In a little more than 24 hours the Cinema Blend festival team will bend over for a body cavity search at the airport, before hopping a plane bound for Salt Lake, City. From there we’ll cram into some sort of tourist transporting shuttle where we’ll be driven over icy mountain roads by an underpaid, half-crazed Mormon who could probably use some caffeine to keep him awake but won’t drink it because of his religious beliefs thus endangering everyone with him, until we reach Park City. It’s Sundance Film Festival time again, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Before we kick off our coverage, we’re going to ease you into the whole festival thing slowly with a look at just some of the films we’re most looking forward to at this year’s festival. Then some time late Thursday night, after we drag our luggage into our budget condo and haul out our laptops, Cinema Blend’s Sundance Coverage will go full force until either we pass out from exhaustion or they send us all home. I’m betting on the former, sleep is generally an impossibility at these things.
Below in now particular order is a quick look at the movies we’re dying to see this year. Take a look and keep checking back throughout the next week for our complete Sundance Film Festival coverage.
Brooklyn’s Finest
This is one of the big, splashy premiere flicks hitting the festival this year. That also means it’ll be one of the most difficult films to get into. Is it worth the trouble? Maybe. It’s directed by Antoine Fuqua, of Training Day noteworthiness, and he’s returning to the cop genre with Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, and Ethan Hawke in tow. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Tango is an undercover officer on a narcotics detail that forces him to choose between duty and friendship. Having been to hell and back, he wants out, but the powers that be won’t let him quit. Family-man Sal is a detective tempted by greed and corruption. He can barely make ends meet, and now his wife has an illness that threatens the life of their unborn twins. Eddie is nearing retirement age and has long since lost his dedication to his job as a cop. He wakes up every morning trying to come up with a reason to go on living...and he can’t think of one. Fate brings the three men to the same Brooklyn housing project as each takes the law into his own hands
Lymelife
I’m interested in this one for two reasons. First it’s the story of a Star Wars nerd fending off bullies and dysfunctional parents. It could well be the Josh Tyler story. It also co-stars Alec Baldwin who can absolutely do no wrong. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) is a typical 15-year-old boy growing up in late-1970s Long Island. His suburban existence is primarily marked by a nerdy interest in Star Wars, fending off bullies at high school, his longtime crush on neighbor/best friend Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts), and navigating the dysfunctional terrain of his parents’ rocky marriage—all against the paranoid backdrop of a Lyme disease outbreak, which has freaked out Scott’s high-strung mother, Brenda (Jill Hennessy), and has already claimed Adrianna’s father, Charlie (Timothy Hutton), as a victim. With Charlie out of work due to his illness, Adrianna’s mother, Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), takes a job working for Scott’s father, Mickey (Alec Baldwin), a successful real-estate developer, and soon embarks on a messy affair. When eldest son Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) returns from army training and confronts his father about Mickey’s less-thandiscreet adultery, both families are forever changed by the devastating consequences.
The Clone Returns Home
This is a Japanese film, one which sounds like it might be in the vein of the very excellent sci-fi flick Solaris. I’m a sucker for deep, thoughtful science fiction, and we never seem to get much of it here in the United States. I’m looking forward to having a good think. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Kohei, a young astronaut, agrees to participate in an experimental cloning program that will “regenerate” his body and memory should he die. So when he’s killed during a space mission, scientists are able to regenerate his clone. But problems occur with its memory, which regresses to Kohei’s youth and the accidental death of his twin brother. Distressed, the clone flees the lab in search of his childhood home. Along the way, he finds his own lifeless body in a space suit. Mistaking it for his brother, he continues his journey carrying the body on his back.
Adventureland
Yet another big, splashy, studio premiere. This one has Twilight’s Kristen Stewart, which instantly makes it a hot ticket. However I’m interested because it’s directed by Greg Mottola, the guy responsible for helming Superbad. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: It’s the summer of 1987, and James Brennan, an uptight, recent college grad, can’t wait to embark on his dream tour of Europe. But when his parents announce they can no longer subsidize his trip, James has little choice but to take a lowly job at a local amusement park. Forget about German beer, worldfamous museums, and cute French girls—James’s summer will now be populated by belligerent dads, stuffed pandas, and screaming kids high on cotton candy. Lucky for James, what should be his worst summer ever turns into quite an adventure when he discovers love in the most unlikely place.
