Sundance: 'Cha Cha Real Smooth' is Frustrating, But Lands On Its Feet

by Eurocheese

Cooper Raiff wrote and directed Cha Cha Real Smooth, in which he stars as Andrew, a conflicted often frustrating man. The first scenes show Andrew in romantic situations at different ages (preteen and just after college), letting the audience know two things about him: he speaks without a filter when it comes to his emotions, and he falls head over heels when he is drawn to someone. When he isn’t romantically entangled, he stays with his loving mother (Leslie Mann) and her boyfriend (Brad Garrett), who he taunts at every opportunity. (At one point, Andrew asks the boyfriend if his purpose on earth is to make things weird… which someone should have been asking him instead!) 

Andrew’s outspoken nature is an excuse to be casually cruel at times though people find him charming. The script relies too heavily on this “charm,” including when he attends a bar mitzvah with his brother and meets Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt). It’s clear he feels a spark with Domino right off the bat. The feeling is mutual though he makes remarks that would have most people running away from him... 

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Sundance: Don't Tell #MeToo This Babysitter's Dead

 by Jason Adams

Have you checked on a straight person today? I don't think the straights are doing okay, at least not judging by Babysitter, a Hashtag Me Too themed Quebecois comedy premiering this weekend at Sundance. Dubbed "screwball surrealism" by the filmmakers, which includes leading actress Monia Chokri (who you should recognize from her work with Xavier Dolan) in the director's chair, this movie plays like somebody stuffed a classic French farce into a blender, right down to the wee-wee maid's uniform. It is a lot, too much, and not enough all at once. Tres exhausting!

It all begins with a drunken boys night out at a boxing match. Or at least I think it does...

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Sundance Review: A Hostage Situation in ‘892’

By Abe Friedtanzer

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Chris Witt.It’s probably not the best time to be premiering a drama involving a man walking into a building and taking hostages in the wake of what happened at a Texas synagogue last weekend. There are certainly important differences between the two situations which don’t need to be discussed here, but it’s worth noting that this film may be highly triggering for some at this present moment and, if that’s the case, shouldn’t be screened. But for those who think they can handle this content,  Abi Damaris Corbin's 892 is a well-constructed film with quality performances…

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Sundance: Dale Dickey shines in 'A Love Song'

by Matt St Clair

If you don’t know her name, odds are you’ve probably still seen Dale Dickey pop up in shows and films you like including Best Picture nominee Winter’s Bone (2010). Even after earning slight awards traction for her role as the wife of a backwoods crime boss in the acclaimed indie, including an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Dickey has remained on the precipice of famed character actordom, not quite tipping over. 

But with A Love Song, which just premiered at Sundance, Dickey finally gets a starring role to showcase her too often unsung gifts...

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Sundance: The pitch black repercussions when you 'Speak No Evil'

by Jason Adams

I don't know why people never heed the wise words of the credits to The Real World opening credits when they find themselves inside a horror movie of manners, but if we all could just stop being so damned polite and start getting real there'd be way fewer corpses dumped into the ditches of the world, and doesn't that sound a lot nicer for everybody? But no, nobody listens to the reality-programming Cassandras called Bunim and Murray, and so we end up watching people like the Danish family at the heart of Christian Tafdrup's pitch-black Sundance horror Speak No Evil, who don't speak up for themselves and pay the darkest of prices for it. Get real, world! It's for your own good...

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