The Yellow Handkerchief follows a 15-year-old Louisiana girl, a ex-con, and an awkward annoying young eccentric kid with a blue convertible go on a road trip to, well, nowhere. Just like the film. The whole story is pointless and contrived. How three perfect strangers ended up in a car together is fully explained but not the least bit believable. I feel like the three characters were in a car together because the screenwriter wanted them to be in a car together. The backstories for both of the younger characters are mentioned, but never even followed-up upon.
I’m still not sure why Kristen Stewart has quickly become the new indie IT Girl [...]

The big rumor going around Sundance is that U2 is holding a private concert (possibly tonight after the premiere of U2 3D at the Eccles). It’s the hottest ticket/invite of the festival, only problem is, it doesn’t exist - or so say the publicists behind the film. I have heard that U2 is having a small private party (possibly at Ciseros) and while no musical set is planned, Bono and crew might very well play a few songs, but that isn’t on the official plans.
The human powered search engine (not Mahalo) Cha Cha is one of the big sponsors at Sundance this year. They have Cha Cha crew members [...]

“…and it’s really that easy.”
Chances are you haven’t yet seen the Spanish science fiction film Time Crimes (aka Timecrimes, Los Cronocrimenes), but if you’ve read about it, you had to flip on your monitor’s praise-wipers afterwards. Tom Cruise’s United Artists has purchased the rights to remake the film, marking the first deal the studio’s made since cutting a deal with the Writers’ Guild. Writer-Producer Steve Zallian (American Gangster) will produce the film. Time Crimes is currently at the Sundance Film Festival, where it’s picking up a far amount of the praise stuff thus far.
The film, from writer-director Nacho Vigalondo, centers on an aloof man who views a naked [...]

Note: I’m not calling this a review, because truth is, I only saw the first 33 minutes of this movie.
Last year at Sundance I was kinda taken by Steve Buscemi’s Interview, the first of a series of American remakes of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh’s work. Theo, the great-great-grandson of Theo van Gogh, brother of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh, was killed by a Muslim extremist a few years ago in response to one of his controversial films. Beyond that and Interview last year, I don’t know much about Theo van Gogh, although I have planned to seek out his work. Directed by and starring Steve Buscemi, Interview was [...]

The buzz for Morgan Spurlock’s Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? has hit an all time high, as Sundance enters into it’s first weekend.
The viral marketing in Park City has people talking. The Weinstein Co has hired a team to hand out faux milk cartons featuring a Osama MISSING advertisement at venues around the loop. The carton features a photo of Bin Laden and includes vital stats of this world famous terrorist. The carton also features a website (whereisobl.com) and phone number (1-877-OSAMA08), which as of press time, disconnects before you can leave a message. On the opposite side of the cartoon is a Help Morgan Find Osama [...]

Every year at Sundance I see a film during the first weekend that I absolutely fall in love with. Because it’s only the opening weekend, I try not to claim that a film is the best of this year’s festival. But usually my emotions win out and I make such a claim in a non-direct kind of way, which may explain this opening paragraph. Because this year The Wackness is that film.
Jonathan Levine’s second feature is set in the hot summer of 1994, when gangsta rap was beginning to penetrate into mainstream culture and a young depressed drug-dealer named Luke (Josh Peck in a career making performance) sets off on [...]

The glorious illustrated poster for Larry Bishop’s Hell Ride has surfaced at STYD. Hopefully, we’ll have a review of the Quentin Tarantino-vouched antithesis of Wild Hogs from its premiere at Sundance shortly. Until then, fly off a cliff and see it in its entirety after the jump!

Colin Farrell plays Ray, a guilt-ridden hitman who is sent by his boss to Bruges, a little “fairy tale-like village”. Ray’s partner Ken, played by Brendan Gleeson, is more interested in sightseeing, touring churches and canals, while Ray is left contemplating the fatale mistake in their last job. While in Belgium, they have encounters with a family of fat American tourists, a racist drunk horse-tranqualizer-popping dwarf actor, and his cute drug-dealing con-artist friend named Chloë (played by Clémence Poésy, of Harry Potter fame).
In Bruges jerks from farcical comedy to drama to action, and this may be too much for typical American audiences. The film has a serious identity crisis, which [...]

Young@Heart is a documentary about a Massachusetts Senior Citizen’s chorus that rocks out to everything from the Clash, Ramones and Sonic Youth, to Coldplay and James Brown. The film follows the chorus members and their director, Bob Cilman as they learn new songs, cope with illnesses and deaths of their close friends, and prepare for a concert performance, dubbed “Alive and Well”.
Label me mean, but the “old people are so cute” sappiness drives me insane (hence the fact that I almost wanted to smack the two annoying girls sitting next to me that kept loudly aww-ing during the movie).  I don’t normally see the charm in grandmotherly types, but I [...]

Sundance Meta: We’re tracking the Sundance Buzz so you don’t have to!
A pair of tickets to the premiere of U23D currently has a high bid of $610 on eBay.
Entertainment Weekly takes a look back at 11 Influential Sundance Movies
/Film has the Movie Posters for American Teen, Goliath, Bottle Shock, The Wackness
WiReD takes a look at the Geekiness Films of Sundance 08
Gregg Goldstein blogs about bumping into Morgan Spurlock at the airport.
Jeff Wells arrives in Park City and has the photos to prove it.
Variety has an interesting look at 25 films creating buzz among buyers
ShockTillYouDrop has four clips from Funny Games
FirstShowing has the trailer for Bottle Shock
LA Times has 23 [...]

Downloading Nancy will premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
The feature film debut of visionary music video and commercial director Johan Renck looks intense. Dubbed by some to be the best music video director in the world, Renck was just named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch. I’ve even heard some people refer to Renck as the next David Fincher. The film stars Maria Bello as an unhappy wife whose online search for someone to put her out of her misery results in a torturous love affair. Co-starring Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, and Amy Brenneman. Check it out below.
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Here is the first batch of movie posters for films premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Check them out after the jump. Enjoy.

Goliath will premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Shot in Austin, Texas, Goliath is a film, a comedy at that, about a cat and one man’s search for said cat. When the man got divorced, he got the cat, so he wants to find the cat. Did I mention that the man’s life is in shambles? Now it makes sense. You probably already guessed that the cat’s name is Goliath, right? The trailer is heavy on the drums, heavy on the sans serif, and Andrew Bujalski, the mumblecore director behind Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, makes an appearance. For some reason, I really wish that one guy made the [...]

I’m at the airport waiting for a plane to Park City, Utah. January is usually considered a horrible time for new movie releases, but it’s my favorite time of the year. For the last five years I’ve been making the trip to the Sundance Film Festival. For a film fanatic, Sundance is the greatest place on earth. For ten days, Hollywood and filmmakers gather in a little ski town to show some of the best movies of the year, or next. Sometimes it takes as long as three years for a film which premieres at Sundance to get a theatrical release. So Sundance is an ultimate sneak preview, a look [...]

Last month I posted an article about the growing buzz behind Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me follow-up Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, where our faithful documentary filmmaker goes in search for the most wanted man in the world. A comment from the film’s director of photography, Daniel Marricone added fuel to the fire, telling the press that Spurlock “definitely got the holy grail.” Our article took off to all corners of the internet, linked on MSNBC, and eventually making its way into print publications. Spurlock’s film is probably the biggest hyped movie of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and everyone wants to know:
Did Morgan Spurlock find Osama?
We [...]