There are many things that make us excited about the latest film adaptation of Jane Eyre: For starters, it has been way too long since there was a period romance in theaters — The Young Victoria? The director is indie filmmaker Cary Fukunaga, whose debut feature, Sin Nombre, we absolutely loved. The cast includes Mia Wasikowska, Dame Judi Dench, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, and Sally Hawkins. There are beautiful shots of moody walks across even moodier moors. And most importantly, judging from the trailer, the film embraces the dark Gothic romanticism that always made us prefer Team Brontë over Team Austen.
A few nights ago, Jon Stewart made fun of Lou Dobbs for a recent tirade against illegal immigrants, exclaiming: “Illegal immigrants? Wake up, Rip Van Winkle! D’you fall asleep in June 2008? Nobody gives a shit about them anymore!”
We agree with him in the political sense — there are so many real scapegoats on which to blame our economic problems now! — but their stories might come back into full focus in the cultural sense, as this year’s first international critical darling, Sin Nombre, gains momentum. Centered around a runaway Mexican gang youth and his Honduran girl companion as they seek to cross the border into the US, Sin Nombre — Sundance Lab alumnus Cary Joji Fukunaga’s directorial debut — has already won Best Director and Best Cinematography at Sundance [Read our original Sundance coverage of it here].
We’ve read mostly rave reviews (spoiler-free excerpts linked after the jump), and we’re excited for its limited release this weekend — produced by Mexican superstar-sweethearts Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, directed by a first-time feature-filmmaker, and promising to be a watchable un-glossy “immigration” tale (of which there aren’t many), it sounds like it could be a new favorite.
Aside from stalking the halls at Flavorwire, Erik Davis contributes to Fandango.com and is also the editor-in-chief of AOL Moviefone’s Cinematical.com, one of the longest-running and most popular movie blogs online. He brought us his industry reports from Sundance throughout the festival, and can always be reached with tips or questions at erik [dot] davis [at] gmail [dot] com.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up last night with a fancy awards show followed by one of those hippity-hop closing night parties. Heading in to the evening, the two films most buzzed-about were Sin Nombre and Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire – and, as predicted, both took home multiple awards, with Sin Nombre taking Best Director and Best Cinematography, while Push received the coveted Grand Jury prize in U.S. Dramatic Competition, as well as the Audience Award and a special jury prize for acting for Mo’Nique.
