So, we couldn’t make it to Sundance this year, but that’s not going to stop us from keeping you on top of events there. As ever, the festival’s fairly front-loaded, so it’s been a busy few days over in Park City, with many of the bigger, starrier premieres already haven taken place. Buzz is starting to filter in on some of these, as well as the hidden, unexpected gems, so, without further ado…
The festival kicked off on Thursday night with the premiere of “Howl,” the feature debut of documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (“The Celluloid Closet”). Ostensibly, the film focuses on the obscenity trial that followed the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s titular poem, but early viewers report that the film is more academic than biopic, mixing the dramatic recreation, which stars James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn and Mary-Louise Parker, with talking-heads, and partly-animated illustrations of the poem itself. It’s clearly not going to be the next “Little Miss Sunshine,” but the reviews are for the most part strong, although more for its educational value and formal experimentation than for its dramatic power. Jeffrey Wells calls it a “gay Richard Linklater movie, only deeper and more trippy,” saying that “I’ve read Howl one and a half times, but only now do I feel I really know it,” while Roger Ebert calls it “intensely interesting,” but complains that “it’s rather flat, dispassionate, objective.” Hopefully, the starry cast will see it picked up by someone. Reviews over Twitter were mixed with advocates like Film School Rejects catching some shit for singing its praises.
One film that has already been picked up, and has real potential to be a crossover hit, is the Ryan Reynolds thriller “Buried,” from Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes. The film, a one-man-show where Reynolds plays a contractor in Iraq who wakes up in a coffin underground, sold to Lionsgate yesterday for between $3-$4 million, and we can see why — it’s the kind of cheap genre film the studio specializes in, and, with their marketing muscle behind them, it stands a good chance of being a “Paranormal Activity”-style sleeper hit. Reviews are mostly positive (Slashfilm rave about it here, calling it a “cinematic achievement”), with Reynolds’ performance and “A Single Man” DoP Eduard Grau’s cinematography getting almost unanimous praise. There are, however, some naysayers, with Hitfix finding it hard to buy into the reality of the film (several writers have pointed out the irony of Reynolds’ character getting better cellphone reception several feet underground in Iraq then they’ve managed to get in Park City), while Film Drunk gives the film a characteristically entertaining takedown, calling it “faux-artsy torture porn.”
A few other films are likely to close deals in the next couple of days — John Wells’ starry recession drama “Company Men,” which features Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones, is likely to result in a big-money sale, accompanied by unanimously polite, but middling reviews (although Movieline rave, calling it better than “Up in the Air”). “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor, attempting to do a Zach Braff with his directorial debut, the hipster romance “happythankyoumoreplease,” has picked up some good reviews, and is apparently being circled by Warner Bros, with particular buzz around the supporting performance of Tony Hale (Buster from “Arrested Development”). But those who don’t like it, loathe it, with Variety saying it “gives new meaning to self-indulgence and self-infatuation.” Vicenzo Natali’s long-awaited “Splice” is close to signing a deal, with great notices coming from the genre crowd in particular, while the enjoyable-looking redneck horror comedy “Tucker and Dale Versus Evil” played like gangbusters to the midnight audiences, and should be picked up shortly.
Some of the best reviews have been for the crime thriller, “Animal Kingdom,” described by some as an Australian version of “The Departed,” which Movieline calls “the first great drama” of the festival, but it’s crystal-meth drama “Winter’s Bone” that looks to be the real breakout, gathering rave reviews everywhere it goes, particularly for star Jennifer Lawrence, who looks to be the Carey Mulligan of this year’s fest. Chris Morris’ terrorist satire “Four Lions” is also getting some good notices — Empire compare it to classic Ealing comedies — although it doesn’t seem to match the raves that “In the Loop” got last year. Joan Jett biopic “The Runaways,” which many (including us) were dreading, seems to be pleasantly surprising, with Michael Shannon’s performance allegedly stealing the show, although some, including First Showing, didn’t fall for it. Kristen Stewart is also getting good notices for the New Orleans drama “Welcome to the Rileys,” although the film seems to cover familiar territory for many.
From the documentary corner, “Catfish,” which is being compared to the likes of “Capturing the Friedmans,” is the most-buzzed about, following a Facebook romance that takes some unexpected twists and turns, and has picked up great reviews. Iraq doc “Restrepo,” by “The Perfect Storm” author Sebastian Junger, is allegedly extraordinary, compared to a real life version of “The Hurt Locker,” and the Danish-pranksters-go-to-North-Korea documentary “The Red Chapel” has been drawing favorable comparisons to Sacha Baron Cohen’s work. Banksy documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” also sounds fascinating — we really can’t wait to see that one.
The outright disaster of the festival so far seems to be Mark Ruffalo’s directorial debut “Sympathy for Delicious,” which some are comparing to “Southland Tales,” while AV Club call the script “inconceivably awful” and conclude that it “somehow manages to be even worse than a muddled religious allegory about a wheelchair-bound faith-healing rock and roll DJ has any right to be, which is almost an accomplishment in itself.” Still, there’s almost a week left of the festival, so maybe something’ll turn out even worse… -Oli Lyttleton