I currently I have nothing. Anyways, this year seems like it's gonna suck. The lineup is one of the most uninspired lineups I've ever seen at the fest. I'm up to my ears in movies that are nothing but the shittiest of Indie cliches. Still, the last time I said that was the best year I've ever had at the fest (where I saw such movies as Beast of the Southern Wild, The Raid, V/H/S and It's Such a Beautiful Day). I currently have tickets to 20 screenings and I'll tell you what I got along with what the catalog descriptions are below. Saturday Shorts Program 2 quote:Kao Shi (A Test) Shorts Program 5 quote:Mare Nostrum Midnight Shorts quote:Do No Harm Sunday Free and Easy quote:Under a tin-gray sky, in a hollowed out corner of northern China, a stranger arrives in town bearing magical soap—but smelling it will cost you. Nearby, a pair of unenthused cops try cracking a seemingly simple case. Or not. And you can forget religious solace; the only monk around is not what he seems. The Discovery quote:What would you do if there was proof of an afterlife? The answer to this question is rivetingly explored in The Discovery, where world-renowned physicist Doctor Thomas Harber (Robert Redford) is able to scientifically prove the existence of an afterlife—but with dire consequences. His estranged son, Will (Jason Segel), tries to confront the situation by returning to the New England–esque island where he grew up. He crosses paths with Isla (Rooney Mara), who's returning to the island for mysterious reasons of her own. The tale unfolds over the ensuing days as the regret of past choices forces these lost characters to reflect on how they've gotten to where they are. ICARUS quote:The ruthless worlds of international sports and politics rarely collide as spectacularly on screen as they do in Bryan Fogel’s thriller that is sure to set off convulsions of controversy. Colossal quote:Horror master Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes) returns to the Sundance Film Festival with another mind-bending genre film that was an audience favorite at the Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest. Monday Documentary Shorts quote:Waiting for Hassana Surprise Midnight Movie quote:TBA Tuesday Animation Spotlight quote:Summer Camp Island XX quote:Gather round if you dare for four murderous tales of supernatural frights, predatory thrills, profound anxiety, and Gothic decay in the first all-female-driven horror anthology film. Audacious new works from some of the genre's most promising voices—Annie Clark (better known to fans as St. Vincent), Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Girlfight), Roxanne Benjamin (Southbound), and Jovanka Vuckovic (former editor of Rue Morgue magazine)—bring forth a study in the proper unspooling of dread for your viewing pleasure. Raw quote:An electrifying film that took Cannes by storm upon its premiere in the Critics’ Week section this past May, Julia Ducournau’s wild, primal, flesh-eating marvel, Raw, boldly introduces a major new French talent to the world stage. Wednesday The Good Postman quote:On the eastern edge of Bulgaria, bordering Turkey, amid wizened orchards and an ancient patchwork of farmlands, sits a poor and sleepy hamlet that time seems to have forgotten. Despite the sparse population of silver-haired citizens wistful for the brighter days of communism, democracy is in full force as the village prepares in earnest for its mayoral election. Meanwhile, an endless train of Syrian refugees bound for Europe silently traipses through the rural terrain, visible through the binoculars of one gentle and taciturn candidate, the postman. Shorts Program 1 quote:I Know You From Somewhere Thursday Carpinteros (Woodpeckers) quote:Tall, dark, and handsome, Julián steps off a bus, hands over his clothes, gets his long curly locks chopped off, and becomes fresh meat walking inside the Najayo Prison in the Dominican Republic. He locates his cellblock underneath the moist corner where the Woodpeckers perch. Woodpeckers—prisoners who romance ladies incarcerated at the women’s prison 150 meters across the way—spend their days in affectionate conversation with their lovers through sign language. When Julián encounters Yanelly, a gorgeous spitfire of a woman, he finds love in the last place he imagined. Now he must find a way, through cement, barbed wire, dozens of guards, and murderous exes to win Yanelly’s love, all the while keeping it secret. Bushwick quote:On the way to Grandma’s house with a new boyfriend in tow, Lucy (Brittany Snow) steps off the subway into an utter bloodbath on the streets of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. Texas is attempting to secede from the Union, and militia forces have descended upon New York City to claim it as an East Coast base of operations and negotiation tool. Faced with a flurry of whizzing bullets and total destruction around every corner, Lucy takes shelter in the basement of Stupe (Dave Bautista), a burly war veteran who reluctantly helps her traverse the treacherous five-block stretch of Bushwick to reach her destination—assuming it’s still there. Marjorie Prime quote:Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie’s “Prime” relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop ever diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past. Friday Kuso quote:Broadcasted through a makeshift network of discarded televisions, this story is tangled up in the aftermath of Los Angeles's worst earthquake nightmare. Travel between screens and aftershocks into the twisted lives of the survived. Burning Sands quote:In his freshman year of college, it seems Zurich has everything going for him; he has the respect of his teachers and university