Writer/director Armando Iannucci’s IN THE LOOP, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance FIlm Festival. It is a comedic satire about American and British relations prior to a major invasion.

READ MORE >>

Director Joe Berlinger’s CRUDE, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival about the environmental degradation of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.

READ MORE >>

Directors Glenn Ficarra’s and John Requa’s I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.

READ MORE >>

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD

“There aren’t enough funny movies” is a common complaint at Sundance. There aren’t enough funny movies at the local Cineplex, either—good comedies are hard to make, period—but the complaint is true nonetheless. While the five films I’ve seen thus far weren’t uniformly grim, neither were they particularly funny (well, except maybe BROOKLYN’S FINEST).

I was especially eager, then, for last night’s premiere of THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD. Not to be confused with that Jim Carrey schlock, the documentary follows activist pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno—aka the Yes Men, the film’s directors (who took on the WTO in Yes Men—as they play a series of hilarious hoaxes intended to draw attention to corporate and political heartlessness, greed, and general stupidity.

To be more specific: In one hoax from 2004, Andy poses as a Dow Chemical spokesman for a live interview with BBC World News, which was marking the 20th anniversary of the Union Carbine industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, that killed thousands while leaving another 120,000 sick for life. Dow had bought Union Carbine several years earlier, and Andy told the BBC that his company would finally take full responsibility for the disaster by giving $12 billion to the victims.

The humor, of course, dervies from the Yes Men’s skill in pulling off this and other hoaxes, which include: impersonating a HUD representative and promising to reinstate all public housing stock in post-Katrina New Orleans, publishing a fake New York Times edition after the last presidential election; and, as representatives of Halliburton, proposing a ludicrous disaster survival suit-bubble during a corporate conference. While the laughs come often, they’re often short-lived. Dishearteningly, many of the Yes Men’s victims actually take the pranks—like the “Acceptable Risk Calculator” that allows corporations to weight the cost of human lives against profit—seriously.

Last night’s premiere received a half-hearted standing ovation at the Library Center Theatre—hardly surprising, given the sympathetic audience. But how would THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD do at a cineplex in Missouri? A year earlier I would have laughed at the thought. Now, though, considering Wall Street’s collapse and Obama’s victory, Sundance festivalgoers and “middle America” suddenly don’t seem so far apart on the political spectrum. I have my reservations about the film—it lacks a clear narrative thread, coming off more like a string of “Daily Show” segments (on a grander scale, of course)—but I guarantee that it’s ten times funnier, and more relevant, than that Jim Carrey flick. Given the chance to decide, I bet much of America would agree.

Writers/directors Mike Bonanno’s and Andy Bichlbaum’s THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

READ MORE >>

Writer/director James Toback’s TYSON, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and a reflective look about and into the life of legendary boxer Mike Tyson.

READ MORE >>

Director Ross Katz’s film TAKING CHANCE starring Kevin Bacon, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

READ MORE >>

They’re finally here, episodes 1 and 2 of Sundancechannel.com’s newest series of digital shorts, CASSIDY LOVES MOBY. In these first two episodes, we are introduced to Cassidy, an intense little doll, that has been haunted by recurring dreams of musician and recording artist, Moby. Compelled to understand the meaning of these visions from her unconscious, she embarks on a quest to meet Moby at Sundance in Park City, Utah where he reports he will be in attendance in his blog. Will Cassidy find her answers? Will meeting the man of her dreams bring her peace of mind? Will she and Moby hook up?!? Find out by watching the first two episodes in this hilarious 4 part series.

All the music used in these films and hundreds of other great tracks are available for FREE USE, yes, FREE USE, on Moby’s amazing site for independent filmmakers, mobygratis.com. Here Moby posts new tunes for filmmakers to use in films or independent works. If you are a filmmaker you can access and take advantage of this fabulous music library created by one of the most innovative and prolific composers of electronica, ambient and dance music. Check out our exclusive interview with Moby right here on Sundancechannel.com and check out Mobygratis.com for yourself right now.

Writer/Director Lynn Shelton’s film HUMPDAY, a film participating in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

READ MORE >>

This afternoon’s screening of IT MIGHT GET LOUD embodied just about everything I love and hate about going to the movies.

For starters, the Library Center Theater was arctic cold before the screening began—not because the heat was off, but because the air conditioning was on full blast. No, I’m not joking. I asked a volunteer, who explained that the theater gets Vietnam hot (okay, she didn’t say “Vietnam”) because it has no air circulation.

“Trust me,” she said, “you’ll be taking your coat off in no time. Last night, I was dying.”

Secondly, the theater has only lightly graded seating, thereby ensuring—unless you’re over six feet tall—that you’ll spend the movie looking at the back of someone’s head. I’d rather sit in the front row and crane my neck upwards. Which is exactly what I did.

And lastly, gum smackers were seated both beside and behind me: men who chomped open-mouthed at thick wads of, I believe, strawberry and grape gum. (Let me state here, in case I never again have the opportunity, that no respectable adult chews gum unless: s/he is quitting smoking; or needs to quickly expel bad breath. Every other instance is, in my opinion, socially unacceptable.)

Thank god, then, that IT MIGHT BE LOUD lived up to its title, drowning out the less refined elements around me. (Yes, I’m being facetious now.) As festival director Geoffrey Gilmore introduced the film, a documentary about three famous guitarists coming together for a jam session, the crowd became increasingly pumped.

“It’s got The Edge,” he said. (Applause.) “And Jimmy Page.” (Applause.) “And Jack White.” (Roaring applause; White was in attendance.) And then on to the opening scene, in which White fashions a guitar out of a coke bottle, a wire, and two pieces of wood. After nailing a pickup to the board and connecting it to an amp, he runs a slide across the wire, producing one hell of a riff. The audience went nuts, like I’ve never heard before. “This,” I thought, “is why people go to movie theaters.”

Director Davis Guggenheim’s previous film, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, had premiered in the very same room three years earlier. IT MIGHT GET LOUD posed similar narrative challenges and, in lesser hands, would have collapsed under the weight of the film’s conceit and ended up like an episode of VH1 Legends. Instead, it’s a surprisingly engrossing look at two legendary guitarists and a third one who hopes to be legendary someday. (In case you’re wondering, this praise come from someone who isn’t even much of a Zeppelin, U2 or White Stripes fan.)

There’s no “might” about IT MIGHT BE LOUD. It is loud. Sitting in the front row left my ears ringing. More than anything, though, the film is a love story that sent shivers up my spine several times—when a lick from The Edge filled the theater, for instance, or when their favorite guitars were filmed as if the instruments were naked women.

Come to think of it, there’s no skin at all in this rock film. That I only now just realized that, two hours after the film ended, is a testament to Guggenheim’s skill.

Follow director Adam Elliot’s film MARY AND MAX to the opening night of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Watch the video after the jump…

READ MORE >>