A.V. Club Blog

Screenings, 01-21/22-08

Anvil: The Story Of Anvil (dir. Sascha Gervasi)

Headline: Rockers persevere

Indie Type: Rock doc

Soundtrack: Plaintive piano (plus fuckin’ Anvil, dude)

Report: Who would’ve guessed that the second movie to move me to tears at Sundance—following Stranded, way back on day two—would be a documentary about an obscure Canadian heavy metal band, still grinding it out after 30 years? The hook for Anvil: The Story Of Anvil is that the band is a “real life Spinal Tap,” stumbling haplessly through under-attended tours while hanging onto dreams that should’ve died in the ‘80s. The band visits Stonehenge, they play in Tokyo, they have a drummer named Robb Reiner…seriously, it’s spooky. But while Anvil is frequently... read more

Screenings, 01-20-08

What Just Happened (dir. Barry Levinson)

Headline: Movie industry shallow, savage

Indie Type: Pricey star-laden comedy masquerading as festival fare

Soundtrack: Ironic action movie cues from the film-within-the-film

Report: Inside-Hollywood comedies have been around for as long as there’s been a Hollywood, and the Barry Levinson-directed, Art Linson-penned What Just Happened doesn’t exactly re-invent the wheel. Robert DeNiro plays a put-upon movie producer—not unlike Linson himself—who over the course of a week on the job has to deal with a star (a hilariously jerky Bruce Willis) who refuses to shave his beard, an ex-wife who may be sleeping with his best friend, and a director who’s sabotaged their big Cannes-premiering action blockbuster by ending the film with a scene of a cute dog getting its head blown off. This is all fairly standard movies-about-movies... read more

Screenings, 01-19-08

Savage Grace (dir. Tom Kalin)

Headline: Flightly would-be socialite has uncomfortably intimate relationship with gay son

Indie Type: Impeccably art-directed, richly perverse melodrama

Soundtrack: Swooping strings and jazzy piano

Report: I wasn’t aware until after this movie was over that it actually screened at last year’s Cannes—almost a year ago—yet wasn’t a part of last fall’s festival season. I can see why it didn’t rush into multiplexes: Savage Grace is a nasty piece of work, starring Julianne Moore as an actress who marries the aloof, possibly gay heir to a plastics fortune (at the least, he’s prone to “see a dirt road and drive up it,” as Moore coyly puts it), and gives birth to a definitely gay son. The family gallivants across Europe, pretending to be charming and happy, and when the dream starts to... read more

Screenings, 01-18-08

Stranded: I Have Come From A Plane That Crashed On The Mountains (dir. Gonzalo Arijon)

Headline: Plane crashes in Andes; survivors eat the dead

Indie Type: “A look back” documentary, with talking head interviews, archival footage and surprisingly well-done re-enactments.

Soundtrack: Haunting piano plunks, with the occasional atonal string hanging.

Report: The saga of the Uruguayan rubgy team that resorted to cannibalism after crashing in the Andes in ’72 has been told maybe too many times—heck, I saw a special on ESPN’s Outside The Lines a couple of weeks ago—but it’s no exaggeration to say that Gonzalo Arijon’s Stranded is the story’s definitive version. Arijon’s interviews are well-shot, framing the survivors against clear blue skies, and his re-enactments never detract from those survivors’ articulate,... read more

Screenings, 01-17-08

In Bruges (dir. Martin McDonagh)

Headline: Two hit men hide out in Belgium; bond

Indie Type: “Criminals Are People Too,” plus local color.

Soundtrack: Mournful orchestral music from Carter Burwell, plus indie-rock interludes courtesy of The Walkmen and Regina Spektor.

Report: After botching a job in London, mob enforcer Colin Farrell is ordered to lay low in the historic Belgian city of Bruges with his mentor, Brendan Gleeson. There they sightsee, talk about religion, interact with a dwarf and a drug dealer from a nearby movie shoot, and wait for the plot twist. It comes after an hour of screen time, courtesy of Ralph Fiennes (whom it’s always a pleasure to see). In Bruges is a comedy with a heavy heart, and frankly, I didn’t really go for the jokes or the emotional pull. I laughed a couple of times—probably loudest when Fiennes gets... read more

It’s a measure of how successful the Sundance film festival has become that even my mom has heard of it. “When are you going to get to go to Sundance?” she’ll ask at family dinners, and through a mouthful of potato casserole I’ll mumble something about how I wouldn’t want to go anyway because I’ve heard it’s too cold, too crowded, the air’s too thin, the movies are weak and it’s all about celeb-watching now, not cinema. But I’m lying to her, naturally. Yes, I want to go to Sundance. What movie buff wouldn’t? To be one of the first people to see something like sex, lies and videotape, Reservoir Dogs, You Can Count On Me, The Squid And The Whale or Once? C’mon. That’s worth any case of the sniffles.