administration, the love and devotion of a wonderful girlfriend, and he’s been selected for admission to a prestigious black fraternity on campus. But as Zurich embarks on the Hell Week of pledging his fraternity, the harsh trials of entry into brotherhood begin to test the limits of his self-worth. As the intensifying abuse begins to become untenable, Zurich struggles to honor the fraternity’s code of silence, and the scaffolding of his life outside the frat begins to dismantle. Saturday Lemon quote:saac Lachmann has seen better days. His acting career is tanking, while his colleagues succeed; his blind girlfriend of 10 years plans to leave him; and his own family singles him out as a constant disappointment at their latest reunion. Even as he takes a chance on new romance, Isaac struggles to define his place in a world that has seemingly turned against him. So I think it's pretty clear where my tastes lean in all this. Still have a ton of gaps in my schedule. Here are a few things I'm hoping to see but don't yet have tickets to and also have gaps in my schedule when I could see them: World Without End (No Reported Incidents) quote:Known for decades as a visual poet, filmmaker Jem Cohen has captured various corners of the world with a perceptive eye. Often filming by himself, Cohen takes a camera (16mm film, and more recently, video) and walks on the street like a modern-day Walker Evans, capturing images of people and landscapes in our smallest moments—everyday faces, vacant street corners, trinkets in windows, all the things we might see sitting on the bus and wish we could see again in a film. Though the vivid images and natural sounds in his films are usually of the outside world, we learn a lot about ourselves: our loves, our fears, and our dreams. I Don't Feel Home In This World Anymore quote:Ruth, a depressed nursing assistant, returns from work to find dog poo poo on her lawn and her house burglarized, the thief having made off with her silverware and laptop. Losing faith in the police (and possibly humanity as a whole), Ruth starts her own investigation, joining forces with her erratic neighbor–and dog poo poo culprit–Tony. Upon locating the laptop, they trace it back to a consignment store, leading them to a gang of degenerate criminals and a dangerous, bizarre underworld where they’re way out of their depth. Ghost Story quote:Lauded filmmaker David Lowery, last at the Festival with the lyrical Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), reunites with his collaborators for a haunted tale like no other—one conceived in secret and fueled by the spirit of pure, creative expression. Landline quote:The Manhattan of 1995: a land without cell phones, but abundant in CD listening stations, bar smoke, and family dysfunction. Enter the Jacobs. Eldest daughter Dana’s looming marriage to straight-laced Ben prompts a willful dive into her wild side, while her younger sister, Ali, is still in high school but leads a covert life of sex, drugs, and clubbing. After discovering love letters penned by their father, the sisters try to expose his apparent affair while keeping it from their all-too-composed mother. So that's about all I have to type here right now. Hopefully I will actually be posting more during the fest.
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Jan 18, 2017 17:55
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 21:59 |
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Just adding that I also just got tickets to the following because nothing was playing across from it I wanted to see more and why not Diedra and Laney Rob a Train quote:Deidra Tanner is a whip-smart high school senior who sells answers to chemistry tests to save up for college, all the while helping her mother raise her stubborn little sister, Laney, and her brother, Jet. It’s more than your average teenager can handle, but Deidra runs a tight ship—that is, until Mom blows a mental gasket at her retail job and throws a high-end TV on the pavement. When Deidra realizes that jail time is ironically proving to be a healthy and therapeutic break from single parent life for her mom, her life is derailed. When she conjures up the will to face her new circumstances, Deidra focuses her talents on the train tracks in her own backyard. Seems a bit more precociously indie than I tend to go for, but maybe it'll be good.
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Jan 19, 2017 16:50
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Colossal's trailer seems batshit insane, should be fun. I absolutely loved The One I Love as well so The Discovery seems like it'd be at least competent with that director and cast. I Don't Feel Home In This World Anymore absolutely sounds like a Coen Bros plot and is the one I'm actually the most curious about.
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Jan 20, 2017 15:03
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Was there for 2016 and loved it. It's crazy how large the gap between Sundance and commercial release often is -- some of the films I watched there still aren't out yet.
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Jan 21, 2017 02:55
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Vegetable posted:Was there for 2016 and loved it. It's crazy how large the gap between Sundance and commercial release often is -- some of the films I watched there still aren't out yet. Some films just never get picked up. There are films I saw my first year that never got released or their release was extremely limited. The other weird thing is sometimes a movie can get incredible hype at Sundance and then just fizzle and die with not even any fanfare upon release (these days often going straight to streaming).
