SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Goats”
Virtually every screening at Sundance is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, and while these sessions can be informative and charming (although 3 questions that need never be asked again are How long did you shoot?...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Compliance”
> Sundance has a thriving Park City At Midnight program that features plenty of high-octane horror movies, but the most unnerving and disturbing film of this year’s festival may have been Craig Zobel’s COMPLIANCE, a...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Smashed”
James Ponsoldt’s SMASHED (not to be confused with NBC’s Smash), which premiered in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance, is a new spin on a fairly old story. The concept goes back (at least) to 1962’s...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Room 237”
> I write this as a fairly obsessive fan of Stanley Kubrick, back since I desperately wanted to see A Clockwork Orange in its original X-rated release but was too young to get in. So the very idea of ROOM 237, a feature-length ...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Bachelorette”
> Although Sundance still has several days to go, and surprises could spring up at any time (yesterday The Surrogate, a drama with John Hawkes as a man in an iron lung who decides to lose his virginity to a sex therapist played...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Red Lights”
> Or if the title were a Jeopardy answer, the question would be: what should writer/director Rodrigo Cortes have paid attention to, before he typed “The End” on his script Red Lights wouldn’t have been a festi...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Liberal Arts”
> Josh Radnor’s writing/directing debut happythankyoumoreplease, which played Sundance a couple of years ago, was a promising, entertaining NY-set romantic comedy-drama that hailed from the Woody Allen division of indie f...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “For a Good Time, Call…”
> There’s a principled discussion to be had about whether the Sundance Film Festival should be featuring movies that are essentially low-budget Hollywood entertainments made outside the studio system. But that discussion ...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Save the Date”
> Michael Mohan’s SAVE THE DATE, which premiered this afternoon at Sundance, doesn’t earn its points from an original premise. It concerns 2 divergent sisters, Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) and Beth (Alison Brie), but mostly...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Lay the Favorite”
> The fundamental problem with LAY THE FAVORITE, Stephen Frears’ new film that premiered last night at Sundance, is that it’s made by people who seem to have little if any interest in gambling. And since this is a m...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Celeste & Jesse Forever”
> The festival has its first crowd-pleaser in CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, a light but heartfelt romantic comedy-drama in the Woody Allen vein. Written by Rashida Jones (who also stars as Celeste) and Will Mc McCormack (on hand a...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEWS: “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
>Benh Zeitlin’s BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is the kind of movie that makes people wince when they hear “independent film”. A tale, with magical realist overtones, set in the mostly African-American poverty of...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Wish You Were Here”
>Two Australian couples vacation together on the beaches of Cambodia, but only 3 people return. That’s the set-up for Kieran Darcy-Smith’s skilled debut WISH YOU WERE HERE, which premiered as part of Sundance’...