Hey folks, Harry here with Ethan - who wanted to chime in on a few Sundance titles he caught in the frozen igloos in which they were shown. Here ya go...
Hey Harry, I too went to Sundance and would like to offer up some reviews of the things I saw, which were Delirious, The Great World of Sound, We Are the Strange, and The Ten. Delirious: This was about a struggling homeless actor played by Michael Pitt (not very convincingly, at that), who essentially stood around staring deeply at things and looking stoned and half-retarded. He befriends an asshole paparazzi played hilariously by Steve Buscemi and SPOILERS FROM THIS PART ON Pitt's character falls in love with Allison Lohmann's character, an obvious lame Britney Spears type character (it's so fresh and original! Hilarious biting satire!) and then somehow becomes a famous actor himself and ditches Buscemi, so Steve Buscemi decides to shoot him and then decides he doesn't want to, and instead takes a picture of him, and according to the scene after the end credits, he became a rich and famous photographer because of it. Very realistic and very thought-provoking. ( i.e. it's Hollywood crap posing as a thought-provoking indie) This one was really pretty poor. Awful direction and screenplay, and awful performances from Allison Lohmann and Michael Pitt, full of cheesy sub-film-school level obvious metaphors. Steve Buscemi was really the only good thing about it, he admittedly was pretty funny in his role, but what role isn't he good in? Oh and Gina Gershon was okay in it. Also Lohmann is in her bra basically the whole movie so that was interesting. Overall I'd give it a 4.5/10. Maybe worth a rental if you're really interested. The Great World of Sound: It was about a couple of guys who get conned into being con men and trick musicians into paying them in order to get a record contract and the implications of it. This was an excellent film, great performances, hilarious scenes, including hidden-camera improv scenes ala Borat. At the end it even took a turn towards the dramatic and still was believable and enjoyable. Nice synthesizer score, too. It reminded me of a mix of "The Office" and "Garden State" but skewed toward a slightly older crowd. If it gets picked up I highly recommend it, nice little film (although I will say the improv scenes were a little jarring and could use some trimming). I'd give it an 8.5/10 We Are the Strange: This was a $3000 computer animated film done basically by one dude in his bedroom that looked like something Hollywood would make for about $70 million. It was about a girl in a dream land or something like that, I don't really remember. There were boss fights and all sorts of crazy environments. Essentially, the animation and to a lesser extent, the sound design were absolutely incredible, but the pacing and script could've used some revising. Recommended on an art level, not so much as an entire movie. Actually, recommended as an experience, to show what's possible nowadays (and to see some damn cool, damn geeky animation). I'd give the film a 6.5/10 and the animation a 9.5/10. So, overall about a 7/10 The Ten: A hilarious film by the director of another hilarious film (Wet Hot American Summer), The Ten is an orgasm for comedy fans. It's the same comedy sensibility of the guys who did "The State", "Reno 911", "Stella", and the afore-mentioned " W.H.A.S." but on a much more professional level. It looked great visually, it had an all-star cast (off the top of my head, Paul Rudd, Gretchen Mol, Oliver Platt, Justin Theroux, Famke Jannsen, Jessica Alba, Rob Corrdry, that young kid from the O.C., and many more). It's basically just ten comedy sketches all somewhat combined, sharing a character or two, representing each of the 10 commandments, with Paul Rudd's character providing a constant 11th sketch in between each of the commandments. It's short, hilarious, and leaves you wanting more. A hilarious film that I want to see again. Probably the best film I saw. Score? 9.5/10 (0.5 points deducted for the two or three lame jokes and the stupid rock scene at the end)
