The past few days have seen a handful more premieres and debuts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The first of which being Derek Cianfrance’s romance drama “Blue Valentine” starring two of this generation’s most powerful actors, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (a new image above). It’s been a mixed bag for the film with some calling it a “a meaty, strongly realized dramatic work of considerable accomplishment” and a “muscular, highly controlled piece of filmmaking, with its photographic style carefully judged.”
Others, meanwhile, didn’t see it in the quite the same light describing it as a “plotless, indulgent, grueling, indier-than-thou melodrama” that was “held hostage by Cianfrance’s lack of discipline and Gosling’s surfeit of self-satisfaction.” Further criticisms were of the play between time and its “heavy-handed and annoyingly obvious aesthetic.”
Something all reviews seem to agree on though is that, while the film is bias and male-centric, performances from both leads are exceptional as the two “interact beautifully and without a false note” with Gosling’s “charm with an eruptive and credible anger” interplaying with Williams’ “contained actions [that] powerfully reveal the despair and hopelessness.”
A film which has caused a fair amount of buzz though, already earning the nickname of the “Sundance sensation” is Lisa Chodolenko’s family-dramedy “The Kids Are All Right,” starring the likes of Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska.
With a “whip-smart and witty script that left the audience howling,” the film is evidently a “consistently amusing delight” with “funny, relatable scenes about family and relationships” featuring “expertly constructed one-liners delivered by a cast which plays the characters realistically without straining for laughs.”
Benning and Moore as the lesbian parents — of two kids who go behind their back in seeking their biological father — exhibit “brilliant chemistry” with “alternately comfy and edgy rapport” while their kids, played by Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson, are “are extremely touching without being heavy-handed.” Ruffalo, meanwhile, is “superb as a free spirit who has gotten through life on his carnal appeal.”
Studios are already knocking at the film’s door with Focus Features and Summit Entertainment reportedly battling it out and Fox Searchlight creeping up behind. Award season hype is even being discussed in some parts for Benning and Moore.
Lastly, Kevin Asch’s religious-drug-drama “Holy Rollers” also screened for the first time recently. Many were surprised to find a lack of comedy in the film, something we had predicted, but that seemingly had nothing to do with disappointment that ensued on screen.
One review argues that the film “squanders a fascinating premise with predictable execution” with strong complaints regarding the fact that “[the protagonist’s] religious heritage and his immoral endeavours should be eating away at the very soul of the character, but that inner turmoil is instead replaced by generic story beats.” What follows is described as “intelligent, respectable yet curiously muted in tone and impact, never fully catching the viewer up in either its crime saga or its account of individual rebellion within an insular religious community.”
In yet another coming-of-age role, Jesse Eisenberg is noted as putting in an “emotive, sympathetic performance as a man caught between two worlds” while “The Hangover” star Justin Bartha reportedly “pulls his performance off with more success, polishing the role of Yosef with lingering instability and menace.”
More to come from the snowy streets of Park City though the festival appears to be slowing down and getting “quiet” according to folks on Twitter. -Simon Dang