Well, I'm not in Park City yet, I leave this Wednesday to go on up there (don't worry, I'm taking my computer with me this time, so I'll be able to do a couple of updates for yall), but my people are. Here's the first report from THE SNOW FOX!
What's up? Just got back from a super special screening of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, but first let me tell you about last night's screening of CUBE.
CUBE is part of the Park City at Midnight program. It was directed by Vincenzo Natali in 20 days in a wharehouse in Toronto for $300,000 (Canadian). I was surprised to see that the movie has already been picked up by Trimark. Why was I surprised? Becuase this movie was a trip through Hell...and I mean that in a good way. This is the most intense, claustrophobic sci-fi flick I've seen in a long time.
Imagine you're a room 14x14x14 feet. There are six sides (four walls, floor, ceiling) and a door on each side. Each door leads to another room almost identical as to the one you're in now. The only distinguishing characteristics of each room are the color of the walls and seemingly random numbers printed in the passageways. Now--oops. I forgot to mention the booby traps. Some rooms have booby traps. Some traps will dice you, some will incinerate you, some will hollow out your skull with hydrochloric acid. Neat stuff.
Now, five characters suddenly find themselves in this labyrinth for no apparent reason and no memory of how they got there (reminds you of an old Twilight Zone episode doesn't it?). They don't know each other, all they know is they need to get out. This could have easily become a one note movie, but Natali and his crew keep managing to through new wrenches into the gears and the characters grow and change in awesome, surprising ways. And one point I was wondering which character will die next and that I didn't want any of them to die because I liked all of them.
This movie was almost perfect. Almost because at some points some of the acting seemed amateurish. That said, David Hewlitt who played Worth was so fucking goddamned cool that I'm going to call Trimark and demand they cut an action-figure deal with someone just so I can own my very own Worth.
I'm not sure the cut we saw would've been kosher with the MPAA--some of the deaths were pretty gory, but _damn_ effective. The exemplary CGI work was done by C.O.R.E. out of Toronto. During Q&A after the movie Natali said they did the work for free just to show their support for the Toronto film industry. How cool is that?
I'll mention THE BIG LEBOWSKI in brief. This was a "special sneak-peak" screening, meaning it wasn't really advertised. There, was still, like, 750 people there to see it. The Coen brothers themselves were there to introduce the movie (they got a big standing O). Unfortunately there was no Q&A afterwards, I think, because the print arrives 1 1/2 hours late and there was no time. The extra waiting time was worht it, however. The Coens have made a fucking masterpiece here. Their funnest movie since RAISING ARIZONA and better, in my mind, than FARGO. John Goodman's character, alone, also demands an action figure deal. Everyone: see this movie. Just see it.
