Here's a list of every movie I saw this year at the festival. The number that follows is how I would rate the movie on a scale of 1 through 5 where 5 is best and 1 is worst.
1. Mary and Max (3)
2. No Impact Man (4)
3. Passing Strange (5)
4. The Missing Person (2)
5. Helen (3)
6. Brooklyn's Finest (3)
7. Amreeka (5)
8. The Greatest (4)
9. 500 Days of Summer (5)
10. Spread (2)
11. Lulu and Jimi (1)
12. Cold Souls (3)
13. Endgame (3)
14. I Love You Phillip Morris (4)
15. Documentary Shorts Program (3)
16. Paper Heart (4)
17. Nollywood Babylon (3)
18. Shouting Fire (4)
19. Why We Laugh (4)
20. World's Greatest Dad (5)
21. The End Of The Line (3)
22. Dare (3)
23. Adam (4)
24. Arlen Faber (3)
25. The Killing Room (3)
26. The Winning Season (5)
27. Zion and his Brother (2)
28. Humpday (5)
29. Shrink (3)
30. Motherhood (1)
31. Peter and Vandy (3)
32. Unmade Beds (4)
33. Art & Copy (4)
34. An Education (4)
35. Prom Night in Mississippi (3)
36. La Mission (5)
37. Dada's Dance (2)
38. Moon (3)
39. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (3)
40. Toe to Toe (5)
41. The Cove (5)
42. Quest for Honor (2)
43. It Might Get Loud (2)
44. The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (5)
45. Pomegranates and Myrrh (2)
46. The Maid (4)
47. We Live In Public (4)
48. Good Hair (5)
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
I would like to take a moment to ask you to remember the name of this movie: The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
It doesn't have US distribution yet, but once it does, I am confident it will gain a cult following pretty quickly due to how wildly surreal and insane it is.
Please add it to your mental list of movies you'll need to see in the coming year.
You can read more about it here.
It doesn't have US distribution yet, but once it does, I am confident it will gain a cult following pretty quickly due to how wildly surreal and insane it is.
Please add it to your mental list of movies you'll need to see in the coming year.
You can read more about it here.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Some statistics
Here is just a little snapshot of our Sundance trip, by numbers.
# of movies seen: 48
# of times i bought popcorn: 0
# of movies we tried but didn't get into: 4
# of sit-down restaurants we ate at: 0
# of veggie sandwiches I ate from Java Cow (venue concessions): like at least 14,000
# of times I fell asleep in a movie: 0
# of starbucks solo espresso shots purchased: 4
# of hours it is taking me to download ten days worth of work emails: 4
# of dollars paid on average per movie ticket: $9.06 (face value was $15!)
# of movies seen: 48
# of times i bought popcorn: 0
# of movies we tried but didn't get into: 4
# of sit-down restaurants we ate at: 0
# of veggie sandwiches I ate from Java Cow (venue concessions): like at least 14,000
# of times I fell asleep in a movie: 0
# of starbucks solo espresso shots purchased: 4
# of hours it is taking me to download ten days worth of work emails: 4
# of dollars paid on average per movie ticket: $9.06 (face value was $15!)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Six movies today
We have seen two of the six movies we plan to see today. Barring any ticket/shuttle issues, we should be able to pull this off.
Tonight the awards are announced and I can't wait to find out what won. Will post a link here when it's available.
Tonight the awards are announced and I can't wait to find out what won. Will post a link here when it's available.
Favorite film of the fest - THE COVE
We loved this movie so much. Anyone who is familiar with my experience watching Food Inc in Toronto - very similar reaction here.
The movie is about the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in Taiji Japan. It was stunning, terrifying, devastating, empowering, inspiring, etc.
This film is close to securing distribution so PUT IT ON YOUR RADAR to see it as soon as you possibly can.
Here is a link to some other reviewer's opinion on The Cove.
http://www.bloggingsundance.com/2009/01/24/sundance-review-the-cove/
And here is a link to the film's website. WORTH A VISIT.
http://savejapandolphins.org/
The movie is about the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in Taiji Japan. It was stunning, terrifying, devastating, empowering, inspiring, etc.
This film is close to securing distribution so PUT IT ON YOUR RADAR to see it as soon as you possibly can.
Here is a link to some other reviewer's opinion on The Cove.
http://www.bloggingsundance.com/2009/01/24/sundance-review-the-cove/
And here is a link to the film's website. WORTH A VISIT.
http://savejapandolphins.org/
Friday, January 23, 2009
Dude!
I just realized we got free tickets to almost every movie today. One show we got a $10 ticket and a freebie. So we spent a total of $5 on tickets today. That's $1.00 per movie.
Crazy!!!
Gotta love the last few days of the fest!
Crazy!!!
Gotta love the last few days of the fest!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Unlucky
Shiri and I are up to our ears in love stories/romantic comedies and we are soooo ready to be done with it! Thank GOD our next film is a doc about advertising.
Later today we are seeing something called Brief Interviews with Hideous Men which should be educational.
