sundance

The Review Revue: CHRONICLE

In “The Review Revue,” we turn dozens of movie reviews from all over the Internet into one handy blog post. It’s like super-concentrated orange juice for film criticism (with less pulp and Vitamin D). This week: we chronicle the reaction to CHRONICLE.

In praise of “watchability” and the movies we watch again and again

A few years ago, a beer company started a campaign advertising the “drinkability” of its product. At first it struck me as silly — and surprising that a competitor didn’t respond that theirs was the more “potent potable” — but then I began to understand. Technically all beers are drinkable. They were simply suggesting theirs went down smoother and easier than the rest. We might apply similar criteria to movies. Technically all movies are watchable (assuming they’re in focus). But those that are more easily and more frequently watched, that go down smooth and easy, have what we could call “watchability.”

Coming soon…The Sundance Channel film newsletter

Enough of this passive internet browsing! We’re bringing our latest, greatest, indie cinema stuff directly to your inbox. Starting right now Sundance Channel will commit to making sure you don’t miss:

Now playing on Sundance Channel: From naughty films to brutal ends

Ah, lovely, fragile February. While the groundhogs can’t seem to make up their minds on just how much winter we’ve got left, those of us on the East Coast are still waiting for that alleged season to start. But, regardless of what the mercury tells us, it’s still hibernating season (and, well, fighting off the flu season), so we’ve got some killer indie movies lined up to get you through the next week:

Film intelligence: Distributors keep on Sundancing

Every week there are dozens of film news stories. Every week, we read them all and bring you the five most important ones in the single most important blog post you’ll ever read (today [at this moment]).

Here’s what the Oscars can learn from NYC nightlife pageants!

This year’s Oscar telecast (set for February 26) has been on a hopeful track ever since they announced that an actual comic was going to be the host.

But even Billy Crystal can only do so much. All the stuff around him needs to be spruced up pronto to ensure that the whole Oscar machine doesn’t become as obsolete as silent movies (except for THE ARTIST, of course).

And I know the answer.

For a lifeline, the producers need to venture into New York’s wildest nightclubs and learn some valuable lessons about how to put on a show.

Memorable quotes from Sundance 2012

This year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival, like most years, featured an abundance of witty, memorable lines. Here are some of the best quotes heard in films that screened during this year’s fest….

The Best of Sundance 2012

Now that the 2012 Sundance Film Festival is just a snowy, hectic memory, it’s time to bestow our own awards on the films we can’t get out of our heads….

The Review Revue: THE GREY

In “The Review Revue,” we turn dozens of movie reviews from all over the Internet into one handy blog post. It’s like super-concentrated orange juice for film criticism (with less pulp and Vitamin D). This week: we get the black and white truth on THE GREY.

A (fairly) complete Sundance 2012 acquisitions list

In our last distribution round-up, we compared the acquisition market at Sundance ’12 to a domino rally. Now, on the last day of the festival, it looks like that scene in every apocalypse movie where a terrified mob raids a grocery store, with people in a desperate scramble to get whatever they can before the shop closes forever. In three days, at least eleven distribution deals closed, with several more reportedly almost finalized.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD: Director and star dish on the making of the best movie at Sundance

Benh Zeitlin, the 29-year-old director of the most talked-about movie—and now, winner of the coveted Grand Jury Prize—at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, is running late. So Quvenzhané “Nazie” Wallis, star of Zeitlin’s film, does what any other 8-year-old girl would do to pass the time—eats a couple oranges, guzzles a can of Sprite, extols the virtues of ‘Wizards of Waverly Place,’ and parks herself in front of my laptop computer for a rousing game of ‘Ninja Painter.’ It’s a far cry from the crawfish, vodka, and cardboard box-cave painting of her character, Hushpuppy.

The Sundance ’12 Awards (according to Twitter)

It’s indie film, man: when things go wrong, you roll with the punches and improvise. So when Parker Posey, the scheduled host for the Sundance ’12 Awards Show fell ill, the fest found a replacement — BLACK ROCK director and star Katie Aselton — who teamed up with Festival Director John Cooper to emcee the evening. Things chugged along without missing a beat. “I’ve always wanted to be Parker Posey,” quipped Aselton.

2012 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners

Sundance Institute this evening announced the Jury, Audience, NEXT <=> and other special awards of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, hosted by Parker Posey in Park City, Utah. An archived video of the ceremony in its entirety is available at www.sundance.org/live.

“Every year the Sundance Film Festival brings to light exciting new directions and fresh voices in independent film, and this year is no different,” said John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “While these awards further distinguish those that have had the most impact on audiences and our jury, the level of talent showcased across the board at the Festival was really impressive, and all are to be congratulated and thanked for sharing their work with us.”

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “As we close what was a remarkable 10 days of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, we look to the year ahead with incredible optimism for the independent film community. As filmmakers continue to push each other to achieve new heights in storytelling we are excited to see what’s next.”

