The A.V. Club - Sundance

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance 2012: Day Seven

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:51:00 -0600

The Words: This punishingly idiotic melodrama is a maddening contradiction: a film about the publishing world and a great literary fraud that doesn’t have a literary bone in its body or a thought in its pretty, empty little head. It appears to be the work of people who have never actually read a book, let alone possess keen insight into the literary world and the suffering souls that populate it. The laughable miscalculation begins by miscasting male starlet Bradley Cooper as a passionate young aspiring author (shades of Limitless) who stumbles upon a brilliant, undiscovered manuscript inside a bag ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 7

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:30:00 -0600

Shut Up And Play The Hits Director/Time: Dylan Southern and William Lovelace, 105 min. Documentary Headline: LCD Soundsystem is playing at your house Indie type: Concert film Report: Look, it’s not like title doesn’t warn us. Shut Up And Play The Hits promises to be a documentary about LCD Soundsystem’s last concert at Madison Square Garden, and for the most part it does what concert films are supposed to do: show the band, playing their songs, in front of screaming fans. And it also shows LCD frontman James Murphy being interviewed by Chuck Klosterman before the ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance 2012: Day Six

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:35:00 -0600

Bachelorette: Don’t weep too hard for Lizzy Caplan. The premature cancellation of Party Down remains one of life’s great tragedies and her HBO adaptation of Julie Klausner’s memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band never got off the ground, but she is having one hell of a Sundance this year. She’s heartbreaking and hilarious in the terrific Save The Dateand bitchily amusing in the raunchy, lowbrow dark comedy Bachelorette.At this point, Caplan might want to either appear only in wedding-themed comedies (she’s two for two here in Park City) or avoid them ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 6

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

Beasts Of The Southern Wild Director/Time: Benh Zeitlin, 91 min. Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry Headline: Before and after the deluge, Louisiana shack-dwellers scrape to survive Indie type: Pre-apocalyptic Report: It’s difficult to explain exactly what Beasts Of The Southern Wild is, though it’s undoubtedly something extraordinary: like a live-action Miyazaki film, with Days Of Heaven narration, set in a dirt-poor community at an unspecified time of crisis. The grade-school aged Quvenzhané Wallis plays “Hushpuppy,” who lives with her oft-absent father Dwight Henry in a water-bound region of Louisiana known as “The Bathtub.” The denizens of The ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance 2012: Day Five

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:37:00 -0600

Smashed: Alcohol isn’t just the great social lubricant: it can also be the glue holding troubled relationships together in a state of inebriated dysfunction. In the powerful, uncompromising relationship drama Smashed,a hard-partying schoolteacher (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her slacker music journalist husband (Aaron Paul) share a bond sealed through poisonous co-dependence and alcoholism. Winstead fancies herself the life of the party, a fun and freewheeling drunk, but after bottoming out with a night of crack-fueled oblivion and feigning pregnancy in front of her class after vomiting profusely in front of them, Winstead is forced to admit she has ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 5

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

Under African Skies Director/Time: Joe Berlinger, 108 min. Documentary Headline: Paul Simon goes back to Graceland Indie type: Behind the music Report: One of the best and most unexpected gifts my dad ever bought me was a cassette copy of Paul Simon’s Graceland for my 16th birthday, in 1986. I hadn’t asked for it, but my father heard something on the radio about the album and thought I’d like it, and as it turned out, he was right. It fact, that ended up being the story of Graceland for many people. Paul Simon was in a ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance 2012: Day Four

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:50:00 -0600

Me @ The Zoo: Nothing takes the fun out of laughing at other people’s misfortune quite like acknowledging their fundamental humanity. That’s the lesson of Me @ The Zoo,a low-budget, Michael Stipe-executive-produced documentary about Chris Crocker, a flamboyantly gay cross-dressing teenager from Tennessee who rocketed to national infamy after releasing a viral video where he begged a parasitic press to, in his immortal words, “Leave Britney alone!” The video made Crocker an instant star for the YouTube age, even as it engendered a tidal wave of mockery and scorn, much of it viciously homophobic in nature. YouTube comment boards ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 4

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

The First Time Director/Time: Jonathan Kasdan, 98 min. Cast: Britt Robertson, Dylan O’Brien, Craig Roberts Headline: High school kids fall in love over the course of one weekend Indie type: Teen romance Report: Many of the movies I see at Sundance are torn between wanting to be bold and unconventional and wanting to entertain audiences by giving them dialogue and characters that feel familiar. It can be frustrating to see, over and over, these movies that presume to tell a story with the flavor of real life, but which can’t shake off the Hollywood artificiality. For the ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance 2012: Day Three

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:49:00 -0600

In my last post, I promised a report on a big Aziz Ansari/Drake double-header going down at the fabulous Bing Bar on Park City’s Main Street. I would love to tell you that the show was tremendous and hilarious, but in true Sundance tradition, I showed up half an hour early at what I was told was the head of the line, then waited two and a half hours in the sleet before being told the venue was filled to capacity and nobody else would be let in. It was a frustratingly predictable Sundance experience. Some of my ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 3

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

Wrong Director/Time: Quentin Dupieux, 94 min. Cast: Jack Plotnick, Eric Judor, Alexia Dziena, Steve Little, Regan Burns, William Fichtner Headline: Just another “Man loses dog, man looks for dog, man forced into existential realizations” story Indie type: Work that quirk, McGirk Report: Even those who didn’t like Quentin Dupieux’s aggressively meta “killer tire” movie Rubber—and I count myself among those who were only mildly amused by it—had to acknowledge that at least it was going for something, and that if Dupieux could channel that ambition and imagination in the future, he might well make a ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance: Days One and Two

