SXSW: Nine hours until take off…
By: Austin L. Ray The idea, I’m told, is to write an introduction of sorts to my 2008 SXSW experience, which has yet to officially begin. I’m apprehensive about the whole thing, not just because it’s only my second time at the festival and last year was an overwhelming and exhausting experience, but also because my cohort and desk buddy, Rachael so hilariously summed it up just yesterday. But I’m going to give this a shot. We depart tomorrow from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at some unholy hour, arriving in Austin (not me) around 11am. Music starts not long after... read more
SXSW Film Fest 2008: Day Two
Chatting with filmmakers is one of the highlights of SXSW. This morning I made it to Kodak’s filmmakers brunch in the park across from SXSW Headquarters at the Austin Convention Center. So I grabbed a plate of breakfast tacos and some excellently strong coffee and asked people about their screenings. It’s interesting to see if the films stand up to their creator’s descriptions and optimisms. First film of the day was at the Convention Center’s theater with it’s less-than-roomy seats. Shot In Bombay follows director Apoorvia Lakhia as he works on his film Shootout In Lokhandwala, based on a true... read more
SXSW: Field trip!
You know when you were in school and you were always totally jealous of your older friends for getting to go on awesome field trips and you just couldn’t wait to go on them too? Like when you were in first grade and could not wait till third grade when you and all your classmates would pile into charter buses in your matching class t-shirts and drive down to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, where you would get really freaked out about the Challenger and then really disappointed that the gift shop only had personalized keychains and solar... read more
SXSW Film Fest 2008: Day One
By: Tim Basham I made the trip to South by Southwest 2008 without incident. Of course, this is because I live in Austin and my drive was a mere 20 minutes. The registration lines were surprisingly short—partly a testament to the incredibly well-oiled machine SXSW organizers have created and partly because I arrived at 12:30 p.m. The first films weren’t showing until late in the day. I later heard that by then the lines were wrapping extensively through the halls of the convention center. My first SXSW film was actually shown earlier in the week at a press screening. 21... read more
Sundance: Final Scorecard
We began the festival with temperatures in the single digits (and I don’t mean Celsius—I mean Kelvin) and ended at a positively balmy 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Jacket unzipped. Stocking cap stuffed into pocket. Fingers holding a pen that I can actually feel and manipulate with enough precision to write words—phrases!—into a notebook that isn’t shaking. We also began with a blank slate and now, ten days later, have some idea of what sort of (mostly) American independent films will find their way into multiplexes and art houses later this year. To help you sort them out as they come your... read more
Sundance: Winners
While the noisiest competition at Sundance often seems to be the one among distributors vying for marketable films, or the one among filmmakers trying to drum up interest in their movies, Sundance also referees an official competition in which juries choose their favorites of the eligible films. Jurors this year included filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Eugene Jarecki, Lucrecia Martel, and Amir Bar-Lev, and in a press conference at the start of the festival many of them said how excited they were to enjoy the festival as viewers for a change, gladly avoiding the pressure and packed schedule that go along... read more
Sundance: Brian Cox Twice
This year at Sundance, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Tom Sizemore, and Emily Blunt are in two films each, and that’s just a quick list of actorly doppelgangers off the top of my head. I’m sure I’ve missed a few others. Last year it was Parker Posey and Zooey Deschanel who kept popping up. I don’t mind this at all but mention it only as a warning: when you tell someone that you liked the film starring Brian Cox, you need to be very clear that you mean The Escapist and not Red. The Escapist, directed by Rupert Wyatt, is a... read more
Sundance: Still Kicking
I hereby declare that Manohla Dargis of the New York Times has excellent taste. Maybe you already knew that. Look: That isn’t to say that gems like “Sugar,” “Ballast” and “Momma’s Man” are studio bound, only that they will be seen here and discussed and will seep into the culture. They will probably be bought by a micro-distributor that will release them with a lot of love and not enough money, but they will be part of the discussion. One theme of that discussion will be the emergence of a new American realism. Although my favorite fiction films at Sundance... read more
Sundance: Sugar and Momma’s Man
I’m surprised and encouraged that this year’s festival has introduced me to four wonderful, low-key, character-driven dramas. They say this isn’t good for business—these aren’t the kinds of movies that will gross millions—so even under the pressure of the writers strike, distributors have been understandably sluggish to acquire anything at this year’s festival. And yet I couldn’t be happier to report how great Sugar, Momma’s Man, The Visitor, and Ballast are, each in its own way, each willing to confront head-on the difficulties faced by its characters while still believing in their ability to prevail. Sugar, probably my most anticipated... read more
Sundance: Henry Poole Is Here
Luke Wilson is a quiet loner who buys a house in an old suburban Southern California neighborhood, but he doesn’t expect to stay long. Why, he doesn’t say. He blocks out the light with a blanket over the window. Next door on one side is an older woman who brings him tamales, and on the other is a woman his age who flirts through the chain link. I thought I knew where this was going, but writer Albert Torres and director Mark Pellington (who also co-directed U2 3D) have a few more elements to stir into the mix, including a... read more
Sundance: Downloading Nancy
