Screengrab editor emeritus Bilge Ebiri reports from the frontlines of Park City.
The big dirty secret of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is actually that it may be one of the better fest lineups in recent memory. The first few days at the festival tend to be ones of disappointment, but the films this year seem to be challenging that assumption. At least so far.
Having seen over a dozen of the films even before I left New York, I was suspecting this might happen. The docs slate, as usual, is loaded with interesting work, but even a number of the narrative features screened in advance left most critics impressed. In the Loop and Bronson, in particular, are two films that emerged from their New York screenings with deafening buzz. More on those as the festival rolls along. (I actually haven’t seen them yet.)
As for crowds, the rumors of a stripped-down festival in which everyone is reeling from a combination of financial ruin and a looming boycott of All Things Mormon don’t appear be carrying much weight either. Sure, a lot of old Sundance faces are missing, and this is the weekend, but the crowds seem robust. (The buses are certainly still packed. Fuck.)
The first day of the festival brought a number of well-received premieres, with Lee Daniels's coming-of-age melodrama Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, Lynn Shelton's bros-doing-gay-porn comedy Humpday, and Antoine Fuqua's cop epic Brooklyn’s Finest all generating a significant degree of buzz. Press screenings for the African thriller Johnny Mad Dog and the Sam Rockwell sci-fi drama Moon also left a number of critics impressed. I'll have more on these soon as well, but for now, the big acquisitions heat seems to be centered around Push and Humpday. The former in particular counts as a surprise, since it features a performance by Mariah Carey -- pretty much never a good sign -- and was directed by former producer Daniels, whose first directorial outing, the Cuba Gooding, Jr., hitman melodrama Shadowboxer, left, uh, something to be desired.
