No Sundance for us this year. Would be great for sure if it wasn’t on our dime, but the line-up, economy and extenuating circumstances make it that we’re staying home. However, others are not and we’ve found some contributors to send us “reviews,” or bloggy-thought posts on the movies they saw via IPhone reports. Here it is:
We get it: Ashton Kutcher is “hot.” Not hot enough, however, to sustain an entire movie devoted to the premise of his apparent comeliness. In “Spread,” from first-time screen writer Jason Dean Hall, Kutcher plays a modern “American Gigolo” who survives and sometimes thrives in L.A. He’s jobless, technically homeless, and makes his way by sleeping with rich, older woman — such as Anne Heche.
The film has a few funny moments. Predictable, yes…but funny nonetheless. Ultimately though, it fails at what Kutcher admits is the whole point: convincing us to give a rat’s ass about this guy. Nicki is neither charming enough to be believable as someone who cons Heche’s apparently intelligent Samantha, nor cold-hearted enough to make us love to hate him. His…redemption, we suppose…is neither authentic nor satisfying. Kutcher doesn’t bring any intensity to what could have been a dark and desperate role…it’s unfortunate. Heche succeeds as a successful attorney in the market for a boy toy, but not as the vulnerable doormat who offers to make Nicki an omelet a minute after she confronts him about his infidelity. She’s pretty attractive herself, and she just doesn’t register as someone that hard up for a good lay. Margarita Levieva does do a good job as Nicki’s female equivalent and we’ll be looking for her tomorrow in “Adventureland.”
Amusingly enough, Kuther told his “fans” at Sundance that if they want to see him continue to take on these “daring” roles, you’ll have to show your support and buy a ticket, come regular theatrical release time. “So if people support me in making bold choices, I’ll keep making these kind of movies,” he said. It’s definitely bold that he worked for less than $5 million dollars on this film, someone should give him an award. The trailer for “Spread” came out two weeks ago, but reception was so poor it was yanked almost immediately.
We wish we could say the “Spread” sex scenes were worth the price of admission (which was zero, come to think of it) but they’re mostly kind of painful looking, actually.
On the other hand, we’re in love with “Lymelife,” from writer/director Derrick Martini and co-writer Stephen Martini. Set on Long Island in 1979, the film captures those first pangs of adulthood — when you realize your parents aren’t anything like the people you thought they were. There are plenty of performances to rave about: Rory Culkin is terrific as is brother Kieran — the dynamic between the two cannot be manufactured. Jill Hennesy, Cynthia Nixon and Emma Roberts all do themselves a bunch of credit and Alec Baldwin is – of course – fabulous. The true standout though is Timothy Hutton, who kills it as a suburbanite who contracts Lyme Disease. We’d like to say that films like this are what Sundance is all about: a star-studded cast of established actors and an executive producing credit for Martin Scorsese make that kind of hard. Still, it’s the first really great film we’ve seen here so far, and so we’re inclined to let that go. And to be fair, Martini did submit his script for the Director’s Lab and get selected, and so we guess it is legit after all.
Not everyone loved “Lymelife” though, the mercurial Jeffrey Wells bounced from the screening just ten minutes in, but you never quite know what that means with that guy. He’s a little temperamental.The only other review we could find on a quick scan was one from Cinemablend that said the film was “American Beauty”-esque and possessed a “certain timeless quality” to it.
That’s it for now…we’re planning to catch “I Love You Philip Morris,” “Adventureland” and “Adam” tomorrow, so until then…. – Mo and Steph
