I managed to score a ticket package to the Sundance Film Festival this year, so I’ll be reviewing a handful of films from the 2007 film-fest. It should be pretty interesting… I’ve never been to Park City for this event and I’m sure I’ll be wandering around pretty cluelessly. 
There are a fair number of films that I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase tickets for, because I knew they would just really torque me off. Not just due to the content, but due to their selection for this venue, without other films to counterbalance the themes. For example, a documentary about what happened in Abu Ghraib: How about a documentary that includes footage of terrorists literally sawing the heads off of civilians? Then of course there is the required “global warming” documentary (anyone read Michael Crichton’s excellent and extrememly well documented “State of Fear”?). And of course there has to be at least one anti-Christian, pro-Gay documentary.
Oh, and don’t forget the one about the guy who died while having sex with a horse.
But I digress…
Here are the films I’ll be reviewing:
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“The Good Life” (review), directed and written by Steve Berra, is about how the arrival of a young woman disrupts the life of a young man who’s dedicated himself to operating a faded movie palace in a small town. This looks like a solid drama, and I needed to pick a couple of movies my wife would want to watch, so this is one.
“Teeth,” directed and written by Mitchell Lichtenstein, is a conceptually provoca-tive yarn about a devoutly Christian high school girl (Jess Wexler) who finds she posesses a “physical advantage” over men when she becomes the victim of a sexual assault. Although I’m sure this one will bug me due to an anti-religion/morals message, it just sounded to wierd to pass up.
“Weapons” (review) , directed and written by Adam Bhala Lough, is a multistrand revenge drama that examines several seemingly random youth-related killings in a small town over the course of a weekend. Sounds like a gritty, violent story… I’ll give it a chance.
“My Kid Could Paint That” (review). directed by Amir Bar-Lev, focuses on a 4-year-old girl whose paintings, which have been compared to the work of Kandinsky, Pollock and Picasso, have already netted her parents $300,000. Having a daughter who is artistically gifted, this one sounded very interesting to me.
“Enemies of Happiness” (Denmark) (review), directed by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem, is an account of the victory of a 28-year-old Afghan woman in the 2005 par-liamentary election. I was actually shocked to see this in the competition as it looks like it will show something good coming out of the war in Afghanistan.
“Fido” (review), shows an alternate reality where zombies roam the earth. Not to fear–their never-ending appetite for human flesh has been stifled by a patented domestication collar, manufactured en masse by megacorporation Zomcon. Citizens can sleep at night knowing their zombies are not there to eat brains but to mow lawns, deliver milk, and serve food–as model zombie citizens should. ‘Nuff said… How could I not go see this one?
“Finishing the Game,” in this film egos fly and collide as hard and high as the karate kicks in this scathingly smart swipe at racial stereotypes and movie-biz hypocrisy. Justin Lin returns to Sundance (Better Luck Tomorrow played at the 2002 Festival) with Finishing the Game, a wickedly conceived comedy spoof about the search for the “new Bruce Lee.” Being old enough to remember seeing Bruce Lee films at the theater, and with “Kung Fu Hustle” fresh in my mind I thought this one would be fun.
“The Signal” (review), imagine every cell phone, radio, and television in your city suddenly broadcasting the same mysterious signal over and over. Now imagine these “terminus” transmissions evoking violent, uncontrollable, psychotic chaos from everyone who comes in contact with them. At last, a horror/scifi movie on the list!
“Houndog” (review), the controversial film starring Dakota Fanning.
“Black Snake Moan” (review), the Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci southern “hot” movie from the director of “Hustle and Flow”.
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15 Comments
Ghosts of Abu has nothing to do with terrorists sawing people’s heads off.
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib…has NOTHING to do with terrorists “literally” sawing people’s heads off.
That’s ignorant of you to say! Looks like your reviews are going to be just as shitty!
Yeah, whatever.
My point is that this is an example of showing the U.S. military in a bad light and making those who we are fighting the victims.
The counterpoint issue would involve having a documentary that highlights the evil of those that we are fighting.
Vic
A quick thankyou for deciding not to see “Chapter 27″. A disgraceful film glorifying John Lennons killer.
http://www.BoycottChapter27.org
I didn’t find “Chapter 27″ to be of interest, and to be honest, the description didn’t seem to say that they were going to glorify him in any way. The only hint of that is in the closing sentence of the movie description: “…can we ever really know another person’s interior experience?”
Vic
What an eclectic mix of movies… That sounds like it will be a cool experience; I hope you enjoy it.
Brian
It should be interesting. I’m sure that if I go next year I’ll be able to make more sense of it than this. Although I’ve been to Park City many times, I’ll probably end up wandering around looking like a tourist in New York City for the first time.
Vic
Ok, i see your point…I just don’t think there’s many filmmakers out there who are making films on how evil? the iraqis are. We’re the ones who’ve messed up, so that’s what the movies are about. It’s not like, we spilled some milk, so someone’s going to make a movie about how rotten that milk was anyway. They’re going to make a movie about how we shouldn’t have dropped it, or how we should use a clean rag to wipe it up….
Hey man, glad to see you back to chime in. Sure, the war in Iraq doesn’t seem to be the most brilliantly conceived or executed thing I’ve ever seen, but anything that we’ve been accused of pales in comparison IMHO to what has been perpetrated by the other side with their purposeful targeting of civilians as well as soldiers.
It’s just frustrating to see those guys given a pass for some strange reason while we are held accountable for every single misstep.
Vic
Zomcom indeed!! Too funny…errr I hope this movie was a comedy
You brought up a good point though, Hollywood has made a ton of Michael Crichton movies, but no one seems to want to touch State of Fear, too bad, great book.
I agree, a nice doc on head chopping/sawing would be great, while they are at it they can throw in women being stoned because they were raped…sighhhh, not going to happen.
Lynai,
Yup, you get what I’m saying. And yes, the zombie movie is a comedy.
Keep an eye on this page as I’ll be updating it with links to the reviews as I write them.
Vic
Houndog Comments by the Catholic church about rape depicted in this movie. They should clean off their own door step before condemming a movie. Their have been a lot of real rapes covered up by the church.
I haven’t heard any of that but I’m going to try to get to a screening of it so I can review it here.
Vic
The simple fact is that the U.S. Military is doing a fine job of showing itself in “bad light” and the film makers are reflecting that. any “bad behavior” by the insurgents is seen by the vast majority of the world as justified.
Man, you slay me. Let’s see your logic:
Small number of U.S. soldiers act like idiots, therefore insurgents are justified in violently murdering CIVILIANS that have nothing to do with the war.
Freakin’ brilliant. Really.
Oh, by the way, the insurgents were murdering civilians long before Abu Ghraib.
Vic
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