I think I’ve figured out why the three characters in Johan Renck’s Downloading Nancy scream and flail and swing golf clubs at people and engage in masochistic behavior. It can’t be explained through simple psychology. (In her notes, Maria Bello’s psychiatrist writes “patient thinks she’s unattractive.” “Duh,” Bello says in unison with the audience.) It can’t be the ominous droning score, which could almost be soothing in a different context. It might be the hideous decor of every single location, but that would probably elicit mere chuckles from most folks: those lamps, that wood panelling, that putting green in the... read more
Sundance - The premiere of U23D
By Nick Purdy Paste took in a groundbreaking music-on-film event at Sundance on Sunday night. The greatest band in the world, in 3-D, up close and in hi-definition. As Bono told the audience at the Eccles Auditorium during an introduction given by the band (minus Larry Mullen, who fell ill), U2 has always been interested in advancing technology. U23D is the band’s multi-year effort to merge the best of hi-definition digital and new 3-D filming technology to create what is the first live 3-D concert film. You can read all about the technical details and who produced the film, but... read more
Sundance: Two Romantic Awakenings
There’s a genre of film that we could call the Sundance Romantic Awakening, and it goes like this: a troubled loner meets an aggressively perky girl who perkies her way into his drab life. He resists, but eventually her perkiness breaks through, because she too has some trouble in her past. Symbiosis. But will he drive her away; does her perkiness know some bound? Almost! But not quite! Saved! By irony and flirtation! It’s not hard to see why such films get made, over and over again. It’s an irresistible fantasy that speaks to the heart of many a young... read more
Sundance: Quick Reviews
Catching up with a few more recent screenings: • Robert Deniro plays a Hollywood producer in Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened? a quick and funny farce about the movie business. It’ll draw comparisons to The Player, since a behind-the-scenes film with lots of cameos usually does, but this manic week in the life of a movie juggler is noisier, funnier, and probably more accurate. It was shot quickly on digital video, and it could have used a few quiet moments to give the eardrums a rest, but Levinson seems to have fun flopping around in the wall-to-wall sound, revealing with... read more
Sundance Documentaries: When Justice Miscarries
Quite by accident, I saw two documentaries back to back that were made by white filmmakers wrestling with America’s racial divisions. Both claim to move us toward reconciliation, but I’m not sure their subjects would necessarily agree. The better of the two is Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North. When filmmaker Katrina Browne discovered that her family, the De Wolfs of Philadelphia, was one of the country’s largest importers of slaves for 200 years, she decided to make a film as a personal attempt to come to terms with her own hidden history. A handful of... read more
Sundance: Ballast
It’s ironic that earlier today I invoked the names of the Dardenne brothers when describing The Visitor, because today I saw a film that is directly and obviously inspired by their films, particularly La Promesse, The Son, and L’Enfant. Ballast is the debut film by writer-director Lance Hammer, and it features a handheld camera, only diegetic music (just a tad), a young tough who rides a motorcycle, and a poignant abrupt cut to black at the end. It’s a stylistic imitation, yes, but Hammer’s story is all his own, working through some of the same themes that interest the Dardennes,... read more
Sundance: Visitors and Fascists
On the first full day of the fest, I saw what could well end up a favorite of the event, The Visitor, written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. His previous film, The Station Agent, was—as others have said—completely in love with its characters, and the same is true of The Visitor, but the stakes are significantly higher this time. Character actor Richard Jenkins, a face you’ll recognize immediately even if you don’t know the name (he’s the father in Six Feet Under), plays a professor who, now that he’s a widower, seems less interested in his academic work and more... read more
Sundance Opening Night: In Bruges
Yesterday I said the opening night film at Sundance would be a comedy, but In Bruges is actually a bit moodier than that. It’s fiercly funny—not something I expected to say about Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes—and even though it’s a shoot-em-up hitman movie, its beautiful footage is edited with a patient, energetic sense of comic timing, which seems increasingly rare for a genre whose typical shot has the length of a Dorito. The plot is also twisty enough that I wasn’t totally sure where it was headed, especially since writer-director Martin McDonagh has actually given the characters inner lives... read more
Witness the Gifting
It’s not just filmmakers and fans in Park City this week. Celebrities have been dispatched in great numbers to surge into the town with gleaming teeth to promote their films. Or whatever else needs promoting. As we wait for the opening night film, I’ll share one of the many “Media Alerts” (whoop! whoop!) that journalists have received: [company name withheld] Sundance Gifting Villa WHAT: In honor of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, [withheld] Gifting Villa, the ultimate gifting and hospitality suite, will invite celebrities to indulge in gifts from the hottest fashion, lifestyle & electronic brands. Celebrity guests will enjoy... read more
Sundance Eve
The far wall at the end of the concourse at the Salt Lake City airport—which is packed with people surging toward the Sundance film festival in nearby Park City—features a ski map showing Park City’s peaks. The giant text arcing above the craggy summit reads, “Remember, this is 1:1,000,000 scale.” By my calculation, this puts the resort town’s highest point at more than 100,000 feet above sea level. No wonder the atmosphere is so heady! Or maybe it’s just the first taste of hyperbole, which does nothing but intensify on the ride to Park City’s Main Street, the epicenter of... read more
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