Every year, I enviously follow friends' and film writers' reactions to what's happening at Sundance. The festival often features movies that end up on my Best of the Year lists, so I'm always glad to scope out the slate and start ratcheting up the excitement. This year's Sundance had a wonderfully diverse line-up that is littered with movies I want to see, but I managed to whittle my list down to five, as I
usually do. You can find reviews of these films on other sites, but until I get to actually attend Sundance (maybe next year), it's all about looking forward.
1. The Spectacular Now - Those who scoped out my
Most Anticipated of 2013 list should not be surprised to find this teenage romance, based on Tim Tharp's novel and adapted for the screen by
(500) Days of Summer scribes Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, at the top of this list. I recently read and loved the book, and I can't wait to see it translated by the talented writing team and director James Ponsoldt. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley star, and the two talented young actors received a Special Jury Prize for their performances. Reactions from festival attendees have been very positive, and A24 picked up the film for distribution, likely targeting a summer release.
2. Escape From Tomorrow - One of the most buzzed-about films out of Sundance is also the one that most of us may never get to see. Debut filmmaker Randy Moore employed guerrilla filmmaking techniques to illegally shoot the film in Disney theme parks and edited the film abroad. In
Escape From Tomorrow, a man wanders through an increasingly hellish Disney park, fascinated by two underage French tourists. Disney is notorious for being super protective of its intellectual property, so sadly,
Escape From Tomorrow may never see the light of day. Those who were able to see the film at Sundance may have gotten to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am duly jealous.
3. Breathe In - My favorite movie to come out of 2011's Sundance Film Festival was Drake Doremus' brutal, beautiful
Like Crazy. The writer-director was back at the fest this year with
Breathe In. Guy Pearce stars as Keith, a music teacher with a family who reminisces about his days of pursuing a more creative path through life. Felicity Jones - who was incredible in
Like Crazy - plays British exchange student Sophie, who moves in with Keith's family and rekindles something in him previously lost. Doremus and co-writer Ben York Jones struck brilliant gold before, and I'm excited to see if they've done it again here. (It sounds like they have.)
Breathe In lacks a release date, but if it follows in
Like Crazy's footsteps, expect a fall release.
4. Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley has already proven herself a masterful writer-director with
Away From Her and last year's incredible
Take This Waltz (which is on Netflix Instant, if you've not seen it). With
Stories We Tell, Polley becomes documentarian, and she turns the camera on her own family as she delves into the lives of her parents: mother Diane, who passed away when Polley was 11, and father Michael. Polley becomes a sort of familial detective as she seeks to unravel a long-dormant mystery, trying to sort through the faults of memory and the flourishes of story-telling as she interviews a colorful cast of friends and family. Deeply personal but simultaneously universal,
Stories We Tell wowed on the festival circuit last year and did so again at Sundance. Roadside Attractions is planning a release within the next few months.
5. Austenland - Napoleon Dynamite co-writer Jerusha Hess makes her directorial debut with
Austenland, based on the Shannon Hale novel of the same name (Hale and Hess also serve as the film's co-writers). Keri Russell stars as a Jane Austen-obsessed thirty-something who saves up her money to visit an Austen-themed resort, where visitors get to live the lives of Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood while interacting with a cast of actors embodying the classic literary characters. The supporting cast includes Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and Jane Seymour, and the film proved to be a crowd-pleaser at Sundance. Sony Pictures Classics is handling distribution, and will likely release
Austenland this summer or autumn.
3. Breathe In - My favorite movie to come out of 2011's Sundance Film Festival was Drake Doremus' brutal, beautiful Like Crazy. The writer-director was back at the fest this year with Breathe In. Guy Pearce stars as Keith, a music teacher with a family who reminisces about his days of pursuing a more creative path through life. Felicity Jones - who was incredible in Like Crazy - plays British exchange student Sophie, who moves in with Keith's family and rekindles something in him previously lost. Doremus and co-writer Ben York Jones struck brilliant gold before, and I'm excited to see if they've done it again here. (It sounds like they have.) Breathe In lacks a release date, but if it follows in Like Crazy's footsteps, expect a fall release.
4. Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley has already proven herself a masterful writer-director with Away From Her and last year's incredible Take This Waltz (which is on Netflix Instant, if you've not seen it). With Stories We Tell, Polley becomes documentarian, and she turns the camera on her own family as she delves into the lives of her parents: mother Diane, who passed away when Polley was 11, and father Michael. Polley becomes a sort of familial detective as she seeks to unravel a long-dormant mystery, trying to sort through the faults of memory and the flourishes of story-telling as she interviews a colorful cast of friends and family. Deeply personal but simultaneously universal, Stories We Tell wowed on the festival circuit last year and did so again at Sundance. Roadside Attractions is planning a release within the next few months.
5. Austenland - Napoleon Dynamite co-writer Jerusha Hess makes her directorial debut with Austenland, based on the Shannon Hale novel of the same name (Hale and Hess also serve as the film's co-writers). Keri Russell stars as a Jane Austen-obsessed thirty-something who saves up her money to visit an Austen-themed resort, where visitors get to live the lives of Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood while interacting with a cast of actors embodying the classic literary characters. The supporting cast includes Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and Jane Seymour, and the film proved to be a crowd-pleaser at Sundance. Sony Pictures Classics is handling distribution, and will likely release Austenland this summer or autumn.
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