Sundance Review

Well now that I am home and have got a little sleep I thought I would do a little Sundance Wrap up.
I ended up seeing 10 movies, and 18 Shorts.

My 5 favorite feature films are
1.  Rebirth-about the aftermath of 9/11
2.  Circumstance-(which ended up winning the Audience Award) about two girls coming of age in Iran
3.  Martha Marcy May Marlene-with great performances by Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes about a girl who is trying regain her life after being in a cult.
4.   Sound of My Voice-about a couple who try to infiltrate a cult who's leader claims to be a time traveler.
5.  Take Shelter-about a guy who is either having dreams of a coming apocalypse or a psychological disorder.

Worst movie we saw at Sundance was Letters From the Big Man about a girl who trys to protect big foot.

Best Short Movies
1.  Fight For your Right Revisited- start studded short about the Beastie Boys
2.  The Legend of Beaver Dam-a crazy musical horror movie.
3.  Living for 32-a documentary about a survivor of the Virginia Tech murders
4.  Grandpa's Wet Dream-a funny documentary about a 75 year old Japanese guy who stars in porn movies with out his wife or family knowing about it.
5.  Out of Reach- a documentary about two girls who try to reconnect with their mother


With alot of movies playing at Sundance it is interesting to see what themes come out. This year there has been alot made about the cult theme. With something like 5 movies about cults(two of which I saw) it is an interesting theme. But I found a different theme in the movies I saw. The psychology of surviving. With Rebirth, Living for 32, and The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement all documentaries about surviving horrific events and having to deal with the psychological drama. Also, with the fiction movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene where the main character is dealing with her survival of a cult. And even in Take Shelter where a guy is preparing to survive either a coming apocalypse or a mental illness.  The movies I saw this year were a psychologist dream of mental  illness and grief and made for some fun twisted movies. 

Sundance Day 2

Sundance day 2
As I am writing this I am standing online for the last movie of the day The Catechism Cataclysm at midnight. So far this day was pretty good. Woke up early to catch a 9:15 movie. We saw The Details with Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks. It is about a guy who makes a bunch of bad decisions that leads to adultery and eventually murder. This is a dark comedy and is the funniest movies I have ever seen at Sundance. Then afterwards it was cool to see Tobey Maguire on stage for the Q&A.

Next up after some lunch was Rebirth. This is a documentary about 5 people coping with the aftermath of 9/11. Each person tells their story of dealing with loss and healing. The director interviewed each person every year for 8 years following 9/11. We get to see all their stages of grief and how they put their life together. The most compelling story was that of one of the survivors and her struggle to recover from her injuries.
This was a great movie and it's going to tough to find a movie to top it as best of the fest. The movie had everyone tearing up especially when the survivor came up for the Q&A.

After such an emotional movie we decided to go eat some dinner the head over to the new frontier exhibit. That is where the have experimental film exhibitions. We saw the much talked about James Franco exhibit Threes Company: The Drama which I found very stupid and unnecessary. But one of the better exhibits was The Jonny Cash Project which took Internet user submitted drawings of each scene and put them into the video.

After that we went up to the iconic Egyptian theatre for Letters From the Big Man. A movie about this women's encounter with big foot. It was the most boring movie. A whole lot the women sitting alone in the wilderness. While the scenery was good the story had no point. I was thinking it was the worst movie about big foot I have ever seen then I realized the only other big foot movie I can't think of is Harry and the Hendersons which was funny and much better then this movie. We really need a good big foot movie.
That is it for now time for the last movie of the day then 4 hours sleep then it is back up at 6:30 am for a couple of movies then some skiing.