Sundance 2015

SUNDANCE 2015
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

I loved these films. they made my day:

brooklyn

The screenwriter is Nick Hornby and I like just about everything he writes (High Fidelity, About a Boy). Saoirse Ronan gives an affecting performance as an Irish immigrant who comes to America in the 1950s rings true. She falls in love in America, but when she goes “home” to Ireland to visit she becomes entangled with a local boy. A tough choice ensues.

I’ll see you in my dreams

This is a slight, but no less enjoyable story about an older woman (Glythe Danner) who is set in her ways until she meets two men, one age appropriate (Sam Elliott) and the other younger. Together they change her mind about what it means to “grow old”.

high performance

slamdance An Austrian comedy about two very different brothers who fall for the same woman. Their power struggle is very fun to watch.

me and earl and the dying girl

Unique, outrageously creative, sweet, sad and just so worth seeing … the best film at Sundance. Ah, senior year in high school. An aspiring filmmaking twosome, Greg and his best friend Earl make bizarre shorts until Greg’s mother (Connie Britton) forces him to make friends with a neighbor girl with leukemia. Thomas Mann is fantastic as Greg. We’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. Nick Offerman as Greg’s father is – naturally – hilarious. US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic AND Audience Award: US Dramatic

people, places, things

A delightful tale of a dad trying to balance being a parent to his twin daughters, teaching college students and navigating a new love as he lets go of his ex-wife.

racing extinction

An excellent documentary by the Academy Award-winning director of The Cove. The plot line is the mass extinction of endangered species. As the filmmaker infiltrates notorious black markets where virtually any (dead) animal can be purchased it turns into a thriller which is sure to change the way you think about humans’ effect on the environment.

true story

The critics are busy panning this film, but I found it engrossing. Based on a true story it is about a disgraced New York Times reporter (Jonah Hill) who begins to investigate a recent convict’s (James Franco) murder of his wife and young children. Why did he do it? The co-dependence between the two is fascinating, a bit scary and a mystery. I thought the actors were chillingly good …

unexpected

A Chicago high school science teacher finds she is unexpectedly pregnant … and so is one of her star pupils. Together the two navigate their pregnancies leading to an an unexpected, unlikely friendship. The teacher’s (Cobie Smulders) family is middle class, the student is poor and being raised by her grandmother. Intriguing and eye opening.

From OK, to it won’t hurt you, to ???:

i am michael

The true story of a gay activist (James Franco) who rejects his outspoken homosexuality, marries a woman and becomes a born again Christian pastor who rails against “the gays”. Beautifully shot and well acted (Zachary Quinto plays his lover) but sadly a waste of time. It leaves you feeling incredulous and mad at the same time.

i smile back

Sarah Silverman plays against type as a drugged out, promiscuous mother who loves her kids but just cannot keep it together for them. Her husband (Josh Charles) tries to hold the family together despite his wife’s drug and alcohol use. Dark, hopeless and sad.

the trouble with dot & harry

slamdance An American writer visits his former girlfriend in England and is unexpectedly he is put in charge of her two precocious kids. Road trip! Just plain fun.

the overnight

I wanted to like this comedy with Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling as a married couple with a child who move to Los Angeles and are trying to make new friends. But film devolves into total weirdness and ultimately lost me when they engage in an unlikely evening filled with sex and strange happenings with the parents of their son’s new friend.

so maybe the acting was good or the filmmaking slick, but … ick:

welcome to leith

A well meaning documentary about a tiny town that wakes up one morning to find they’ve been invaded by a white supremacist group. Chilling, if not enlightening.

stockholm, pennsylvania

Saoirse Ronan plays a girl who was abducted at age 4 and returns after 17 years of living in a small room with her abductor. Told the outside world had collapsed she finds it nearly impossible to relate to her “real” family. Disturbing, creepy and worthy of the Lifetime channel.

the wolfpack

A documentary about six teenage brothers whose parents have locked them away from society in a Manhattan housing projects. The only escape is watching movies that they imitate. Some of them long to escape to find out what the world is really like. This is a compelling and curious story but the film leaves too many unanswered questions and the filmmaker’s insertion of herself into the family is strange, at best. US Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

the bad & UGLY

Don verdean

What was Sam Rockwell thinking? I love Sam Rockwell. Anyway, this is a satirical “look” at a church looking for religious relics in the Holy Land to increase their “audience”. Billed as a “comedy of faith and fraud”. Amy Ryan, Will Forte etc. try but the story is just flat.

songs my brothers taught me

This story of an amazingly dysfunctional family on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is irritatingly disjointed … a missed opportunity to explore life on the reservation.

the summer of sangaile

Lithuania, France and The Netherlands conspired to make a thoroughly forgettable and annoying film about a 17 year old fascinated by stunt planes. Yup, you read that right. I could hardly wait for the film to end. Directing Award:World Cinema Dramatic

Good “buzz” but 4 films a day is my limit:

Sleeping with other people

“Jake and Lainey impulsively lose their virginity to each other in college … 12 years later … they realize they have become serial cheaters … they form a platonic friendship … to in their quest for healthy romatic relationships.” Jason Sudeikis, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet

The D Train

Jack Black and James Marsden rekindle their friendship at their 20 ^th high school reunion. A wild night follows.

End of the Tour

Jesse Eisenberg as a Rolling Stone reporter and Jason Segel as the acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace in conversation.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

“Based on the actual events .., in 1971 when a Stanford professor … created one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time.”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award AND Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

The diary o a teenage girl

In 1970s San Francisco, a 15 year old girl sleeps with her mother’s boyfriend.
Alexander Skarsgard, Christopher Meloni, Kristen Wiig with a powerful performance by Bel Powley