2011 Sundance Film Festival

Trailer for TERRI Starring John C. Reilly and Jacob Wysocki

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 19th, 2011 at 12:49 pm

The trailer for the indie comedy Terri has gone online.  The film is a coming-of-age tale about an overweight and unpopular teen who dresses in pajamas but strikes up an unlikely friendship with his school’s vice principal (John C. Reilly).  Terri played at this year’s Sundance Film Festival as well as SXSW and the reaction was positive but unenthusiastic.  The general consensus seems to be that it’s enjoyable but slight and after seeing the trailer, I can understand that criticism.  However, I’m a big enough fan of Reilly and co-star Creed Bratton (who is the secret weapon of NBC’s The Office) to check out the film when it plays as the opening night feature at this year’s Atlanta Film Festival.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Terri opens July 1st.

Directors Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton Interview THESE AMAZING SHADOWS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 31st, 2011 at 4:23 pm

One of the many documentaries I enjoyed at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton’s These Amazing Shadows.  The movie takes a look at the films that are in the National Film Registry and the work of preservationists to keep film history alive.  While at Sundance, I got the chance to sit down with the two directors and talk about the picture.  We discussed how they first became interested in the Registry, areas where the National Film Preservation Board could improve, and which films they want to see get into the Registry, among other topics.

Hit the jump to check out the interview and click here to read my review of These Amazing Shadows.

Sundance 2011: Distribution Deals for PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES, CRIME AFTER CRIME, HOT COFFEE, and BELLFLOWER

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 31st, 2011 at 3:39 pm

While the 2011 Sundance Film Festival may be over, the acquisition deals certainly are not. A large number of films got picked up by distributors during the festival this year, and a few more have nabbed distribution deals recently. Oprah’s OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) made its second acquisition of the festival (the first being the Chaz Bono documentary Becoming Chaz) with Yoav Potash’s justice system documentary Crime After Crime. THR reports that HBO is close to picking up another American justice documentary, Hot Coffee, and Pretty Pictures and Alliance Films have grabbed French and Canadian rights, respectively, for the documentary Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times. Finally, a film that one of Collider’s own Sundance attendees (Matt) had heard would not find distribution ended up getting a deal anyway: Evan Glodell’s Bellflower has been acquired by Oscilloscope Laboratories for all English-speaking territories.

If you missed any of our Sundance coverage, including reviews, other acquisitions and exclusive interviews, click here. For an overview of the entire festival, be sure to check out Matt’s Sundance Scorecard and Impressions from his time in Park City.

Matt’s Sundance Scorecard and Impressions from the Festival

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 30th, 2011 at 9:32 pm

This was my first year attending the Sundance Film Festival and I had an absolute blast.  I have never watched so many movies and written so many reviews over such a short time span.  I not only got to see some great movies (and some not-so-great ones), but I also got to hang out with plenty of awesome people who made my Sundance experience even better.

After the jump, you’ll find my “Sundance Scorecard” which has all of the films I saw ranked from best to worst along with their letter grade. While I’m not a huge fan of stamping a grade on a movie, I figure it’s enough of a hook that the grade will make you want to read the review and figure out why I gave it a particular grade.  I’ve also included my thoughts on the festival including where it was outstanding and where it could use some improvement.

Sundance 2011: FLYPAPER Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2011 at 9:37 pm

The films I saw at Sundance this year involved a variety of subjects ranging from hippies to shot-gun wielding hobos to cults to young love to hippies to puppetry to cults to euthanasia to hippies to Roger Corman to cults.  I didn’t think my first year at Sundance would close out with an inoffensive, innocuous movie like Flypaper.  A caper comedy that wants to be Inside Man meets Clue meets Ten Little Indians but never becomes a fraction as good as any of those movies, Flypaper still manages some laughs due to its manic energy, non-stop jokes, and the brilliant Tim Blake Nelson.

Sundance 2011: THE GUARD Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2011 at 9:26 pm

If you don’t know who Brendan Gleeson is, then you’re missing out.  You may be a perfectly nice person and I’m not asking you to know every actor, but John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard is yet more proof that it’s time for Gleeson to become a guy you recognize based off name alone.  Not “Mad-Eye Moody”.  Not “Colin Farrell’s friend in In Bruges.”  Not “the kind father in 28 Days Later.”  Not “One of the bad guys in Troy.” (Although that last one is simply because no one should use Troy as a frame of reference for anything).  People need to know that Gleeson is one of the finest actors today and if they go see The Guard, they’ll understand why.  The plot relies a little too heavily on coincidence, but it’s a fun flick filled with sharp dialogue, an aggressive style, and yet another phenomenal performance from Gleeson.

Sundance 2011: PARIAH Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

I cannot personally speak to the experience of hiding my sexuality from my loved ones.  Since I’m heterosexual, people have had to work a little harder to find reasons to irrationally hate me.  It’s difficult to outright dismiss films which explore the difficulties homosexuals, especially homosexual teens, face when they live in environments which are opposed and sometimes openly hostile to their sexuality.  However, we’ve seen this story so many times, not just in film, but in other art forms as well, that it has made the gay experience seem like one of agony, as if this is the only story gays and lesbians have to tell.  Dee Rees’ Pariah approaches the story of a black teenage lesbian with enough heart, honesty, and tremendous performances, especially from lead actress Adepero Oduye, but it never completely manages to break free or redefine its sub-genre.

