Top 10 Festival Films You Need To See Asap
Memorial Day is less than a month away and summer movie season is just around the corner. But if super-heroes ain’t your cup of cinematic tea, don’t fret: there are some excellent independent films coming out in the weeks and months ahead, and no one wears tights in any of them. In honor of the Tribeca Film Festival, which is rolling through New York City this week, here’s a list of some of 2012 festival favorites — from Tribeca, Sundance, South by Southwest, New Directors / New Films, and Cannes — hitting art house screens in the near future. With movies like these to keep you busy, it’ll be Labor Day (and Oscar Season) before you know it.
Memorial Day is less than a month away and summer movie season is just around the corner. But if super-heroes ain't your cup of cinematic tea, don't fret: there are some excellent independent films coming out in the weeks and months ahead, and no one wears tights in any of them.
In honor of the Tribeca Film Festival, which is rolling through New York City this week, here's a list of some of 2012 festival favorites -- from Tribeca, Sundance, South by Southwest, New Directors / New Films, and Cannes -- hitting art house screens in the near future. With movies like these to keep you busy, it'll be Labor Day (and Oscar Season) before you know it.
Author: Matt Singer
Photo Credit: Beasts of the Southern Wild10. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD - Directed by Benh Zeitlin
If you heard anything about this year's Sundance Film Festival, you probably heard about BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, which won over audiences, then critics, then two prizes -- a Feature Grand Jury Prize and the Best Cinematography Award -- in approximately that order. The film sounds like nothing you've ever seen before: a blend of whimsical fantasies and terrifying apocalypses, intimate family drama and huge, earth-shattering cataclysms. If you missed it at Sundance and New Directors / New Films it's not the end of the world; Fox Searchlight will release BEASTS on June 27th.
9. COSMOPOLIS - Directed by David Cronenberg
I've watched the trailer for David Cronenberg's COSMOPOLIS half a dozen times now, and I still have no clue what it's about. Never before have I been so excited by utter confusion. What I do know is it's based on a novel by Don DeLillo, it's Cronenberg's follow-up to last year's A DANGEROUS METHOD, and it premieres at the Cannes Film Festival next month (Wikipedia also tells me a plot description of DeLillo's novel, not that it makes much more sense). At this point I can't say I quite understand the decision to cast Robert Pattinson in the lead role, but I trust Cronenberg implicitly, and if he wants to work with the TWILIGHT star, that's reason enough for me to want to see the results whenever they premiere on this side of the Atlantic.
Author: Matt Singer8. GIMME THE LOOT - Directed by Adam Leon
The Feature Grand Jury Prize at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival went to GIMME THE LOOT, the story of two taggers from the Bronx who need $500 to turn themselves into the biggest graffiti artists in New York City. Writer/director Adam Leon recently told Entertainment Weekly that his goal with the film was to make something "that wasn’t a social message piece, that was something that was just more of a celebration and fun." The celebration moved from SXSW to back to New York City, where GIMME THE LOOT made its hometown premiere at New Directors / New Films. Acquired in Austin by Sundance Selects, the film will open soon; possibly sooner if you all scream "Gimme gimme gimme!" really loudly.
Author: Matt Singer7. LOLA VERSUS - Directed by Daryl Wein
As its title suggested, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones' BREAKING UPWARDS was about the break-up of a long-term couple. Their new movie, LOLA VERSUS, is about what happens next. Just weeks before her wedding, Lola (Greta Gerwig) finds herself dumped and single once again. Now back and square one, she's got to start over with the help of friends and her parents (Debra Winger and Bill Pullman). If you're a fan of Gerwig's work in GREENBERG, HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS or ARTHUR (okay, maybe not ARTHUR) you need to have this one on your radar. After its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, LOLA VERSUS takes on the rest of the world when it opens in theaters on June 8th.
