Indiewire just announced the Sundance 09’ slate and at first glance, this year’s crop of films look just as underwhelming as 2008’s. Or at least, so far. We mentioned some potential contenders and rumored films last week, some of which are now confirmed.
Lone Scherfig’s 60’s coming of age story “An Education” (written by Nick Hornby who penned “High Fidelity”) with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson made the cut, along with Shana Feste’s “The Greatest”, a family drama starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon. No mention of the Ashton Kutcher comedy “Spread” (thankfully), Antoine Fuqua’s cop drama “Brooklyn’s Finest” or Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor gay comedy “I Love You Phillip Morris,” but there’s probably still more films to be announced (just like last year).
Right off the bat, only a few films garnered our interest. “Paper Heart,” seems like a favorite in waiting, with Michael Cera taking a departure from playing characters just like himself to actually playing himself. It a quasi-documentary and also features Cera’s real-life comedy girlfriend Charlyne Yi.
Robert Siegel (who was just profiled in the NYTimes), who wrote “The Wrestler”, makes his directorial debut with “Big Fan,” about “a hardcore New York Giants football fan, struggles to deal with the consequences when he is beaten up by his favorite player” starring comedian Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan and Michael Rapaport. At the very least that sounds amusing. Sophie Barthes directs the Paul Giamatti led “Cold Souls,” described as a story a famous American actor in the midst of an existential crisis. There is already some buzz on this flick, and Giamatti is generally excellent.
John Krasinski from “The Office” directs the David Foster Wallace adapted “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” – “when her boyfriend leaves with little explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology tries to remedy her heartache by interviewing men about their behavior” (Anne Thompson called this one yesterday). Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard once had a small role in Krasinski’s film, but we’ve been told through various sources months ago that he’s since been cut out of it. It also includes the button-cute Rashida Jones too, so you can’t get mad at that.
Another possibly interesting-sounding film is, “Arlen Faber,” which has an It-girlish cast of Kat Dennings, Lauren Graham and Olivia Thirlby. Or at least it could be interesting to people who consider “Juno” and “The Wackness” masterpieces of modern cinema.
Finally, Lee Daniels’ “Push” is adapted from the celebrated novel by the same name, about a “an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.”
The documentary section appears slightly more interesting. “Doug Pray’s “Art & Copy” about advertising (he directed “Surfwise,” and the grunge/Seattle documentary “Hype!”), Joe Berlinger’s “Crude” about an environmental catastrophe in the Amazon, R.J. Cutler’s “The September Issue” about Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour, Tom DiCillo’s “When You’re Strange” about The Doors, and Ondi Timoner’s “We Live in Public” about web pioneer Josh Harris” (she helmed the excellent Dandy Warhols/The Brian Jonestown Massacre doc, “Dig!”). DiCillo’s “Living in Oblivion” is an under appreciated indie classic, so hopefully there is something to his Doors pic. In general the documentary slate seemed slanted towards the serious, with global issues in the forefront. Although the “Good Hair” features Chris Rock turned documentary filmmaker “when he sets out to examine the culture of African-American hair and hairstyles.”
Of the world documentary and drama categories, “Lulu and Jim,” “Nollywood Babylon,” “Prom Night in Mississippi,” and “Zion and His Brother” seem like potentially solid films.
Unfortunately, not a whole lot really jumps out from the list and we’ve seen many of these stories told elsewhere. The current economic climate has studios looking over their shoulders, and relative flops from last year’s Sundance (“The Wackness,” “Choke,” “American Teen) certainly don’t make for a promising festival climate. Ultimately it seems like the event is becoming more of an excuse for execs to go skiing and party with their expense accounts. “Paper Hearts” and “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” are our bets to emerge as festival favorites, but what impact they will have with full distribution remains to be seen.