Under The Radar: Sundance 2012: Sixth Report
Posted on Thursday February 2, 2012, 10:48 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
By chance, one particular day brought together two very different movies on the theme of inebriation. The first, Smashed, is the sort of movie that often screens at Sundance, starring an actress better known for more glamorous roles in a part that requires a lot of crying and looking ugly. In the past we've had the likes of Sherrybaby (Maggie Gyllenhaal, good) and Come Early Morning (Ashley Judd, not so good), so I was perhaps a little cynical when I read that Mary Elizabeth Winstead was now giving the whole serious thing a go, with a starring role in a film about a woman wrestling with sobriety. It is, for certain, not the most lavish film to screen at the festival, and wait-line gossip suggested that it had been readied in superfast time since shooting as late as October last year. But for all that, it's a well-written and nicely observed comedy-drama, with a really good central performance that will hopefully win Winstead some better roles in the new year.
She plays... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Sundance 2012: Fifth Report
Posted on Wednesday February 1, 2012, 23:42 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
 Beasts Of The Southern Wild, by Benh Zeitlin, was an amazing discovery, a film that certainly swelled to fit the confines of Park City but may struggle when it crosses into the wider market. Fox Searchlight picked it up, which was certainly brave of them, since it's not likely even to make a fraction of the figures that The Tree Of Life did for them. Terrence Malick is in some way a good starting point here, since its fractured voiceover and opening, montage-like scenes of an anarchic rural idyll in some ways recall his 1978 film Days Of Heaven. But that film is like Citizen Kane in comparison; where Malick's film saw a very complicated story from a rather simple girl's point of view, Beasts Of the Southern Wild shows a much younger girl wrestling with her immediate circumstances in the aftermath of a huge and devastating Katrina-like weather event.
It promises to be a slice of fashionable poverty-row rural porn, more in the vein of Le Quattro Volte than Winter's B... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Sundance 2012: Fourth Report
Posted on Monday January 30, 2012, 00:52 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
With its strangely chipper demeanour and wry view of the near future, Jake Schreier's Robot And Frank plays a little bit like a throwback Disney TV movie, from the days when the studio made oddball curios like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. It stars Frank Langella as Frank, a man of retirement age who is starting to lose his marbles, much to his family's dismay. Frank doesn't see what all the fuss is about; his memory may be fading but his instincts are still sharp – when he shoplifts, it's deliberate, not an act of befuddlement – so he is outraged when his son (James Marsden) presents him with an an android careworker. The robot, who never gets a name (and is voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), tries to set a daily regime for Frank, but Frank has other ideas. Frank, we soon learn, is a former cat burglar, and in the guileless robot he sees t... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Sundance 2012: Third Report
Posted on Sunday January 29, 2012, 22:42 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
 Watching I Am Not A Hipster, screening as part of the Next strand, I came to realise that neither am I. Although Destin Cretton's film was well-made and performed, I found it hard to relate to the central character, Brook Hyde (Dominic Bogart) an indie musician who returns to his San Diego roots after the death of his mother and the minor success of his debut album. Hyde is a talented but cynical multi-instrumentalist who finds himself sickened by the shallowness of the world that worships him, populated mainly by men with pencil moustaches, skinny jeans, woofly hair and black-rimmed Real-D nerd glasses. Hyde's plight isn't so sympathetic to anyone who already finds the hipster scene beyond parody, but for those open to Hyde's surprisingly unselfconsious music, of which there is a lot, this is a sweet, offbeat comedy that will surely find underground favour.
Cult status certainly beckon... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Sundance 2012: Second Report
Posted on Monday January 23, 2012, 00:40 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
 The Raid isn't technically a Sundance movie,since it premiered last autumn in Toronto, but it certainly found the right audience here. As Chris Hewitt reveals in the current issue of Empire, it is a powerhouse of an action thriller: brutal, super-violent and, despite an ominous 100-minute running time, a surprisingly fast-paced thriller that never drags. The director is Gareth Evans, an Indonesia-based Welshman, and the most thrilling aspect of The Raid is not how stunningly it captures its Asian fight-movie set-pieces but just how beautifully it sites them in a grindhouse context. Which means that just as it recalls such 70s cult items as Streetfighter and Enter The Dragon, it also captures the early pulp-indie spirit of George Romero and John Carpenter. Indeed, The Raid not only gives the latter a run for his money, thanks a neat midway twist it also combines Assault On Precinct 13 and Escape From New York into one breathless two-for-one bloodbath.
T... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Sundance 2012: First Report
Posted on Saturday January 21, 2012, 21:05 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
Sundance 2012 began with a rare audience at the Bing Bar on Main Street with the man himself, Mr Robert Redford, true Hollywood superstar, festival founder and self-confessed documentary nut. Though something of a will o' the wisp at Sundance, Redford still definitely has a firm grasp on the event, which he took pains to explain is simply one aspect of the Sundance Institute. Much of his work in Park City, he explained, takes place behind the scenes, notably at a filmmakers lunch on the opening weekend, at which he gets to meet the filmmakers and discuss their movies. Far from being a Meet The Queen kind of thing, it's a chance for Redford to share his own experiences – which, he told me, aren't quite so removed from the trials and tribulations of the average independent director. He said, “I tell them, 'You don't know me, but, believe me, when I started to make films, I went though a lot of what you'r... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Awards Season 2011: Spirits, EFAs, BIFAs and more
Posted on Monday December 5, 2011, 14:45 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
Awards season kicked off quietly last week with the New York Critics Circle Awards, which were announced slightly later than usual to accommodate a viewing of David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Surprisingly, after being so keen to see it, the NYCC's members decided to leave the film out of its gong-giving, dishing out awards to such dead-certs as The Artist, which won Best Director and Best Film, and The Tree Of Life, which won acting awards for Brad Pitt (who also got a nod for Moneyball) and Jessica Chastain (whose work in Take Shelter and The Help was taken into consideration), as well as a Best Cinematography award for Emmanuel Lubezki. Moneyball also won the prize for Best Screenplay, which makes me wonder if Bennett Miller's sports movie will be something ... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Brisbane International Film Festival Wrap-up Part 2: Revenge: A Love Story; Martha Marcy May Marlene; Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope; The Yellow Sea
Posted on Monday November 14, 2011, 12:10 by Sam Toy in Under The Radar
 The first thing you need to know about Revenge: A Love Story is that it’s extremely spoiler-prone. So if you like violent Hong Kong thrillers and plan on seeing this, don’t read a synopsis, don’t look it up on IMDb. If anyone begins to mention the plot, cover your ears and repeat “La la la la la” until they go away; you MUST go in with as little pre-knowledge as possible. You’ll need the stomach for some strong violence (around the levels of Drive and Seven), and brace for disappointment as director/co-screenwriter Ching-po Wong can’t hold the story together all the way to the end, but know that for the first half he plays a blinder.
I was disappointed to have missed Martha Marcy May Marlene in Cannes this year, so it was one of the first films I circled on my BIFF program. So glad I did: after Olivia Colman’s superb performance in Tyrannosaur, here’s another co... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Brisbane International Film Festival 2011 Wrap-Up Part 1: Being Elmo, Dancing With Dictators, and The Orator.
Posted on Monday November 14, 2011, 12:06 by Sam Toy in Under The Radar
 Other than heart-warming cuteness, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Being Elmo. So why was I disappointed? Mostly for what seems to me now (some days later as I write this), to be not so much a missed opportunity, but one deliberately skated around. Sure, it is for the most part light, happy, life-affirming, and many other poster quotes one would attribute to a film about everyone’s favourite bright red-furred Muppet child, but it was the brisk smoothing over of the darker life chapters of the man who brings Elmo to life, Kevin Clash, which had me most curious.
In this respect, Constance Marks & Philip Shane’s film reminded me of another documentary from earlier in the year – the much-lauded Senna, which I similarly left me slightly unsatisfied; just as Asif Kapadia’s movie failed to show almost any of the great driver’s famously firey temper, or level any kind of criticism or fault at him at whatsoever, with Being... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopUnder The Radar: London Film Festival 2011: Wrap (Part Two)
Posted on Saturday November 5, 2011, 18:44 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
 On second thoughts, I just realised my LFF2011 experience actually began at 6pm on the first Thursday of the festival with a reception for Drake Doremus and Felicity Jones, who arrived, sadly minus co-star Anton Yelchin, to promote their semi-improvised drama Like Crazy. I saw the film – a beautifully low-key two-hander about two students navigating a transatlantic relationship after college – in Sundance and liked it very much; it won the Grand Jury prize there but reviewers here weren't quite so kind, which is a shame. I'd spoken to Doremus earlier in the day (in fact, first thing) and I was really taken with his intelligence. It would be a shame if his work didn't take root here since, in some ways, the UK is his spiritual home – Doremus's working methods owe more to the likes of Mike Leigh and, more relevantly, Michael Winterbottom – and I'm looking forward to his new (untitled) film, which stars Guy Pearce and will hopefully be re... Continue reading... Comment Now
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