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Sundance
January 23, 2012
'Hellion' Sundance Chronicles, episodes 2 and 3
Austin filmmaker Kat Candler is in Sundance for the premiere of her short film “Hellion.” We chatted with her briefly before she left, which you can read here.
Candler and ‘Hellion’ producer Kelly Williams, with the help of editor E.J. Enriquez, are chronicling their experience in Sundance and we will be sharing those video diaries with you here on the Austin Movie Blog.
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An early look at Sundance
Stephen Jannise, the film program director for the Austin Film Festival, is attending the Sundance Film Festival and will be filing updates on the events for Austin360. Here’s the first of his reports:
Every year, those who love independent filmmaking congregate at Sundance. I can safely say that I’ve never seen so many celebrities, film industry professionals, and excited moviegoers gathered together in such a small area. For 10 days, Park City transforms into a movie mecca, and, so far, the films have been well worth the journey.
On Thursday, the city was abuzz with opening night festivities. From Taylor Swift to Master of Ceremonies Robert Redford, you couldn’t walk five feet without running into another famous face. But the focus remained on the films. One of the opening night selections, “The Queen of Versailles,” follows multi-billionaire real estate mogul David Siegel and his family as their fortunes are lost to the 2008 economic disaster. This astonishing story fit perfectly with Redford’s opening address, which focused on the economy and diminished financial support for filmmaking and the arts in general. However, you wouldn’t be able to tell that we’re suffering an economic crisis with all the deal-making going on throughout the week. “The Queen of Versailles” made such an impression that Magnolia Pictures bought the film the next morning, kicking off a buying frenzy that will continue through the end of the festival.
Friday also brought the first full day of films. The director of “Buried,” Rodrigo Cortes, returned to Sundance this year with “Red Lights,” starring Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver as psychologists who work to debunk psychics and their belief in the paranormal. Their greatest adversary is Robert De Niro’s world-renowned telekinetic healer, a character that gives De Niro an increasingly rare opportunity to impress. At the end of this nerve-wracking thriller, the veteran actor delivers a monologue that is devoid of the usual De Niro posturing that has plagued so many of his recent performances, and those few moments alone are worth the price of admission.
Saturday saw the U.S. premiere of Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights.” Anyone who has seen Arnold’s “Red Road” or “Fish Tank” will recognize her unique style in this invigorating take on the classic novel. By shooting the film in a square 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the usual widescreen approach, Arnold eschews the usual David Lean approach to literary adaptation, choosing to focus our attention on the beautifully expressive faces of her non-professional actors rather than the blustery vistas of the English landscape. This film joins Cary Fukunaga’s recent “Jane Eyre” as encouraging examples of what can be done with too often told tales.
Bruce Willis was in town for the premiere of “Lay the Favorite,” the new film from director Stephen Frears. The shining light of the film, as she so often is, was Rebecca Hall, the consistently impressive actress who here leaves behind her usual classiness to play a naive stripper from Florida. When she goes to Vegas with dreams of being a cocktail waitress, she runs into Willis’ professional gambler, who helps her realize a hidden talent for numbers. The film benefits from a light-hearted tone that fits the Vegas setting perfectly, and writer D.V. DeVincentis creates a refreshingly mature relationship between Willis’s character and his wife, played with great confidence and nobility by Catherine Zeta-Jones.
My favorite feature of the fest so far is “Safety Not Guaranteed,” which generated rapturous applause at Sunday’s world premiere before the credits even started rolling. The film is perfectly cast, starring Aubrey Plaza as Darius, a depressed magazine intern in need of a bit of excitement. She finds more excitement than she bargained for in Mark Duplass’s Kenneth Calloway, who has placed an ad in the local paper claiming that he needs a partner to travel back in time with him. Darius joins two of her fellow magazine writers (played with great humor and poignancy by Jake M. Johnson and Karan Soni) in investigating Kenneth’s life, resulting in an unexpectedly moving examination of loss, regret and our nostalgic desire to return to happier times.
Last but certainly not least, Austinite Kat Candler’s short film “Hellion” premiered Saturday night, leaving a boisterous audience in laughter and tears. In just a few short moments, Candler paints an exhilarating portrait of childhood, with its rapturous highs and heartbreaking lows in equal measure. I’ve had the distinct honor of spending time with the cast and crew of “Hellion” here in Park City, and I couldn’t be happier for these wonderful people and their wonderful film. Be proud, Austin. Be proud.
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January 24, 2011
Kevin Smith to bring 'Red State' to Austin
It sounds like the results were a bit uneven, as early word out of Sundance — where the premiere of Smith’s film was welcomed by protesters from Westboro Baptist Church — has been mixed, with some critics appreciating Smith’s ambition and others feeling the movie is an abject failure.
The director who was reportedly going to auction off the distribution rights to the film following the Sunday screening instead sold them to his own SModcast Pictures for $20 and will now take his movie on the road to let audiences decide for themselves.
Eschewing traditional marketing and roll-out, the director, who has more than 1.7 million Twitter followers, is taking his movie to 13 cities, including Austin. “Red State” will screen at the Paramount Theatre on March 28. Tickets for the movie about “religious fundamentalism gone awry,” as he recently described “Red State: to Marc Marron, go on sale this Friday.
In his interview with Marron on the WTF podcast, Smith indicated his filmmaking career was nearing its end.
“I’ve gotten to a place with the films where I’m kinda almost done. I got one more movie I wanna do and then I’m finished,” Smith told Marron
For much more from Smith, check out the podcast with Maron in which the “Clerks” director discusses “Red State,” being disappointed by Bruce Willis, his newfound love for smoking marijuana, fighting Southwest Airlines, dealing with failure and expectations and much more. Obvious warning: Maron’s WTF podcast contains graphic language and adult content.
Photos of Kevin Smith from Associated Press.
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December 1, 2010
Jeff Nichols lands latest in Sundance competition
The Sundance Film Festival has announced the films that will be in competition at January’s festival. Among them, Austinite Jeff Nichols’ latest, “Take Shelter.”
The director’s 2007 debut feature “Shotgun Stories” was named by Roger Ebert as one of the critic’s top 20 films of 2008 and was nominated for the 2008 John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Like “Shotgun Stories,” “Take Shelter” stars Michael Shannon — who has been disturbing the hell out of viewers in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” A description of “Take Shelter, taken from the Sundance site: “A working-class husband and father questions whether his terrifying dreams of an apocalyptic storm signal something real to come or the onset of an inherited mental illness he’s feared his whole life.”
The film also stars Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon and Kathy Baker.
Other Texas notes: Director Amy Wendel’s “Benavides Born” is set in Texas and tells the story of a high school student who is accepted to the University of Texas but has to win the State Powerlifting Championship to secure a scholarship. The film stars Corina Calderon.
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February 1, 2010
Sundance recap
The Austin Film Festival’s Kelly Williams recaps his experience at the Sundance Film Festival, which ended Sunday.
After you return home from a festival like Sundance, you look back and realize you did not see nearly as many films as you planned on. Sometimes they are sold out. Sometimes the film showing before it goes over the time limits. Sometimes the shuttle is running late. And sometimes you get stuck at a pretty good party. So that said, I ended up seeing 15 films between Slamdance and Sundance in my few days there, here are some of the highlights…
Favorite Q&A:
Louis C.K. - It helps when the filmmaker is also a performer. He wasn’t scared of the audience by any means. But what made this Q&A great was how much he got into the filmmaking and writing process for his concert film - things you rarely get to hear someone like him talk about. He’s a good filmmaker and someone should let him make more films.
Favorite film intro:
Leon Gast - the Oscar winning director of Smash His Camera (the story of Ron Galella - the first paparazzo) got up in front of the 11:30 p.m. crowd and admitted he was too tired for this late of a screening and would not be sticking around for a Q&A, but if anyone had any questions, they could just give him a call
Favorite short film:
The S from Hell - a documentary short about the Screen Gems logo that appeared after syndicated shows like Bewitched and the Flintstones and how it struck fear in the hearts of children. It has to be seen to be believed, it is currently on youtube as part of a Sundance partnership along with Austin Film Festival 2009 audience award winner Mr. Okra and AFF alum Kelly Sears’ new film Voice on the Line.
Five Favorite performances:
Ryan O’Nan - The Dry Land (Sundance) - Coming out of nowhere, O’Nan delivers a truly amazing performance as a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. O’Nan is an actor to watch.
Rhys Coiro - Snow and Ashes (Slamdance) - Playing a war journalist with a similar post-traumatic issue as O’Nan, Rhys Coiro delivers a completely different portrayal of a man dealing with the things he’s done wrong under the pressure of war.
Joe Egender - The Violent Kind (Sundance) - Egender is both funny and frightening as the greaser Vernon in this sci-fi horror film.
Melissa Leo - The Dry Land (Sundance) - Honestly, the entire cast of The Dry Land is great - not to keep coming back to them, but a particular scene between Ryan O’Nan and his mother (Oscar nominee Leo) really got to this jaded moviegoer.
John C. Reilly - The Extra Man (Sundance) - I didn’t get to see his leading role in Cyrus, but in this supporting role, Reilly takes a part that could very easily come off irritating and instead steals scenes right out from under Kevin Kline
Lily Holleman - UrFrenz (Slamdance) - While the film felt somewhat flat overall, Holleman’s performance was a winner, playing a high school student caught up on the wrong side of a social networking site.
Five films I’m kicking myself for NOT seeing:
Four Lions
GasLand
Lovers of Hate
Me Too
Winter’s Bone
Top five favorite films I saw (in no ranking order):
The Dry Land
Louis C.K.: Hilarious
Skateland
Smash his Camera
Snow and Ashes
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January 27, 2010
Sundance Tuesday wrap
A wrapup of events from Tuesday’s Sundance Film Festival from Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival:
One of my favorite festival experiences was seeing “American Splendor” at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. I loved the film, and the Q&A featured the entire cast plus the actual people they played.
After that unforgettable screening and meeting them when they were panelists at the Austin Film Festival, I was excited to see Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s latest film, “The Extra Man.” Kevin Kline plays sort of a “proper” curmudgeon, and Paul Dano plays his roommate, a young would-be writer. But John C. Reilly steals scenes from the two as a subway repair worker with a voice that sounds like Mickey Mouse. Adapted from the book by Bored to Death creator Jonathan Ames (who also shares a screenplay credit with the directors), it is based mostly on the author’s real life starting out in New York.
From there it was a dash to fit in more films, including the US dramatic competition film “Skateland.” Shot in Louisiana, but set in East Texas, the film tells the story of the dying days of a roller-skating rink and the people who grew up there.
Austin-based production company Reversal Films helped director and former Texan Anthony Burns pull together a talented cast of young actors set to to create a nostalgic gem. Producer Vic Moyers told me “the response has been overwhelming and more than they ever expected for the film.”
Between meetings and parties, I caught “Louis C.K.: Hilarious,” and it turned out to be an unexpected highlight. Being a fan of Louis C.K. work, I knew it would be hard to hate, but he has directed the first great comedy concert film in years. Pulling from a year’s worth of new material (that he has since retired), the standup shot a performance late last year in Milwaukee. Never cutting to a standard audience reaction shot like in most comedy specials, the film stays eye to eye with the comic, giving the feeling that you are actually there and not just watching it on television.
Giving a great Q&A after the film, C.K. discussed his long writing process and the inspirations from the film like Led Zepplin’s “Song Remains the Same.” He even tested a new joke on the crowd that he says even offends him, I won’t tell it here - you’ll have to hear that in his next film.
