News and brief tidbits have been flowing in this weekend from one of film’s most prestigious festivals, Sundance, which is currently being held in Utah.
While Sundance might not be quite as huge as Cannes, it’s a pretty close second as far as film premieres go — it’s prone to showcasing films that go on to become Oscar and Golden Globes winners (“Little Miss Sunshine”, “Boyhood”, “Searching For Sugarman”, “Man On Wire”, “Harvie Krumpet”, “Cinema Paradiso” etc), you can bet Margz and Davo are VIPs there, and Lena Dunham is rocking up this year in a “bitches” sweatshirt. It’s pretty safe to say that we want to go to there.
While the internet is rudely letting me down today to source more of the most-talked about, most hyped films that Sundance is premiering – such as the superbly cast ‘The Overnight’, but alas we’ll survive – five hugely promising films do have trailers, and they all look incredibly rad. Behold:
James Franco and Jonah Hill unite in ‘True Story’, a true story (see what they did there?) about Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill), a former New York Times journalist, and his encounter with murderer and fugitive Christian Longo (James Franco). There are approximately zero inappropriate jokes between Franco and Hill, something I’m quite frankly uncomfortable with, but this looks fresh as hell.
PARTISAN
Vincent Cassel is every inch of flawless in the chilling trailer for ‘Patrisan’, an Australian (!) thriller filmed Down Under, helmed by ‘Snowtown‘ producers and directed by local hero Ariel Kleiman. Will watch.
H.
Mystery and an intense violin track make ‘H.’ a promising addition to the Sundance lineup. Major ‘Melancholia’ vibes which I can most definitely dig.
3½ MINUTES
Documentaries at Sundance notoriously knock it out of the park – “3½ Minutes” appears to be no exception. The film’s title describes the length of time between an unarmed black teenager Jordan Davis‘ arrival at a petrol station, and when police began to shoot – an encounter which would eventually lead to his death. When stories such as these make headlines all too often, this looks like a powerful and harrowing portrait of race relations in America.
DOPE
Zoë Kravitz, ASAP Rocky, Blake from Workaholics and Harvard are all things that we can associate with ‘Dope’, a Spring Breakers-ish drama that is getting the buzz it deserves.
STRANGERLAND
Bonus ‘Straya alert! Trailers for ‘Strangerland’ have been removed online, so here is a bonus still for your consideration instead. Aside from ‘Partisan’, Australia has proudly made it to Sundance 2015 with an obscenely talented cast and crew with the hella promising ‘Strangerland’, directed by Sydney’s Kim Farrant and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and Joseph Fiennes.
