2007 Sundance Film Festival Wrap-up

An edited version of this review of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival originally appeared in the Spring issue of Filmmaker magazine, which holds re-publication rights for 90 days following the initial release date. The full review as originally written runs here.

Park City -- Arriving at the festival’s midpoint proved timely this year due to the atypically inverted acquisitions pattern that developed early on. After fest-watchers proclaimed that there were few standout titles available prior to the opening, buyers held on tightly to their checkbooks into the first weekend, playing a waiting game that finally ended when Magnolia Pictures bought competition doc "Crazy Love." The pick-up seemed to reassure other buyers about the commercial viability of titles throughout the fest’s sections and sales quickly set a surprisingly brisk pace.

Although Sundance organizers attempted to sway attendees’ interest away from swag salons, fringe parties and dealmaking by distributing “Focus on Film” buttons, every day brought new distribution deals, particularly for titles premiering later in the lineup. In the face of this annual onslaught of calculated commercialism, the colorful buttons seemed an exceedingly mild response, particularly since they appeared to be in scarce supply outside the Marriott headquarters, primarily attracting the interest of dedicated cinephiles.

As usual, the shuttle buses, parties and bars were the best places to catch up on the latest news and rumors. A Main Street shuttle conversation, for instance, had a producer of "The Signal" revealing news of the film’s sale to Magnolia, while the premiere party for "Chapter 27" was abuzz with hopeful anticipation of a festival deal that ultimately didn’t materialize.

Aside from the heightened sales activity, the second half of the fest revealed some favorable debuts, as well as a few non-starters. In the Premieres section, novelist and screenwriter Mike Cahill stepped behind the camera to direct "King of California," a quirkily calibrated comedy starring Michael Douglas as recently released bipolar mental patient Charlie, who returns home to his teenaged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) with a scheme to unearth Conquistador treasure he believes is buried beneath the local Costco.

Although Cahill’s uninspired visuals do little to enliven the narrative, the script is strong, providing Douglas in particular the opportunity to fill out Charlie’s larger than life character. Audience response was warm, if not overwhelming, at the Eccles premiere and First Look Pictures took the pick up for about $3 million the next day.

Buyers were less sanguine about "Chapter 27," a killer’s-eye view account of Mark David Chapman’s 1980 assassination of John Lennon. Jared Leto delivers a fascinating performance as the self-absorbed and increasingly unbalanced Chapman, thoroughly inhabiting the role. Perhaps because the details of the crime are so well known, writer-director Jarrett Schaefer makes little effort to fill in the character’s backstory. Leto’s earnest method acting and some atmospheric lensing (along with Lindsay Lohan in a tossed-off supporting role) prove a poor substitute for better scripting that might give Chapman’s crime a more meaningful context. The film was still seeking a distributor after the close of the festival.

Late-night programming sometimes takes a toll on attendance for Park City at Midnight screenings, but the Holiday Village was near capacity for an awards-night showing of Justin Lin’s 70’s-set "Finishing the Game." Following his 2002 "Better Luck Tomorrow" Sundance feature debut, Lin staged his indie comeback with this comedy spoof that reimagines the aftermath of Bruce Lee’s 1973 death, when studio execs hijacked the martial arts star’s unfinished "Game of Death" and substituted a stand-in to create a marginally viable finished film.

In Lin’s pseudo-doc, Roger Fan, Sung Kang and Dustin Nguyen are among the wanna-be Bruce Lees auditioning for the role while the white filmmakers – including the neophyte director (Jake Sandvig) and a clueless casting agent (Meredith Scott Lynn) -- debate whether “fuckability” or acting chops are the most important qualification for the part. Lin amusingly sends up the many foibles of studio moviemaking and stages spot-on recreations of 70s TV shows and movies in this lighthearted satire that’s ultimately less incisive than BLT but may also prove more accessible to a broader audience.

