Revolutionary Road
Every year, everyone has issues with the Academy’s nominees. It’s no secret that Oscar doesn’t usually recognize the best pictures of the year, and everyone likes to point that out. Myself included. It seems that this year, his biggest misstep is ignoring Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road. I mean, what the hell? The mess of a movie The Reader gets a best picture nod, and the only bone that gets thrown to Road is a best supporting actor nomination for... Read More
Dead Snow (Død snø)
For those fans of horror, Dead Snow is just unmissable. Watch the trailer, you’ll see why. In the last year, Scandinavia has sent over some great films: Let the Right One In, Reprise, and now a bitchin’ movie about Nazi-zombies in the mountains of Norway. It’s ‘good campy fun!’ For eight medical students, Easter vacation begins innocently enough. They pack their cars full of ski equipment and enough beer to fuel their escape from everyday life... Read More
Paper Heart
Paper Hearts will probably be one of the breakout films of this year’s Sundance Festival. And rightly so. It hits all the right notes, without pushing the boundaries of violence, sex or language. In fact, this will probably be rated PG. After 2007′s Little Miss Sunshine, and The Illusionist, and Paper Heart from this year, perhaps Sundance’s reputation as an excessive, indulgent and dark festival will improve. Nicholas Jasenovec directs this sophomore effort... Read More
Grace
Since I’ve started attending Sundance, I’ve rumors about the films in the ‘Park City at Midnight’ categories. Rumors of Asian movies that have people eating soup made out of fetuses, or about women with teeth in their vaginas. I try to see a couple movies in this category each year. Sometimes it pays off like when I saw The Descent. Some years it doesn’t. Like when I saw Subject Two (never, ever watch that movie, even though that douche... Read More
A Special Thanks
I’d like to take a quick break from the festival coverage (which will continue tomorrow) to give a special thanks and shout out to two of my closest friends. There’s Cindy at www.fordpride.blogspot.com, and Ben at www.magicmanmusings.blogspot.com. Both are bitchin’ friends, and deserve a big thanks for helping me with my campaign to dominate the LAMB leader board at www.largeassmovieblogs.blogspot.com (if you get a chance, check this blog out, they’re... Read More
The Informers
Perhaps it’s the fact that director Gregor Jordan (who has made multiple appearances at Sundance since 1996) compared himself to Robert Altman, and this film to Short Cuts during the Q&A, but The Informers is just a film that I can’t jump behind. You could also chalk it up to not understanding a single thing that came out of the eighties (I was 5 in 1989). Or the fact that the movie was just too disjointed to be enjoyable. Either way, I was annoyed at the... Read More
Victoria Day
There isn’t one major problem with David Bezmozgis’ piece Victory Day. Except that it’s just boring. And a little confusing. But I’m guessing if you like hockey, you might find it a little more entertaining. I’d like to embrace Canadian film, but this isn’t helping things. With the long Victoria Day weekend signaling the end of school, and the Stanley Cup playoffs afoot, the summer of 1988 arrives in Toronto. Ben Spector (Mark Rendall),... Read More
Carmo, Hit the Road
International films get the short end of the stick at Sundance. Everyone wants to see the Joseph Gorden Levitt/Zooey Deschanel movie, or whatever Greg Mottola put out (I’m guilty of this too), while theaters for the world dramatic films sit half empty. This is a real shame, because there are some pretty bitchin’ independent foreign films as well. Coming from Brazil, Carmo, Hit the Road is one of them. No shrinking violet, Carmo (a jaw-dropping performance by Mariana... Read More
Cliente – A French Gigolo
The French handle sex in cinema far better than any country, in my humble opinion. Especially better than America who still giggles at it and acts like a teenager who just found his first porno under his dad’s bed. It’s for this reason I chose to see Cliente – A French Gigolo. This story follows Judith (Nathalie Baye). An elegant entrepreneur in her fifties, Judith unapologetically engages male escorts to minister to her sexual pleasure. When she answers Patrick’s... Read More
Adventureland
The Sundance darling of 2009 was clearly decided before it even started. People have been waiting for Greg Mottola’s followup to Superbad for quite a while now, and Adventureland is it. Although the film shouldn’t have been purchased before the festival (or at least not before the P.I. screenings), trailers for Adventureland were played nationwide before Doubt. It’s crap like this that give all those naysayers ammo when they bitch about Sundance being so... Read More
