On The Park City Trail... Sundance 2010 and more: Jan. 31

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Published on Friday, 05 February 2010 03:20

Written by Eric Lurio

Sundance is over and that’s fine with me. I’ve been trying to recover for almost a week and I’m not sure that I have. I saw somewhere between 25 and 32 films (I’m not sure exactly) and after a week back home, I’m still a bit blurry.

While I was in the air on the way home, they announced the winners of the various awards. There have to be awards for some reason. But as to the Sundance winners, I didn’t see most of them, so I’m not going to give any commentary on those. It’s unseemly to pontificate on films I haven't seen, although that sort of thing is done all the time. But here’s what I've I did see.

The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Restrepo
directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
Junger and Hetherington spent a year dug in with the Second Platoon as they painfully push back the Taliban in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys.

This is one of the most boring war documentaries ever. Nothing much happens. The men mostly dig holes. The Captain has a meeting with the local leadership. And there’s talk of bullets and bombs, but that’s it. The men were interviewed after their tour was over and while it should have bee interesting, it wasn’t. I slept through some of it.

The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Winter's Bone
directed by Debra Granik
written by Granik and Anne Rosellini
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt
Ree (Lawrence) lives in the Ozarks, the Dogpatch ghetto part of Missouri where the stereotypical Hillbilly lives. Everyone’s inbred and makes their living dealing drugs. Ree’s father, whom we never see, has abandoned his family and cooks crystal meth. Ree has to take care of her insane mother and two much younger siblings while living off the kindness of neighbors.

Then one day Sheriff Baskin (Dillahunt) comes around and tells her that Daddy jumped bail, and if he doesn’t show up, they’re going to take the house, which was put up as bond. Ree has to find him or else she’s going to wind up on the street. You see the law of the mountains is very much the same as the law of the street.

But Ree cares about her younger siblings and their fate, so she goes on a quest to find her father. Despite the fact that even her Uncle Teardrop (Hawkes) tells her not to fight it, she tries to solve the mystery of what happened to her pa. This is one of those bleak crime dramas that resembles a train wreck. You can’t take your eyes off it no matter how grim it is. Lawrence is terrific, and so is everyone else.

The Audience Award: Dramatic
happythankyoumoreplease
written and directed by Josh Radnor
Cast: Malin Akerman, Kate Mara, Richard Jenkins, Zoe Kazan, Kate Mara, Pablo Schreiber
As the film begins, writer Sam Wexler (Radnor) unwittingly adopts a young boy named Rasheen (Algieri). It plays cute. Sam is good friends with Annie (Akerman), who has no hair and is being sexually harassed by Sam No. 2 (Hale), who works in her office. Sam One’s distaff cousin Mary Catherine (Kazan)  has just been proposed to by her long time beau Charlie (Schreiber), something she’s reacted to in a very negative way.

Our hero has also fallen in lust with the beautiful waitress Mississippi (Mara), with whom he has a contract for a three day fling…. That’s right folks, it’s Seinfeld the Movie!, which means it’s completely about nothing, full of cute jokes and one or two insights about the meaning of life. It'ss entertaining in a sitcom kind of way, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The thing won the award because Radnor, who’s been on a TV sitcom for years, knows the genre well and got himself a good cast. This will now give him the creds to do something more ambitious.

The Best of NEXT 
Homewrecker
directed by Todd and Brad Barnes
written by The Barneses, and Sophie Goodhart
Cast:Anslem Richardson, Ana Reeder, Stephen Rannazzisi, Cesar De Leon, Mary Beth Peil, Michelle Krusiec
With the advent of digital video camera, one can fake 35mm film for a tiny fraction of the cost of the real thing. This is how No-budget filmmaking is possible, and is how the Barnes brothers managed to get this done.

This film is about a convict (Richardson) on work release who somehow gets involved with a lunatic named Margo (Reeder), and soon the hijinks begin. Margo thinks her beau (Rannazzisi), is cheating on her or something like that.

The only reason this film comes even close to working is Reeder, who’s been on Broadway in dozens of plays and is absolutely wonderful. She’s the kind of person that has star quality all over her. I’m smitten. As for everybody else and the movie itself, eh.