This year will be my first trip to the ‘Dance—in fact I’m posting this from Park City, less than 24 hours before the first... read more

It’s one of the truisms of the first-time Sundance experience that the moment you finally start to feel like you know your way around is also the moment you’re slated to head back to civilian life and leave the trench warfare of free Stella Artois, tacky promotional knick-knacks, and promiscuously distributed business cards behind. That was certainly my experience, for after a highly regrettable breakfast of huevos rancheros and lukewarm refried beans and a surprisingly exciting two-and-a-half hour documentary on my boy Ralph Nader I left the still-in-progress Sundance Film Festival and headed back home to Chicago. So, having officially lost my film festival virginity during a side-trip to Tijuana to a hooker with a heart of gold played by Shelly Long—no wait that’s Tom Cruise in Losin’ It—I thought it might be a good time to look back and see if I accomplished the goals I set for myself at the start of the trip. They were, in case you forgot or weren’t pay attention:

1. To uncover the soul of American independent film.

2. To party with Ralph Nader

3. To ask Robert Redford why he's so handsome

4. To subsist solely on a diet of... read more

At Sundance all the unwritten rules dictating social interactions amongst strangers are suspended. Movies are the common denominator for just about everyone here (well, movies, gift bags, swag, star-gazing, networking and cocktail-swilling. Actually there are all sorts of common denominators here). You can start a conversation with just about any one with the following all-purpose ice-breakers:

1. So, what have you seen so far?

2. What have you seen so far that you’ve liked?

3. What are you here for? Represent yo’ squad, fool! Whether you’re str8 up repping the Weinstein Company or Lesbian Geriatric Digital Documentarian Monthly throw up your set!

4. Are you blogging bout The ‘Dance? (Note: don’t use

this one with people over the age of 40. They’ll just look at you funny and change seats as quickly as possible)

5. Have you seen Lucky Number Slevin? It’s really clever and fun (I of course would never use this one but I’ve been hearing it around town an awful lot. Tactfully eavesdropping on the conversations of others is one of the great unheralded pleasures of Sundance.)

Another potential ice-breaker for... read more

As I endured a god-awful brisket sandwich at the cowboy-themed eatery The Grub Steak on Thursday I was struck by just how comically butch it seemed, which made it an ostensibly incongruous setting for a John Waters-hosted Queer brunch. Or was it? Is The Grub Steak’s almost comic burlesque of hyper-masculinity really all that different from the over-the-top ironic macho archetypes of The Village People?

Nevertheless Sunday morning this aggressively hetero home of meat and potatoes comfort food and cheesy Wild Western iconography was transformed into a happening gay nightclub, complete with a DJ pumping out non-stop techno and disco, an open bar and a steady stream of queer celebrities traversing a makeshift red carpet. The most iconic of all was the irrepressible John Waters, resplendent as always in sunglasses, a purple and black striped jacket and his trademark mustache. He was there to promote a film series delightfully titled Films That Will Corrupt You and illustrated yet again his mastery of the pithy one-liner and droll, self-deprecating wisecrack as he very patiently made his way through a punishing gauntlet of tape-recorder wielding journalistical... read more

Day 3: Gentlemen Who Queer Brunch

The first time at Sundance is invariably a learning experience. Over the past few days, for example, I’ve learned that I am a dithering idiot when it comes to finding theaters, getting into non-press screenings and scoring free liquor, alcohol and swag.

Thankfully I found a mentor who hipped me to the enigmatic ways of Sundancing last night at a press screening of Come Early Morning, a wizened, wise old Pat Morita to my brash young Ralph Macchio. The first time my fearless mentor attended Sundance she made the tragic mistake of seeing as many film as possible. The next year she learned her lesson and saw half as many films, went to twice as many parties, and made four times as many connections. And oh the swag! Decadent gift bags fell into her arms like manna from heaven. Of course she had to curry the favor of the Sundance staff by bringing them cookies and stroking their egos but her maneuvering paid rich dividends and soon she was getting into all the best parties, seeing all the best celebrities, eating all the best appetizers, drinking all the best cocktails and getting all the best swag.

What kind o’... read more