Along with pitching a tent in the Atlantic, or hosting a worldwide soccer tournament in Qatar, a film festival held in the dead of winter in the Utah mountains sounds like a poorly conceived decision. But through the tireless efforts of what must be a crackerjack staff and an enormous amount of gumption, the Sundance Film Festival has nestled itself quite nicely into the annual cinematic calendar for fans, critics, and the industry types who mob the quaint ski village of Park City for 10 days each January, all in celebration of film (and making deals).
To be specific, it's a celebration of American independent film, for which Sundance is most famous, but in actuality, the festival, which began Thursday, offers a good deal more than that: Through innovative programming umbrellas -- including World Documentary, Next Fest, Midnight, and Sundance Kids -- the festival shows a pretty wide variety of possibilities among its 100+ films.
Last year was considered a particularly epic showing for the programming staff, premiering such well-received indie fare as The Skeleton Twins, Dear White People, and Damien Chazelle's Oscar-nominated Whiplash, which took home the audience and juried top prizes in 2014. We don't yet know what this year's edition has in store for us, but here are some of the films we're most excited to get to see this year, in alphabetical order.
Digging for Fire: Joe Swanberg has been almost ridiculously prolific in his decade-long career. Since debut of his first feature (2005's Kissing on the Mouth), he has made 15 other films, including 2013's winning Drinking Buddies, and last year's highly praised Happy Christmas. His newest film concerns the separate adventures of a married couple after they discover a bone and a gun, respectively.
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon: For gentlemen and ladies of a certain age, the '70s-era adult humor of National Lampoon, along with other such countercultural comedy icons as Saturday Night Live and Kentucky Fried Movie, completely informed our sense of humor. In its heyday, the Lampoon (whose staff was largely formed from graduates of Harvard Lampoon) was a brilliant jolt of irresponsible comic uproar. This documentary, from Douglas Tirola, promises an inside look at the groundbreaking men and women who made it all possible.
I Smile Back: True, there is a large, slushy pile of dramatic films starring comedians trying to prove to the world they can handle more serious roles, but there's reason to believe Adam Salky's drama, starring Sarah Silverman as a completely irresponsible, drug-addled mother who is finally looking to change her ways and redeem herself, will work. For one thing, Silverman has already worked in serious smaller roles without a hitch, for another, her comedy has always been tinged with a certain kind of pathos and vulnerability, which leads us to believe she can pull it off.
Mistress America: Speaking of prolific, not only has Noah Baumbach's 2014 festival rave, While We're Young, not even opened wide yet, now he has a new film in the offing. This one stars current Baumbach paramour Greta Gerwig as Brooke, a madcap, rule-breaking sort of woman who enlivens the world of her soon-to-be sister-in-law, a lonely freshman attending college in New York. Baumbach may have his detractors, who find his stuff too navel-gazing, but we've been smitten ever since his first feature (1995's Kicking & Screaming) and we're not looking back now.
Nasty Baby: Another gifted comic actress who can most certainly succeed in dramatic roles is former SNL frontwoman Kristen Wiig, whose new film concerns a gay couple enlisting the help of their best friend (Wiig) in order to conceive a child. The drama comes from the couple getting harassed about their choices by a disapproving neighborhood man, in a situation that sounds as if it escalates into something resembling tragedy. Wiig is almost as startlingly good at playing sad characters as she is playing funny ones, so we have little doubt she'll be scintillating here.
The Nightmare: If you've ever had the wildly disconcerting experience of partially waking up but feeling paralyzed between your dream world and the reality you know is just beyond your periphery, you understand why Rodney Ascher's documentary on the subject sounds so fascinating. He interviews eight people afflicted with this condition -- caused in part by your body not properly ridding itself of the chemicals your brain uses to keep you sedated when you sleep -- and digs in deep into the claustrophobic nature of their suffering.
Results: Andrew Bujalski's previous film, Computer Chess, earned him critical accolades and more attention than any of his other films combined. A deadpan, comic study of early '80s computer geeks, and the things they held dear, it was somehow funny, oddly touching and damn peculiar. His new film, set in the present, is about a pair of personal trainers (Guy Pearce and The Avengers' Cobie Smulders) whose lives get upended by a new, very wealthy client. It may sound banal, but likely not under the watchful eye of this talented director.
The Witch: Last year's fest also premiered Jennifer Kent's brilliantly unsettling psych-horror film, The Babadook. Is it possible Sundance strikes gold two years in a row with an offbeat bit of filmic terror? Robert Eggers' film, set in 1630s New England, follows the strife and misery of a devout family of homesteaders living on the edge of wilderness whose newborn son suddenly vanishes, leaving them stricken in fear and paranoia. Sounds suitably creepy to us.
The Wolfpack: Sometimes the premise of a doc sounds absolutely too good to be true. Crystal Moselle's film details the impossibly curious lives of six teenage brothers who have lived their entire lives locked away in a Manhattan housing project, with no contact with the outside world, save the collection of films they have watched obsessively, learning to re-enact their favorite parts with intensely detailed accuracy. As their adolescence looms, however, they find themselves yearning to be free and explore the vast world around them.
Z for Zachariah: Craig Zobel's post-apocalyptic drama has earned a fair amount of pre-festival buzz already. It stars Margot Robbie, who believes herself to be the last living human on Earth until she meets a sickly scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who spends his days searching for other survivors. Trouble ensues when a third survivor (Chris Pine) arrives and vies for the woman's affections. It may sound like it's a tweak or two away from being a Tom Cruise vehicle (in that version, we can assume that Cruise somehow wins), but with a strong cast -- Ejiofor comes to it fresh off his brilliant turn in 12 Years a Slave -- and a young director who has shown great promise (Compliance), this could be well worth the hype.
MovieStyle on 01/23/2015