The Directing Award: Documentary
Smash His Camera
directed by Leon Gast
Much has been done about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the former First Lady and international celebrity. Not much has been done about her nemesis, famous celebrity photographer and original paparazzo, Ron Galella.

Gast and Gallella have a blast making this film. The photographer is followed around by cinematographers as he goes around his daily grind and shows off his “palatial estate” in New Jersey. He’s suffered for his art, and now he ‘s just enjoying life plugging his art books and taking pictures of celebraties, some of whom don’t want to be followed and all of whom deserve it.

The tawdry tale of his “war” with Jackie O is recounted in great detail, and she doesn’t come off all that well. Of course neither does he. But  its easy to see why it won an award. And this documentary is the only film at Sundance in which Robert Redford actually appears.

The Documentary Editing Award
Joan Rivers-A Piece Of Work
directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg
edited by Penelope Falk
Legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers is old. She should be sitting on her lawrels by now, but she’s constitutionally incapable of slowing down, and her bills are huge, what with having to support all her camp followers and all.

So we follow her around for a few months as she goes around the country doing her schtick and discussing the ups and downs of her long, long career. It’s a good documentary, and we she’s someone we can root for.

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary
Enemies of the People
directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath
Cambodia / United Kingdom
This is one of those films that actually deserves an award. Filmmaker Thet Sambath, manages to get into the good graces of the evil and aged Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's second-in-command, worms his way into the bastard's life, and films a confession. It's sort of like getting Chairman Mao or Hermann Goering to admit and apologize for what they did to the millions. What's amazing is that Thet actually does it. It takes years, and the old man, who doesn't look all that guilty, really doesn't want to do it at the beginning, but that's what makes this film so compelling.

While he's not gently going after Nuon, he discusses the genocide with two former militiamen, Khoun and Suon, who actually did some of the killing. What they have to say is chilling, to say the least. They don't want to go before the international tribunals, as the Nazis and Hutu militia monsters have done, but they come clean, and decribe their crimes in detail, including one scene where they demonstrate techniques. 

The use of some old newsreel footage is what makes the film so powerful, as we can recognize that the sweet old man being interviewed really is the monster who was responsible for the deaths of millions. Talk abou the banality of evil! This is a film that hs to be seen, which is why it's going to get on most PBS stations sometime in the fall. 

Special Jury Prize: Dramatic
Sympathy for Delicious
directed by Mark Ruffalo
written by Christopher Thornton
Cast: Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Mark Ruffalo. Christopher Thornton. Laura Linney
Around a decade ago, actor Christopher Thornton broke his back and was paralyzed, Some years afterward, he wrote an innovateive but repugnant script about a repugnant God and a bunch of repugnant people. Around six months ago, movie star Mark Ruffalo decided to use this script as his debut as a director. The result is one of those films with a fascinating concept and unfacinating characters.

Dean O'Dwyer (Thornton) is a parapalegic homeless person who at one time was a deejay known as “Delicious D”. That career is over and he’s bitter and angry but from his previous life comes Ariel Lee (Lewis), a punk rocker who’s scraping the bottom of the barrel with a band headed by a guy called The Stain (Bloom). Our hero fails again when a miracle happens. He gets the power to heal, and Father Joe (Ruffalo), who’s been tending to the homeless, decides to exploit him in order to do God’s work. Delicious and the punkers decide that his superpower could be profitable to them, and an atheist revival show is started.

Everyone works from his or her basest instincts, nobody is nice, and while the situation is fascinating, there’s no one in the whole film we could really relate to or like. Delicious is an ass; everybody is worse, and the climax and dénouement are completely unbelievable within the conceit of the film. Ruffalo’s experience as an actor makes his directorial style competent enough, but the experience just leaves you cold.

As for the rest... I've listed the winners of the rest of awards -- even though I have not seen them yet.

