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Sundance Film Festival

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This Week in Trailers: ‘This is 40,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Dark Knight,’ and More!

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. This week we’ve got the latest from Judd Apatow, the big buzz object at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the final trailers for Nolan’s new Batman film and Marc Webb’s Spidey reboot.

Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Conservative web publisher and talking head Andrew Breitbart passed away last night at UCLA Medical Center from natural causes. He was 43 years old. “We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior,” reads a post on his website. “Andrew lived boldly, so… Read More

Film

Sundance 2012: The Deals, The Awards, and That Kubrick Doc

By Jason Bailey on

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival drew to a close over the weekend with a flurry of additional distribution deals, as well as a Saturday night awards ceremony. The fest’s out-of-nowhere buzz hit Beasts of the Southern Wild was among the big winners, nabbing not only the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, but the US Dramatic Excellence in Cinematography award. The Documentary Grand Jury Prize went to The House I Live In, an examination of the war on drugs from director Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight). The Israeli film The Law in These Parts won the World Cinema Jury Prize for Documentary, while the Latin American musical drama Violeta Went to Heaven won the Dramatic World Cinema Jury Prize.

True to my history of excellent scheduling judgment, your humble correspondent saw not one of those films during my eight days in Park City, though I did take in — and greatly enjoy — the US Audience award winners The Invisible War (Documentary) and The Surrogate (Drama); the latter film also won a richly-deserved US Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting. My favorite film of the fest, Mike Birbiglia’s warm, winning comedy Sleepwalk With Me, won the Best of NEXT Audience Award; another favorite, the wry time-travel comedy/drama Safety Not Guaranteed, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Tracy Morgan was taken to a hospital yesterday after he collapsed during a dinner at the Sundance Film Festival; apparently the cause of the incident was “a combination of exhaustion and altitude,” but according to one person who was there, Morgan “seemed out of control, yelling and falling onto the ground.” [via … Read More

Film

10 Great Documentaries About Famous Films

By Jason Bailey on

One of our most anticipated titles at this year’s Sundance Film Festival (oh, yeah, did we mention we’ll be at the Sundance Film Festival? Because we totes will) is Room 237, a new documentary by Rodney Ascher about the obsessive fans of The Shining. According to Entertainment Weekly, one of them posits an intriguing two-part conspiracy theory. First, he holds that Kubrick “directed” the faked Apollo moon landings while shooting 2001 — itself a mere cover for his bigger job. (This one’s been floating around for years — hell, it inspired its own “mockumentary,” Dark Side of the Moon.) But here’s the kicker: the fan also contends that, since Kubrick would have faced dire consequences if he ever revealed his involvement in the moon landing, he instead smuggled clues into The Shining, using his Stephen King adaptation as a giant coded message to tell the world about the ruse.

“It’s a film-nerd love-fest,” according to Sundance programmer Trevor Groth. “These obsessive people dissect The Shining, and they’ve watched it thousands of times, all finding their own coded meaning and language in it.” Reading about Room 237, and salivating for it, got us thinking about some of our other favorite “film-nerd love-fests”; after the jump, we’ve compiled ten of our favorite documentaries about famous films. … Read More

Film

Trailer Park: Potter, Aliens, Muppets, and ‘Moneyball’

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” the Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got seven new trailers, ranging from killers (Lucky) to things you want to kill (Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked!) — check ‘em out after the jump. … Read More

Film

Video of the Day: Lizzy Caplan in “Successful Alcoholics”

By Caroline Stanley on

Thanks to Funny or Die, “Successful Alcoholics,” a dark comedic short that was well-received at both Sundance and South by Southwest, is finally online. TJ Miller (who you might remember as the dude who did that hilarious live-action Yogi Bear audition tape) and Lizzy Caplan play a co-dependent couple who is “young, successful, in love, and constantly shitfaced.” (An interesting bit of trivia: these two previously shared the screen in JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield.) The lovely Tony Hale has a small role as well. If you’ve got 25 minutes or so to spare (come on, it’s Friday afternoon), click through to check it out now, but be warned: it’s kind of heartbreaking. … Read More

Film

Watch the Olsen Twins' Little Sister Escape from a Cult

By Caroline Stanley on

Sean Durkin’s directorial debut Martha Marcy May Marlene — a dramatic thriller which tells the story of a woman (Lizzie Olsen) who escapes from a cult in the Catskills and attempts to reconnect with her sister (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy) — was one of the buzziest films to come out of Sundance this year, and garnered him a Best Director award. Now those of us who didn’t make it out to Utah can finally see why. Olsen is gut wrenching as broken, confused Martha, who is haunted by flashbacks of her time in Upstate New York; John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) gives a chilling turn as the cult’s Charles Manson-esque leader. Click through to watch the trailer, and let us know in the comments if you plan on checking this one out. … Read More

Film

Five Ways to Do Sundance from Home

By Jason Bailey on

The Sundance Film Festival kicks off today in Park City, Utah, welcoming a crush of filmmakers, industry types, cinephiles, critics, paparazzi, and gift-bag hoarders for eleven days of film fun in the freezing cold. This year, Sundance will present 118 feature-length films, representing 29 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers. You’ll hear all about them in the days to come — the big premieres, the star Q&As, the breakouts, the flame-outs, the high dollar distribution deals. You might even hear about some good films! (Maybe.)

But most of us can only look over the slate longingly and leave it at that. This year and forevermore, we will never have the actual Sundance experience, for a variety of reasons: day jobs that get suspicious if you call in sick for eleven days in a row, pricey airline tickets, pricey festival passes, pricier accommodations (hotel rooms will run you at least a grand a night). Without a pretty healthy expense account, most of us are probably stuck having the Sundance experience in our living room. … Read More

Film

10 Famous Sundance Rejects

By Jason Bailey on

The Sundance Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, with indie film blogs and glossy TV entertainment new shows alike converging in Park City to spotlight this year’s crop of would-be Tarantinos. The narrative, of course, is that you make your independent film, get into Sundance, and wow the potential distributors, prompting a fierce bidding war, theatrical release, and rock-star treatment now and forevermore. (Though, as we discussed last week, the translation of Sundance buzz to box-office dollars isn’t always as easy as it looks).

But what of the thousands — literally, thousands, every year — of filmmakers who don’t make that brutal Sundance cut? For the filmmaker, that Sundance rejection letter can feel like nothing less than a death certificate for their labor of love. And while a spin at the ‘dance can certainly help an unknown film’s chances of breakout success (see Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project, El Mariachi, sex, lies, and videotape, and many more), there are plenty of Sundance rejects who found success anyway. Here’s just a few of them. … Read More