Thursday, January 24, 2013

Sundance Film Festival, Wednesday (1/23), Post 3

... a brief update for Wednesday at Sundance – so far we’re 5 for 5 with our films, no duds. All have been super entertaining and excellent in their own right. On Wednesday we watched:

Circles (Golubovic, 2013) at the Library, a feature length film, shot in that slow aesthetic in the vein of Hou Hsiao-Hsien – perfectly paced, with elements -- to an extent -- of a mystery/what happened in terms of the film’s narrative construction, with balanced characterization and outstanding acting, the best acting of any film I’ve seen here so far. I believe that this film will see, and deserves, wide-release.

Newlyweeds (King, 2013), also at the Library, was wonderfully entertaining, one of the audience favorites at the festival so far. I laughed for at least 15 minutes total throughout the film, including at least 3 minutes in one stretch during a flashback in which the protagonist imagines his life of today as if he were living in a 1970s Blaxploitation film.

Meanwhile, the “Shorts Program 4” at Prospector was another fine series of films, including: Black Metal (9 min), Boneshaker (12 min), The Captain (5 min), The Curse (17 min), Gun (17 min), On Suffocation (7 min), You Are More Than Beautiful (27 min).

My favorite shorts included Black Metal, which portrays a black metal singer who contemplates the fact a murder was committed by a fan ostensibly inspired by his music, and the The Curse, which represents issues of gender and coming of age in rural Morocco.

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