Sci-fi/horror/thriller genre exercise "The Signal" sent a scrambled message across the festival airwaves from a midnight Egyptian Theater screening. Featuring several distinct narrative and visual styles corresponding to its three-act structure, the film opens with an intriguing first segment about a mysterious signal broadcast by TV, radio and cell phones that sends residents of the city of Terminus on a murderous rampage. Like a degrading transmission straying too far from its source, the storyline deteriorates in later reels with abrupt narrative and stylistic shifts, likely attributable to shared writing and directing duties among filmmakers David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush. While their tag-team approach actually detracts from the film’s effectiveness, Magnolia saw enough potential in "The Signal" to acquire the picture for approximately $2 million.

The Spectrum section's mixed-bag of screenings included writer-director David Kaplan’s feature debut "Year of the Fish," adapted from an ancient Chinese version of the Cinderella fable -- a rotoscoped animated feature based on original mini-DV live-action footage. In this contemporary fairytale, Ye Xian (An Nguyen) immigrates illegally to New York's Chinatown and quickly falls victim to malevolent Mrs. Su (Tsai Chin), who expects her to join the other girls servicing clients in her massage parlor. When Ye Xian refuses, Su tasks her with doing all the chores. With the help of a magical goldfish and blind fortuneteller Auntie Yaga (Randall Duk Kim), Ye Xian may be able to escape Mrs. Su’s clutches long enough to rendezvous with handsome young bandleader Johnny Pan (Ken Leung). Although the outlines of the tale are familiar, Kaplan imbues it with enough cultural detail and local flavor to reinvigorate the story, eliciting a charming lead performance from newcomer An Nguyen.

The devastation of post-Katrina New Orleans forms the backdrop for "Low and Behold," which delves into subject matter that might have been better presented in a documentary format rather than this vaguely conceived and weakly executed feature. Turner (Barlow Jacobs) moves to New Orleans to join his uncle Ed’s (Robert Longstreet) team of insurance claims adjusters, but has a hard time adapting to the city’s devastation and angry residents until he meets Nixon (Eddie Rouse), a loquacious local who tries to help Turner navigate the complexities of his new career. As co-written by Jacobs and director Zack Godshall, the men’s unlikely partnership never gels, while Godshall’s uninvolving visual style robs the action of any momentum.

Documentary prizewinners in the competition categories spanned the spectrum from the virtually experimental (doc Grand Jury award winner "Manda Bala") to the cable-ready ("In the Shadow of the Moon"). Among the more divergent titles, "Hear and Now" and "War/Dance" were separated by a distinct difference in style and scope. In "Hear and Now," filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky follows her deaf parents as they prepare for cochlear implant surgery, which will give them the ability to hear for the first time in their lives. Her personal-doc approach focuses primarily on her subjects and other family members, foregoing any in-depth discussion of the implant procedure, which remains controversial in the deaf community. Although her parents are interesting and pleasant people, their melodramatic journey fails to seriously invest viewers in the outcome. Produced by HBO Documentary Films, "Hear and Now" is headed for a 2008 broadcast and more than likely will bypass theatrical release enroute.

Appropriately enough, "War/Dance" won the Documentary Directing Award, its highly cinematic visual style winning out over more conventional docs. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine’s account of three children orphaned by war in Uganda who participate with their school in a national music competition is driven by the tension between the horror of the children’s’ suffering and the joy they discover in music. Dancer Nancy, xylophonist Dominic and singer Rose are all victims of a rebel insurgency, their lives and families decimated by war. The filmmakers contrast their schoolhouse music rehearsals with artistically framed interviews as the kids describe their experiences, intercut with impressionistic sequences conveying the terror of their ordeals. Shot on hi-def, "War/Dance" has a palpable, pristine look that sometimes appears out of synch with the squalor of the subjects’ refugee-camp life. ThinkFilm, which acquired the doc prior to the fest, can expect a welcome reception for "War/Dance" in theatrical release.

Although the critical perspective on Sundance was decidedly mixed, various estimates pegged festival acquisitions activity in the $40-50 million range -- clearly favorable from a sales perspective. Depending on where your preferences fall along the “Focus on Film” continuum, 2007 could be seen as a banner year or another fest where art was subsumed by commerce.