Let's check in with the high altitudes of Sundance for a moment. Before we begin a word of 'don't believe the hype' caution. Sundance has the dubious distinction of being the single festival with the highest ratio of critical raves morphing suddenly to real world mehs. Altitude sickness? Long delays between festivals and premieres? Who knows. The buzz sometimes translate (Precious) but you can't ever fully trust it and sometimes it's the films with very quiet receptions that the real world actually embraces (last year's key examples: I'll See You In My Dreams and A Walk in the Woods).
Let's talk about eight new films after the jump, okay?
Birth of a Nation
Tonight's hot ticket was Nate Parker's Birth of a Nation which is not a remake of the infamous silent epic, but eager to fuck up its SEO with that brazen title snatching. He famously quit acting for a bit to raise the money to direct it though obviously he has returned to the cameras since he also stars as a former slave, leading a slave revolt. The last time we saw him onscreen was at Gugu's hunky cop lover in the romantic music drama Beyond the Lights and if he's great behind the camera too this could be one of the big 2016 films. Reviews aren't in yet but people are just getting out of screenings (which tends to be when the strongest hyperbole happens) as we post this so early tweets go like so...
The Birth of a Nation is an unflinching and hopeful call to action. Nate Parker's passion is felt in every scene. #Sundance
— Jordan Raup (@jpraup) January 26, 2016
THE BIRTH OF A NATION is a stick of cinematic dynamite with a two-hour fuse. Stirring, devastating, and right on time. #Sundance
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) January 26, 2016
The Birth of a Nation - A triumph in every way. Nate Parker takes this one to the top. Score, performances, story are perfect. Masterpiece.
— Alex Billington (@firstshowing) January 26, 2016
Prolonged standing ovation for the best narrative feature I've seen @sundancefest, actor-director Nate Parker's powerful Birth of a Nation.
— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) January 26, 2016
The Birth of A Nation is brutal, powerful with a strong vision come to life from Nate Parker. #Sundance2016
— Gregory Ellwood (@TheGregoryE) January 26, 2016
Powerful BIRTH OF A NATION, American slave revolt film echoing BRAVEHEART. Sure to be major discussion piece and awards contender #sundance
— Jason Gorber (@filmfest_ca) January 26, 2016
(Oh nooooo a Braveheart comparison. THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME OPTIMISTIC. Is it just a hyper sadistic bloodthirsty epic with lots of shouting and manly martyrdom? I hate Braveheart so much.)
The Last Days of Disco stars reunited!
Love & Friendship
Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress) is going period? Huh. That's an unexpected move. This one is set in the 18th century England and stars Kate Beckinsale & Chloe Sevigny, who also headlined the director's other period piece, Last Days of Disco (1998). The Guardian loves the "devious" Beckinsale and everyone seems to think the material, Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan, is a great fit for the filmmaker. As Scott Renshaw says "Thematically, his interest is in love roundelays and character parables where people meet their matches according to merit, meaning those partners whose company and sensibility, especially in their modes of expression, they find most agreeable. Given these predilections, there is no more-congenial novelist for Mr. Stillman to adapt into a motion picture than Miss Jane Austen..."
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP may be the most tone-perfect Austen adaptation I can remember. #Sundance
— Alissa Wilkinson (@alissamarie) January 24, 2016
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP: Stillman does Austen and barely has to bend. Witty, fast, delightful. #Sundance
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) January 24, 2016
Other People
Ubiquitous Jesse Plemons -- weirdly the most employed of all Friday Night Lights alum -- headlines this cancer dramedy as a young gay writer whose mother (Molly Shannon) is dying of cancer. Reviews feel mixed with Indiewire calling it "sketchy, more a collection of ideas and memories than a proper film" but most people seem to really like the performance. Molly Shannon in particular is basking in the buzz. Vanity Fair even drops Supporting Actress Race Begins Here type of love. But we'll see. Sundance is so tricky as to which pieces of buzz endures and which fade into nothingness.
Molly Shannon is really wonderful in OTHER PEOPLE. So glad to see her in a brave role like this. #sundance
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) January 22, 2016
OTHER PEOPLE was terrific. Maybe I could relate more than most, but I laughed & cried in equal measure. Plemons & Molly Shannon were GREAT.
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) January 22, 2016
Swiss Army Man
A bizarre buddy comedy about a man (Paul Dano) who discovers a farting corpse with a boner (Daniel Radcliffe) was a hot ticket -- movies with name stars always are at festivals -- but prompted lots of walkouts. As someone who is not 5 years old I can't imagine sitting through a 90 minute fart joke but Wired thinks its weirdness is winning... as do a lot of people IF they managed to survive the first half hour that is.
