sundance

January is the movie dumping ground – but not this time!

Traditionally, January is the time when studios dump their loser movies into the recycling bin of the public’s consciousness, tossing ill-fated action flicks with monosyllabic actors or woebegone romantic comedies with badly matched C-listers into theaters because people are too cold to leave the house anyway.

By January, the Oscar rush has come and gone, and it’s the time to cut one’s losses and release some of those less golden efforts in hopes that they might find an audience despite it all, even if it’s just angry people who get off on yelling epithets at the screen to impress their passive-aggressive dates.

Soderbergh’s CONTAGION: a no-thrills thriller

I saw CONTAGION last weekend and by God it’s the first thriller I’ve ever seen where a lingering shot of a coffee cup (or martini glass, or door handle) recently fondled by the recently infected is one of the scariest shots. A coffee cup! And it actually is scary. The camera holds just long enough to make the object – and the unseen germs just deposited there – terrifying. I’m not talking about a gasp-out-loud- sort of terrifying, but a sick to the stomach, this-could-surely-happen-to-me sort of terrifying.

Friends on Facebook have cried “Blah!” as in, “It’s boring!” Well, maybe. Moments, I admit, feel slow. But isn’t that refreshing for a thriller? Nobody but Soderbergh could impose a new pace on a well-worn genre, and nobody could rally such high power stars to, one by one, froth at the mouth. They die so well.

AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE

When you name your child Spalding Gray you might as well drive straight from the maternity ward to the theatre because you have sealed his fate. A Spalding Gray cannot remain unknown; he will not settle for unfamous, uncelebrated or unreknowned. Of course, in this case the kid lived up the name and became one of the most sought after, most admired and best loved writers and performers of the century, if not of all time. Yeah, you could say I’m a fan.

Steven Soderbergh’s THE INFORMANT!

With movies like the OCEAN’S trilogy, CHE, and THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, Steven Soderbergh has proved he is one of the most prolific working filmmakers. His latest directorial effort, THE INFORMANT! is no exception. But don’t let the trailer fool you. The happy, bumbling, well-meaning corporate exec turned informant is only part of the story. Mark [...]

Non-stop Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh is a busy, busy man. You would think CHE: PART ONE and TWO and THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE would be enough films for one director to release in a year, but come September Soderbergh will add one more to the list: THE INFORMANT! starring a pudgy Matt Damon as a CEO with a conscience [...]

25th Anniversary Films Announced

Sundance Institute announced today that Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape (1989 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award Winner) and Wendell B. Harris’s Chameleon Street (1990 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize Winner) have been selected for the Festival’s From the Collection screenings. Each year the Festival presents two retrospective screenings of influential feature-length films from the Sundance Collection at UCLA, paying tribute to significant works in the history of independent film.