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Grappell's short honored at Sundance
Austin filmmaker Amy Grappell’s short documentary “Quadrangle” won an honorable mention Jury Award at Sundance today.
The stunning autobiographical short (we’ve seen it) is, per Sundance, “An unconventional look at two ‘conventional’ couples that swapped partners and lived in a group marriage in the early 1970s, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce and the way people would live in the future.”
More on the awards HERE. More on the film HERE.
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January 26, 2010
Sundance Monday wrap
The latest installment from the Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival, who’s attending Sundance. This report is based on his Monday screenings.
I ran into Austinite Bryan Poyser at a party for Film Inpendent on Monday. He may have one of the best press pieces I have seen this year at Sundance — a small pocket-size booklet that features interviews with the cast and crew accompanied by portraits by Matt Rebholz of Monofonus Press. I was unfortunately unable to attend the premiere on Sunday, but Bryan said he could not have asked for a better screening, noting that “the crowd laughed where we wanted them to and they gasped when we wanted them to.”
One of the more talked-about films so far was the late addition to the line-up, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a documentary by the mysterious street artist Bansky. The doc covers the street movement, following artists like Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and even Bansky himself, but Banksy turns the table and creates a documentary about the man who shot the artists at work for years and who later became the artist known as Mr. Brainwash. “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a fast-paced ride, a film whose lead character is incredibly funny — even when he doesn’t realize it. After the film I walked down Main Street to find some of Bansky’s iconic work painted on the side of a local shop.
After a few parties, including one hosted by Magnolia Pictures, I ended the day with “The Violent Kind,” a film in the midnight section. The film was billed as sort of a biker/horror film and while it had plenty of blood, it turned into more of a science fiction film, something I did not see coming.
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January 25, 2010
Sundance wrapup
Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival reports on the Sunday events at Sundance:
Even though the festival had been going on since Thursday, this was really my first day here. It turned into a bit of a “war torn” day of film screenings. It started with partially Texas-shot film “The Dry Land.” As writer-director Ryan Williams is a former programmer at Austin Film Festival, it turned into a bit of a reunion with several current and past AFF staffers coming out to support the first screening.
Now that I have laid out my obvious bias, I will say that Williams has made an amazing and moving film about post-traumatic stress disorder. With a great cast including America Ferrera and Melissa Leo, he pulls great performances for a tight, well written script. The standout, however, is lead actor Ryan O’Nan as the soldier returning to El Paso to his wife and friends, but not being able to remember the incident that sent him home.
On the other side of town, I caught a screening of “Snow and Ashes” at Slamdance. It’s the story of a war journalist named Blaise, caught up in an unnamed war happening in Eastern Europe with his friend and photographer, David. After running from soldiers, he wakes up in his home town of Quebec - without David. Like O’Nan’s character in “The Dry Land,” Blaise is struggling to remember the tragic events of war. “Snow and Ashes” is written and directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, and like Williams, he is an extremely talented and clearly passionate filmmaker.
After that I met up with friends from the Marfa Film Festival and headed to the party for “The Dry Land.” Like most Sundance parties, this one was in a large warehouse space. All the cast that attended the screening were at the party, including Wilmer Valderrama and June Diane Raphael, but the highlight was a surprise performance by Lyle Lovett (another bias as he happens to be an AFF board member) who contributed music for the film. After his set, the party closed out with the forming of an odd dance circle featuring the smooth dance moves of cast member Jason Ritter.
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Some love for Poyser's 'Lovers of Hate'
Now for the good news: Sundance reviews have a way of trickling in SLOOOWLY, and positive word is emerging for Bryan Poyser’s “Lovers of Hate.” Something we expected.
There’s this mash note from LAWeekly. And this nice write-up from GQ. And more excellent press from The Los Angeles Times.
Full-throated congrats to Bryan!
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Do they love or hate 'Lovers of Hate'?
Some early reviews of Austinite Bryan Poyser’s “Lovers of Hate,” world-premiering at Sundance, aren’t especially upbeat. (We haven’t seen the film ourselves.) A sampling so far:
But Poyser’s having a blast. Here’s his personal response, via his blog, to the debut screening:
“The movie played awesome! There were big laughs in spots where we had never heard them before and big gasps in the parts where there were supposed to be gasps. Hearing 600 people react at the same time to a little moment or glance that you pored over and finessed on your little home computer for 8 months — that’s pretty damn priceless. … The Q & A was a little awkward, but I think we’re all just finding our legs with that. Got 4 more opportunities to get it tight.”
More from his blog HERE.
Our interview with Poyser before he left for Park City HERE.
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Williams at Sundance
This is the second post from Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival, who’s attending Sundance. The following is based on his Saturday experiences. Sunday’s update will be coming shortly.
The first day in Park City can be overwhelming, the airport, the shuttle ride from Salt Lake, checking in, picking tickets and badges and coming from 75 degree weather in Austin to the low 20s in Utah. Don’t get me wrong, the snow is beautiful, but I am just not used to the weather.
After settling in, the day was almost over. Along with my AFF co-workers, we took in dinner with Dallas International Film Festival programmer James Faust and The Violent Kind producer Don Lewis (Don and I volunteered together at Sundance 10 years ago and his first feature is premiering Monday night). From there, we went to a house party hosted by Austin based Bside, Magnet Releasing and Fantastic Fest. There were lots of Austinites I usually only see at out-of-town film festivals to catch up with, plus Tim League brought along his now signature karaoke machine.
From there, I met the filmmakers from two AFF 2009 films Cummings Farm and The Scenesters at a local bar. Both films pulled the hat trick of making it into competition at the Slamdance Film Festival.
