Before the screening of her film “Appropriate Behavior” Tuesday at the Prospector Theatre, writer-director-star Desiree Akhavan was near tears. “I just wanted to be honest about things you’re not supposed to talk about in my world, or in Utah.”
Tag Archives: sundance film festival
Sundance Film Festival: “The Trip to Italy” and “Land Ho!” find laughs on the road
Two men in a foreign country – a classic comedy setup? Hey, it worked for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
Sundance Film Festival: “Life Itself” says farewell to Roger Ebert
“For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” — Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was a great film writer for many reasons, but one of them was that he wasn’t just writing about movies when he was writing about movies. Read through his reviews, and you’ll find political arguments, philosophical musings, remembrances of his boyhood in Champaign-Urbana. He believed that the beauty and the power of a great movie didn’t stop at the concession stand, but extended out the front doors into — life itself.
Sundance Film Festival: “Song One” hits a lot of familiar notes
Even for a film that’s literally about the healing power of music, “Song One” is awfully hokey. The drama from first-time writer-director Kate Barker-Froyland boasts a great soundtrack, featuring original songs by Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice and cameos by Sharon Van Etten, Dan Deacon and the Felice Brothers. Music in some form or another informs almost every scene in the film.
Sundance Film Festival: Quirky “Kumiko the Treasure Hunter” goes on an epic quest, you betcha
“I’m like a Spanish conquistador,” Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi) says at one point in “Kumiko the Treasure Hunter.” “Looking for treasure deep in the Americas.”
Only Kumiko’s quest doesn’t take her to South America, but to wintry Minneapolis in the quirky and lovely new comedy from Austin’s David and Nathan Zellner. And no, the treasure isn’t at the Mall of America.
Sundance Film Festival: “Boyhood” took 12 years to make, and is worth every second
You could rate Richard Linklater’s new film “Boyhood” strictly on degree of difficulty, like it was an Olympic diver. Linklater has been making “Boyhood” since 1991, visiting the same group of actors each summer, adding more scenes as they grew older.
Ellar Coltrane was six when he was hired, Lorelei Linklater (Richard’s daughter) was eight. The film is built around Ellar, and Linklater had no way of knowing what kind of actor he’d grow up to be. Embarking on such a project was a tremendous leap of faith for all parties.
Sundance Film Festival: “War Story” puts a combat photographer in sharp focus
Al Gore most famously appeared at the Sundance Film Festival to present his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Did his presence Sunday night suggest even more global warming doom and gloom to come?
Sundance Film Festival: Faith takes a beatdown in pitiless ‘Calvary’
John Michael McDonagh’s “Calvary” has a corker of an opening scene. A kindly village priest (Brendan Gleeson) is in the confession box, and a parishioner tells how he was sexual abused by a priest as a boy. The man then vows to kill the kindly priest in one week as revenge.
Sundance Film Festival: “Ivory Tower” gives explaining higher ed woes the old college try
If a university built the so-called “ivory tower” today, it would have a climbing wall, plasma TVs on every floor, and penthouse apartments for all the rich out-of-state kids.
That’s the takeaway from documentary filmmaker Andrew Rossi’s strong “Ivory Tower,” which looks at the many complicated and interconnected woes bringing higher education to a crisis point — rising tuition costs, mounting student debt, mounting university debt, and a seeming emphasis on being the most prestigious school in your conference, with the biggest stadium and most lavish student center.
Sundance Film Festival: “Infinitely Polar Bear” a warm and wonderful film
I’m guessing the ads for “Infinitely Polar Bear” won’t say “From the writer of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days’!” But Maya Forbes did write that film, along with “Monsters vs. Aliens” and a bunch of other Hollywood films that one wouldn’t exactly call personal.
But Forbes dug deep into her family history for her debut as a writer-director, and “Polar Bear” is a beautiful story, warm and generous of spirit. Family dramas often ask the audience to pick sides, or conjure up a villain. Here’s a story about a family who loves each other just . . . coping . . . with some difficult circumstances, and it’s wonderful filmmaking.
Madison Movie 