Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
I know I might be stating the obvious, but the bad economic times have hit every industry, including the movie industry. Earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, it was a very different scene than previous years. I don’t have the exact figures but it appeared that a lot fewer films were acquired compared to previous years. This of course left many films in a questionable state. Earlier this week, the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor comedy I Love You, Philip Morris finally got bought.
If a Jim Carrey comedy is having that much trouble, you can imagine where this leaves the true independents, regardless if they might be the most marketable indie at the festival or not. Thankfully, good things come to those who wait. Derrick Comedy’s Mystery Team has finally been acquired by Lionsgate’s indie label Roadside Attractions.
Cinematical described it as “Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura” and CinemaBlend called it “the Rocky Horror Picture Show of mystery movies.” Film School Rejects called it “perfect comedy for the internet generation.” And we said it is ” funnier and more original than 99% of the comedies Hollywood releases now-a-days.” No word yet on an exact release date, but we’ve heard the words “this fall” and “Nationwide.” Read the full press release after the jump.
I Love You, Phillip Morris Finds U.S. Distribution
Posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I Love You, Phillip Morris premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival to fairly good reviews, but distributors have been turned off by “the graphic homosexual sex depicted in the film,” and the film has yet to score domestic theatrical distribution, until now. Variety reports that the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor comedy has finally been acquired by Consolidated Pictures Group for domestic distribution. An earlier report stated that thefilm was being re-edited in “a last ditch attempt to find an American distributor. It is unclear if the original cut or a new cut will be distributed to theaters in the U.S. And no word yet on a release date.
12 Projects Chosen For June 2009 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs
Posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Sundance has announced the 12 projects they have chosen for the 2009 Directors and Screenwriters lab. Why should you care? Well because the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program has hand picked some of the most original filmmakers of the last 28 years.
Here are some of the films that have come out of the program: Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight, Kimberly Peirce’s Boy’s Don’t Cry, Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas, Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know, Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson, and most recently Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre and Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer.
So, what 12 projects have been chosen for this year’s Summer labs? Find out after the jump.
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Geoffrey Gilmore Leaves Sundance For Tribeca
Posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I debated on if I should even write this story. I mean, how many readers out there even know who Geoffrey Gilmore is, or why he is important to the landscape of independent film? Followers on Twitter encouraged me to write the piece anyway, and try to explain the significance. Many people believe that Robert Redford is the guy who runs the Sundance Film Festival, and while that might technically be true, Geoffrey Gilmore is the director of the festival’s programing. He’s been with the festival for 19 years and prior to Sundance, he served as head of the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s Programming Department for 15 years.
Today it was announced that Gilmore would be leaving Sundance to join New York’s Tribeca Film Festival as Chief Creative Officer. It’s hard to explain the significance of this move without an understanding of how Sundance changed the landscape of independent film. And unfortunately, I don’t have the time to go into that fully. But if you can understand for a moment that Sundance is a festival that sets the tides for the independent film, and that Gilmore was the head tastemaker behind the organization, than you will only begin to understand how Gilmore has effected Independent film as a whole. In theory, a great film will be eventually discovered. But in reality, it doesn’t always happen that way.
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The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle Movie Trailer
Posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
One of the films I saw at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival was a twisted little indie titled The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. By far, the strangest film I screened at the fest, the film is directed by first time feature director David Russo, who as I wrote in my Sundance review, “uses his experience in animated short films to create a cinematic acid trip, which might be so strange and different that it might alienate.” Little Dizzle tells the story of a young man who is forced to join a group of misfits who clean office buildings during the night time hours and become addicted to chemically-altered cookies which have some strange side effects. It only gets stranger, but I think that explaining exactly who Little Dizzle is might be revealing too much. A trailer for the film has been released online, and is available after the jump.
One of the Most Marketable Films of Sundance 2009 Remains Unsold
Posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
As the 2009 Sundance Film Festival comes to a close, I was shocked to learn that Derrick Comedy’s Mystery Team has still not been bought by a big Hollywood distributor. This is shocking for a number of reasons, first of which is that Mystery Team is probably the most marketable unsold film in the entire festival. Some might argue that I Love You Philip Morris might take the top slot, but big actors like Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor might not be enough to sell a romantic comedy about two gay men to Middle America.
Mystery Team is a sketch comedy film which transcends the genre, features no huge stars (although, Aubrey Plaza is going to be HUGE), but has more laughs than 99% of Hollywood comedies, and a better concept to boot (you can read my full review here). At its worst, Mystery Team could easily be the next Super Troopers, and its very best, if marketed well, it has the potential to reach Napoleon Dynamite-like numbers. The best part, it already has a huge Internet fanbase built in. Out of all the Sundance coverage posted on /Film, our Mystery Team review garnered the most amount of traffic, by far. And I’ve heard the same from other movie website webmasters.
Mary and Max was the first film I screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and it ended up being one of my favorites. A truly indie clay-animated definitely not-for-children story of a pen pal relationship between a Mary Dinkle (Toni Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. Check out the trailer after the jump thanks to our friends at Collider. I highly recommend it.
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Sundance Reviews: Adam, Arlen Faber, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I’m still extremely behind on Sundance reviews. After the jump you will find my mini-reviews for Adam, Arlen Faber and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Enjoy.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners have been announced. As always, the list is almost completely comprised of films that most everyone I know who attended/covered the festival has yet to see (or sometime even, hear of). My theory is that the jury members usually award films that need a bit more help, a bit more of a push, rather than the audience favorites. However, my theory is completely proven wrong with the fact that Push won both the US Audience Award and US Dramatic Award. Push is a solid film, but not one that I ever care to see ever again. You can read the full listing and the press release after the jump.
An Education: Subject to an intense bidding war at this year’s Sundance, An Education has been sold to Sony Pictures Classics, which most likely means that nobody is going to see it unless it gets nominated for some awards at years end. The good news is that Carey Mulligan’s performance is nominatable. This is the type of film that you watch and say “WOW, who is this gir? Where did she come from?” Mark this on your wall right now - Carey Mulligan is going to be huge. I’m 100% convinced of this!
Sundance Movie Review: The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle is by far the strangest film I’ve seen this year at the Sundance Film Festival. After he quits his high paying computer job, Dory (Marshall Allman) is forced to take a night janitor job to pay the rent. He joins the group of misfits who clean office buildings during the night time hours.
One of the offices that they regularly clean is a company that runs test studies.They find a batch of cookies in the trash which contains a new chemical that is supposed to make the cookies taste warm, like they had just come out of the oven (which is such a great idea in itself). The janitors become addicted to the chemically-altered cookies, and they soon learn of some strange side effects. It only gets stranger, but I think that explaining exactly who Little Dizzle is might be revealing too much.
I haven’t had time to write more than one review in the last 48 hours, which is a big problem because it means that I have a handful of films to write up in the next couple hours or I’ll be two or three days behind. The biggest problem with Sundance is that there isn’t enough time. You’re either seeing movies or partying or both and sleep and everything else gets consolidated into a space which is too small to really mean anything. And it doesn’t help that I’ve been sick the last two days. So I’m going to try to keep some of these short.
Alexis Dos Santos made a splash with his debut indie feature Glue, and Unmade Beds is his follow-up. A quirky story that follows the stories of Axl and Vera, both of whom live in a London warehouse together, although their paths never cross until fate deems it necessary.