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary
The Red Chapel (Det Røde Kapel)
directed by Mads Brügger
Denmark

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic
Animal Kingdom
written and directed by David Michôd
Australia

The Audience Award: Documentary
Waiting For Superman
directed by Davis Guggenheim

The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary
Wasteland
directed by Lucy Walker
United Kingdom / Brazil

The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic
Contracorriente (Undertow)
written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Leõn,
Peru / Colombia / France / Germany

The Directing Award: Dramatic
3 Backyards
directed and written by Eric Mendelsohn

The World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary
Space Tourists
directed by Christian Frei
Switzerland

The World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic
Southern District
directed and written by Juan Carlos Valdivia
Bolivia

The World Cinema Screenwriting Award
Southern District
[see above]

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
Winter's Bone

The World Cinema Documentary Editing Award
A Film Unfinished
written and directed by Yael Hersonski
Edited by Joëlle Alexis
Germany / Israel

A World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic for Breakout Performance
Tatiana Maslany for her role in
Grown Up Movie Star
Canada

A Special Jury Prize: Documentary
Gasland
directed by Josh Fox

 Alfred P. Sloan Prize
Obselidia
written and directed by Diane Bell

I didn’t see any of the Excellence in Cinematography Award winners either. Sorry.

I was at the Slamdance presentation at the Red Banjo Pizza joint (322 Main St.). It was lots of fun -- think of a low-rent version of the Golden Globes®, where people make boring speeches and the recipients cry with joy as they accept. I’d met a number of them in the green room although I never saw their films (I was at Sundance for most of it), but they let me have all the free pizza and beer I could quaff down, and that’s one of the reasons I went to the damn thing. Of course I thanked them profusely between gulps.

That’s it for the time being. Even with all the notes and such, OD’ing on movies turns one’s brain to mush. It takes at least a week to recover in order to write up any more.

On The Park City Trail... Sundance 2010 and more: Jan. 28

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Published on Thursday, 28 January 2010 22:02

Written by Eric Lurio

Here’s something novel, I have a three-hour break between screenings. The press screenings are over, and with four public screenings scheduled for tomorrow and none today, it’s back to the wait-list before the Slamdance Awards ceremony.

So while we’re waiting, let’s discuss something that’s very important for anyone who’s a habitué of film festivals. What exactly is an “Independent film” anyway? There are lots of things that have been showing here in Park City that claim to be independent films but aren’t.

You want to know what an independent film really is? Okay. Two guys, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, received a call from a friend of theirs, a third person who would have his hands on an empty office in New Orleans in a few weeks and $10,000 so could they write a script to utilize it? They got together with their friends Amber Benson and Adam Busch, found a bunch of out-of-work actors to volunteer for a three-day shoot, and wound up with a film called Drones, which is a cross between Star Wars and The Office, and rather funny. Independent funding. No studios, no taxpayer Euros. No nothing. 

On the other hand, take the Duplass Brothers’ latest project, Cyrus, for example. There is no way in Hell this is an independent film. It’s being released by FoxSearchlight, features a cast of movie stars, a moderately large budget, and is getting a rather wide release. What’s there that isn’t Hollywood?

The Duplasses started out doing cheap, independent films that had microscopic releases, such as The Puffy Chair back in ’05, but they have graduated into the big time, and while their next attempt might be a tiny little comedy, this most certainly is not. It’s a standard issue Hollywood movie.

Another film that isn’t independent is Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy. This early life of John Lennon biopic, produced by the Weinsteins and the British Lottery, and it is most certainly not independent. It was created as part of the British film industry and is being distributed by Icon films, an international “mini-major” outside the US.

There are plenty of documentaries that aren’t independent either. TV stations finance most of them like WBGO or PBS. HBO does a lot of them. RCN Television has financed them or they are produced by some major foreign network, such as Sins of My Father, which was made by the Colombian equivalent of CBS.  This is not an independent film. It’s not made in Hollywood, but is an establishment production. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s an excellent film, but it’s not independent.

Yeah, there are some “independent “films that are basically vanity productions like Mark Ruffalo’s Sympathy for Delicious. It doesn’t have a distributor yet, but a lot of it is done through the Hollywood system… And they’re kicking everyone out of the room.

