Sundance Day one
By Robert Levin
Special to amNewYork
If you see this girl coming, get out of her way. (Getty)
Hello from a surprisingly temperate Park City, nestled high above sea level in Utah’s Wasatch Range, where the Sundance Film Festival is now in full swing. When not being shoved out of Paris Hilton’s way by guards at the MySpace Café on Main Street, navigating through the (slightly reduced) throngs of festival goers or learning the crucial shuttle system, I’ve seen a lot of movies since I arrived late Thursday. The plan is to use these daily blog updates to fill you in with mini-reviews of what I’ve been watching and as many entertaining tidbits about the Sundance experience as possible.
Sam Rockwell faces an enormous acting challenge in “Moon,” an existential science-fiction drama from Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son). He plays Sam Bell, a futuristic astronaut left alone at a lunar base to mine the moon of clean energy. Remarkably, aside from the occasional flashback, there’s not a single other character in the movie until another Sam Bell (also played by the star) shows up. Rockwell admirably excels at the burdensome task of playing against himself, giving one of his most heartfelt performances. He gives the film the human feeling it needs to complement the filmmaker’s provocatively topical agenda.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the festival, and if there’s one type of movie that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of Sundance, it’s a quirky dysfunctional family drama set in the suburbs. It’s a testament to the quality of the craft of “Lymelife” that it works well despite rigidly adhering to the template. Director Derick Martini sets things in 1970s Long Island, when there were still a lot of land left for suburban developers, and tells the story of the crumbling marriage between Mickey (Alec Baldwin) and Brenda (Jill Hennessy) through the eyes of their son Scott (Rory Culkin). The director, who co-wrote with his brother Steve, fills the film with moments of quiet desperation and gets a compelling, introspective performance from Rory that might just be the best onscreen work ever done by a Culkin. Martini evokes the realistic emotional ramifications of the situation and skillfully connects it to the frailty of the American Dream.
“Humpday,” from writer-director Lynn Shelton, transforms a thoroughly outrageous premise into a thoughtful study of the burdens of masculinity. Friends Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) reunite some ten-years after graduating college and decide, over one drunken night together, to have sex together on camera at a later date and submit their work to a local porn festival. When they’ve sobered up, they still decide to go through with it, despite Ben’s very happy marriage to Anna (Alycia Delmore). “Humpday” skillfully probes the male psyche, exploring the shared sense of inadequacy and terror that spurs their plan. Variety reports serious talks are underway for a distribution deal, a completely unsurprising development given the appealing combination of humor and pathos at the heart of the film.
