The Sundance Film Festival saved its most high-profile announcements for today, releasing the titles of its Narrative and Documentary Premieres. The lion’s share of the festival movies that reach theatres/VOD will come from this group, which feature the most prominent filmmakers and actors. Here are a few of the most immediately promising:
ACOD: A terrific cast (Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Catherine O’Hara) in a comedy co-written by Daily Show/Modern Family writer Ben Karlin about a man (Scott) who finds out his life as an Adult Child of Divorce isn’t what he thinks.
BEFORE MIDNIGHT: The third in the beloved indie romance series, reuniting Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater for another visit with our talkative couple, this time in Greece, 9 years after the last installment.
BREATHE IN: From the director of Like Crazy, Drake Doremus, a story about a foreign exchange student (Crazy‘s Felicity Jones) and her effect on married couple Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan.
DON JON’S ADDICTION: Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his directing debut (about a modern-day Don Juan) with a cast that includes, aside from himself, Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore.
jOBS: Would you believe Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs? Well, maybe after this film you will. (And the oddly lower-case first letter of the title is intentional.)
THE LOOK OF LOVE: A film festival just isn’t a film festival without a contribution from Michael Winterbottom, and this time he’s reteamed with his 24-Hour Party People/The Trip star Steve Coogan as a real-life British porn king.
LOVELACE: More porn, with Amanda Seyfried as the the titular (heh heh heh) star in the story of her exceedingly messy life, from the directors of Howl.
PRINCE AVALANCHE: Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as road workers on an “isolated landscape”–please god, let it not be David Gordon Green’s version of Gerry.
STOKER: Park Chan-Wook’s American film debut (he directed Oldboy and the rest of the “Vengeance Trilogy”) is a fittingly dark–really dark–spin on Shadow of a Doubt, with Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode as the film’s version of Joseph Cotten, and Mia Wasikowska not very much like Teresa Wright at all.
SWEETWATER: A “blood triangle” involving “a fanatical religious leader, a renegade sheriff and a former prostitute,” starring Ed Harris, Jason Clarke and January Jones–what’s not to like?
TOP OF THE LAKE: A 6-hour miniseries from director Jane Campion (The Piano), about a pregnant 12-year old who vanishes, with Elisabeth Moss, Holly Hunter, and Peter Mullan.
TWO MOTHERS: From director Anne Fontaine and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, the story of two middle-aged best friends (Naomi Watts and Robin Wright) who have passionate affairs with each other’s sons. So, ick.
VERY GOOD GIRLS: Festival darlings Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen as two friends who fall for the same guy–which is better, at least, than falling for each other’s children.
THE WAY, WAY BACK: The directing debut of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (Oscar winners for last year’s The Descendants script, as well as each being a star on primetime network TV in his own right), about a 14-year old who falls in with the employees at a trailer park, with a cast that includes Steve Carell, Toni Collete, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and Maya Rudolph.
ANITA: The documentaried life of Anita Hill.
HISTORY OF THE EAGLES: About the band, not the birds.
LINSANITY: Knicks fans may want to bring a box of tissues.
RUNNING FROM CRAZY: A documentary about Mariel Hemingway, but centering around her famed family’s struggle with mental illness and suicide.
SOUND CITY: A music documentary directed by Dave Grohl, who knows something about the subject.
WE STEAL SECRETS: Alex Gibney’s telling of the WikiLeaks story.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK CHENEY: Democrats may want to bring a box of tissues.
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