My Sundance Reviews

Sundance is over. My brain is still trying to catch up from Festival Boot Camp. Film Threat was awesome enough to get Whitney and I press passes in exchange for reviews. Luckily, we're living pretty close to Sundance so getting out there wasn't a big problem--except when the snow storm hit. That was a fun drive. Overall, it was incredible. We saw some great, great movies, one of which will most likely be my number one of 2009. If another film affects me like Lee Daniel's Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire did, I be more then surprised. To read my Film Threat review of Push, click HERE.

Push ended up winning both the Grand Jury and the Audience U.S. Dramatic awards. Mo'Nique who plays a villain more evil than Darth Vader, also won a Special Jury Prize for Acting. It left Sundance without distribution but I'm sure somebody wil have the guts to release this heavy-hitting drama.

10 days. 18 short films. 23 features.

Here's a list of the features I saw. The bold titles are must-sees.
Also, if you click onto the links, they'll take you to the reviews I wrote.
Some of the reviews haven't been written yet, others were written by Whitney.

Reporter
The September Issue
Rudo y Cursi
Prom Night in Mississippi
The Carter
The Vicious Kind
500 Days of Summer
An Education
Good Hair
No Impact Man
World’s Greatest Dad
I Love You Phillip Morris
Grace
Arlen Faber
The Greatest
The Yes Men Fix the World
Spread
Tyson
Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
Passing Strange
Berma VJ
Sergio
Louise-Michel

So go check out the reviews. Give praise to Film Threat.
I promise I'll start posting more often around here once my reviews are done.

Here's what you guys should do, send me some
links of the great posts you've loved
from the last couple of weeks.
Thanks!

Wait, You Were In That? (#2)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:

Starring:

Ice-T
(Grammy-winning rapper who apparently liked to
wear snowboarding goggles back in the day)

Christopher McDonald
(The bad guy from Happy Gilmore.
How did I not know he was in Breakin'?)

Alright, who knew they were in this movie?
No cheating. Raise your hands, don't shout out.

Wanna See a Sundance Short?

Hey, everyone. Just checking in before bed. Sundance is incredible. Whitney and I are seeing tons of films, features and shorts, and having a great time. Huge thanks to Don at Film Threat for hooking us up with press passes.

For those wishing they could be here in Utah with us, I've got a little gift for you: my favorite short of the day. Part of an eight-film shorts program, Pencil Face looks like an Aphex Twin video and is just as creepy. Enjoy.

SUNDANCE, BABY!

It's official. I'm going to be covering Sundance for Film Threat.

Whitney and I picked up our press passes yesterday. It's got my picture on it and everything.

Here are five of the films I'm most looking forward to:

1. Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy
2. Prom Night in Mississippi
3. Good Hair
4. Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
5. Art and Copy

I'll be posting my reviews at Film Threat
throughout the next week and a half.

Has anyone been to Sundance before? Any tips for a first-timer?

Vacation + Technical Difficulties + Great News = Me

Wedding was amazing.
Reception was a blast.
Honeymoon was relaxing.
Second reception was unique.
First day back at work was tiring.
Realizing that my internet wasn't working sucked.
Having to go online at work sucks more.
But finding out that there's a 95% that I'll be getting a PRESS PASS for
SUNDANCE was the best news I'd heard since "I Do."

I'm not getting over-excited until I've got the pass in my hand. Then all bets are off. The schedule looks great. If I can somehow get into Rudo y Cursi starring my Latin man-crush, I'll be the happiest blogger. Period. The happiest. So, it's not official yet but I should find out soon. Keep your fingers crossed. I promise I'll start posting more often soon. It's been quite a couple of weeks and things are just starting to get back to normal.

Honeymoon Time, Back in a Week

Before I go, some things need to be said about The Spirit.

What a joke.

I'm not familiar with the source material but if the comics were anything like the movie then they weren't worth adapting. As a Sin City fan (for its visual style, at the least) my interest was peaked months ago when various Spirit teasers started popping up. All of that interest was gone fifteen minutes into today's screening. Gone, baby, gone. This movie is a mess and Lionsgate should be ashamed of themselves.

Not too long ago, I listed my 10 WORST FILMS OF 2008. Baby Mama came in at number ten because I honestly didn't see too many of the movies that looked to be awful. If you're curious as to which films looked completely unappealing to me, I wrote quite a list. But missing from that list was The Spirit. The Spirit looked cool. But it was not cool...far from cool...unaware of the concept of cool. Actually, that's not completely accurate. Spirit's biggest problem is that it's too aware of "coolness" and tries far too many things to obtain that status. If you're having trouble grasping my point here, allow me to break it down. I'd rather watch Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron five times than watch The Spirit again.

In short, Baby Mama is off my list. The Spirit is not only on, it's at THE TOP OF THE LIST. Here's a list of movies that are better than The Spirit:

01. 88 Minutes
02. Doomsday
03. Jumper
04. Semi-Pro
05. Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
06. 27 Dresses
07. War Inc.
08. The Happening
09. Meet the Browns
10. Baby Mama