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Jan 21, 2017 03:08
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Was Colossal the one that the Godzilla rights owners threatened to sue over because of the sizzle reel? Edit: Yes it was. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150520/15284931068/godzilla-sues-godzilla-copyright-trolls-voltage-pictures-copyright-infringement.shtml Macdeo Lurjtux fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Jan 22, 2017 |
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Jan 22, 2017 07:09
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I haven't seen anything yet, but I'm really, really hoping to go to the Surprise Midnight tonight. I have tickets for I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore later this week. As for offscreen, Elijah Wood is a really good DJ, and if you have a chance to see Metropolis with a live score from Chrome Canyon, you should definitely go. The little snippet they played last night was real loving cool.
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Jan 23, 2017 15:52
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I'm gonna be at mystery midnight. That could go so many ways but if it's something amazing, I don't want to have missed it. I have a bunch of free time tomorrow so then I'll in theory type up some actual updates about what I've seen so. I will say Colossal will be hard to beat add best film of the fest for me
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Jan 23, 2017 22:28
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I was there on Monday because my brother wrote and directed Patti Cake$, a film about an overweight white girl from New Jersey who dreams of being a hip-hop star despite being an overweight white girl from New Jersey. My opinions on it are pretty moot because it's an obvious conflict of interests, but the response has been pretty amazing. Got two standing ovations at the screening, lots of great word of mouth, and Fox Searchlight bought the distribution rights for $10.5 million. So that rules.
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Jan 25, 2017 21:07
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That's not a movie that interested me at all but it's still cool to hear
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Jan 25, 2017 21:58
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Sadly, my Clint Howard-esque cameo as a pawn shop owner got cut.
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Jan 25, 2017 23:30
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I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore was pretty good, and definitely recommended for fans of Jeremy Saulnier. The violence and comedy didn't always hit with the same impact, and I felt like it really should have been shot in the South instead of the PNW (which was Macon Blair's original plan). Melanie Lynskey was great as always, Elijah Wood was funny, and it had a neat, clever script. It comes out on Netflix on Feb 24th, so check it out soon. I'm about to see The Good Postman, a documentary about a village on the Bulgarian/Turkey border and it's upcoming mayoral election.
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Jan 27, 2017 16:58
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Okay, I have like 40 minutes of free time and an actual computer. Let's see if I can get a little bit actually written! Shorts Program 2 Kao Shi (A Test) This focuses on a college cram teacher who much decide between telling one of his top students his father has died or not telling him so he does better on the ever important looming test, like the administration wants him to do. Shorts like this are hard to review if only because they're so typical and they try to say so much with as little as possible. It's interesting because it shows us a world we don't often see where something that would usually be the easy right thing to do, becomes a lot more complicated. The teacher has many reasons to not tell him not only for the boy's benefit but for the benefit of the school and the even himself. However, it still doesn't feel right and he also has the kind of greedy reason of not telling him because he's afraid the boy will become bitter towards him for holding onto the information. It's a short where the right thing feels so wrong it's very hard to tell if it's actually the right thing. It is also a situation where maybe it is meddling too much into their students lives but it still might be for his greater benefit. There's a ton going on here but the actual short is still just good so dwelling on it too much feels like a waste. GOOD CRAZY I'm not entirely sure if this was making fun of indie pixie girls or if it wanted us to sympathize with it's frankly irritating quirky character that just gets more eccentric as the short goes along. I'd like to lean towards it not wanting us to like her and the eccentric stuff she just does on a whim because the escalation of her antics is a pretty even upward slope, but on the other hand those around her are just shown as being the types you'd expect to be played off of in a typical indie pixie girl thing. In the end though I found this more irritating than amusing either way so even if the irritation was intentional, I still didn't really enjoy it. Dear Mr. Shakespeare A poem with really pretty, abstract performance art visuals about the complexities of the character of Othello and how the things a modern black actor might need to wrestle with when taking on the part. Really well done and pretty but not much to discuss because the short itself is the discussion and it feels redundant to repeat it. Rubber Heart Just a really awkward sex scene. That's about it really. I'm sure it was trying to say something about loniness and desperation with the whole thing but it didn't really come across in any interesting way so I really don't have that much to say. Had an oddly unfitting metal song to open with an even odder use of unreadable metal font for the title. Pedro Pointless gay short. Very long and awkward, without really revealing much about the experience. There may be something in the contrast of it's central character keeping his sexuality hidden from his mother and his own discomfort with his mom's sexuality but given how much time the latter aspect is given, I feel this might have been a bit of a reach. Opening music was cool at least Kaiju Bunraku EASILY the best short of the program that managed to take a traditional Japanese puppet theater show and put it in the world of Kaijus with a bit of character questioning his own existence as a character thrown on top. This short was at least co-directed by Jillian Mayer, who over the years has consistently been one of my very favorite creator of short films. There is a conflict in the short between the husband puppet who hates a life where his artwork is constantly destroyed by a story that he is but a bit player in, and his wife who just accepts her life and resigns herself to things beyond her control. Eventually the husband frees himself of the confines of the people that control him and finds himself in a world that he doesn't understand while the wife find herself alone, now aware of the confines of her world but still resigned to the same fate, but now alone. It's a very silly short, like most of Mayer's stuff tends to be, but it also has a ton of really weird and awesome stuff going on, which is also a consistent thing in her shorts. It's a cool interesting short in a program that sticks out like a sore thumb in this progrram. Slapper The long and short of this one is that an unpleasant girl thinks she might be pregnant and spends the day doing what she can to get money for a morning after pill while dragging along and mistreating the girl she's supposed to be babysitting. This was oddly similar to Good Crazy in that it followed a girl doing dumb unpleasant things but here it is clear that we aren't supposed to like her. In fact, this has the opposite problem in that the dislike is just so strong that it almost comes off as the filmmaker just looking down on these type of people. The girl feels like a parody of how people see the young lower class and as a result you never get much insight into this character because she doesn't seem real.
