Seven Sundance Premieres We're Looking Forward To

One of the most daunting tasks facing a festivalgoer is winnowing through all the buzz, descriptions, previews, and trailers to find which of the hundreds of films should be on the priority viewing list for the week. We’re here to help. The Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30, and every day this week Paste brings you a preview article.

Monday: 10 Slamdance and Smaller Sundance Films We’re Looking Forward To
Tuesday: Seven Sundance Competition Documentaries We’re Looking Forward To
Wednesday: Seven Sundance Competition Narrative Films We’re Looking Forward To
Thursday: Seven Sundance Premieres We’re Looking Forward To
Friday: Sundance Opening Night Report

Novice festivalgoers are a bit confused by the name of the Premieres section; aren’t most of the films at Sundance making their premiere there? Yes, they are. But this section is reserved for films not in competition, and generally helmed by more experienced directors. This year the festival has added a Documentary Premieres section as well. Every year it’s the Premieres section at Sundance that really rolls out the big guns, with stars and name directors aplenty, and this year is no different—the 2011 Premieres boast actors like Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci, and that’s just in one film! Behold, the star power and intriguing films of the Sundance Premieres section…

1. Red State
The Category: Sundance Premieres
The Premise: “Red State begins by following three horny high-school boys who come across an online ad from an older woman looking for a gang bang. Boys being boys, they hit the road to satisfy their libidinal urges. But what begins as a fantasy takes a dark turn as they come face-to-face with a terrifying ‘holy’ force with a fatal agenda. Instead of relying on archetypes and predictable formulas, Red State is a shocking new kind of horror film that aggressively confronts higher powers and extreme doctrines with a vengeance.”
The Key Players: Director Kevin Smith; Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Root
The Draw: Hey look, it’s another film lampooning fundamentalists! Are the selection committees getting paid by the prayer? But Smith, beneath his slacker attitude and transgressive humor, really does have a heart of gold. It will be interesting to see if he lets it show through here.
The Trailer:

2. The Details
The Category: Sundance Premieres
The Premise: “It all started with the raccoons. After 10 years of marriage, Jeff and Nealy have a young son, an idyllic suburban life, and a marriage that’s stuck. Accordingly, Jeff decides to plant a perfect backyard lawn. Enter the raccoons, who repeatedly tear up his grass. When Jeff tries to eradicate these meddlesome vandals, his efforts initiate a bewildering chain reaction involving a crazy cat lady, multiple infidelities, extortion, organ donation, and somebody on the wrong end of a bow and arrow.
Devilish throughout, The Details is both a love story and a horror story (of the existential kind). The root of Jeff’s dread (and subsequent misdeeds) is that he wants to love his wife but no longer knows how. Filmmaker Jacob Aaron Estes plays with the notion that the tiniest thing can unravel our lives. His narrative spontaneity and anarchic spirit allow characters to keep digging themselves into deeper moral holes to see if the universe will punish them. The result is a darkly funny meditation on marital malaise.”
The Key Players: Director Jacob Aaron Estes; Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert, Kerry Washington
The Draw: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Elizabeth Banks is the most winning romantic lead since Meg Ryan started reading too many of their own press clippings. The only issue here is whether Tobey Maguire is a good enough actor to convince us he doesn’t know how to love her any more (admittedly, a task worthy of Olivier). But even if he falters, the (arguably) most talented cast of any Sundance film is there to back him up.
The Details (no really, the details for the film): The Details at Sundance

3. Bobby Fischer Against the World
The Category: Sundance Documentary Premieres
The Premise: “Considered by many to be the world’s greatest chess player, Bobby Fischer personified the link between genius and madness. His trajectory propelled him from child prodigy to world chess champion at age 29 and then into a nosedive of delusions and paranoia. Fischer was a recluse for decades before resurfacing for a bizarre final chapter as a fugitive. As a loner with no familial support, Fischer had to defend his title while representing his country against the mighty Russians during the cold war. The center of media attention, Fischer was never equipped for a life in the spotlight. From veteran filmmaker Liz Garbus, and the final project of late editor Karen Schmeer, Bobby Fischer Against the World exposes the disturbingly high price Fischer paid to achieve his legendary success and the resulting toll it took on his psyche. Rare archival footage and insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind’s tumultuous rise—and fall.”
The Key Players: Director Liz Garbus
The Draw: It’s been just long enough now that a lot of the kids (said the grumpy old man) don’t know who Bobby Fischer is. That’s a shame, because he’s one of the most fascinating characters in sports history—John McEnroe meets Howard Hughes meets Lex Luthor meets Jack Ryan meets Kanye West. Director Liz Garbus (perhaps best known for the excellent The Farm: Angola, U.S.A.) has uncovered a good bit of rare archival footage and is a master storyteller with an endlessly fascinating subject—a dynamite combination.
The Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobby-Fischer-Against-the-World/126590737402560

4. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
The Category: Sundance Documentary Premieres
The Premise: “Acclaimed filmmaker and master provocateur Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) returns to the Sundance Film Festival with tongue-in-cheek perfection as he examines the world of product placement, marketing, and advertising by making a film financed entirely by product placement, marketing, and advertising.
We live in an age where it’s tough even to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something. It’s at the point where practically the entire American experience is brought to us by some corporation. Utilizing cutting-edge tools of comic exploration and total self-exploitation, Spurlock dissects the world of advertising and marketing by using his personal integrity as currency to sell out to the highest bidder. Scathingly funny, subversive, and deceptively smart, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold shines the definitive light on our branded future as Spurlock attempts to create the ‘Iron Man of documentaries,’ the first ever ‘docbuster’! He may very well have succeeded.”
The Key Players: Director Morgan Spurlock
The Draw: If it has the name “Morgan Spurlock” on it, I’m there. Period.
The Website: http://thegreatestmovieeversold.com/

5. The Interrupters
The Category: Sundance Documentary Premieres
The Premise: “Living, breathing, modern-day heroes are inspiring hope on the scary streets of Chicago. Meet the Interrupters—former gang members who disrupt violence in their neighborhoods as it happens. Acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) working with noted author Alex Kotlowitz, recounts the gripping stories of men and women who, with bravado, humility, and humor, strive to protect their communities from the brutality they once employed. With his signature intimate vérité, James follows these individuals over the course of a year as they attempt to intervene in disputes before they turn violent: two brothers who threaten to shoot each other, an angry teenage girl just home from prison, and a young man on a warpath of revenge.”
The Key Players: Director Steve James
The Draw: What modern documentary is better than Hoop Dreams? And what subject is more worthy than trying to stop inner city violence? Despite a trailer featuring a gangbanger frustratedly yelling “F*** the solution!” and a crying mother grieving her dead son, by all accounts the film is actually an uplifting experience. I’d call that a feat.
The Trailer:

6. Reagan
The Category: Sundance Documentary Premieres
The Premise: “Ronald Reagan as a man, as compared to his legacy, is rich territory for exploration, and a line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is just one of the many things that springs to mind after viewing filmmaker Eugene Jarecki’s latest opus, Reagan (Jarecki’s Why We Fight won the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: Documentary). Speaking at his funeral, Mark Antony said of Caesar, ‘The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.’ With a firm grasp of Reagan’s story, Jarecki avoids the predictable and takes the long view on Reagan’s life and influence, while staying centered on him as a man of deep contradiction; an American whose patriotism paradoxically led him to impeachable acts, a liberal Democrat who came to define the modern conservative movement. Rendered to play the big screen, but unlike the B-movies that fill Reagan’s resume, this may be the best movie Ronald Reagan ever starred in. Through extraordinary visual material, interviews, and research, Jarecki creates a definitive portrait of a man solidly in and of his times, whose policies and beliefs, for better and worse, continue to shape the world we live in.”
The Key Players: Director Eugene Jarecki
The Draw: Jarecki, the critically acclaimed director of Why We Fight, swears to the heavens that this is a balanced view of Reagan. But that sounds a bit like George Steinbrenner swearing he’s presenting a balanced view of the Red Sox. I’m fascinated to see if it’s true.

7. Rebirth
The Category: Sundance Documentary Premieres
The Premise: “How does the journey of grieving and recovery unfold for individuals and a nation? Rebirth chronicles the lives of five people profoundly affected by the 9/11 attacks. As a decade passes, we witness the progress of a student whose mother perished, a widow of a first responder, a woman who survived above the impact zone, a man who oversees Ground Zero construction, and a firefighter who lost his closest friends. As they cope with the excruciating and evolving pain of loss, time helps them refashion the scaffolding of their lives. Meanwhile, amazingly, 14 time-lapse cameras chart the entire multiyear rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center—the first structure to rise to completion after the tragedy. The site’s renewal becomes a stunning metaphor for the cycle of life while the film’s characters reflect the resilience of humanity and the possibility of transformation in the face of anguish. Inspiring a collective catharsis, this exquisitely moving documentary helps us process what is unimaginable.”
The Key Players: Director Jim Whitaker
The Draw: The 9/11 attacks, after a few cinematic false starts (most notably Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center), are beginning to yield some very thoughtful and moving films, from United 93 to this year’s The Space Between. This documentary sounds like a worthy addition to that canon.
The Website: http://www.projectrebirth.org/