Big Fan
Fanboy comedian Patton Oswalt plays a sports nut who takes his fandom a little too far. Can Patton act? His fantastic voice work in Rattatouile suggests it may be possible, and the fan/nerd thing is something he already has down pretty well. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Paul Aufiero, a 35-year-old parking-garage attendant from working-class Staten Island, is the selfdescribed “world’s biggest New York Giants fan.” One night Paul and his best friend, Sal, spot star Giants linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station in Staten Island. They impulsively follow his SUV into Manhattan to a strip club, where they finally muster up the courage to talk to their hero. What starts out as a dream come true turns into a nightmare as a misunderstanding ignites a violent confrontation, and Paul is sent down a path that will test his devotion to the extreme.
Cold Souls
It sounds like a darker, more macabre take on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it has Paul Giamatti in a starring role playing himself. What’s not to like? The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Balancing on a tightrope between deadpan humor and pathos, and between reality and fantasy, the film presents Paul Giamatti as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of Uncle Vanya. Paralyzed with anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by deep-freezing souls. Giamatti enlists its services, intending to reinstate his soul once he survives the performance. But complications ensue when a mysterious, soultrafficking “mule,” transporting product to and from Russia, “borrows” Giamatti’s stored soul for an ambitious, but unfortunately talentless, soap-opera actress. Rendered soulless, he is left with no choice but to follow the trail back to bleak St. Petersburg. He comes to value that happiness isn’t merely the absence of pain, but the integration of the full range of emotion into life.
Prom Night in Mississippi
Nearly all of the documentaries at Sundance, or any film festival for that matter, seem to fall into the disease/war/global warming category. This and the one other documentary on this list are two of the very few which buck the trend and seem to be trying something different. The official synopsis goes a little something like this: Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman follows students, teachers, and parents in the lead-up to the big day. Freeman addresses the student body. Girls shop for dresses and get their hair done. Boys rent tuxedoes and buy corsages. These seemingly inconsequential rites of passage suddenly become profound as the weight of history falls on teenage shoulders. We quickly learn that change does not come easily in this sleepy Delta town. Freeman’s generosity fans the flames of racism—and racism in Charleston has a distinctly generational tinge. Some white parents forbid their children to attend the integrated prom and hold a separate white-only dance. “Billy Joe,” an enlightened white senior, appears on camera in shadow, fearing his racist parents will disown him if they know his true feelings.
Black Dynamite
If you’ve seen the trailer then you know why I’m talking bout Black Dynamite. if you haven’t seen the trailer, then what are you waiting for? Forget the synopsis, watch it below:
Mary and Max
This is the opening night film this year, and while I’m not entirely sure if we’ll make it to town in time to catch it, I hope we do. It’s claymation and you can’t go wrong with stop-motion. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: It tells the simple story of a 20- year pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horowitz, a 44-year-old Jewish man, who is severely obese, suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, and lives an isolated life in New York City.
Moon
The last time we sent Sam Rockwell into space, it resulted in the death of a very large well and a very small bowl of petunias. This time he’s going to the Moon and bringing another one of those deep, though-provoking science fiction tales I love so much along with him. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Nearing the end of a three-year contract with Lunar Industries, Sam Bell is counting the days until his return to Earth. The lone occupant of a lunar mining base, Sam monitors the tractors that harvest the moon’s surface for helium energy. Buoyed by sporadic transmissions from his wife and young daughter, he combats monotony and isolation by tending to plants, continuing his predecessor’s woodcraft project, and interacting with the station’s robotic computer, Gerty. But Sam is beginning to unravel mentally. After a hallucination causes him to crash his lunar rover, he wakes up in the sick bay and soon realizes that his life at the base is not what it seems.
