Posts Tagged ‘Sundance review’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “In A World…”

  The actress Lake Bell’s feature-film writing/directing debut IN A WORLD… has a fresh slant on showbiz comedy, and it’s both consistently likable and sometimes very funny.  It’s also sloppy, ove...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman”

It’s a cliche to say, when a director of commercials and music videos helms his or her first feature film, that the result resembles a video extended to feature length–and certainly not one that’s always true,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Camp X-Ray”

  The Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year featured a pair of films that were largely built on duologues between two strong protagonists.  Attention was mostly–and properly–focused on Whiplash, which end...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Emanuel & The Truth About Fishes”

  EMANUEL AND THE TRUTH ABOUT FISHES is deeply, satisfyingly strange.  In a way, it’s a validation not just of Sundance, but the whole film festival system that is now our main way of finding out about distinctive ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

  There’s a tendency to compare any slow-moving, beautifully-photographed drama with an abundance of natural imagery to the films of Terence Malick, but that’s unfair to the very particular surreal spirituality...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Whiplash”

  Damien Chazelle’s powerhouse WHIPLASH is about the pursuit of not just excellence, but perfection, and on its own deliberately limited terms it doesn’t land far from that mark.  Whiplash won both the Grand J...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Before Midnight”

  The “spoiler” situation with respect to Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT is a particularly tricky one, because for those passionately invested in the saga that began with 1995’s Before Sunr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete”

  Toy’s House wasn’t the only movie at this year’s Sundance about boys fending for themselves.  THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE depicts a less voluntary version of the effort to keep going witho...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Wish I Was Here”

  Zach Braff’s WISH I WAS HERE, his first film as a writer-director since Garden State 10 years ago, mixes genuine, deeply-felt emotion with the kind of contrivances that would grate even on a second-rate sitcom.  (...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Don Jon’s Addiction”

  When Joseph Gordon-Levitt decided to make his feature writing and directing debut with DON JON’S ADDICTION (starring in it as well), his attitude was clearly Go Big Or Go Home.  To a large extent, he’s pulle...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “They Came Together”

  The writing team of David Wain and Michael Showalter (Wain directs) certainly knew that THEY CAME TOGETHER would be far from the first parody of romantic comedy movies to come along.  Date Movie opened back in 2008, Fri...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Computer Chess”

  Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS has a great setting for a comedy.  The time is circa 1980, and the place is an anonymous hotel where a group of nerds–back before nerds were cool–have gathered for thei...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “The One I Love”

  The trouble with trying to recommend THE ONE I LOVE , written by Justin Lader and directed by Charlie McDowell, is that it’s impossible to describe how clever, surprising and intriguing it turns out to be without...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Very Good Girls”

  VERY GOOD GIRLS is set in contemporary Brooklyn, but it’s shot (by Bobby Bukowski) with the kind of gauzy glow that suggests a European perfume commercial.  It’s lovely to look at, but also mystifying and u...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ass Backwards”

  The Sundance programmers, one has to assume, are big fans of TV’s Happy Endings.  Casey Wilson is part of that show’s wonderful ensemble, and one of its most reliably hilarious members.  The news that she w...
by Mitch Salem