Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films (which was one of the top indie film distribution companies of the 1990s) and a former president of United Artists, died on Monday at the age of 57. He passed away in a Provo, Utah hospital after suffering a stroke while attending the Sundance Film Festival last week.
This is my first exposure to the Zellner brothers’ work, and I’m intrigued, but I found it a bit confusing. They have a quirky comic edge and a healthy respect for the bizarre that amuses and attracts me. That said, there is a darkness and a stillness to Kid-Thing that I found unsettling and hard to watch. The Sundance Film Festival is often a staging ground for experimental dramas, and I would put this film in that category.
Based on the title and Sundance 2012 program description, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this film. Full disclosure, I was pretty sure I was going to hate it, mainly because I, too, Am Not a Hipster (hint). But an unexpected thing happened part way through: My heart started pounding, and I realized that I was anxious for the characters and their situation. And later, when I teared up, I had to give up on my aspirations of being an eye-rolling naysayer…
This film has Criterion Collection written all over it. It has everything I wanted it to have: stunning imagery, complex, well-developed characters, a blend of folktale and modern-day storytelling, and a truly masterful incorporation of the real and the imaginary. A brilliant, inventive, and beautiful coming-of-age journey, Beasts of the Southern Wild is by far my favorite film to-date from Sundance 2012.
As readers of ScreenCrave may have noticed over the weekend, the 2012 Sundance Film Festival is currently in full swing, which means a deluge of films, press conferences, interviews, reviews, snow… and, apparently, celebrity health emergencies. At least in the case of Tracy Morgan, who collapsed into unconsciousness on Sunday night outside of a Sundance event.
I think it’s fair to say we as Americans have an obsession with the rags-to-riches story and a fetish-like desire for judging rich and famous people with a mixture of envy and disgust. The Queen of Versailles, Jackie Sieger, has everything, is pretty out-of touch with reality, and benefited greatly from the sale of sub-prime mortgages. And yet somehow, she is completely and utterly likeable. This Sundance 2012 tragicomic documentary is an equal-parts moving and funny post-recession commentary on the folly of the American Dream.
If you’re lucky, you don’t spend much time at the hospital, but all of us at some point in our lives will find ourselves needing medical care. And when we’re sick or injured, we want to believe that the health care system we have in place has our very best interests in mind. Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care, debuting at Sundance 2012 paints a picture that may make you rethink what it means to be “healthy” and how much you trust your doctor’s advice… Continue Reading
This is a tough one. It’s an important film. I understand why it’s playing at Sundance. I have nothing but respect for the filmmakers and their message. The film is very well made and put together. But it’s by no means an “easy watch.” It’s very hard to review a film that has so much heart and good intentions and seemingly very little agenda other than to show another perspective and to try and help a group of defenseless, peaceful people who want nothing more than the right to stay in their homes.
Yet another one of my Top 5 Film Picks coming through. This film was exactly what I was hoping for: witty, funny, meaningful, enlightened and brilliantly acted by Frank Langella. The film takes a high concept premise and a character driven plot and turns it into a wonderfully executed experience.
