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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
The Sundance winners that will be coming to a theater near you soon -- and the ones that won't but should.
Jan 24, 2004 | As Sundance wraps up, the 40,000 people who attended this year's festival have learned many lessons: 1) Not everyone looks good in a bright pink cashmere hat and scarf, even if they were free at the Independent Film Channel party; 2) dining without a reservation on the first Saturday of the festival means waiting more than an hour for really bad miso soup; 3) sometimes two hours ahead of showtime isn't early enough; 4) you might look like a rock star walking around smoking cigarettes in 15-degree weather without a hat, but you won't feel very cool the next day when your head is full of snot; and 4) it's OK to gaze at Peter Sarsgaard when you see him on the street, as long as you don't listen to what he's saying ("How could I turn down a black cashmere sweater?").
While the rise and fall of the lords of the Sundance might have been foreseeable, this year's festival was anything but predictable, down to the unexpected winners announced at Saturday night's awards ceremony. Many thought that "The Woodsman" would take the Grand Jury Prize for best film drama, but instead it went to the ultra-low-budget "Primer," about two men who invent a time travel machine. Director Shane Carruth looked even more shocked than the audience when the award was announced, but managed to thank "a cast that doubled as a crew" when accepting the top honor for his $7,000 film. Quirky comedy "Napolean Dynamite" looked like a shoo-in to win the Dramatic Audience Award, but Joshua Marston's "Maria Full of Grace," about a girl struggling to support her family in Bogota by smuggling drugs to the United States, walked away with the prize.
Winners in the documentary category were far more difficult to predict, given how many outstanding films made it to the festival this year. The Documentary Grand Jury Prize went to "DIG!," in which director Ondi Timoner follows the rise and fall of rival musicians. The Documentary Audience Award went to "Born Into Brothels," a moving exploration of the children of Calcutta's red light district which received consistent rave reviews among crowds in Park City. While many expected Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" to take the Audience Award, Spurlock did win the Documentary Directing Award, while the Dramatic Directing Award went to Debra Granik for "Down to the Bone," the story of a mother battling with drug addiction.
But surprise winners probably made sense this year, given the number of times the reigning opinions seemed to shift dramatically. During the first few days of the festival, attendees seemed to agree that the pickings were slim. Distribution executives, publicists, producers and members of the press traded harsh reviews as they bumped into each other in crowded restaurants and parties.
And yet, as the first weekend expired, festival-goers began to chat excitedly about their new favorites. While the words "low budget" and "shark movie" have probably never been uttered in the same sentence before, "Open Water" offered all of the nail-biting realism of "Blair Witch" without inducing vomiting. It's not tough to figure out why Lions Gate snapped this one up -- try mouthing the words "'Jaws' meets 'Blair Witch'" in a crowded room and see how many ears perk up.
And if that reference pair sounds good to audiences, how about "Bend It Like Beckham" meets "Smoke Signals"? Although "Edge of America," by "Smoke Signals" director Chris Eyre, seemed to hit every feel-good film cliché, no one at my screening was able to resist its charms, thanks to understated but snappy dialogue, a satisfying narrative arc and a memorable performance by James McDaniel. Two other films receiving roundly positive reviews were "The Motorcycle Diaries" (purchased by Focus Features) and "Speak" (no distributor yet).
Big talk of "Napoleon Dynamite" from early on in the festival panned out, as the goofy comedy about a teen misfit was picked up by Fox Searchlight. Described as a kinder, gentler "Welcome to the Dollhouse," the film didn't win any awards but is sure to draw healthy crowds when it1s released to wider audiences this year. Warner Independent Pictures purchased "We Don't Live Here Anymore," a dramatic exploration of the trials of marriage starring Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Peter Krause. In addition, director Kevin Wilmott's look at what would've happened if the South had won the Civil War, "CSA: The Confederate States of America," was loved and hated and heatedly discussed all week, so it's no surprise that IFC Films snapped it up. Fine Line acquired "Maria Full of Grace," and word was that Sony Pictures Classics was nearing a deal to acquire the gay-themed comedy "Touch of Pink." Even films with risky content won out. "The Woodsman," in which Kevin Bacon plays a recovering pedophile, was picked up at the end of the week by Newmarket Films. [For a full list of the winners of Saturday's Sundance awards, click here.]
Viewers in search of fare a little edgier than "Edge of America" couldn't have been disappointed -- not at first, anyway. "One Point O," directed by Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson, was indeed a "Kafka-esque nightmare" as advertised. But with such a striking visual style, thoroughly original ideas, subtle but disturbing dialogue, and a relentlessly foreboding mood, you would expect this film to blow you away. No such luck. The viewer learns too much too fast, leaving the plot to repeat and repeat and double back on familiar ground until its hasty conclusion.
