While most folks are getting prepared for the holiday season by making shopping lists and New Year’s resolutions, cinephiles the world over are making their own lists: best and worst of 2007. In lieu of resolution lists we start to make lists of films to watch out for in the year to come and what better place to start than with the first prestigious film festival of 2008: Sundance.
This year’s event will run January 17-27 and if you’re lucky enough to make the press cut or rich enough to make the trip, the upcoming festival lineup is looking rather amazing. The full line up can be found in the recent press release but below is a list of a few that caught our eye.
Steven Sebring’s documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life sounds great because let’s face it, Patti Smith absolutely rocks. The Brits mark off another notch on the bedpost with Chris Waitt’s A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, a documentary which follows a ‘useless boyfriend’ through various steps that may, or may not, make him better boyfriend material. Sounds rather sad but it could make for fun viewing.
The other three documentaries to note are the Canadian entries which made the cut including Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze which was very well received at VIFF, Isaac Isitan’s The Women of Brukman which chronicles the rise of working women from employees to business managers in a Argentinean clothing factory and Patrick Reed’s Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma which follows former Doctors Without Borders head Dr. James Orbinski on a trip to Africa and an exploration of what it means to be a humanitarian.
On the dramatic side of things we have a couple of great choices. Kurt and Jonathan are pretty excited about Clark Gregg’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald and Brad Henke. Johan Renck’s Downloading Nancy with the fantastic Maria Bello and Rufus Sewell sounds like it could be interesting as does Geoff Haley’s The Last Word which is sporting one of my favourite underrated actors Wes Bentley, alongside Winona Ryder. Rawson Marshall Thurber’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh doesn’t sound particularly appealing to me but it stars another of my favourites, Peter Sarsgaard with the wonderful Mena Suvari who’s been off the radar for a few years.
I know Andrew’s digging Christine Jeffs’ Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn and Alan Arkin and with that cast, I can’t say I blame him (not to mention that Jeffs was behind the fairly good Plath biopic Sylvia). And no, Andrew didn’t miss Paul Schneider’s Pretty Bird which sports his main man Paul Giamatti.
And that doesn’t even include a look at the World Cinema selections most of which sound like they could be hits.
If this Sundance line-up is any indication, we’re in for a great year of film. Let’s hope that’s the case because most major Hollywood releases aside, 2007 has been a fantastic year.
One of the things that pisses me off most is when I call (insert company name here) and I get some guy (or girl) who’s obviously not in the same country never mind who speaks the same language. I put blame on the (company) for outsourcing the jobs to people who may not be qualified to deal with the problems which are coming up and though I sometimes get angry at those poor folks thousands of miles away I do, in the back of my head, know that they’re just doing their job. But in the heat of the moment, I can’t help but flare.
The Other Boleyn Girl Movie Still
