From Park City, Utah

Jayme Joyce reports from the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

By Jayme Joyce
Published: January 26th, 2009 | 3:25pm

The start of the Sundance FIlm Festival can usually be marked by lots of tents and giveaways, trucks unloading all up and down Park City's historic Main Street. Opening day of this year’s festival, however, wasn’t quite as indulgent.

After an alarming number of sponsors pulled out, the typically elitist soiree manages to reflect America's current economic climate. Less budget for film guides and fewer vendors giving away swag has been a slight bummer, but diehard festival attendees were pleasantly surprised at the ease of nabbing tickets to opening weekend — which has been a near-impossible feat over the past five years.

Some cinemaphiles have continued the tradition of camping out in front of the main box office at the Gateway Center to be the first to get last minute tickets, but many have reported the Festival to be slightly more laid back than previous years.

Many locals in Park City have a love-hate relationship with the festival, which pumps millions of dollars into the Park City economy each year but also packs their streets full of tourists, creates grid-locked traffic, and leaves quite a mess. This year’s festivities seem to be more in tune with the original sentiment of Sundance.

I arrived in Utah during what is quite possibly the best weather Sundance has ever had. Park City is a world famous ski resort town nestled in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. This year's festival attendees find themselves sweating walking up and down main street and waiting in line for tickets. Yours truly couldn’t be more thrilled about skipping out on the sub-zero temps pounding Chicago.

The Year of Emma

Emma Roberts seems to be jumping headfirst into a promising acting career by starring in two Sundance films this year. Her carefully chosen roles reflect a departure from the kiddie flicks that have made her a household name: Nancy Drew (2007) and the much anticipated kids’ movie, Hotel For Dogs (2009).

Roberts plays the sultry and sassy girl next door in Lymelife and the sporty team leader in The Winning Season. At the Sundance (and world) premiere of The Winning Season on Monday January 19th, Roberts confessed she knew nothing about basketball before taking the role. She and her costars went through an intensive weeklong basketball boot-camp to shape up for the part, which she admitted was pretty tough! Keep an eye on this prolific 18-year-old!

Lymelife

Rory Caulkin stars as 15-year-old Scott Bartlett in first time director Derick Martini's portrayal of deteriorating suburban dreams. Scott's dreams often return to a crush on his best friend — girl next door Adrianna Bragg, played by Emma Roberts — whose father, Charlie (Timothy Hutton), was diagnosed with Lyme disease 2 years prior to the film’s action. Scott's father, Mickey (Alec Baldwin), is an architect who is building a large housing development site and employs Adrianna's mother, Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), as a receptionist and real estate agent. The two begin a messy affair that doesn't fool anyone including Scott's mother, Brenda (Jill Hennessy).

Set in 1970s Long Island, Lymelife is ripe with harsh truths both hysterically absurd and dramatic. The Bartlett family's dysfunctions and denial are universal and Jill Hennessy shines in a performance that will resonate for anyone with memories of an overprotective mother. Brenda struggles as a mother suffocating herself in a loveless and unfaithful marriage for the sake of her children. But Martini also explores the character of Melissa, though in less detail, who begins the sordid affair betraying not only her mentally ill husband but also disappointing her daughter — who later calls her a whore behind her back.

Roberts gives a strong performance in the role of a very unique young girl, Adrianna, who is confident and much more levelheaded than her best friend Scott, blinded by his father's flash and surburban romanticism. His mother, Brenda, is constantly expressing her resentment of the wealthy suburban lifestyle. The film is a wonderful blend of family drama, romantic comedy, and coming of age story with a pretty dark ending and Martini command's his actor's performances to roll with a lot of punches realistic to life in general, and especially life in the suburbs.

Good Hair

Who would have thought I'd be saying this about a documentary written and told by Chris Rock — but Good Hair might possibly be the best film I've seen come out of Sundance so far. I’m almost halfway through the festival, and there have been many great stories, but few that have actually made me stop to reconsider important issues or pushed the medium of filmmaking to a new limit. I am hoping to see more documentaries in my second half of the fest because, after seeing Good Hair, I’m convinced that docs are where the real edge is.

When Rock's 3-year-old daughter asks him; "Daddy, why don't I have good hair?" the comedian decides to begin a quest for the definition of “good hair.” Along the ride he explores the perils of hair-relaxer, the price of weaves (and where they actually come from), and the philosophies behind "good hair." I've described this film as nothing short of eye opening, consistently laugh-out-loud hilarious, and an important expose. Everyone, but especially every woman, needs to see this film — it shines a light on the bigger picture of our own vanities and the social definition of beauty.

Paper Heart

Blending documentary footage with a fictional storyline, Paper Heart follows comedian Charlene Yi around as she searches for the definition of love in virtually every state in the country. Her interviews introduce Las Vegas Ministers, elderly couples, divorce attorneys, young children, and high school sweethearts who all share their thoughts and definitions of love. But Yi doesn't believe in love. At least she doesn't believe in it for herself. That's when real life boyfriend Michael Cera is thrown into the mix — and the two comedians immediately hit it off.

It's hard to follow Yi through her personal search for love in this documentary without wishing it were true. After sitting through the Q + A, it became immediately obvious that her entire love story was scripted. The director's character, Nick, is an actor who plays the director of the documentary we are watching. The editor plays himself. Cera and Yi also play themselves, but in a fictitious romance sparked during the filming of the documentary, which creates a big conflict as the two try to get to know one another while cameras are constantly rolling.

Paper Heart is a witty experiment in seeing just how far the documentary medium will stretch before becoming completely fictitious.

Cold Souls

Robert Johnson sold his soul to play the guitar. Faust sold his soul to attain knowledge. In the alternate reality brought to life in Sophie Barthe’s debut feature, people extract their souls in order to lighten some sort of existential weight — keeping them cryogenically frozen in a storage facility.

Amongst those to attempt the procedure is Paul Giamatti — who stars as himself, an American actor who has become severely depressed while rehearsing Uncle Vanya for a New York theater company. After experiencing a different kind of emptiness without his soul, he decides to try using the soul of a Russian poet as inspiration for his performance and is introduced to the international trafficking of souls between Russia and the United States.

When the Russian "mule" steals Giamatti's soul for an aspiring actress in Russia, Giamatti begins a quest to find his stolen soul and reinstate his identity — no matter how depressed he might become.

Science fiction at its finest and most abstract, Cold Souls takes several jabs at the American psyche and consumer culture. "Think of it as if it were a kidney, pancreas, or liver," one character tells Giamatti, who gives a heartfelt performance in this dream-like dark comedy that does an impressive job in exploring existential angst and the American desire to suppress it.

Comments

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friendofpyrex (about 1 year)
Did we all take notice that Paper Heart won best script? My one friend was outraged about the blurred line between doc and narrative, but I thought it was an interesting experiment. Funny either way. I think Sin Nombre was my favorite film from this year, though.