The Scenesters, like during AFF, have proven to be film festival marketing masters - selling out an unfortunate Friday morning at 10 a.m. screening and already selling out a Monday screening. Berger is a UT alum (along with most of his cast and crew) who is now based in LA. He mentioned they were worried to have the 10 a.m. opening screening because as he noted, “I’ve never seen any movie that early.” He was worried people would’t laugh at the film, but “we got huge laughs, even laughs in places that we have never gotten before and the festival crowd even got our obscure Lar Von Treir reference.”
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Duplass Bros. make good at Sundance
Mark and Jay Duplass, one-time Austinites and UT alums known for the lovely “Puffy Chair” and the WTF “Baghead,” are back at Sundance, this time with the Hollywood-produced “Cyrus,” starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill and Catherine Keener.
It premiered over the weekend. Response: Uniformly ecstatic, so far.
Here’s Slashfilm: “‘Cyrus’ is one of my favorite films of the festival thus far, and I’d venture to say John C. Reilly’s funniest performance since ‘Boogie Nights.’ It’s probably the most laughs I’ve heard in a Sundance movie in a couple years. We sat a few rows in front of Danny McBride and Jody Hill (director of ‘Observe & Report’), and I could hear both of them laughing throughout.”
The Oregonian: “The first big premiere I saw was ‘Cyrus,’ by my mumblecore go-to guys Jay and Mark Duplass. They’ve written and directed a warm and funny love story about a lonely guy (the utterly brilliant John C. Reilly), the hot woman he meets and falls for (Marissa Tomei, also terrific) and her misfit son (Jonah Hill). It’s a step up in weight class for the Duplasses, and, frankly, I think they’ve hit the ball out of the park. It’s got some of the feel of the Apatowverse but seems more grown-up AND more in tune with the female character’s realities. Nice job.”
And IndieWire leads with this headline: “Duplass Brothers Score at Sundance With Bizarrely Hilarious ‘Cyrus’” (Read the full report, with video link to the post-show Q&A, HERE. Apparently, Jason Reitman is producing the next Duplass film.)
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Sundance on TV
If you aren’t in Park City, Utah, you can still see some of the movies showing at the Sundance Film Festival. In a special arrangement, three titles are being made available on Sundance Selects, a video-on-demand service available through such cable providers as Time Warner.
Three of this year’s movies are screening on Sundance Selects. They are:
‘The Shock Doctrine,’ a radical re-imagining of recent world history, based on the best-selling book by Naomi Klein. If you’re not familiar with Klein, she’s a big opponent of the so-called free-market policies of economist Milton Friedman of Chicago. His theories were widely endorsed by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and were the basis for economic experiments in Chile and Argentina. Klein melds economic theory with theories of the 1950s regarding the benefits of torture, some of which made their way into U.S. policy during the recent interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
‘The Shock Doctrine’ will air starting on Thursday.
Two other movies became available on Friday, Jan. 22. They are ‘Daddy Longlegs,’ by Josh and Benny Safide, and ‘7 Days,’ directed by Daniel Grou.
‘Daddy Longlegs’ stars Ronald Bronstein, a divorced father who’s desperately trying to keep his two young boys entertained while he has them for a couple of weeks. The responsibilities, however, become a bit much for the father, who tries to juggle his day job while keeping the kids entertained. The Safdie brothers say it’s a partly autobiographical fairy tale. But some troubling incidents make this tale much more complicated that it initially seems.
‘7 Days,’ meanwhile, focuses on a surgeon who decides to capture the killer of his 8-year-old daughter and torture him.
All movies will be available for 30 days through movies on demand.
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January 23, 2010
Sundance attractions
Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival is in Sundance this weekend, and here’s the first of his posts for the Austin Movie Blog. I’ll be posting his other reports throughout the weekend and next week. Here’s the first. — Charles Ealy, Movies editor
In preparation for my trip to Park City, I have spent hours reading and re-reading descriptions of the films programmed at the Sundance Film Festival. Eventually, I made my selection (usually based on schedule/timing) and I think I chose wisely - time will tell I guess. Here are the five films I am most looking forward to seeing this week…
Sundance Film Festival Top Five most anticipated and possibly overlooked films:
The Extra Man - I caught filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s last film,* American Splendor* at Sundance in 2003 and it remains one of my favorite films of the decade. Their latest comedy stars Kevin Kline and Paul Dano.
Me Too - The premise of this film from Spain peaked my interest -the love story between the wild, rebellious Laura and the conservative Daniel who also happens to have Down Syndrome. The description alone is already much better than *The Other Sister.
Louis C.K.: Hillarious - It is hard to make a stand up comedy film cinematic, but something tells me Louis C.K. can pull it off. Directing himself here, he’s made several underated comedy films in the past including the never-released Tomorrow Night.
Buried - Ryan Reynolds is the lone actor in this film, playing a US contract worker in Iraq who wakes up buried alive.
Smash His Camera - The lastest documentary by Leon Gast who did When We Were Kings tells the story of Ron Galella, the first paparazzo and the man who had his jaw broken by Marlon Brando.
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January 22, 2010
Another Austin link at Sundance
“Thompson,” a short film by Austin native Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet, is playing Sundance this week and next. The movie won best short at SXSW last year.
Description: “Since second grade, Matt and Ryan have shared the bond of speech impediments, weapons, and things that go fast. But as their last days of high school speed by, the two friends find that their go-carts, dirt bikes, and RC cars can’t outrun adulthood.”
Watch the short on YouTube HERE.
A story about the film and filmmakers HERE.
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January 21, 2010
Austin @ Sundance
Here’s the brand-new poster for Bryan Poyser’s “Lovers of Hate,” a twisted romance playing at Sundance:
Read our interview with Poyser HERE. Follow his blog, likely chock-full of Sundancey updates, HERE.