Sundance 2011: THE FUTURE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 28th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Miranda July’s The Future, the follow-up to her successful 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know, may seem obnoxiously strange if you were to take some of its outlandish plot points out of context.  The story features time-stopping, conversations with the moon, and a shirt that can move on its own.  Oh, and the film is narrated by a cat waiting to be adopted.  These fantastical elements are balanced by July’s skill to find humor in the mundane and ability to cleverly express a couple’s fear that their dreams are dead and their future has already been written.  It’s not a comedy for everyone, but those who can appreciate July’s brand of offbeat humor will find The Future a rewarding experience.

Sundance 2011: TAKE SHELTER Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 28th, 2011 at 2:29 pm

Before the screening of Take Shelter, writer-director Jeff Nichols explained to the audience that he was attempting to tap into an emotion of dread and anxiety.  For the first act of his movie, he’s wildly successful at capturing that feeling.  Vivid, nightmarish dream sequences set the film up as a paranoid thriller.  But then Nichols hits the breaks, stops the dreams, and the tension slowly leaves the picture as it moves at a glacial pace.  While he’s able to eventually pick it back up at the end and come to an interesting conclusion, he is never able to reconnect with his audience.

Sundance 2011: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 28th, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Morgan Spurlock is a director who loves a good gimmick.  Sometimes it works (Super Size Me) and sometimes it blows up in his face (Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?).  The Greatest Movie Ever Sold offers his biggest stunt yet: Making a movie about the movie he’s making solely through corporate sponsorship as a way to explore the effect marketing and advertising has on our lives.  The film is loads of fun as Spurlock meshes his fascinating hook with superb comic timing.  While the film never quite gets to the heart of why companies spend so much on advertising and how effective that marketing is to their bottom line, it’s still an endlessly entertaining and effective reminder of how much advertising dominates our lives.

Sundance 2011: HOW TO DIE IN OREGON Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 27th, 2011 at 2:14 pm

I don’t have an opinion on the euthanasia debate.  The issue is simply too personal to each individual for me to weigh in and tell complete strangers that they shouldn’t take their own lives or that they shouldn’t have to endure more pain.  Peter D. Richardson’s documentary How to Die in Oregon supports the “death with dignity” argument by showing how some people in Oregon, which has legalized euthanasia, are taking advantage of the new law.  The movie is heartbreaking as we watch terminal patients struggle with the decision to end their own life with “dignity” (I put that in quotations for a reason I’ll explain later in the review).  While the film works brilliantly on an emotional level, it does its advocacy a disservice through oversights and unnecessary tangents.

Sundance 2011: IN A BETTER WORLD Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 27th, 2011 at 11:07 am

What does it mean to set an example?  Can a show of great violence stop further violence?  Can a show of great peace cause peace?  Susanne Bier’s In a Better World explores these questions but it never manages to find their dramatic weight.  The film features some gorgeous cinematography, interesting characters, and solid performances, but they never coalesce into a compelling story.  The narrative has trouble finding its pace as it jumps between various characters and their struggles, but never builds much tension.  At its best, it’s a cold, meditative drama and at its worst, it comes off like The Adventures of Young Punisher.

Sundance 2011: BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 27th, 2011 at 12:25 am

After watching the first several minutes of Constance Marks’ documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, I realized I could watch an entire movie of just Elmo giving people hugs.  But the heartwarming story of Elmo’s puppeteer Kevin Clash is also good.  The movie doesn’t have much in the way of conflict, but it provides a great narrative of a man who pursued his life-long dream as well as a fascinating look inside the world of puppetry.  While younger viewers may be a bit disappointed that Elmo isn’t the dominate figure in the movie, all audiences will be won over by Clash and how he made his dream come true.

Sundance 2011: BENAVIDES BORN Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 27th, 2011 at 12:04 am

Benavides Born is an exploitation film but not in a fun Hobo with a Shotgun kind-of-a-way.  It’s a clichéd, done-to-death follow-your-dreams story that no one would ever pay attention, but director Amy Wendel uses the hook of having her protagonist be a Hispanic female weightlifter.  This bodes well for my scripts about a gay Asian bobsledder and a transgender Arab archer.  Unfortunately, if those movies turn out anything like Benavides Born, then that doesn’t bode well for the audiences who will endure a dull, sappy story populated with weak actors.

Sundance 2011: MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 26th, 2011 at 11:40 pm

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a powder keg of tension, paranoia, and regret that will have you captivated with incredible direction and amazing performances.  Centering on a young woman who escapes from a cult only to discover that she can’t re-assimilate, the storytelling is always restrained, intelligent, and compelling.  In his debut feature film, director Sean Durkin brilliantly ties together haunting cinematography, intense sound design, and smart editing.  Elizabeth Olsen gives a breakthrough performance as the haunted Martha, and costar John Hawkes continues to amaze.  Never showy but always compelling, Martha Marcy May Marlene is one of the best films I’ve seen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

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