Despite sales being apparently slow and sluggish, movies are being bought at Sundance, it’s just that some studios don’t want to make the blunder of 2008 for buying something like “Hamlet 2” for $10 million dollars and the film generating all of a $4.9 million pittance. People aren’t being brazen with their money this year. IFC Films prez said to the New York Times, “We’re not going to get into a bidding war. That’s not our business.”
Antoine Fuqua’s cop drama “Brooklyn’s Finest” has obviously already been sold, lukewarm reviews aside. Sony Pictures has just bought the blaxploitation film, “Black Dynamite” for an estimated $2 million. It’s Sony proper, not the indie wing Sony Pictures Classics. Apparently they bought it in a “heated overnight negotiation” and see franchise potential in the film.
While they haven’t been bought yet, the two films generating the most buzz or at least universally positive responses so far are “Humpday” by director Lynn Shelton and actors Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard and Alycia Delmore and “An Education,” by director Lone Scherfig and starring relatively unknown, Carey Mulligan, a 23-year-old British actor some are already calling Sundance’s first “breakout star.”
We’re pretty damn skeptical about “Humpday,” but even like us, the New York Times’ David Carr, “hates mumblecore.” He adds that he “loathes cringe comedy and is not fascinated by the idea of a buddy movie about two straight guys making a gay porno,” but said he laughed his head off. Mumble-friendly Karina Longsworth at Spoutblog gave it a very positive thumbs up and so did Anne Thompson who called it, “deceptively entertaining. ” We guess we’ll have to give it an honest shot when it eventually comes out and many assume it will be bought shortly.
Written by Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “About A Boy”), “An Education” apparently has a bid out by Fox Searchlight, but they reportedly haven’t come to terms on dollars yet. It should probably be only a few days or even hours before this sale announcement is made. Mulligan is also in the Sundance film, “The Greatest” and has an upcoming role in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies.” Apparently talent scouts are on the prowl, but as Hollywood Elsewhere says, “her career is only now about to take off.” The film also stars names like Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson, but apparently Mulligan has stolen the show. “[‘An Education]’ is “the absolute shit — the best film of the Sundance Film Festival,” Wells raved.
“It’s very painful to watch” Mike Tyson told MTV about the James Toback directed documentary, “Tyson” which has already been sold to Sony Pictures Classics and has generated a healthy amount of buzz. “It gives me emotional quagmires,” Tyson said of the film wherein he says he is “naked and vulnerable.”
MTV raved about the sports dramedy, “Big Fan,” starring comedian Patton Oswalt as a huge NY Giants whose life take a strange turn when he is beaten within an inch of his life by one of his favorite player. It’s directed and written by Rob Siegel who is red-hot having just come off the success that was “The Wrestler” screenplay. “From its opening shot, ‘Big Fan’ cast a spell over the crowd,” they wowed. “Siegel’s shots are dirty, his dialogue sharp, and his knack for avoiding cliches is rare. Oswalt’s performance is a selfless, measured descent into madness that deserves some sort of award – if only for being as funny, sad and deadly-serious as any actor could ever pull off simultaneously.”
Wells was cooler on a documentary many have highly anticipated. “Doug Pray‘s Art & Copy turned out to be a little thin. It’s basically a chapter-by-chapter history of the most legendary ad campaigns of the last 45 or 50 years, each chapter with a corresponding flattery profile of the advertising exec (or execs) who dreamt each one up. But there’s no arching theme to it, no undercurrent, no inquiring line of thought.”
Marc Webb’s “500 Days Of Summer” seems to be going over well with everyone. Variety’s Todd McCarthy hints at some of the more twee elements in the film, but says the “sometimes cloying but ultimately winning” feature is “stylish” and “goes out of its way to take an unconventional approach to telling one of the oldest stories in the book, only to prevail by embracing the fact that the fundamental things apply.” /Film sounded like they were in love, calling it the ” type of wonderful charming indie romantic comedy that gives you butterflies while you watch it.”
The film seems like its exactly what it looks like from the outside, more indie emo-ness, and Anne Thompson basically confirms it. “It’s in the same genre as Juno or Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, and falls right inside Searchlight’s marketing sweet spot: young adults of both sexes,” which will either sell you immediately or make you run for the hills depending on how precious and cloy you like your movies.
About the Anna Wintour/Vogue doc, Spoutblog writes, “As a portrait of Wintour the person, RJ Cutler’s documentary does little to dig under the surface of Wintour’s iconic, impassive under bangs image. But as a meditation on art vs commerce, emotion vs rationality, and the role of fantasy merchants in the recently-burst economic bubble, ‘The September Issue’ is both cerebral and accessible. If it’s not as provocative as it could be, it’s definitely entertaining.
Variety’s Justin Chang did not like the Australian claymation film “Mary and Max,” which Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the lead voice actor in. “Maudlin sentiment, miserablist humor and scatological sight gags are affectionately but awkwardly molded together..this glum tale of friendship between two very unlikely pen pal… but the tearjerker moments winds up curdling in an unappetizing fashion.” The Hollywood Reporter says, the Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal comedy, “Rudo y Cursi,” “scores from every angle — comic, personal and cross-cultural.”
THR calls “I Love You Phillip Morris” part of the “ethereal-absurdist-gay-romantic biographical farce genre,” and them seem to enjoy the film, but asks,” ‘How are you going to market this?’ Basically, just say Jim Carrey struts his stuff in this engaging oddity.” Our contributors at Sundance didn’t love it and THR concurs, “Spread” with Ashton Kutcher marks one of the low points of the festival.”
No major reviews on John Krasinski’s adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” yet, but the film screened today so reviews will be out either tonight or tomorrow morning. More recaps this week, but this should suffice for now, no? More thoughts on Micheal Cera’s “Paper Heart” too. Reviews have trickled out this evening and they seem generally positive.
