Tag: mark ruffalo

This Year’s Sundance: More independent, less commercial?

January 21st, 2010

… That’s the word on the street, or at least the buzz that new Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper is trying to create.

He believes the fare at this year’s edition of Sundance to be more indie and innovative, and less overtly commercial.

The 26th annual fest, with 113 features over 10 days, kicks off today, and some observers have pointed to a 2010 fest with markedly darker fare, according to New York Times writer Brooks Barnes.

“Prominent examples include “Blue Valentine,” a bleak portrait of a failing marriage starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, and “Sympathy for Delicious,” about a paralyzed disc jockey who seeks faith healing, starring Orlando Bloom and Mark Ruffalo. “The Company Men,” the first feature from John Wells (“ER”), stars Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner and tackles the dreary topic of corporate downsizing. Ryan Reynolds spends the entirety of “Buried” in a coffin.”

Because of the box-office success and critical reception of last year’s big winner, Precious, some filmmakers are encouraged about the prospects for striking deals with distributors.

” “This potentially could be the beginning of the beginning — the renaissance we’ve all been hoping for,” said Kevin Iwashina, a co-founder of Parlay Media, a film sales and production company.”

for the rest of the Times story, click here.

More:
Kenneth Turan (L.A. Times) on Sundance)

John Cooper, Trevor Groth interviewed by Wall Street Journal
Blindness; and other new DVDs

February 15th, 2009
Blindness (Miramax, widescreen, $29.99)

feature, 120 mins; rated R

End-of-the-world sagas, from 28 Days Later (and its sequel) and I Am Legend to the forthcoming screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s stark, exceedingly dark (but beautifully crafted) The Road, by nature are bleak.

Blindness (Miramax, $29.99), likewise, is darn bleak: The film, helmed by Mexican director Fernando Meirelles (Children of God) posits that humans, in times of extreme crisis and fear, are liable to turn savage.

Who needs real-life zombies when regular folks descend into brutality and other types of ugly behavior, like the suddenly de-civilized young Brit lads in William Golding’s groundbreaking 1954 novel Lord of the Flies?

Blindness, based on the Jose Saramago novel, follows a group of characters, brought together in a rather contrived fashion, who have suddenly and inexplicably gone blind. They live in whiteness, not darkness, their normal seeing replaced with a constant shield of bright light.

Julianne Moore, a regular in films regarding contemporary alienation and ennui, is the only sighted person of the bunch, the wife of an eye doctor — oh, the irony! — played by Mark Ruffalo, all good intentions, hangdog attitude and fingers that roam in the direction of a good-hearted prostitute (Alice Braga).

The cast also includes Danny Glover as a wise man with an eye patch, suggesting that Morgan Freeman wasn’t available; Gael Garcia Bernal as a bartender-turned-dictator, a young guy who seizes control of the abandoned ward where the blindness victims are quarantined, and then proceeds to abuse his power in exceedingly ugly fashion; and screen vet Maury Chaykin as an accountant who uses his talents to support Bernal’s regime (characters go unnamed).

Meirelles’ vision is relentlessly grim, until … it’s not, when the band of disease victims escapes from the ward, dances a joyful dance in the rain that heals all wounds, celebrates a warm, convivial homecoming dinner and becomes an accidental family.

The tonal shift is strikingly sudden and unconvincing , just one element of a film that is less than satisfying.

Extras:
- “A Vision of Blindness,” hourlong documentary following the production from actors’ workshops to a screening featuring a meeting between Meirelles and novelist Saramago
- Audio commentary by Meirelles
- Deleted scenes
Also released this week:

Frozen River (Sony, widescreen DVD, $28.96), a surprisingly moving “small” drama featuring an affecting, Oscar-nominated performance by Melissa Leo. She’s a single mom who teams with a widowed Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) in a dangerous operation transporting illegal aliens across icy upstate New York terrain bordering Canada. Extras: Commentary by writer/director Courtney Hunt and producer Heather Rae. DVD PICK OF THE WEEK

W. (Lions Gate, widescreen DVD, $29.95), with Josh Brolin as the title character in Oliver Stone’s predictably loopy vision of Bush. Cast also includes Richard Dreyfuss, Elizabeth Banks, Toby Jones, and James Cromwell. Extras: Behind-the-scenes featurette; skewed short on Bush presidency; DVD-ROM features.

Miracle at St. Anna (widescreen DVD, $29.99), Spike Lee’s WWII drama, with Derek Luke, John Turturro, John Leguizamo, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Also out:
- My Name is Bruce
- Nights in Rodanthe
- Soul Men
- The Foot Fist Way
- The Lodger
- What Just Happened?
Gasparilla Intl Film Festival: Program Announced

February 9th, 2009

Nothing But the Truth, as previously noted, is the ripped-from-the-headlines political drama slated to open the third annual Gasparilla International Film Festival, Feb. 26 at Tampa Theatre.

The festival, twice as long as last year’s event, runs through March 11 at various Tampa Bay area venues, including Channelside Cinemas, the University of Tampa, and the Tampa Firefighters Museum in Ybor City.

Several other notable features, including Florida premieres, are slated to play the festival. On the list:

What Doesn’t Kill You, the directorial debut of actor Brian Goodman; the crime drama stars Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo, and Amanda Peet.

Misconceptions, a controversial comic drama from television director Ron Satlof, with A.J. Cook, Orlando Jones, David Moscow and Sarah Carter.

Kassim the Dream, a documentary about the world-champ Ugandan boxer who, as a child soldier, committed atrocities.

Il Divo, an Italian-French drama concerning the life of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

Truth in 24, a documentary following Audi Sport racing teams at Le Mans.

Sugar, a drama about a Dominican pitcher struggling to make it to the big leagues. The film was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who teamed for 2006’s acclaimed indie Half Nelson.

Amal, a Canadian film, in English and Hindi, concerning an autorickshaw driver in New Delhi.

Fix, a drama, inspired by true events, detailing the efforts of a pair of documentary filmmakers to get a man from jail to rehab in one day. The action, in Los Angeles, ranges from Beverly Hills to Watts, with multiple stops in between.

Also on tap is the first public showing of The Steam Experiment, a thriller starring Val Kilmer, Armand Assante and Eric Roberts, directed by Philippe Martinez (Citizen Verdict). The cast also includes St. Petersburg native Megan Brown.

More details on the films, screening times and related events are TBA today. For additional information, visit the official fest site.

Tag: mark ruffalo

This Year’s Sundance: More independent, less commercial?

Blindness; and other new DVDs

Gasparilla Intl Film Festival: Program Announced