More later…

On The Park City Trail... Sundance 2010 and more: Jan. 27

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Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Thursday, 28 January 2010 06:11

Written by Eric Lurio

Half way through the festival and I’m already bushed. I went to six screenings yesterday, and my mind is already turning to mush. Most of the day was spent at the Holiday Multiplex, where I saw a screening, immediately went back on line and then took in another screening. I think my prostate is allergic to all this and… But I'd better not to go into that.

The Park City transit system is getting the better of me, too. I know that I’ve been focusing on the fact that the buses tend to change routes without notice, but I was listening to other people bitching about the same thing and it’s really nice to know that it’s not just me being paranoid.

The schedule is pretty much the same. Go to the headquarters, then get back to the main venue, get on line, see the film, get back on line, get a seat, grab some grub, then finish another film, and repeat until your brain implodes.

Today was slightly different.

When going to public screenings, there are two ways of getting in: the first is go two hours early and get on a wait-list line, and the second is to go at the last minute and see if there are seats left. I tried the latter twice today, and lucked out. This changed my schedule quite a bit, which is okay.

With only a couple of press screenings left tomorrow, I’m going to be spending more time on the bus than I expected.

The press screenings end tomorrow, which means that I won’t be spending as much time at the Holiday as I have been. I haven’t been to most of the other venues, and I had no idea that the Prospector Square Theater, which is somewhere around Prospector Square, had seating next to the concession stand. This is important! Park City is small in population, but very spread out; it takes forever to get from one place to another, which means lots of time is wasted.

On The Park City Trail... Sundance 2010 and more: Jan. 25

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Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Monday, 25 January 2010 05:00

Written by Eric Lurio

Near the bottom of the hill that is Main Street is the Kimball Art Center, but during the festival it is known as Sundance House. By comparison to other places used during the fest it is a large structure; they serve expensive coffee and have panels there. I've attended a third of them.

One panel was on 3D cinematography and was rather technical. But what was most interesting was the use of the giant screen in the room. They didn’t use it at all, instead using several tiny screens on either side of the room. Why they did this is a bit of a mystery. It certainly was a waste of a huge TV screen.

Besides that, most of the last day-and-a-half was spent going from one screening to another This is harder than it seems because at one point, bus driver pretended to have a breakdown, threw everyone out, and then drove off.

My mind is still discombobulated from getting up at 5AM. Four screenings yesterday and five today. While most were good, it’s hard to process all the data.

Two films —  one at Sundance, the other at Slamdance — focus on the Beat Generation and two of its most seminal figures: William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. As the progenitors of the movement, they have had films made about them before, but none like the following:

Howl

Directed by: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Starring: James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Treat Williams and Bob Balaban
Sundance Film Festival World Premiere

Allen Ginsberg’s "Howl" is one of the most important poems of the 20th century, and as far as I can tell, the last one to be put on trial for obscenity. That the words and not pictures were on trial makes this portrait of the proceedings see entirely absurd.

So how do you film the unfilmable? The movie goes back and forth between the 1957 San Francisco trial and the tumultuous life events that led a young Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, and to the mind-expanding animation that is used here to echo the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that is the only way that "Howl" can possibly be turned into a movie.

James Franco stars as Ginsberg but the animators are stars as well. Everyone else, including Jon Hamm and David Strathairn as the opposing attorneys, are mere window dressing. Even though this cannot possibly be considered a one-man show, it definitely feels like it.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
Directed by: Tony Leyser
Slamdance Premiere

Some say William S. Burroughs would not have become a great writer had he not murdered his wife in 1951. He shot her in the head while playing like the archer William Tell — whom legend says shot an arrow off his child's head — and got away with it. They said it was an accident.

Burroughs fled to Morocco’s now extinct InterZone, and went on to write countless magazine articles, Naked Lunch and several other dense novels, and went on to inspire entire generations of miscreants. This feature-length independent documentary deals with the man and his career in an fascinating way. 

Going by subject rather than chronologically, Layser goes over the depraved lifestyle Burroughs had lived line by line, from his sex life to the murder of his wife, the books he wrote and his drug addictions. This is dynamite stuff and shows what a repellent bastard he really could be. He could write, and that’s why he was loved but he wasn't necessarily lovable otherwise.