Author: Matt Singer6. MUD - Directed by Jeff Nichols
At this point, we don't know a whole lot about the Cannes Film Festival bound "Mud" beyond the director, the cast, and a brief plot synopsis ("a drama centered on two teenage boys who encounter a fugitive and pact to help him escape from an island in the Mississippi"). But what more do you need to know? It's the new film from Jeff Nichols, whose absolutely devastating TAKE SHELTER was one of the best movies of last year, and that cast he's assembled includes Michael Shannon, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Paulson, Sam Shepard, and one Matthew McConaughey. No release date yet, but with that creative pedigree it'll surely have one soon. I bet it premieres by the end of 2012 or my name is Mud.
Author: Matt Singer5. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED - Directed by Colin Trevorrow
It's a legendary prank; a bored editor at an obscure magazine filed a fake classified ad looking for a partner to go back in time with him. ("I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed," it warned.) A couple of clever young filmmakers heard the story and though: "What if it wasn't a put-on?" The result is SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, the Sundance and South By Southwest Film Festival hit starring Mark Duplass as the potential time traveller and Aubrey Plaza as the writer a magazine sends to investigate his ad. Speaking of Mark Duplass, that guy might actually be a time traveller -- it's the only way to explain how he keeps up his busy schedule. In fact, you may see him on this list again...
Author: Matt Singer
4. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN - Directed by Malik Bendjelloul
It sounds like a blockbuster about the worst super hero ever ("Able to leap tall Equal packets in a single bound!"), but this winner of two prizes at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival is actually a documentary about a forgotten folk musician named Rodriguez. Presumed dead for decades, Rodriguez's music somehow found its way to South Africa, where the anti-apartheid movement fell in love with his sound and his message. Years later, two fans go in search of the missing icon. Do they find him? If I told you, you'd be searching for me because Sony Pictures Classics would have me fitted for cement shoes for spoiling it. You can find out the rest of the story when they release the film in New York and Los Angeles on July 27.
Author: Matt Singer
3. TAKE THIS WALTZ - Directed by Sarah Polley
You won't find a more talented or eclectic cast in an indie film this summer: Seth Rogen, Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, and Sarah Silverman, all together in Sarah Polley's TAKE THIS WALTZ. Polley's follow-up to her Oscar-nominated directorial debut AWAY FROM HER is another story of a marriage in crisis: Williams' Margot is happily married to Rogen's Lou, until she meets Kirby's Daniel on a plane. Her attraction to this new man forces her to reassess her priorities and her feelings. You can reassess your feelings about comedic actors in dramatic roles when the film opens on June 29th.
Author: Matt Singer2. 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK - Directed by Julie Delpy
Writer/director/star Julie Delpy's sequel to her popular indie rom-com 2 DAYS IN PARIS comes bearing a new titular location, New York City, and a new leading man: Chris Rock, who plays Mingus, boyfriend to Delpy's Marion. The pair live a happy, comfortable life in Manhattan until Delpy's family arrives unannounced from France, wreaking pure Gallic havoc and stirring up trouble. After a very well-received premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the film is making a geographically appropriate stop at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. It doesn't have a stateside release date yet but it does have a distributor, Magnolia Pictures, so it should just be a matter of time, if not days, before it's coming to a theater near you.
Author: Matt Singer
1. YOUR SISTER'S SISTER - Directed by Lynn Shelton
The sister, in this case, is Emily Blunt. The sister's sister is Rosemarie DeWitt. Mark Duplass plays the man caught between them (to the best of my knowledge, his character's name is not "Your" though). Blunt's character offers to let Duplass' character, a man grieving over his brother's death, use her family's cabin for some rest and relaxation, but when he arrives he finds DeWitt's character, a bunch of tequila, and a whole mess of potential trouble. This critically acclaimed dramedy vetted by the Toronto, Sundance, and Tribeca Film Festivals, comes from filmmaker Lynn Shelton, who previously directed Duplass in the arthouse hit HUMPDAY. It opens in limited release on June 15th.
Author: Matt Singer