SWISS ARMY MAN: Yeah, no idea what to make of this fable about depression, magical realist corpses, and flatulence. #Sundance
— Alison Willmore (@alisonwillmore) January 23, 2016
Why I love Sundance: any institution that would foster a film like SWISS ARMY MAN from start to finish deserves to be celebrated.
— David Lowery (@davidlowery) January 25, 2016
Counted at least 30 walkouts within first 30 mins of the unwatchable SWISS ARMY MAN before I bailed myself at 40-minute mark. DO NOT SEE IT.
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) January 22, 2016
I've seen thousands of movies and never seen anything like SWISS ARMY MAN. Insane. Crazy. Like entering a bonkers dream. Wow. #sundance
— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) January 23, 2016
People seem to agree that Casey Affleck is heading for his second Oscar nominationManchester by the Sea
Kenneth Lonergan's new film -- which thankfully avoided the protracted gestation of his long delayed Margaret epic -- stars Casey Affleck as a loner suddenly named guardian of his teenage nephew but wounds of the past are reopened. Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, & Michelle Williams co-star. This film prompted the priciest buy for this year's festival selling to Amazon for $10 million though it sounds sober and serious enough that $10 million seems crazy in terms of trying to earn one's money back! Early buzz suggests a strong male weepie which means men and women with both love it and the reviews in the real world will be so strong (women can handle male weepies -- why are men so dismissive of female weepies?)
"Manchester by the Sea" - Authentic, moving, cathartic, emotionally immersive. Earns all of it ... Hm? No, there's something in my eye...
— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) January 25, 2016
Has Michelle Williams ever had a movie husband who didn't resent her? MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, CERTAIN WOMEN add two more to the pile
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) January 25, 2016
"Manchester By The Sea" will be a Best Picture nominee 12 months hence -- guaranteed. Casey Affleck will be Best Actor nominated -- locked.
— Hollywood Elsewhere (@wellshwood) January 24, 2016
Morris From America
Chad Hartigan is back with a coming of age comedy about a overweight teenage African American (Markees Christmas) trying to adjust to life in very white Heidelberg Germany where his father (Craig Robinson) has moved them. A24 will distribute. The Film Stage calls it "Touching and insightful" and Vulture says it's "understated and generous" which makes it sound not unlike Hartigan's last no-budget winner This is Martin Bonner.
Spent most of coming-of-age/cultural-displacement drama MORRIS FROM AMERICA sick with worry for the title kid. Well done, movie. #Sundance16
— Noel Murray (@NoelMu) January 22, 2016
the stars of Goat
Goat
This frat-hazing drama starring Ben Schnetzer (from Pride) and Nick Jonas (from... well, you know) has caused quite a star. Vanity Fair says it's "reminiscent of Larry Clark's Bully, without all the sneering sleaze" whiel Screen Daily compares it to Boys Don't Cry and comparisons like that in relationship to movies described as "harrowing and brutal" suggest that it's good reviews are from the material perhaps more than the execution? Just guessing but I'll keep an open mind since we liked Schnetzer so much in Pride. AV Club compares it to last season's The Stanford Prison Experiment and doesn't help my skepticism by adding "I'm not entirely sure it achieves anything deeper than a full-on immersion in the boot camp of college fraternity culture."
The amount of gays in the line for #Goat starring Nick Jonas and about frat hazing is really impressive. Go Andrew Neel and @SeeThinkFilms!
— Jonathan Lisecki (@jonnynyc) January 23, 2016
The teens are out to see Nick Jonas at the GOAT screening. Their screams echo off the snow covered mountains, into the cold night #Sundance
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) January 23, 2016
the Juno co-stars reunite filming a scene from Tallulah
Tallulah
Ellen Page, who once gave her baby up for adoption in Juno, gets maternal in a way, kidnaps a toddler (she means well) from her reckless mother. Page's Juno mom Allison Janney is on board as well as Crazy eyes Udo Azuba, dependable John Benjamin Hickey, and stage star Tammy Blanchard round out what sounds like an amazing ensemble cast.The film marks the feature writing/directing debut of Orange is the New Black's staff writer Sian Heder. Vanity Fair praises the "complex richly realized characters" and Variety says it's Page's best vehicle since Juno. People seem to have issues with the plot but love the actors.
"Tallulah" is one of the most unusual, emotionally complex but affecting woman-centric films I've seen in a long while. Reaches in, touches.
— Hollywood Elsewhere (@wellshwood) January 23, 2016
TALLULAH has the most Sundance indie plot, but Ellen Page & Allison Janney make magic onscreen. Lot of sniffles around me at the end.
— jen yamato (@jenyamato) January 23, 2016
P.S. Meanwhile /Film is keeping you up to date on the festival's sales... though there doesn't seem to be that much purchasing action yet.