“You Can Count On Me”
What It’s About:
Not, despite its title, an ’80s rom-com starring Patrick Dempsey and/or Jon Cryer, writer-turned-director Kenneth Lonergan’s debut feature follows single mother Samantha (Laura Linney) whose life is upended when Teddy (Mark Ruffalo), the troubled brother to whom she used to be very close, drifts back into her life.
Year It Played Sundance: 2000, which also featured “Girlfight,” “The Tao of Steve,” “Wonderland,” “Boiler Room”and “American Psycho.”
How Was It Received At The Time? Lonergan’s debut scooped both the Grand Jury Prize (shared with “Girlfight”) and the Screenwriting Prize at Sundance that year. Despite this, it failed to find a distributor at the festival, but its Sundance stamp of approval led to a string of appearances at other festivals and a plethora of awards, especially for the screenplay and for the performances from Ruffalo and Linney, and it was eventually picked up by Paramount Classics.
How Big Did It Get? The film cost $1.2 million to make and made $11 million back in theatrical release, so it yielded a decent return on investment. But it made a deeper impression in the careers it impacted: both Linney and Ruffalo experienced minor mid-career breakthroughs as a result, and Lonergan, to that point better known as a playwright and screenwriter (notably on Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York”; Scorsese would go on to be Lonergan’s producer and most high-profile champion), got to set up his directorial follow-up, “Margaret” on the back of its success. That film’s journey to the screen, however, would not be as straightforward, to put it mildly.
Is It Worth The Hype? While it feels like a lot of standard Sundance family/relationship dramas get overpraised coming out of the festival and ultimately can’t quite withstand the increased scrutiny that comes as a result, “You Can Count On Me” is the exception to that rule, entirely justifying its strong buzz with its warmth, humanism and depth of insight.
“Metropolitan”
What It’s About: A group of wealthy, upper-class New York college students return home for the winter break of their freshman year during the Debutante Ball season, where old and new relationship entanglements ensue.
Year It Played Sundance: 1990, with a lineup that also included “House Party,” “Longtime Companion,” “Cinema Paradiso” and “The Unbelievable Truth” (featured above).
How Was It Received At The Time? While some critics found the air of Stillman’s milieu just too rarefied, most received the film warmly, especially its fearless wordiness, with Roger Ebert identifying it as “dialogue…in which the characters discuss ideas and
feelings instead of simply marching through plot points as most Hollywood characters do” and “a film about people covering their own insecurities with a facade of social ease.”
How Big Did It Get? Stillman’s debut followed what has now become a fairly well-trodden path for Sundance breakouts: despite not picking up a distribution deal there immediately, the film rode its crest of Sundance buzz to an Academy Award nomination (for Screenplay) and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, before New Line picked it up the day before the director left for a triumphant run during Cannes‘ Directors’ fortnight. In the years since, the film’s stature has only grown as it launched Stillman’s uniquely ironic but warm, F. Scott Fitzgerald-style take on the foibles and flaws of the indolent, overeducated upper-classes.
Is It Worth The Hype? As far from his environment as we may be removed, we’re big fans of Stillman’s (retrospective here) and can always find something universal in even his more divisive films. And “Metropolitan” is still the best entry-level Stillman film, with the passing years not managing to blunt its crystal-cut dialogue at all.
“Little Miss Sunshine“
What’s It About: A dysfunctional family (headed by Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear), complete with suicidal gay uncle (Steve Carell), silent son (Paul Dano) and drug-addicted grandpa (Alan Arkin), take a road trip in a VW camper van to deliver their youngest member (Abigail Breslin) to a California beauty pageant.
Year It Played Sundance: 2006, where it was one of the most high-profile premieres. Other big movies that year included “The Illusionist,” “Lucky Number Slevin,” “The Science Of Sleep,” “Thank You For Smoking,” “Kinky Boots,” “Friends With Money,” “Alpha Dog” and, in the dramatic competition, “Half Nelson,” “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,” “Sherrybaby” and prize winner “Quinceanera.”
How Was It Received At The Time? Word was mostly very good, especially at the festival itself, where it was a word-of-mouth hit. Roger Ebert wrote that “you just won’t see a better acted, and better cast movie” and that it “harks back to the anti-establishment, countercultural comedies of the 1970s such as ‘Smile‘ or ‘Harold and Maude,’ ” while Manohla Dargis in the Times concluded “there’s a melancholy here that clings to this family, which however triumphant and united, may well remain stuck in the national Hooversville located at the crossroads of hope and despair.” But not everyone was on board: Dennis Lim wrote in the Village Voice from Park City that the film was “a
concentrated hit of Sundance pain.”
How Big Did It Get? Very, very big indeed. A huge audience hit at the fest, Fox Searchlight snapped it up for $10.5 million, plus 10% of the eventual gross, one of the biggest deals in festival history. And it paid off, too: the film took $60 million domestically, and a grand total of $100 million worldwide. It could also be one of the most successful Sundance movies at the Oscars, having earned four nominations including Best Picture, and, unlike fellow four-time nominee “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” winning two, for supporting actor Alan Arkin and writer Michael Ardnt (who went on to pen “Toy Story 3“). It also won the top prize from the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America.
Is It Worth The Hype? “Little Miss Sunshine” has, over the years, become something of a figurehead for ‘the Sundance movie’—quirky comedy with some sad bits, movie stars taking a pay cut, indie-rock soundtrack, bright marketing campaign, etc. Some of that is fair, but we’d argue that the film does a better job at what it sets to achieve than most of its imitators. Sure, it’s kind of a watered down “Flirting With Disaster,” to name but one, but Arndt’s script is both funny and compassionate, taking the characters and their situations seriously, and the direction, from feature debuting duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is tonally assured. The cast is pretty uniformly great too, especially Steve Carell.
“Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire”
What’s It About: In 1980s Harlem, an obese, abused teenager (Gabourey Sidibe) with two children is sent to an alternative school which offers her a rare glimmer of hope.
Year It Played Sundance: 2009, in competition, where “Sin Nombre,” “Big Fan,” “Adam,” “An Education,” “Bronson,” “(500) Days Of Summer,” “In The Loop,” “Moon” and “The Messenger” were among a strong line-up.
How Was It Received At The Time? Probably the buzziest film of a buzzy line-up, “Precious” (which premiered under its original title ” Push: Based On The Novel By Sapphire,” got mostly stellar reviews at the festival. Variety said that it was “courageous and uncompromising, a shaken cocktail of debasement and elation, despair and hope,” while Entertainment Weekly said it was a film “that makes you think, ‘There but for the grace of god go I.” Not everyone fell for it, though: Armond White, unsurprisingly, called it “the con job of the year,” and The Daily Telegraph said that it was “a dispiriting mix of cliche and melodrama.”
How Big Did It Get? Very big indeed. The rare film at Sundance that wins the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award and goes on to be seen by anyone and everyone, it was picked up by Lionsgate, who took it to Un Certain Regard at Cannes, brought Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey on for promotional duties, and saw it win the People’s Choice Award at TIFF. Opening that November, it took nearly $50 million at the U.S. box office, and was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress.
Is It Worth The Hype? No, leavened with a bit of yes. We were a bit puzzled when we caught up with the film, because we found it to be unrelenting misery porn that might be the worst-directed movie to ever earn a Best Director Oscar nomination, with Lee Daniels‘ skillset proving a pretty terrible match for the material. But Daniels, as he’s proven subsequently, can direct the hell out of actors, and it’s for them that the film is worth seeing: relative newcomers Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’nique are electric, and even unlikely figures like Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz turn in very strong performances.
“Once”
What’s It About: A heartbroken Irish folk singer partners with a Czech immigrant to make a record, the two falling in love in the process.
Year It Played Sundance: 2007, alongside high profile pictures like “Away From Her,” “Black Snake Moan,” “The Savages,” “Son Of Rambow,” “Year Of The Dog,” “Joshua,” “Teeth” and “Rocket Science.”
How Was It Received At The Time? It was a huge critical smash at the time, holding to this day a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips called it ” ‘Brief Encounter‘ for the 21st century… the best music film of our generation,” while the A.V. Club‘s Nathan Rabin called it “just about perfect. Imagine Belle and Sebastian remaking ‘In The Mood For Love‘ as a heartbreaking low-fi musical.” In fact, it’s hard to find someone who wasn’t at least partly charmed by the picture.
How Big Did It Get? The film won the World Dramatic Competition Audience Award at the festival, and Fox Searchlight picked it up a few weeks later, releasing the film later in the year. It proved only a modest success, taking in $9 million the U.S. and a little more abroad, but it’s more notable for the cottage industry that sprang up around it: the Grammy-nominated soundtrack made it as high as No. 27 on the Billboard chart, and saw stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova tour the world afterwards (though their real-life relationship broke up not long after). Perhaps more crucially, a stage musical adaptation opened on Broadway in 2012, winning eight Tonys, and is still running today, with a U.S. tour also underway.
Is It Worth The Hype? If ever a film risked being overshadowed by the hype, it’s this one. It’s a sweet, slight, charming but fairly insubstantial romance with some lovely music, but to hear some of the initial reactions, you’d think it was curing cancer. With a few years’ gap—even given the stage version—it probably holds up a bit better: Hansard and Irglova are immensely appealing leads, and there’s a swooning and tragic romanticism to the film that leaves a lump in the throat, even if it risks being pat in places.
There are more Sundance films that are notable for one reason or another than you could possible shake a very big stick at, and so the list above is more gut instinct than science, and some of those that missed the cut for no better reason than a lack of space include: Todd Haynes‘ beautiful and bizarre Queercore debut “Poison“; Vincent Gallo‘s charming, weird “Buffalo ’66“; Todd Fields‘ sombre “In The Bedroom“; Noah Baumbach‘s “The Squid and the Whale“; Ed Burns‘ “The Brothers McMullen” and Morgan Spurlock‘s “Super Size Me“—all of which launched or relaunched their filmmakers onto the indie industry scene.
We included a couple of documentaries, but could also have gone for the excellent “Crumb,” “Capturing the Friedmans,” Oscar winners “An Inconvenient Truth” and “The Cove,” or the seminal “The Times of Harvey Milk.” Money-spinners that we thought about adding in included “Four Weddings and A Funeral” and “Saw,” though they feel a bit like outliers in the Sundance canon.
And other films that just missed the cut included several that went on to Oscar glory: “Shine” (which was the first Sundance film to go on to a Best Picture Oscar nomination, one of seven it picked up), the aforementioned “In the Bedroom,” and ‘Four Weddings’ along with “The Kids Are All Right” and recent Jennifer Lawrence-launching phenomenon “Winter’s Bone” were all Best Picture nominees. Elsewhere we could easily have shouted out any of “Whale Rider,” “American Splendor,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Primer,” “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and many more as similarly impressive iterations of what a Sundance movie could be, though we did try to avoid films like Christopher Nolan‘s “Memento,” for example, that passed through Sundance but already had made waves and gained buzz at previous festivals.
Still, we’re sure there are picks of yours that we’ve missed, so sound out below on what you consider the ultimate Sundance film. And on whether you think that’s
a good thing or a bad thing. —Jessica Kiang, Oliver Lyttelton