Austin’s prolific Zellner Bros. are also at Sundance with their whacked short “Fiddlestixx.” Read our interview with them HERE.
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December 7, 2009
Local shorts play Sundance
After reporting that former Austinites the Duplass brothers are debuting their new feature at Sundance in January and that Austin’s Bryan Poyser’s feature “Lovers of Hate” is in the fest’s dramatic competition, comes more Austin-Sundance news:
David and Nathan Zellner’s short comedy “Fiddlestixx,” based on their outrageous Web series about a time-traveling monkey, plays Sundance’s dramatic short competition. See the series HERE. (The Zellners are Sundance veterans, with such films as “Goliath.”)
Amy Grappell’s exceptional short documentary “Quadrangle” is screening in the Sundance short docs program. It’s “an unconventional look at two ‘conventional’ couples that swapped partners and lived in a group marriage in the early 1970s, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce and the way people would live in the future.”
Jason Tippet’s short doc “Thompson” was produced by 2006 Austin High School grad Elizabeth Mims and is playing the short docs program. (Mims is currently a senior at Cal Arts.) “Thompson” won best short at SXSW in March. Description: “Since second grade, Matt and Ryan have shared the bond of speech impediments, weapons, and things that go fast. But as their last days of high school speed by, the two friends find that their go-carts, dirt bikes, and RC cars can’t outrun adulthood.” More HERE.
The films were picked from a record 6,092 submissions.
Get the full Sundance line-up HERE. The fest happens Jan. 21 — 31 in Park City, Utah.
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December 3, 2009
Duplass brothers at Sundance, again
Formerly Austin-based filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass are officially darlings of the Sundance Film Festival. The writing-directing (and, in Mark’s case, acting) duo have screened several indie shorts and features, including “The Puffy Chair” and “Baghead,” at the fest over the years.
And now the Duplass’ first Hollywood feature, as yet untitled, is being showcased in the Sundance “premieres” section in January. The film stars John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill and Catherine Keener.
Though “Baghead” was made in and around Austin in 2007, the Duplasses struck out for Los Angeles a few years ago to mine moviemaking gold.
The new film, world premiering at Sundance, is a comedy described by the festival like this: “A recently divorced guy meets a new lady. Then he meets her son who is, well … interesting.”
More about it HERE.
The Duplass brothers at Sundance in 2008 (photo: Chris Garcia)
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January 20, 2009
Austin doc praised at Sundance
Variety has reviewed the documentary “Over the Hills And Far Away,” by Austin filmmakers Michel O. Scott and Rupert Isaacson, at Sundance this week, and the trade mag likes it.
The film will play South by Southwest in March.
We’ve provided the review, which happens to be written by Variety staffer Peter DeBruge, a UT alum who wrote movie reviews for The Daily Texan in the late ’90s.
When Western medicine fails to cure 5-year-old Rowan Isaacson’s autism, his parents travel halfway across the world to seek assistance from Mongolian shamans in “Over the Hills and Far Away.” Narrated by journalist father Rupert (whose companion book, “The Horse Boy,” will be published in April), this compelling docu presents its story via multiple access points: the subject of autism, the notion of alternative healing and the simple travelogue appeal of an excursion to remote, untamed Mongolia. Pic has the nerve to be spiritual without entering the minefield of faith, and through careful handling, could resonate strongly with underserved auds.
Enlisted to document the Isaacsons’ highly unusual trip, director Michel Orion Scott has the good sense not to suggest their extreme solution will work for others. No typical family would deal with autism in such a way, though even before Rowan was diagnosed, the Isaacsons’ life was far from normal: Rupert and his wife Kristin Neff met in India. She works as a psychology professor; he champions the rights of bushmen in Botswana.
Their son’s birth grounded their world-traveling ways, while the autism itself demanded even more of their attention: Rowan withdrew around others, refused to be toilet trained and suffered painful, extended fits. His only comfort seemed to be an uncanny connection with animals, so Rupert devised a plan to visit Mongolia, where they would travel on horseback across the country in search of shamans who might heal Rowan.
Because Scott’s involvement began at this late stage, he efficiently lays out what background auds need through interviews and homemovie footage of scenes both good (Rowan bonding with an old mare named Betsy) and bad (“Exorcist”-worthy fits of screaming and convulsions). He then manages to maintain that same level of intimacy and access in Mongolia, capturing moments of extreme emotional and physical strain as well as rare breakthroughs when Rowan’s condition appears to retreat. The first shamanistic ceremony appears downright brutal, but the “results” are striking, motivating the Isaacsons to continue their journey deep into Siberia.
Despite shooting much of the material either handheld or on horseback, Scott and his skeleton crew get remarkably clear sound and steady footage, which was then expertly edited by Rita K. Sanders. Rather than adopt a strictly linear format, she includes enlightening testimony from autism specialists and doubles back to the Isaacsons’ Texas home throughout, innocuously seeding ideas that mature and bear fruit later (from the family’s “Code Brown” nickname to the legend of a powerful shaman named Ghoste).
The trip itself could easily have gotten tedious, but Scott and Sanders strike a perfect pace, and their skepticism offsets whatever trite or mushy miracle-working Rupert is prone to impose on the experience through his narration (never on-the-nose, Kim Carroll and Lili Haydn’s piano and strings score encourages further introspection from the audience). What we’re left with isn’t whether or not shamanism cures autism but a more allegorical example of what happens when people seek solutions beyond the boundaries of Western thought.
You remember “Mystery Science Theatre 3000.” How can you forget, what with the Austin knockoff Mr. Sinus Theater?
Well the “MST3K” masterminds are back with a touring show, Cinematic Titanic, grounding at the local iceberg the Paramount Theatre on March 7.
