Posts Tagged ‘Sundance review’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “In A World…”

  The actress Lake Bell’s feature-film writing/directing debut IN A WORLD… has a fresh slant on showbiz comedy, and it’s both consistently likable and sometimes very funny.  It’s also sloppy, ove...
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 REVIEW: “Camp X-Ray”

  The Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year featured a pair of films that were largely built on duologues between two strong protagonists.  Attention was mostly–and properly–focused on Whiplash, which end...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Emanuel & The Truth About Fishes”

  EMANUEL AND THE TRUTH ABOUT FISHES is deeply, satisfyingly strange.  In a way, it’s a validation not just of Sundance, but the whole film festival system that is now our main way of finding out about distinctive ...
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 REVIEW: “Song One”

  Kate Barker-Froyland’s directing debut SONG ONE is so wispy and insubstantial that the bytes making up its digital images seem barely capable of adhering to a screen.  Clearly influenced by John Carney’s m...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Sweetwater”

  But for one unfortunately critical element, Logan and Noah Miller’s SWEETWATER (the brothers rewrote a script originally by Andrew McKenzie) is a highly enjoyable darkly comic western, as subsumed in stylized mov...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE FILM REVIEW: “Hellion”

  Of all the films in this year’s US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Kat Candler’s HELLION was the one that most closely matched what’s become a festival template: Aggressively shaky handheld camerawork...
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 REVIEW: “Low Down”

  No one can accuse LOW DOWN of attempting to glamorize the true story it tells.  Jeff Preiss’s first film as a director is a slow, grim dirge set in an underbelly of the jazz world in 1970s Los Angeles, and it...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Review: “Juliet, Naked”

  JULIET, NAKED (no distrib):  Every Sundance has a title or two that isn’t particularly “indie,” other than by the fact that its stars aren’t hugely bankable.  These aren’t the films that s...
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 REVIEW: “I Origins”

  The writer-director Mike Cahill has staked out a unique piece of narrative territory for himself.  In both Another Earth and his new I ORIGINS, which debuted at Sundance last week (and won the festival prize for best...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Toy’s House”

  TOY’S HOUSE is a delightful Sundance surprise, a fresh take on adolescent boys coming of age.  The conceit of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ film, written by Chris Galletta, is that Joe Toy (Nick Robinson), his best ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Review: “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot”

  DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT (Amazon):  Despite some Christopher Nolan-esque splintering of time, Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot is one of his more convention...
by Mitch Salem