8 Movies I Saw At Sundance

I am not a film critic. I am just a huge film fan who hits up the Sundance Film Festival annually. These are just my opinions. That being said, dive in…

Bran Nue Dae

I was particularly excited to see this movie because who wouldn’t want to see a film that is described as the “aborigine musical”. The story centers around a young man named Willie, who is a devout churchgoer that struggles with lustful thoughts for his friend Rosie (played by Jessica Mauboy who was Australian Idol’s second place). Willie’s mother, in an attempt to making him a priest, sends him away to a boarding school in Perth where his priest is no other than Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush.

However, Willie soon finds that being pious and good is harder than he expected and runs away back to his home in Broome. Along the way he encounters a long lost uncle, a pair of hippies, and a nymphomaniac to name a few. Not to mention that all the while Father Benedictus (Rush) is hot on his tail.

I was especially astounded with the actor who played Willie (Rocky McKenzie) who is originally from the town of Broome and had never had any previous acting experience.

The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was genuine, the songs very catchy: all in all a very enjoyable movie.

Drunk History

If you haven’t checked out any of this series online- do it now. The premise of these “educational” shorts revolves around someone getting completely plastered and then retelling a famous past account.

This particular short started with a disclaimer that the narrator had ingested a six-pack of beer along with a half bottle of absinthe to tell the story of Nikola Tesla. During the clearly inebriated account, there is a comedic reenactment of the tale, in this case John C. Reilly as Tesla and Crispin Glover as Thomas Edison. It could be a very interesting story if I could actually have listened to the dialogue over the audience’s cackling (I take this as somewhat of a good sign)!

Be warned however, that it is not for the squeamish. At one point the narrator is shown literally puking in the toilet and wondering how his chunks of pineapple came out whole when he remembers chewing them! Hey, I just want to let people know what they’re getting themselves into. But if you have to the stomach to handle that, it’s quite a hilarious, if not completely factual.

The Company Men

This feature film by John Wells (writer-producer-director on ER) addresses the looming reality of layoffs and downsizing in the U.S. Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Ben Affleck head up the star-studded cast as sales executives in a corporation that is picking off their employees one by one. It portraits how all these different men deal with the agonizing blow of being let go from obnoxiously lucrative jobs and handling the harsh reality of what they could possibly do next.

I foresee this movie being wide released not only for it’s star power (Kevin Costner and Maria Bello are also in supporting roles) but contemporary subject matter. Even though I thought it went a little Hallmark towards the end, it was a decent film with a good message.

Frozen

I unfortunately missed the volunteer screening of this film and the reviews I got from my fellow co-workers were “I couldn’t sleep last night”, “I will never go skiing again in my life” and “I don’t want to talk about it”. Now, I really wanted to watch it!

The plot surrounds three college kids being accidentally left up on a ski lift on a freezing cold winter’s night. May not sound that exiting but the director definitely puts enough twist and turns in there that keeps you pretty much on the edge of your seat throughout most of the film.

I also found it quite refreshing and creative that this was a horror/suspense film in which we’re not being hassled by the overdone ghost, monster or serial killer. Not to mention the director, Adam Green, used no computer graphics and filmed most of it literally 50 feet up in the air!

*Personal note: Adam Green showed up to our small theater at midnight just to introduce his movie and ended up giving us what I thought was quite the motivational speech involving, of all people, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider! He had me at hello.

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