Canned description: Cinematic Titanic is the new movie riffing show from the creator and original cast of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” live on-stage! Like “MST3K,” the show was created by Joel Hodgson and features the same team that first brought the award winning cult-classic series to life … Cinematic Titanic continues the tradition of riffing on ‘the unfathomable’, ‘the horribly great’, and the just plain ‘cheesy’ movies from the past.
Details HERE and tickets HERE.
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January 27, 2008
Doc shot by Austinite Raval wins Sundance
“Trouble the Water,” shot by Austin cinematographer PJ Raval, has won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance.
Directed by New Yorkers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the film is described thusly: “An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival means when they are trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and seize a chance for a new beginning.”
Jurors of the doc competition were Michelle Byrd, Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki, Steven Okazaki and Annie Sundberg.
See all Sundance winners HERE.
Congrats to Raval, a UT alum and well-known Austin film talent.
Raval, left, last week at a Sundance party with Austinites Paul Stekler, Karen Skloss and Sativa January
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January 25, 2008
Sony grabs Austin-shot 'Baghead'
Breaking news out of Sundance, courtesy The Hollywood Reporter:
Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all North American rights to “Baghead,” the sophomore feature from brothers (and UT alums) Mark and Jay Duplass.
The specialty label paid what is said to be low- to mid-six figures for the film, which follows a group of four friends on a weekend getaway who or may not be tormented by a stranger wearing a bag over his head. Submarine Entertainment repped the sale.
The writer-director team of Mark and Jay Duplass currently have deals with both Universal and Fox Searchlight. They created a stir at Sundance three years ago with the road-trip relationship dramedy “The Puffy Chair,” a movie they turned into a significant festival-circuit hit over the last few years. The movie was released theatrically by Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment.
Like “Chair,” “Baghead” also takes a look at the everyday lives and conversations of twenty- and thirty-somethings; the brothers are part of the loose affiliation of young writer-directors known as the mumblecore movement.
“Baghead” also adds genre touches, paying homage and sending up horror films like “The Blair Witch Project.”
IFC and Picturehouse were among those said to be circling the project.
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January 22, 2008
Reviews of Austin movies at Sundance
Just now trickling in are reviews of some of the Austin-related titles at Sundance.
About Margaret Brown’s doc “The Order of Myths” — which is nominated for the Grand Jury Prize — The New York Times’ Manhola Darghis writes:
There was the usual complement of fine documentaries this year too, including the celebrity-stuffed “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (about that filmmaker’s 1970s rape trial) and the more downtown “Patti Smith: Dream of Life.” The documentary that left the strongest impression is “The Order of Myths,” Margaret Brown’s examination of the history and present-day reality of the segregated worlds of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Ala. Handsomely shot and intelligently edited, with none of the maddening sloppiness that distorts too many nonfiction projects, the film explores the secret societies, the fancy-dress balls and the celebratory parades for a story that is at once very site-specific and seemingly simple and as big and richly complex as the United States itself.
And a take from IndieWire:
Many here were looking forward to Margaret Brown’s second feature after her well-regarded music doc “Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt,” but Brown surpassed expectations with her remarkably assured “The Order of Myths.” Beautifully shot by Lee Daniel and Michael Simmonds and expertly edited by Brown, Michael Taylor and Geoffrey Richman, the film examines the time-honored tradition of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, where celebrations remain segregated between white and black residents.
With a deft, observant touch, Brown does what several recent acclaimed nonfiction films have done (“Street Fight” and “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” among them) by approaching issues of race from a side angle. But Brown surpasses her predecessors with a level of craft that stuns. But it’s clear from screenings here that “The Order of Myths” has the potential to spur conversations about race relationships that are simmering beneath the surface.
‘Order of Myths’
Variety’s Robert Koehler says this about “Trouble in the Water,” which was shot by Austin cinematographer-filmmaker PJ Raval:
A survivor of Hurricane Katrina gets it all on camera in “Trouble the Water,” a blend of DIY footage and filming by co-directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal that considers the impact and aftermath of the New Orleans catastrophe from the perspective of a family that stayed at home during the storm.
Though tinged with the sheer gumption and personal resolve of amateur vidmaker and would-be rapper Kimberly Roberts, this is ultimately a minor doc contribution to the bulging library of Katrina-related films and TV reports. Roberts’ own material will be the major selling point, with buyers in cable arena more likely than theatrical.
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January 20, 2008
Scenes from Sunday's Sundance
Park City, Utah — Everyone is blasted tired at this point during the first weekend of the festival. Except me. Carry on!
Finally saw Austin doc-maker Margaret Brown’s “The Order of Myths,” a lyrical, layered and provocative look at race relations in the context of the annual Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, which happens to be the oldest Carnival in America.
The obligatory Q-and-A was vivacious and probing, as the audience rained passionate questions on Brown and several of the films’ subjects, who came from Mobile.
Margaret Brown, at mike, and subjects from her doc “The Order of Myths” conduct a sometimes heated Q-and-A following a Sunday screening of the movie
Jay and Mark Duplass and an actual baghead, for their comedy “Baghead,” premiering this week at Sundance
Greta Gerwig and Steve Zissis, co-stars of the Duplass’ “Baghead”
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Tim League's rip-roarin', karaoke-in' Sundancin' bash
Park City, Utah — There will be hangovers.
Tim League, Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest honcho, hosted the big Friday night party for the Sundance premiere of Nacho Vigalando’s sci-fi thriller “Timecrimes,” which was purchased by Magnolia during Fantastic Fest in September.
The party’s buzz laced through the late-night festival crowd like a virus, and people kept pouring in well after 3 a.m. Some shots:
Tim League strikes some ‘tude as he plays karaoke DJ on Friday night during his orgiastic all-night Sundance party. He later crooned to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets.” It was not pretty.
