Forget the Golden Globes — this week the film world will be all a-twitter (and a-Twitter) about the snowier goings-on in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival. Last year, Precious, The Cove, An Education, Humpday, (500) Days of Summer, The Girlfriend Experience and Sunshine Cleaning all began their public lives with premieres at Sundance. The fest’s scrappier cousin Slamdance also scored a coup when 2008 buzz title Paranormal Activity finally surfaced again and became a surprise smash. Both fests begin Jan. 21.
The level of Canadian content in the Mormon-filled movie mecca is modest but significant, with Lixin Fan’s superb doc Last Train Home a likely breakout title at Sundance. (It plays Doc Soup at the Bloor Cinema on Jan. 20 and then Feb. 24 at TIFF Cinematheque before its local theatrical engagement starts in late February.) Adriana Maggs’ East Coast teen drama Grown Up Movie Star is also at Sundance — we'll have more about in our Film section that when it starts a Toronto run Jan 29. And the midnight section includes the North American debut of Vincenzo Natali’s long-in-gestation Splice, the Sarah Polley/Adrien Brody gene-themed thriller that finally has a Toronto release date of April. (There are several shorts in the mix at Sundance, too, including Cornell Baker’s snazzy Runaway and Jamie Travis’ The Armoire.)
As for the high-profile fare at Sundance, here are the titles we’re most eager to see… though not so eager as to actually go to Park City. (The prospect of getting on a plane and braving the humiliations of Homeland Security officials to go somewhere colder just ain’t right.)
The Runaways: We hope that Hamilton-bred photographer/director Floria Sigismondi tones down her usual goth inclinations and turns up the rock with her biopic about the legendary proto-punk grrl band. The casting bodes well: not only do we have Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, but the ever-nutso Michael Shannon as impresario Kim Fowley. Maybe he’ll take them all out to see a native American shaman, just like in The Doors!
The Killer Inside Me: The portrait of a small-town sociopath who also happens to be the sheriff, Jim Thompson’s cruelest book gets a fresh adaptation courtesy of director Michael Winterbottom. The cast includes Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Bill Pullman, Simon Baker and, as the killer in question, Casey Affleck. Given its West Texan setting and terse, violent source material, an alternate title could be Still No Country for Old Men.
The Kids Are All Right: After the much-praised High Art and sorely underrated Laurel Canyon, director Lisa Cholodenko has been too-long AWOL so anticipation is high for her third effort. Plus we’ve got not-actually-gay thespians Julianne Moore and Annette Bening playing a lesbian couple whose teenage kids want to meet their biological father and bring him into the family fold. Tender-hearted hilarity surely ensues.
Jack Goes Boating: Philip Seymour Hoffman directs self! The indie-movie mainstay puts in time both behind and in front of the camera in this adaptation of Bob Glaudini’s comedic play about the romantic ups and downs of two New York couples. Expect scruffiness.
Welcome to the Rileys: James Gandolfini becomes a “platonic guardian” to an under-aged hooker played by the ubiquitous Kristen Stewart in the new effort by Jake Scott. We feel uncomfortable about it already.
Please Give: With Walking & Talking, Lovely & Amazing and Friends With Money, Nicole Holofcener made some of our era’s most finely nuanced and least-appreciated satires of modern American mores, especially as they figure in the lives of some memorably neurotic women. Holofcener also gave some plum roles to pal Catherine Keener, who returns to play opposite Oliver Platt as a Manhattanite couple whose apartment expansion plans cause havoc.
HOWL: James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg despite being considerably cuter. Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s fine track record as documentary makers (The Celluloid Closet) and animated interludes will hopefully make this something other than an earnest literary biopic.
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers: Sundance’s New Frontier section includes this intriguing film debut by Califone’s Tim Rutili — we detect shades of The Flaming Lips’ Christmas on Mars, but hopefully in the best possible way.
Hesher: An angry 13-year-old grieving the loss of his mom takes an unlikely road to recovery after he meets an even angrier anarchist played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt — think Tuesdays with Morrie except Morrie’s the Unabomber. Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson co-star.
Frozen: Too long neglected as a movie demographic since wild-comedy landmarks like Ski School and Hot Dog… The Movie, ski and snowboard enthusiasts finally get a horror flick to call their own with this thriller about an unlucky trio who get stuck on a chair lift. OK, so maybe it doesn’t sound that scary but the bit in the trailer when the girl’s bare hand gets stuck on the safety bar nearly made us hurl. Otherwise, you could consider this the beginning of your Olympics viewing. (It hits Toronto Feb 5.)
Meanwhile, Slamdance’s competition slate includes Alexandre Franchi’s rousing LARPer epic The Wild Hunt and Snow & Ashes, an intriguing debut feature by Montreal’s Charles-Olivier Michaud starring Rhys Coiro (a.k.a. Billy, the crazy director on Entourage!) as a war photographer. It’s also got the premiere of And Everything Is Going Fine, Steven Soderbergh’s movie-slash-homage to dearly departed monologuist Spalding Gray.