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Jan 27, 2017 23:29
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So I completely loved The Good Postman. It was beautifully shot and edited, it felt very cinematic and unfolded in a very narrative way. The first half was funny and had some great visual gags, then the second half was very emotional, particularly in the wake of current political actions regarding refugees. And it did that great documentary thing of telling a very personal, intimate story that resonates with much more universal ideas and truths about community, empathy, aging, powerlessness.
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Jan 28, 2017 03:01
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 21:59 |
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I'm behind on this thread because I've had to deal with preperations for moving and my general laziness but I'd thought I'd at least do my write up for Get Out now because that one is coming out any day now. Warning: while I will spoiler the actual spoilers, I will be getting pretty deep into the ending so read that stuff at your own risk. Get Out I was really excited for this movie from the first trailer and was loving psyched when it turned out to be the mystery midnight screening I took a chance on. Before I really discuss it's guts (which is hard to do without getting really spoilery} I'll just get the basics out of the way. Peele directs a an interesting and original horror film here. it's clear how much he loves the genre because the nods to other films are numerous and loving without actually being outright references. This is a movie that has many clear influences but doesn't really ape them so much as pull them all together to be it's own weird thing. If it's ripping off anything, it would probably be The Stepford Wives but even then it's a very different beast from that. Performance-wise, it's has a strong cast through and through with special shout outs to Daniel Kaluuya who anchors the film well and Allison Williams who makes some hard to work things work very well. For a horror movie it is happily very short on jump scares (though they are there) and relies more on the offness of situations and general tension. It does handle both sides equally strongly though. Early on there is a jump scare that is very well done with a long spinning shot that both gives you a good view of all the happenings so you don't feel cheated while still creating ramped up tension. On the other hand, the best and most tense shot in the entire film is a close up on someone's face as they're apologizing. The Comedy side of things is also fairly good (though not as prevalent as you'd expect), mostly focusing on the awkwardness of situations and a character that's in the TSA. I think that about covers what I can discuss unspoilered so now I'll just get into the rest after I set it up a bit. I think from the seeing the trailers you kind of suspect that underneath the friendly white family there's really a hidden Deliverance or People Under The Stairs. You'd suspect that this was going to all end up being a social commentary about the friendly face that conservatism puts on and then the real horrible monster of racism that lies beneath. That isn't quite the case. This movie is more about taking smug, "post-racism" liberalism and taking it at face value. Early in the movie you get people talking about how great black people are. The father talks fondly about Jesse Owens beating his father in the Olympics. He talks about how he would have voted for Obama a third time. People do the usual thing of saying how well spoken the main character is and how he really brings an urbaness to his art and so on and so on. For most of the movie you'll think this is just the usual insincere, talking down racist bullshit but it's not. These people really believe everything they're saying about how black people are better and they want that for themselves. This is a movie that takes bullshit backhanded compliments seriously and takes what that would mean to an extreme conclusion. It's a movie that asks "what if a white person really thought a black person was weirdly articulate?" and concludes that white people would do what they always do and take that for themselves like they deserve it. Like the characters in this movie aren't even really racist in some perverse way. They are so not racist that they themselves want to be black and will happily steal it. Characters you think are acting weird because they are being forced to by white people turn out to be white people trying their best to act black. The weird lawn ornament version of people they becomes is due to that being how the people controlling them think they would act rather than because of what you assume of it just being some weird brainwashing...well I mean it is just not how you think it is. One of the things I really like about this movie is that it doesn't really have a "holy poo poo" twist but it does have a plot that once you understand that going on, everything else makes just a little more sense and in not the way you expected it to. It's a movie that really fun to watch and then equally fun to later think back upon and realize how all that stuff fit in. I think it's literally coming out Friday as I'm writing this so I'm just gonna say go see it because it rules.
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Feb 21, 2017 21:45
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