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:12:00 -0600

Sundance is a world onto itself, a cinematic Brigadoon that transforms Park City, Utah into the epicenter of the film universe for roughly a week or so. It is a festival rooted in ritual and tradition, a celebration of independent filmmaking and DIY guerrilla antics generously sponsored by an array of corporate sponsors. It is a safe place for high art and enthusiastic trash, for future Oscar-winners and films destined for long lives as campy midnight movies. It is an irresistible invitation to shut out the distractions of the outside world and lose yourself in film. It is a goddamned ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 2

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

Simon Killer Director/Time: Antonio Campos, 105 min. Cast: Brady Corbet, Mati Diop, Michael Abiteboul Headline: Tourist goes nutzoid Indie type: Guy walks around (and makes bad choices) Report: Antonio Campos’ debut feature Afterschool was one seriously upsetting film, telling the story of an alienated boarding school student with such intimate subjectivity that the audience didn’t realize until it was too late just how messed up this kid was. Campos’ Simon Killer takes a similar approach, subjectivity-wise. The hero, played by Brady Corbet, is a recent college grad who takes a trip to Paris to try and recover from ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 1

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

The Queen Of Versailles Director/Time: Lauren Greenfield, 100 min. Documentary Headline: Super-rich couple loses billions Indie type: Car-wreck gawk-doc Report: I know we all try to maintain some sense of perspective about our lives, but let’s face it: even though we know that stubbing a toe or being stuck in traffic isn’t as bad as starving in a ditch in some third-world country, it still sucks when bad things happen to us. Consider David and Jackie Siegel, who were in the middle of building the biggest house in Orlando—and the U.S.—when the recession took ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance 2012: Day 0

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0600

For far too long, just about any public conversation about the Sundance Film Festival was primarily concerned with whether the fest had sold out. Had Sundance become all about swag lounges and viral marketing and extravagant multi-million dollar distribution deals handed out to mediocre middlebrow quirk-fests? Had the the premiere showcase for American independent film lost its “indie” cred? Frankly, Sundance did go through a rough patch towards the end of the ‘90s indie boom, and I can’t pretend that my e-mail box right now isn’t teeming with invites to events sponsored by tech companies and clothing manufacturers ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance '11: Day Seven

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:00:00 -0600

Reagan Director/Time: Eugene Jarecki, 105 min. Documentary Headline: Where’s the rest of him? Indie type: Slick bio-doc Report: A couple of years ago, I read a fascinating book about Ronald Reagan’s evolution as a Cold Warrior, from his kill ‘em all hawkishness of the ‘70s and early ‘80s to an arms-reductions mission that had the same right-wingers who now idolize Reagan calling him a traitor to their cause. James Mann’s The Rebellion Of Ronald Reagan is full of vivid and astonishing detail about off-the-record backroom deals and soul-searching, and overall paints Reagan as a far more ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance: Day Six

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:46:00 -0600

Hobo With a Shotgun: Never underestimate the power of a good title, especially one that renders plot summaries redundant. No one needs to guess what Baby Geniuses or Snakes On A Plane or Hobo With A Shotgun are about (baby geniuses, snakes on a plane, and a hobo with a shotgun, respectively). In a nifty bit of economy, Hobo With A Shotgun does triple duty as the film’s title, premise, and lead character. Hobo With A Shotgun’s kick-ass title helped it win infamy a few years back when a homemade trailer for the then-non-existent film won a contest ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance '11: Day Six

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:00:00 -0600

Take Shelter Director/Time: Jeff Nichols, 120 min. Cast: Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham, Jessica Chastain, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker Headline: Is there such a thing as being too prepared? Indie type: Portentous domestic drama Report: Writer-director Jeff Nichols re-teams with his Shotgun Stories star Michael Shannon for Take Shelter, a different kind of film. Nichols is still concerned with family legacies, and the ways that people in the small communities relate to each other, but Take Shelter is slower and smoother, deliberately developing a mood of creeping dread. Shannon plays a husband and father who works a good-paying manual labor ...

Film: Sundance: Nathan Rabin @ Sundance '11: Day Five

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:24:00 -0600

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times: With his sandpaper rasp, pummeling intensity, sharp wit, and brutally frank manner, New York Times media columnist and Night Of The Gun author David Carr serves as the pugnacious hero of Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times. He’s a blunt truth-teller in a world of spin and lies, the newspaper equivalent of Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road. Though he only scores a minute or two of screen time, the utterly loathsome corporate pirate and destroyer of great newspapers Sam Zell functions as Carr’s antithesis, nemesis, subject ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance '11: Day Five

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 -0600

Martha Marcy May Marlene Director/Time: Sean Durkin, 101 min. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Hugh Dancy Headline: You can take the girl out of the cult, but you can’t take the cult out of the girl Indie type: Nerve-jangler Report: About halfway through writer-director Sean Durkin’s terrifying drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, the possibly crazy Elizabeth Olson asks her uptight sister Sarah Paulson if she’s ever had trouble telling the difference between a dream and a memory. Paulson says no, but anyone who has ever had that trouble—and I count myself as one ...

Film: Sundance: Noel Murray @ Sundance '11: Day Four

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:00:00 -0600

The Interrupters Director/Time: Steve James, 162 min. Documentary Headline: An eye for an eye makes an entire community blind Indie type: Verité doc Report: For his most ambitious documentary since Hoop Dreams, Steve James spent a year following a group of Chicago activists who work under the banner of Cease Fire to reach at-risk kids and to “interrupt” violent conflicts before they escalate. Their advantage? Nearly all of the interrupters are ex-cons, and many are legends in the Chicago gangs. The Interrupters tracks a few cases that three of the interrupters are working: a teenage girl who’s never ...