Posts Tagged ‘Sundance review’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Obvious Child”

  A surprisingly commercial concoction by Sundance standards, Gillian Robespierre’s OBVIOUS CHILD doesn’t feel very much unlike the pilot for a cable dramedy.  That’s not meant as any kind of dire crit...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Happy Christmas”

  Joe Swanberg, the director, writer and co-star of HAPPY CHRISTMAS, which premiered at Sundance earlier this week, makes Woody Allen look lazy.  He’s had something like a dozen features to his credit since the sta...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “The Skeleton Twins”

  Star power makes all the difference  in THE SKELETON TWINS.  Craig Johnson’s dramedy (written with Mark Heyman) takes place in fairly commonplace territory, especially at Sundance:  siblings bound together, whe...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “The One I Love”

  The trouble with trying to recommend THE ONE I LOVE , written by Justin Lader and directed by Charlie McDowell, is that it’s impossible to describe how clever, surprising and intriguing it turns out to be without...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman”

It’s a cliche to say, when a director of commercials and music videos helms his or her first feature film, that the result resembles a video extended to feature length–and certainly not one that’s always true,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete”

  Toy’s House wasn’t the only movie at this year’s Sundance about boys fending for themselves.  THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE depicts a less voluntary version of the effort to keep going witho...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Look of Love”

  It just wouldn’t be a film festival without something from Michael Winterbottom.  Winterbottom isn’t at the very top of the film director pantheon, but he’s respected enough that his projects have been...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Touchy Feely”

  TOUCHY FEELY offers the gifted writer/director Lynn Shelton taking herself very, very seriously for the most part.  It turns out to be a less effective mode for her than those of her recent small-scale comedies Humpday ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Big Sur”

  Maybe it’s time for a filmmaker who doesn’t give a damn about the Beat Generation to make the next movie about them.  Michael Polish’s BIG SUR joins last year’s On the Road as a Jack Kerouac adap...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Magic Magic”

  MAGIC MAGIC never really makes clear what it intends to be, but it’s awfully fascinating to watch. Written and directed by the prolific Sebastian Silva, who had two films at Sundance this year (the other was the we...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Lifeguard”

  If you go to too many Sundances, or see too many indie films, there are certain templates you come to recognize all too quickly.  THE LIFEGUARD, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, a TV writer (Memphis Beat, Cold Cas...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Afternoon Delight”

  It takes quite a while–almost its entire length, in fact–for the utter conventionality of AFTERNOON DELIGHT to become clear.  Jill Soloway’s feature directing debut, for which she unaccountably won a S...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

  There’s a tendency to compare any slow-moving, beautifully-photographed drama with an abundance of natural imagery to the films of Terence Malick, but that’s unfair to the very particular surreal spirituality...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ass Backwards”

  The Sundance programmers, one has to assume, are big fans of TV’s Happy Endings.  Casey Wilson is part of that show’s wonderful ensemble, and one of its most reliably hilarious members.  The news that she w...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Computer Chess”

  Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS has a great setting for a comedy.  The time is circa 1980, and the place is an anonymous hotel where a group of nerds–back before nerds were cool–have gathered for thei...
by Mitch Salem