We are up to 32 movies now.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Good stufff
We saw The Winning Season this morning and it was SOOO great! It's by the same director as Grace is Gone and Lonesome Jim. But it's a comedy about an alcoholic busboy misanthrope (Sam Rockwell) who is asked to coach girls basketball at the local high school. The result is a totally non-formulaic sports comedy with some family drama and redemption mixed in for good measure.
And how funny was this - during the final scene, who do me and Shiri spot in the background but a friend of ours from work, JR who does security at OTX screenings. He ended up being in about a million shots and we got a kick out of it. Go JR!
Then we saw an Israeli movie called Zion and His Brothers which wasn't really up my alley but Shiri liked it.
Now we are sitting at the Raquet Club about to see Humpday which is supposed to be awesome.
We probably will only see five movies today. What a bunch of SLACKERS!
And how funny was this - during the final scene, who do me and Shiri spot in the background but a friend of ours from work, JR who does security at OTX screenings. He ended up being in about a million shots and we got a kick out of it. Go JR!
Then we saw an Israeli movie called Zion and His Brothers which wasn't really up my alley but Shiri liked it.
Now we are sitting at the Raquet Club about to see Humpday which is supposed to be awesome.
We probably will only see five movies today. What a bunch of SLACKERS!
We did it
Six movies!!
I did not fall asleep once. And I liked all of them.
Bad news though, we have an 8:30 am movie tomorrow! Shite. And it's
the last screening of a highly anticipated film so I cannot miss it.
--
Sent from my mobile device
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I'm not gonna lie...
We are about to watch our sixth movie and I am dead ass tired.
--
Sent from my mobile device
a Six-er
We're about to see our fifth film of the day, called Arlen Faber. One more after this - a scary midnight movie. GO US!!!!!
Miracles
Would you believe the Racquet Club has been actually starting their screenings on time all day long? Crazy shit, man!!
Cause y'all know how much I love fish
We are about to watch End Of The Line, a doc about bad fishing practices. Should be a scream!
We are still on track to see six today.
I'm enjoying everyone's Facebook updates about the innauguration.
World's Greatest Dad
We just saw World's Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams. LOVED IT SO MUCH! Super inappropriate subject, wicked evil dialogue, exceppent performances, crazy hilarous and even a little heartwarming. Highly recommended!!!! Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. I think it has surpassed 500 Days of Summer as my current festival favorite.
Doc Day
Today was a doc day.
We started out with the doc shorts which I believe I mentioned earlier. One was so amazingly fucked up that I literally could not watch it - I covered my face the whole time. It was about a guy who likes to amputate his own fingers and toes. My favorite short of all of them was about John Cazale, who was in five films in his lifetime and all were nominated for best picture. The filmmakers talked to everyone from Al Pacino to Meryl Streep to Francis Ford Coppola and really gave a good wrap up on this guy's talents and impact on Hollywood in his short life.
Then we saw Paper Heart which was all about finding love and if it really exists or not, and it was cute. It was a weird hybrid of documentary plus narrative meant to be passed off as documentary, and that's the only part that was a little bit frustrating. The parts between the two protagonists (who were relatively famous actors, playing themselves) felt unscripted but actually were, which felt like a let-down.
After that was Nollywood Babylon, an examination of the Nigerian film industry which is the third largest in the world. It was a really upbeat and energetic story on a subject about which I knew absolutely nothing, so that made it an ideal film for me. There were about 20 minutes that delved deeply into the religion genre that I could have cut out but ah well.
Next came Shouting Fire - Stories on the Edge of Free Speech. This was another great doc! The director exploited her personal connection to the issue of free speech (her father is or was a lawyer and advocate) and examined three powerful stories.
more about the last movie later.
We started out with the doc shorts which I believe I mentioned earlier. One was so amazingly fucked up that I literally could not watch it - I covered my face the whole time. It was about a guy who likes to amputate his own fingers and toes. My favorite short of all of them was about John Cazale, who was in five films in his lifetime and all were nominated for best picture. The filmmakers talked to everyone from Al Pacino to Meryl Streep to Francis Ford Coppola and really gave a good wrap up on this guy's talents and impact on Hollywood in his short life.
Then we saw Paper Heart which was all about finding love and if it really exists or not, and it was cute. It was a weird hybrid of documentary plus narrative meant to be passed off as documentary, and that's the only part that was a little bit frustrating. The parts between the two protagonists (who were relatively famous actors, playing themselves) felt unscripted but actually were, which felt like a let-down.
After that was Nollywood Babylon, an examination of the Nigerian film industry which is the third largest in the world. It was a really upbeat and energetic story on a subject about which I knew absolutely nothing, so that made it an ideal film for me. There were about 20 minutes that delved deeply into the religion genre that I could have cut out but ah well.
Next came Shouting Fire - Stories on the Edge of Free Speech. This was another great doc! The director exploited her personal connection to the issue of free speech (her father is or was a lawyer and advocate) and examined three powerful stories.
more about the last movie later.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Scowl
We stayed for the Paper Heart Q&A and thus did NOT get into Dare which is a big bummer since I really wanted to see it.
