5 More Films I’m Looking Forward To from Sundance ‘12
I managed to catch 12 movies during my 4 days at Sundance but with hundreds of movies playing, it’s impossible not to end up missing out on some things. I think I did a pretty good job of seeing some of the most buzzed about films at the fest but didn’t have a chance to see everything I had planned on, including a few films that ended up getting squeezed out for time, sleep or scheduling conflicts. So here are 5 more films that played the fest that I’ll be looking forward to checking out hopefully in the near future.
1. John Dies At The End (dir: Don Coscarelli) Two college dropouts must try to stop the destruction of mankind from a psychedelic drug called “soy sauce” that lets its users travel across dimensions but may not come back the same, the latest from the director of “Phantasm” and “Bubba Ho-Tep” looks to top even his previous outings for sheer weirdness. And it garnered comparisons to one of my all-time favorites, “Big Trouble In Little China.” Please play at SXSW. Watch the trailer.
2. V/H/S (dir: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Adam Wingard) Found footage anthology from new wave of indie horror directors of “The Signal,” “House of the Devil,” and the upcoming much buzzed about, “You’re Next” among others. Received raves from horror fans and infamously, someone had to be taken out of the the theatre and resuscitated during one of the screenings (though that may have just been the mountain air).
3. The Surrogate (dir: Ben Lewin) The biggest sale of the fest (to Fox Searchlight for $6 million) features recent Sundance star John Hawkes (“Winter’s Bone,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene”) as a man with iron lung who decides at age 38 to lose his virginity. Helen Hunt (where has she been?) plays his sex surrogate. While I didn’t hear anyone who was extremely enthusiastic about this film, everyone seemed to agree that it would be a player next awards season for the performances alone.
4. The First Time (dir: Jon Kasdan) Kasdan (son of Lawrence, writer of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Empire Strikes Back”) has written about the high school experience before both as a writer for “Freaks & Geeks” and “Dawson’s Creek” and seems to have brought that experience to his sophomore effort here about two teens falling in love for the first time. Word was pretty positive here too but one hopes he brings more of his ‘Freaks’ experience (instead of his ‘Creek’ experience) to the material.
5. Shut Up And Play The Hits (dir: Will Lovelace, Dylan Southern) Documentary about the final LCD Soundsystem shows at Madison Square Garden last year and their aftermath captures frontman James Murphy both onstage and off, while probing to discover exactly what it must be like to go out on top. Watch the trailer.
More: Compliance, For A Good Time Call…, Arbitrage, Shadow Dancer, Grabbers.
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