Sundance Film Festival 2002
It’s time once again for the Sundance Film Festival. For the next 10 days, the usual Park City crowd of skiers and snow riders will be peppered with frumpy journalists, overeager P.R. flunkies and scrappy movie-zealots looking for somebody new to stalk.
Almost all of them will be dressed in their sassy winter best: Tight black stretch pants, black leather boots and parkas made by companies with names like “the faux cheetah” and “I can’t believe it’s not mink.”
Between press conferences, they can be seen on street corners chattering mindlessly into cell phones and complaining about the bus schedules. Somewhere in between the preening and the whining, they’ll stop into one of the eight theaters in the Park City area and catch a film.
But despite their vain efforts to be more interesting than everything else around them, the festival is not about the P.R. image and gaudy style of the Hollywood jet set. It’s about films and the opportunity for everyday people to become the trendsetters for the big studios.
This year’s offerings look promising. Films are divided into categories of interest including documentary, dramatic, Native American, shorts and world cinema. The following are some of the films being showcased at Sundance. This list is not all inclusive. For a complete list, visit the festival’s Web site at www.sundance.org.
Birthday Girl
This film stars Nicole Kidman as a Russian mail-order bride whose mild-mannered British husband tries to send her back when he learns she can’t speak English. Something tells me this role shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Kidman who has had her own share of marital woes lately.
As time goes on, things start to warm up between the two – until the husband, played by Ben Chaplin, learns he got more than he bargained for when he married Kidman.
The Dancer Upstairs
Directed by John Malkovich, The Dancer Upstairs takes place in an anonymous Latin American country. In the film, investigator Augustin Rejas is attempting to find the mysterious Ezequiel a powerful revolutionary leader. His quest has caused considerable strain in his life, causing him to question his decision to become a police officer and his marriage.
A chance meeting with his daughter’s ballet instructor (played by Laura Morante, named best actress at Cannes this year) changes his outlook on life and his perspective on his marriage. The Dancer Upstairs promises an interesting look into the political chaos of many Latin American countries and the plight of the people who try to stand firm in the face of revolutionary turmoil.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
Much to the disappointment of Sundance goers, this movie was scheduled for release at last year’s festival and didn’t make it in time. This is perhaps one of the most exciting films to be showcased this year.
Set in the South in the early 1970s, Altar Boys tells the tale of two bright but rebellious boys, Francis Doyle and Tim Sullivan, and their closest friends, who are fighting the stultifying repression of their parish school. It addresses the most common maladies faced by teenage boys: Boredom, hormones, unresponsive teachers and family strife.
Francis is an exceptional artist whose imaginative forays into a fictional universe of good and evil fill his notebooks with comic-book imagery and create superhero alter egos for the two boys. Foremost among the forces of evil is the stern and disapproving nun, Sister Assumpta (played by Jodie Foster), who rules their lives. She seizes their artwork one day, setting the boys on an obsessed trail of revenge that ultimately changes their lives.
Empire
Starring the talented, but largely ignored John Leguizamo, Empire tells the story of Victor Rosa, a heroin dealer who thinks of himself as a great businessman. Victor meets Jack, a legitimate Wall Street investor and they instantly connect. Both are hard-core businessmen from two different sides of the legal fence. When Jack offers Victor a piece of the action on the stock market, he sees his ticket out of the violent streets of the South Bronx and jumps at the opportunity. But there is a bigger price to be paid than clean money for his gorgeous new Soho lifestyle. For the first time, Victor is confronted with a price tag that he will find difficult to pay.
Brittney Baby – One More Time
I couldn’t resist putting this one in. Milwaukee-based filmmaker Dude Schmitz is in an unenviable position. He is hired to interview touring teen pop star Britney Spears, but when Dude gets too personal with Britney, he gets bounced by her people. It’s then that he meets Robert Stephens, the young, gay winner of a local Britney look-alike contest, who was disappointed at failing to meet Britney. Smelling an opportunity, Dude convinces Robert to travel to New Orleans (Britney’s next stop) by offering to make a film about the young fan.
Good-natured Robert delights Britney fans in truck stops and malls along the way, little knowing that Dude is sending footage back to the station, carefully editing out Robert’s insights and identity. When everyone gets wind of the scheme, Dude’s house of cards begins to teeter.
Australian Rules
Nothing seems to happen in Prospect Bay, an outpost on the South Australian coast. So when the local football club wins the chance to play the championship tournament, emotions run high. That the team’s strength rests in its Aboriginal players doesn’t stop the town’s white folks from spouting racist slurs.
Blacky, a sweet-natured, white teenager consumed with studying his vocabulary words and despising his abusive father, seems like the only kid on the team willing to cross between black and white worlds. His best friend Dumby is the Aboriginal star of the football club, while the object of his affection is a striking, black girl named Clarence.
When the divided town comes to blows over the trophy, Blacky faces what he fears most: To stay on the side of justice.