The Sundance Review Revue: 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

You see a lot of different genres at Sundance, but there’s one kind of movie — the most popular kind of movie, as far as the filmmaking establishment is concerned — that you almost never see in Park City: sequels. Julie Delpy’s 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK is a rare exception, and a follow-up to the actress’ critically acclaimed 2007 film 2 DAYS IN PARIS. In that film Delpy’s Marion and her boyfriend Jack (Adam Goldberg) travel to Paris for a vacation intended to rekindle their sputtering romance. In NEW YORK, the romance has officially sputtered out, and Marion now lives with a new boyfriend, a journalist and radio host named Mingus, played by Chris Rock. Marion’s crazy French family travels to Manhattan for a visit and sends the couple’s relatively carefree lives into chaos.

Oscar-winning MAN ON WIRE director James Marsh rips Best Doc Oscar noms, talks brilliant new film SHADOW DANCER

The opening salvo was fired on Nov. 18. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released their short list of 15 films for the Best Documentary Oscar, and many in the industry were up in arms. Where was THE INTERRUPTERS? No SENNA? Then, the actual nominees for the Academy Award for Best Documentary were announced on Jan. 24, and people were appropriately outraged.

One of the biggest snubs was PROJECT NIM, the poignant doc by Oscar-winning MAN ON WIRE filmmaker James Marsh about Nim, a chimpanzee who in the became the focus of a groundbreaking experiment in the 1970s attempting to teach apes to communicate. For a time, Nim was even raised in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Following MAN ON WIRE and PROJECT NIM, James Marsh is back at the Sundance Film Festival with SHADOW DANCER—a brilliant IRA drama set in 1990s Belfast about a young mother, played by Andrea Riseborough (in a spellbinding performance), who is forced to collaborate with an MI5 officer (Clive Owen) and act as an informant spying on her own brothers. The slow-burning thriller is already garnering comparisons to TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, and is one of the best films to screen at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

KID-THING premiere photos: A total charm offensive

Actor-director (and parent sharing) duo David and Nathan Zellner returned to Park City with KID-THING. And despite the fact that they were often upstaged by their adorable, and incredibly talented, star Sydney Aguirre, the brothers Zellner charmed their way through Park City. Find out more about the film and check out our entire gallery of the day:

Top Ten: Bad girls, good films at Sundance 2012

Everybody loves a bad girl, and the indie crowd at Sundance is no exception. This year we had ladies heating up the phone lines, facing off with nature and, well…doing drugs in the powder room. But, mirror, mirror on the wall? Who is the best bad girl of them all? You’ll have to read on to find out:

My Premiere: Watch SAVE THE DATE director Michael Mohan premiere his film

Director Michael Mohan says his film SAVE THE DATE was a huge team effort, but the night (or afternoon, really) belonged to him. Follow Michael from writing his opening remarks to catching up with his cast and letting the applause from his premiere fill in. Check out all of the photos…and watch the My Premiere video.

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN: A fascinating expose on the (racist) war on drugs

Since 1970, it has cost America $2.5 trillion and led to 44 million arrests.

Due in large part to its excessively draconian laws, with only five percent of the world’s population, the United States accounts for 25 percent of its prisoners.

The Sundance Review Revue: LIBERAL ARTS

The cast of LIBERAL ARTS is like the independent film version of a rock and roll supergroup. You’ve got your road-tested veterans, Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney, and two of the hottest talents to come out of Sundance in recent years: Elizabeth Olsen from MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE and writer/director/star Josh Radnor, whose HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE won the Sundance audience award back in 2010. And, yeah, Zac Efron’s in there too. Admittedly, he sabotages the theory just wee bit.

Watch: FILLY BROWN stars Edward J. Olmos, Lou Diamond Philips, Jenni Rivera & Gina Rodriguez

FILLY BROWN is a hip-hop, coming of age story set against the backdrop of a broken family and the less glamorous side of Los Angeles. Edward J. Olmos Lou Diamond Philips and Jenni Rivera support a brilliant performance by festival “it girl” Gina Rodriguez. It’s a gritty performance, but Rodriguez has scored legions of new fans in the criticsphere. Find out what the cast had to say about working with such an amazing ensemble.

Watch Buzz on the Bus and get the skinny on Sundance 2012

Pop quiz: Where is the best place to get honest opinions on Sundance Film Festival flicks? Well, SUNfiltered, but the Park City buses are a close second. This mountain town has a free, killer public transportation system and it ramps up during the festival. It’s the best way to get around and the best place to find out if that weird, Mongolian documentary is really worth braving the waitlist for. Don’t believe me? Watch and learn, grasshopper:

Sundance 2012 trends: Women behaving badly, star-studded bombs, and physical handicaps

Now that we’ve reached the home stretch of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s time to take a long, hard look at some of the major trends of this year’s fest…

Video: Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass talk love and loss in YOUR SISTER’S SISTER

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER tells the story of a different kind of love triangle. Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt and director Lynn Shelton (HUMPDAY) stopped by to talk about how the process of collaborative filmmaking differs from your average studio fare. Watch more to learn more:

The Sundance Review Revue: ROOM 237

In the last couple years, technology has totally changed the world of film criticism. Affordable, easy-to-use editing software has empowered critics to become filmmakers themselves. You can see their work on YouTube, blogs like Press Play, and in movies like Sundance ’12 selection ROOM 237, a film entirely about another film, Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING.