To keep this site dedicated solely to film reviews, a sister site named 'Seven Days in the Beehive State' has been set up to give personal reactions (in a sprawling, sloppy, and hopefully entertaining manner) to the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
You can find it here.
Quickie Sundance reviews follow:
FRIENDS WITH MONEY
Occasionally affecting, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and filled with stellar performances, 'Friends With Money' is nonetheless brought down a number of notches by a creeping sense that we've seen it all before. Look for it in limited release in theaters beginning April 7th, though you're probably better off waiting for the DVD.
MAYBE SO (6/10)
OFF THE BLACK
Above average only because it sets its sights so relatively high, this story of Nick Nolte as an aging loser who becomes friends with a high school boy suffers from illogical or unexplained plot points, a dragging pace, and some extremely inappropriate and unintentional sexual tension between a brother and sister. Nolte shines nonetheless, and there are moments in which the filmmakers' grasp does meet their reach.
MAYBE SO (6/10)
DESTRICTED
Six short takes on pornography by six avant garde directors, 'Destricted' is by far, by far the worst film you will ever have the pleasure of never seeing. If you have a choice between seeing this film and gouging your eyes out with sticks, ask for extra-sharp sticks. You don't want to leave any chance that you'll catch a glimpse of this pretentious dreck.
NO (0/10)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Though it's really not much more than another ensemble comedy with quirky characters, 'Little Miss Sunshine' does just about everything right. The stellar cast (including Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin, and Greg Kinnear) doesn't hurt a bit, and things stay moving quickly enough that it's nearly impossible to get bored with this story of an impromptu family road trip. The Sundance audience whooped, cheered, and cried as usual, but this time the outbursts are well deserved.
YES (8/10)
OPEN WINDOW
It's hard to dislike a film about the tragedy of rape and the bravery it takes the victims to survive it, but director and screenwriter Mia Goldman makes it possible by pulling half the film's lines from Hallmark cards. The movie's cast is across the board likable, but there's only so much water they can squeeze from a stone so dry.
NO (3/10)
STEEL CITY
Brian Jun's first feature suffers from trying to cover so much ground that it ends up running in place.The story would have benefitted greatly from choosing a main plot and sticking to it, but Jun chooses instead to throw every idea in and wait to see if anything sticks. Not much does, but though it is extremely forgettable, 'Steel City' at least has the sense not to try anything its cast and budget can't handle.
NO (3/10)
IN BETWEEN DAYS
Filled with a genuine and honest sweetness, 'In Between Days' is unfortunately marred by one of the thinnest scripts ever seen in a feature-length film. The first-time actors do a commendable job, and the extremely low budget look actually helps with a sense of intimacy, but you'll find yourself watching your watch as much as the screen.
NO (4/10)
STAY
Written and directed by Bob Goldthwait (yes, Bobcat Goldthwait), 'Stay' is as funny as you'd hope, but also surprisingly touching and complex. It isn't flawless by any means - some early scenes miss their mark, its look is far from cinematic, and the film borrows too liberally from both 'Meet the Parents' and 'Everybody Loves Raymond' at times. Still, the highly original and hilarious premise is mined to surprising depths throughout, and this one will certainly leave you talking (and shuddering) for hours.
MAYBE SO (7/10)
DREAMLAND
'Dreamland' contains a great number of shots that are almost unbelievably beautiful, but both its jarring, trendy editing and its art school level poetry sequences drag the film down to average at best. The story - of a small trailer park in the desert and the girl who is trapped there by her own kindness - is solid, for the most part. When it asks us to believe in deep, teenage love at first sight, however, 'Dreamland' stretches credibility to the breaking point. Shakespeare could pull it off. Someone needs to tell director Jason Matzner that he can't.
MAYBE SO (5/10)
THE DESCENT
'The Descent' makes an audience jump the old-fashioned way - with loud noises, sudden violence, pitch black, and loads of creepy monsters. The film does scare, but since it never infiltrates the intellect (or even pretends to, really), any terror it creates dissipates the moment the credits finish rolling. In other words, it'll make a date jump into your arms, but it can't make her stay.
MAYBE SO (5/10)
LITTLE RED FLOWERS
Zhang Yuan's 'Little Red Flowers' is absolutely flawless visually, with every shot a small work of art in itself. It also (amazingly) features wonderful, complex performances from a cast comprised of mostly four and five year-olds. The film has so much going for it in this story of a rebellious orphaned boy whose teachers attempt to make him conform that its lack of resolution is especially frustrating. It doesn't end so much as it just stops, and the lack of closure makes all that came before lose some of its luster.
MAYBE SO (6/10)
RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR
Chris Gorak has worked on numerous films in the art department, as an Art Director, and as a Production Designer, and it shows in his directorial debut, 'Right at Your Door.' The visuals perfectly evoke a dark, mysterious terror that takes place after a series of dirty bombs are detonated in Los Angeles. The story does an equally adept job of evoking the same, but its major flaw is that it doesn't get much beyond setting the scene. It's fairly obvious that Gorak (who also wrote the screenplay) came up with a brilliant premise, a twist for the ending, and then had to scramble to fill in the very large blank between. What a shame it is that the product, though it comes close at times, cannot match the promise.
MAYBE SO (5/10)
STEPHANIE DALEY
A pregnant teenager prematurely gives birth on a high school skiing trip, then throws the dead baby into the woods. A middle-aged forensic psychologist is pregnant and worried that she will again give birth to a stillborn. The two women collide in 'Stephanie Daley,' and though there isn't much more to the story than finding the truth in the teenager's version of events, superior acting from both Tilda Swinton and Amber Tamblyn make the film eminently watchable and upsetting, if not quite as profound as it hopes.
MAYBE SO (7/10)
FORGIVEN
When Paul Fitzgerald's 'Forgiven' focuses on politicians and how their private selves do battle with public image, the film is subtle, nuanced, and believable. When the plot thickens with a 'Crash'-like confrontation in which a disenfranchised man gets his violent yet eloquent say, it stretches credibility and slaps us in the face. Issues are treated intelligently here, but 'Forgiven' often feels like an episode of TV's 'Law & Order' (albeit the best episode you've seen).
MAYBE SO (6/10)
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