Humpday
Amateur porn worked for Kevin Smith, maybe they’ll be able to pull it off here. Except in this case it’s gay porn from heterosexual dudes. Unlikely you’ll ever see this playing anywhere outside of a film festival, so we’d better catch it while we can. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: It’s been a decade since Ben and Andrew were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife, and home. Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up, unannounced, on Ben’s doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship. After a night of perfunctory carousing, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest. But what kind of boundary-breaking porn can two dudes make? After the booze and “big talk” run out, only one idea remains—they will have sex together…on camera. It’s not gay; it’s beyond gay. It’s not porn; it’s an art project. But how will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna, Ben’s wife?
I Love You Phillip Morris
Here’s yet another splashy, studio premiere. In this one, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor totally make out for 90 minutes. Or at least that’s what I’m assuming going in. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: When a local Texas policeman, Steve Russell (Carrey), turns to cons and fraud to allow him to change his lifestyle (in more ways than one), his subsequent stay in the state penitentiary results in his meeting the love of his life, a sensitive fellow inmate named Phillip Morris, perfectly portrayed by Ewan McGregor. What ensues can only be described as a relentless quest as Russell attempts escape after escape and executes con after con, all in the name of love.
500 Days of Summer
I’ll follow Joseph-Gordon Levitt anywhere… except into that war movie he did last year which nobody saw. He’s paired with Zooey Deschanel in what seems to be a cute little boy meets girl flick, but with dance numbers. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: That Tom, a hapless greeting-card copywriter, and the alluring Summer, his temporary office mate, fluctuate between the highs and lows of infatuation, dating, sex, and separation is the conventional aspect of an unconventional tale of self-discovery and relationships.
Good Hair
This is the other non-war/environment/disease documentary playing at Sundance this year. To be honest I’m not particularly interested in the subject of hair, but I’m confident in the ability of Chris Rock to keep it interesting. As long as he’s not asked to act. The official synopsis goes a little something like this: When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl’s head! Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people.
The Informers
Mickey Rourke follows up his acclaimed performance in The Wrestler with this: The star-studded story of sex and drugs in 80s Los Angelese. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Sex, drugs, and new wave...Los Angeles in the early 1980s: a time of excess and decadence, and nobody captures it better than Bret Easton Ellis as he coadapts his own acclaimed novel for the screen. Its multistrand narrative deftly balances a vast array of characters, who represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman and an amoral ex-con). Connecting his intertwining strands are the quintessential Ellis protagonists—a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs—and one another—with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of an abyss.
Mystery Team
In the notes for this film it’s described as “If Encyclopedia Brown, the kids from American Pie, and Nancy Drew all had sex, their baby would probably look something like Mystery Team”. If I can find a cab to drive me back to our distant condo at 2am after this midnight screening is over, I’ll be there. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: When they were kids, the Mystery Team solved pint-sized mysteries like “Who stuck his finger in the pie?” Now it’s senior year of high school, and they are still solving mysteries the same way. Though each member of the team has a supposed specialty—Jason is the Master of Disguise; Charlie is the Strongest Kid in Town; and Duncan is the Boy Genius—they are really just stunted and naïve kids. When a little girl asks them to find out who killed her parents, Jason realizes they have an opportunity to prove to the town, and themselves, that they are real detectives.
Spring Breakdown
Amy Poehler and Parker Posey lead a group of blonde, college-coeds on a crazed, vapid, sex-filled tour of beer parties and dorm rooms. The official plot synopsis goes a little something like this: Skanky, semen-doused hotel rooms? Scantily clad, upchucking coeds? Sweaty, cramped, beer-foam parties? Judi and Gayle morph into unstoppable party animals, leaping into the vapid, anarchic euphoria without so much as a hiccup. Gayle’s latent popularity fantasy becomes a living wet dream as she’s inducted into a sorority of sweet, half-starved half-wits. Judi unlocks seventh heaven as she drinks her way to blissful oblivion and a life-changing night with a sexy, confused jock. Becky, our staunch ecofeminist, remains firmly on the sidelines, devoted to her principles and flowing skirts…until she and her young ward swallow a bit of spring-break elixir themselves.
