Sundance 2008, Jan. 21
January 21st, 2008 by Andre Soares
Variety’s Justin Chang on The Great Buck Howard:
"A smoothly turned-out entertainment centered around an Amazing Kreskin-style mentalist comes down with an unfortunate case of the warm-and-fuzzies in The Great Buck Howard. Behind-the-curtains comedy reps an amusing showcase for John Malkovich’s diva-like theatrics in the title role, but writer-director Sean McGinly’s decision to frame the story as a relationship movie, as Buck’s impressionable young assistant deals with some very familiar life issues, tilts the comic seesaw toward sentiment over satire."
Also in the cast are Colin Hanks (co-producer’s Tom Hanks‘ son), and Emily Blunt.
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Mary Milliken on Marina Zenovich’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in Reuters/The Vancouver Sun:
"Zenovich told Reuters her documentary does not apologize for the French-Polish director, but her take on the murky justice and media hype around the Polanski case might make Americans see him in a different light after he was vilified in the 1970s for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
"While Polanski has gone on to rebuild his life and career in France and won the highest U.S honor for a filmmaker with the 2003 Academy Award for best director for The Pianist, he has never returned to the United States nor cleared his name."
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired has been acquired by the Weinsten Co. for international distribution. In the U.S., the documentary will be handled by HBO Documentary.
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Todd McCarthy in Variety:
"It’s a quick trip from whimsy to silliness in Be Kind Rewind, a notably ephemeral work by Michel Gondry, whose flights of fancy can’t overcome the egregious illogic of the premise. A few geeks and VHS cultists may cotton to the spectacle of two videostore clerks compensating for the accidental erasure of commercial tapes by shooting their own versions of Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2 and Driving Miss Daisy, but inspiration is as meager as the antics of Jack Black and Mos Def are lame."
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Alex Billington at Firstshowing.net:
"And last but not least, zombie porn! I decided to catch German [sic] [Canadian-born] filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s midnight movie Otto; or Up with Dead People. Wow, just wow. It literally is a gay zombie porn, not even kidding. There was a particular ’scene’ that within 15 minutes caused droves of people to march out of the theater. My review is ‘in the works,’ even though I am so… disgusted… that I don’t have much to say. But it seems a lot more fun to watch people leave movies than it is to watch them sometimes."
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I had an aunt, Estelle, now dead, whose favorite genre was gay zombie porn. She was a big fan of LaBruce’s work. I’ve never watched any of his films, though after reading Billington’s comment I did look him up online. Found an interview at Filmmaker Magazine and an official LaBruce website.
The Sundance website describes Otto; or Up with Dead People thus: "Otto is a handsome, sensitive, neo-Goth zombie with an identity crisis. He looks and smells like a zombie but isn’t certain that he is one. He wanders the streets of the city, never sleeping, until one day–as he is being harassed by hooligans–he ducks into an alley and spots a poster announcing auditions for a zombie film. He soon meets aspiring filmmaker/revolutionary Medea Yarn, who is convinced that Otto, as a confused zombie, is the perfect embodiment of the effects of advanced capitalism on individuals. Medea begins to make a film about Otto, while simultaneously shooting a film about a gay zombie revolt against consumerist society. After moving in with an actor, Otto begins to remember fragments of his pre-zombie life with a sweet boyfriend. As Medea directs the final, orgiastic scene of her gay zombie film, Otto struggles to access the human emotions buried beneath his zombie exterior."
It sounds like the kind of gay zombie porn flick that my aunt Estelle, rest in peace, would have loved.
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And finally, Pam Grady at Film Stew has an article on Eduardo Noriega, who was at Sundance to promote Brad Anderson’s thriller Transsiberian.
Rotterdam Film Festival 2008 Film Line-Up
33rd Metro Manila Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival 2008 - Dates
Golden Globes 2008 Ceremony Cancelled
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