THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES SELECTION! With a film this intriguing, harrowing and harsh, it almost feels like a rip off that you aren’t crying by the end…
Posted on January 26, 2013 in Reviews by Don R. Lewis
HELL BABY
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL MIDNIGHT FEATURE SELECTION! Lennon and Garant clearly belong to a brand of comedy that dictates that if it works once, run the joke into the ground until at least hitting the rule of three. The problem is that none of the jokes work the first time…
Posted on January 25, 2013 in Reviews by Erik Childress
C.O.G.
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! Kyle Patrick Alvarez will forever hold a unique spot among a select group of literature-loving cineastes in that he is the first writer/director to adapt a work by the beloved David Sedaris into a film…
Posted on January 25, 2013 in Reviews by Brian Tallerico
ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEXT SELECTION! Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time at Disney World can see the inherent potential in using the location as a setting for a descent into madness. The non-stop music, the oppressive happiness of the place, and the masses of coughing, pushing tourists give the place a surreal quality long before any screenwriting begins…
Posted on January 25, 2013 in Reviews by Brian Tallerico
FILL THE VOID
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT FEATURE SELECTION! Director Rama Burshentein offers a fascinating portrait of Hasidic Jews, a community of law and ritual that is also one of mutual support and interconnectivity…
Posted on January 24, 2013 in Reviews by Jamie Tipps
LASTING
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WORLD DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! Michal and Karina are not bad people, but they are immature and unsure of how to handle their problems when they come up; both make the mistake of retreating into themselves, and the result is the alienation of the other…
Posted on January 23, 2013 in Reviews by Mark Bell
BLUE CAPRICE
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEXT FEATURE SELECTION! It’s to Moors’ credit that the first three-quarters of Blue Caprice represent an attempt to understand how John comes to be the way he is and that the inevitable violence is almost an afterthought…
Posted on January 23, 2013 in Reviews by Michael Nordine
THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES SELECTION! There’s a touch of the fantastical embedded into the all-over-the-map narrative, all of which falls flat and some of which is even cringe-worthy…
Posted on January 23, 2013 in Reviews by Michael Nordine
AUSTENLAND
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! Hess offers a wry, modernized take on a perennial favorite, and indeed, it is catnip for the ovaries…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Jamie Tipps
TWO MOTHERS
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES SELECTION! The unintentional laughs that came out at my screening were one of the only things I liked about the film…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Don R. Lewis
AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! This is a consistently moving tone poem of a film, even if its immediacy doesn’t necessarily translate into long-lasting resonance…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Michael Nordine
THE STUART HALL PROJECT
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WORLD DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! It’s clear that Akomfrah holds Hall in high regard as do many in the world, both scholars and armchair philosophers…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Don R. Lewis
MANHUNT
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! Greg Barker’s nonfiction corollary to Kathryn Bigelow’s dramatization of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the agents behind it distinguishes itself almost instantly by covering the pre-9/11 period elided by that film…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Michael Nordine
GOING BIONIC: DISTRIBUTING INDEPENDENT FILMS INTERNATIONALLY – SUNDANCING WITH DOCS!
As The Sundance Film Festival kicked off last Thursday in Park City, Utah, one surprising trend has emerged; docs are selling! Thus, today we’re exploring this appetite for documentaries. So, bundle up kids, because docs are as cool as the air in Park City.
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Features, Going Bionic by Hammad Zaidi
THE MOO MAN
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WORLD DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! Life on a farm isn’t that drastically different from day to day and one calf-birthing would have sufficed instead of the four or five Heathcote chose to film…
Posted on January 22, 2013 in Reviews by Brian Tallerico