SXSW Film Festival producer Matt Dentler annihilates the great Pulp song “Common People” during kara-ouchy
Morgan Spurlock of “Super Size Me” fame broke his finger snowboarding Friday. He still came to the party. He’s at Sundance plumping his new doc “Where In the World Is Osama Bin Laden?”
Austin actor Wiley Wiggins (“Dazed and Confused,” “Waking Life”) has a part in the Zellner brother’s festival feature “Goliath.”
Cerebral funnyman David Wain of comedy troupes The State and Stella and the films “Wet Hot American Summer” and “The Ten” mugs ‘hello.’
League, as DJ Dufus, insists on filling the house with fake fog that quickly overcomes every room and every guest. The fire alarms go off, the fire department shows up. This is the kitchen area caked in a chemical weather occurrence and the fire dude, who actually came on two occasions. The second time, Tim cries, “OK! It was a bad idea!” to pump more fog.
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January 18, 2008
The festival, smashing as an Anvil
PARK CITY, UTAH — I’m the loser sitting in a corner right now during the swarming PBS bash this Friday night, second day of Sundance. Diet Coke, finger grub and my petulant lap top. Here we are in the official “Entertainment Weekly Cafe,” where alcohol runs free, liberally and, soon, into my belly.
PBS party. Lots of PBS-y documentary types
Earlier today, as the sun dared to wink from the clouds, I finally ran into David and Nathan Zellner, the Austin filmmaking brother team, who are enjoying their fourth year in a row at the festival — they’ve had three shorts here — but this is their first time arriving with a full feature film. That film is the dark, deeply strange and creepy-funny “Goliath,” shot in Austin. (We will talk to them at length later for a feature story.)
The Zellners, David and Nathan (with a post card of their movie)
And then I found a self-described exhausted Margaret Brown, who says she just got her film in the can, completed and ready, 48 hours ago. Her doc, “The Order of Myths,” premieres Saturday in the Documentary Competition, a very big deal.
Margaret Brown, feeling fried, but ready to rock Saturday with her film, the post card of which she hoists
We saw another excellent movie today, Sacha Gervasi’s doc “Anvil! The True Story of Anvil,” about flash-in-the-pan Canadian ’80s heavy metal band Anvil that recently staged a feeble comeback, which is chronicled here with huge heart, passion, empathy and humor. It’s a story of strenuous resurrection in the face of time, age and lousy odds.
The sold-out crowd bestowed a standing-O to the Spinal Taptastic film, Gervasi and the still-shaggy subjects, including drummer Robb Reiner and singer-guitarist Lips, who gamely attended (along with interview talking heads Scott Ian of Anthrax and Slayer frontman Tom Araya.
Slayer’s Tom Araya with his wife at the “Anvil!” screening
The effusive, downright giddy crowd response had director Gervasi (who wrote Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal”) and Anvil’s bald guitarist wiping away tears as they thanked everyone and answered questions, which they’re doing here (that’s Lips at the mike and director Gervasi far right in parka):
See a vintage ’80s clip of Anvil in concert that’s in the documentary HERE, and do the band a favor and visit its site HERE.
Random ambience from Sundance — the land of slush, pink fingers and red-tipped runny noses — on Friday:
Coveted Sundance tickets
Main Street, glistening
Shuttle-bus blues
Ice-cold tautology
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January 17, 2008
A snowballing festival
Park City, Utah — The chatter here at Sundance, Day One, is all about film and television, actors and studios and distributors, the writers’ strike, what’s good, what’s overrated. All spoken with sonorous authority.
Meanwhile, we goofed off in the snow.
I snatched a fistful of snow — a chunky ice dirt clod — to heave at Austinites Paul Stekler and Karen Skloss, as Louis Black, editor and honcho of The Austin Chronicle and associate producer of Margaret Brown’s documentary “The Order of Myths” (which premieres Saturday morning) ambled ahead of us.
Skloss spotted my snowball and made a pre-emptive strike, beaning my back in a spray of shattering stars. I hurled my weapon and inadvertently nailed Stekler, who actually cried, “Ouch! That hurt!” For the next four days, he will not hear the end of it.
When I whined about frost bite of the hand, Black tsked, “Don’t pick up snow without gloves, because it’s not a good idea.” This wuss will not hear the end of it.
Earlier, we joined former New York Times film critic/current NPR critic Elvis Mitchell and Village Voice/Dallas Observer film critic Robert Wilonsky — both enduring friends of Austin and SXSW — to fetch our press credentials at the Marriot Hotel.
Mitchell floated to the festival on the news that the documentary about major black figures and celebrities he produced, co-wrote and appears in, “The Black List,” — which premieres at Sundance — was picked up by HBO this week.
Though not pinching his signature cigar at this early hour, Mitchell still wears those long crazy dreadlocks and remains a natty dresser. He promptly made fun of my decidedly un-snow-worthy sneakers.
Mitchell and Black
Among other thickly coated celebs, Colin Farrell is definitely in town for his smashing good crime comedy “In Bruges”, and a shuttle driver said he spotted Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, a Sundance superstar of recent vintage.
On the shuttle bus to the press screening of “In Bruges” — which blends the blood and profane humor of Tarantino with ironic British crime-flick sensibilities (and made many in the audience laugh out loud, me included) — a woman prattled with a professional photographer who was returning from shooting Farrell on the red carpet.
She asked if he was paparazzi. “Paparazzi,” he replied. “That’s sort of like calling someone an ax murderer.”
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Taking the scenic -- and chatty -- route to Sundance
PARK CITY, UTAH — I’ve been in subarctic Utah for about 30 minutes waiting for a shuttle at the Salt Lake City airport (“waiting for a shuttle” will be my mantra this bustling cold weekend, along with: Brrrrrr), but my Sundance experience began some three hours ago in Austin, inside a 50-seater Delta jet.