Plan B is a film called Nollywood Babylon, of which I know nothing. Fingers crossed - sometimes those are the best ones. We'll see.
How's everybody's MLK day???
Plan B is a film called Nollywood Babylon, of which I know nothing. Fingers crossed - sometimes those are the best ones. We'll see.
How's everybody's MLK day???
Mixing it up (and solving an internal dilemma)
Right now we are about to see some doc shorts. It is important to not see only celebrity-saturated mainstream-ish stuff at festivals, so here we are taking advantage of some programming that won't be at a Landmark-near-you within a few months.
The bummer is that we are at the Holiday which first of all is owned by Cinemark theaters (their CEO supported Prop 8) and second of all, they make amazing popcorn. Many of you know that my love of popcorn and strong desire to consume it daily may even be stronger than my ____ for ____ (guess). So, I will connect the two in my head - I won't eat any popcorn for the dual purpose of ____ as well a not supporting the Cinemark chain.
Problem solved!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sleepiness
We are tired! But back in good spirits.
It was a rollercoaster of a day! We saw two movies, and then got turned away from three, which put us in a shit mood. We didn't get into Yes Men Fix The World, An Education or The World's Greatest Dad. Huge let-down! It's the PITS looking for tickets for hours in the cold and snow to no avail. Especially since for one of them, we actually WERE able to find hard tickets but they turned us away at the door because too many people from the cast/crew entourage showed up and they couldn't accommodate all the ticket holders. We were able to get two free tickets apiece for the inconvenience, though, so that's something I guess.
A few things made everything turn around, though, and the first one was how fast we got tickets for I Love You Phillip Morris. Whew!
Now I'll review the movies I haven't reviewed yet.
Cold Souls - A weird existential movie that was not unlike Being John Malkovitch. It starred Paul Giamatti as himself, a tortured actor trying to cope with an internal crisis who turns to a new service called soul storage where they extract your soul and keep it safe for you. of course his goes missing and it all goes on from there.... Eh, it was fine. Had a few funny moments but mostly not something I'll remember for the rest of my life.
Endgame - a dramatic retelling of the informal talks in South Africa that lead up to the abolition of apartheid. Very, very dry. Interesting and good, especially at the end when the pace finally picked up, but there just simply wasn't enough heart in this. Plus in the epilogue they had an improperly placed apostrophe - not cool!
I Love You Phillip Morris - the gay prison comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan Macgregor. This was an interesting one. Too long, first of all. Weird tone, second of all. I really couldn't figure out who the target audience would be for this film. There were simply a few too many Chuck & Larry level jokes (even though it really was just a few) to cater to an exclusive indie or GBLT audience, but it was a little too much for the multiplexes. Performance-wise, I have to say that I forgot almost immediately that I was watching Ewan, he just disappeared in to the role. Jim Carrey, not so much. He was always Jim Carrey. That said, I definitely laughed, and several times.
We have no idea what we're seeing yet tomorrow - time to figure it out!!
It was a rollercoaster of a day! We saw two movies, and then got turned away from three, which put us in a shit mood. We didn't get into Yes Men Fix The World, An Education or The World's Greatest Dad. Huge let-down! It's the PITS looking for tickets for hours in the cold and snow to no avail. Especially since for one of them, we actually WERE able to find hard tickets but they turned us away at the door because too many people from the cast/crew entourage showed up and they couldn't accommodate all the ticket holders. We were able to get two free tickets apiece for the inconvenience, though, so that's something I guess.
A few things made everything turn around, though, and the first one was how fast we got tickets for I Love You Phillip Morris. Whew!
Now I'll review the movies I haven't reviewed yet.
Cold Souls - A weird existential movie that was not unlike Being John Malkovitch. It starred Paul Giamatti as himself, a tortured actor trying to cope with an internal crisis who turns to a new service called soul storage where they extract your soul and keep it safe for you. of course his goes missing and it all goes on from there.... Eh, it was fine. Had a few funny moments but mostly not something I'll remember for the rest of my life.
Endgame - a dramatic retelling of the informal talks in South Africa that lead up to the abolition of apartheid. Very, very dry. Interesting and good, especially at the end when the pace finally picked up, but there just simply wasn't enough heart in this. Plus in the epilogue they had an improperly placed apostrophe - not cool!
I Love You Phillip Morris - the gay prison comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan Macgregor. This was an interesting one. Too long, first of all. Weird tone, second of all. I really couldn't figure out who the target audience would be for this film. There were simply a few too many Chuck & Larry level jokes (even though it really was just a few) to cater to an exclusive indie or GBLT audience, but it was a little too much for the multiplexes. Performance-wise, I have to say that I forgot almost immediately that I was watching Ewan, he just disappeared in to the role. Jim Carrey, not so much. He was always Jim Carrey. That said, I definitely laughed, and several times.
We have no idea what we're seeing yet tomorrow - time to figure it out!!
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