The 8 a.m. take-off time meant a 6 a.m. wake-up time, so the plane fast filled with red-eyed zombies (save for the gleaming business commuters, who always look so fresh and perky and obnoxiously happy). I take my tiny seat and suddenly notice that joining my row is PJ Raval — one of the reasons I’ve come to the Sundance Film Festival, which runs today through Jan. 27. My seat is 11D. His is 11C. We are cramped-leg mates.
PJ Raval, shoehorned into plane seat, still on Austin tarmac
Then, stars aligning madly, we spot at the front of the plane, ducking and stowing, Matt Dentler, South by Southwest Film Festival producer and man about town, who’s also heading to Sundance, as he does every year to keep abreast of the constantly shifting festival culture.
I’m here for four days to follow around Austin filmmakers, namely: Raval, the cinematographer for the competition documentary “Trouble the Water,” which follows Hurricane Katrina survivors and is directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal; Margaret Brown, whose doc about race relations in the context of the Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is also in the doc competition; David and Nathan Zellner’s dark feature comedy, filmed in Austin, “Golitath”; and Mark and Jay Duplass’s follow-up to “The Puffy Chair,” the comedy-thriller “Baghead.”
Same plane, same plan. Raval, Dentler and I meet at baggage claim, surrounded by scruffy hipsters, skinny pretty people and moneyed ski bums. Our trio zonked out most of the flight, and we all need caffeine, or a really good movie.
PJ and Matt Dentler, ready to PARTY
We go our ways, with firm plans to hit the IndieWire opening night party after the opening night film, “In Bruges,” a violent crime caper starring Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes, written and directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.
Everyone must hire a shuttle to get where they’re going in this mountain-girdled, snow-bluffed, ashy-skied valley. My van is packed, so I sit shotgun next to our dimly hippie-ish driver, Christopher. As I board, some of the passengers warn me that he’s a wee eccentric, maybe cuckoo.
He sports a graying, frizzy ponytail, mirror sunglasses and an Indian blanket across his legs as he drives. He also offers quite a bit of narration. Disney’s “The Jungle Book” soundtrack spins on the stereo (“The Bare Necessities” on to “Never Smile at a Crocodile”), as he explains, “I am a creative person,” which means, naturally: a screenwriter. A Native American “dream-catcher” dangles from the rear-view mirror.
The feathery dream-catcher, with snowy Utah mountains. It has caught all of my dreams, but one: To drop me off at the Holiday Inn, pronto.
“We’re all connected, even the animals,” Christopher says, and then tells us about the Sasquatch that resides in these powdered mountains. It’s name is Wegwawamohend, and, yes, he did spell it for me.
“He” — meaning the Bigfoot — “spoke to me back in my wild days, when I had my hair long. He said I was from the Clan of the Bear Cats.”
The women seated behind me …
Hello!
… chimed in, joining my intrepid questioning of our woolly driver. As we went around an elevated bend, suddenly he blurted, “This is where your ears start poppin’!”
He was — pop! — right.
“There’s elk on that side,” he said, pointing right, “and moose on that side.”
We drove past Lambs Canyon. “Ted Bundy killed people in that valley,” our trusty guide declared.
Oh. Here he is, by the way:
As we approached Park City, Christopher announced we were no longer in Utah.
“We are in the Independent Republic of Park City!” he said. “Here, we are ‘Parkites.’ And we speaky ‘Parky.’
“We are,” he added, “outside of Mormonia.”
As I write this, a bit later, in a funky-cool-organic cafe/bookstore — The Spotted Frog, which’d be right at home in Austin or Berkeley — my new cell phone tinkle-jingles (my very first cell, acquired expressly for the fest). It’s Paul Stekler, Sundance-winning documentarian (for “George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire” in 2000) and University of Texas film professor.
He’s smack on Main Street in the heart of Sundance with Austin filmmaker Karen Skloss, and he tells me they are looking for a Wal-Mart or Radio Shack, “because that’s what you do when you’re at Sundance.”
Sounds like they need help. I will be right there …
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November 29, 2007
More Austin links at Sundance '08
We reported in the entry below about Margaret Brown’s new doc “The Order of Myths” vying in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
But there are, as always, more Austin filmmakers earning spots at one of the most important film fests in the world, all of whom graduated from UT:
Cinematographer PJ Raval shot the doc “Trouble the Water,” about an aspiring rapper and her family’s travails during the Katrina floods in New Orleans, which competes against Brown’s doc and 14 others in the doc contest. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed the film. (Raval also shot Kyle Henry’s feature “Room,” which played both Sundance and Cannes in 2005.)
Brothers and Sundance veterans Mark and Jay Duplass’s “Baghead” is “a comedy in which two couples intent on writing the great American screenplay find their log cabin retreat stalked by a man with a bag on his head.” (The Duplasses are best known for “The Puffy Chair”).
Brothers David and Nathan Zellner’s “Goliath” is “a look at a man who hopes to find salvation by locating his missing cat after his entire life has collapsed around him. The brothers co-star in the film, too.
The Duplass brothers
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November 28, 2007
Austin's Sundance star
Austin filmmaker Margaret Brown’s new documentary “The Order of Myths” will vie in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Brown’s film, about this year’s Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile, Ala., competes against 15 other docs, including portraits of Patti Smith, Hunter S. Thompson and Roman Polanski, and was selected from 953 entries. Brown’s first feature doc was 2004’s critically acclaimed “Be Here to Love Me: A Movie About Townes Van Zandt.”
Sundance runs Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Utah.
Read the full report, including the list of Brown’s prestigious competitors, HERE.
Stay posted for more Austin auteurs at Sundance as films are announced.
Update, Nov. 29: The Sundance site describes Brown’s film like this: “In 2007 Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is celebrated … and complicated. Following a cast of characters, parades, and parties across an enduring color line, we see that beneath the surface of pageantry lies something else altogether.”
