Sundance domestic acquisitions so far

Along with the strong current of film reviews, filmmaker interviews and trend stories, dispatches from the Sundance Film Festival these past eight days have included a steady stream of business news: Acquisitions. Which distributors have nabbed which films is a matter of interest to both industry players and fans hoping the movies they’ve read about and, in the case of Kickstarter projects, contributed to, enjoy an accessible theatrical life outside the festival circuit. Which of the event’s titles will make their way to an indie or art-house theatre near you?

Here is the list of Sundance films that have nabbed domestic distributors so far:

A24: A Most Violent Year
J.C. Chandor’s follow-up to his lauded (if Academy-snubbed) All is Lost, which stars Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford, A Most Violent Year continues the director’s streak of working with A-List actors, this time with Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and Jessica Chastain. The film is set in 1981, statistically the most violent year on record for New York City, and follows an immigrant and his family as they try to turn the American dream into their material reality. Judging by the movie’s title, we’re guessing most, if not all, of their illusions will be lost by film’s end.

Obvious Child
Rom-com with an edge: Girl meets boy. Girl hooks up with boy. Girl becomes pregnant. Girl gets an abortion. Then Girl falls in love with boy. Not your traditional romantic arc – nor your traditional outcome for the “Oh, no, I’m pregnant!” scenario – but one which resonated with Sundance audiences nonetheless. Star and real-life comedian Jenny Slate’s performance as the funny, warm Girl in question is reportedly one of the festival’s breakout turns.

Laggies
Keira Knightley as 28-year-old Megan is becoming increasingly bored with her job, the same friends she’s had since high school, and her boyfriend. When the latter proposes, Megan bolts, meeting and befriending 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) at whose home she impulsively decides to hide out for a while. Will the two help each other grow up? A great script by first-time screenwriter Andrea Siegel and performances by the two leading women helped Laggies score a relatively early acquisition deal.

Focus Features: Wish I Was Here
One of the festival’s most anticipated films, for a few reasons: Wish I Was Here marks Zach Braff’s return to auteur form, as writer, director and star, following the great Sundance success of his Garden State back in 2004. Here’s fundraising efforts have also earned a good deal  of press, as Braff, who’s been vocal about wanting to make movies that speak to and about his generation, chose to crowd-fund and secure backing through trendy Kickstarter. Reviews have been mixed, but Wish I Was Here does already have a loyal fan base in the Garden State contingent – not to mention in the many supporters who have a vested financial interest in the movie.

Sony Pictures Classics: Land Ho!
Two retirees embark on a road trip to Iceland, where they try to recapture their youth amid the party atmosphere of Reykjavik bars and nightclubs.

Whiplash
Adapted from Damien Chazelle’s short film of the same name, which won the Jury Award for Fiction at last year’s festival, and picking up roughly where that work left off, Whiplash has garnered some of the best reviews of the 2014 showcase. A young drummer must contend with a particularly demanding (to put it mildly) music teacher in this film whose intense drumming sequences aren’t to be missed.

IFC Films: God’s Pocket
Though John Slattery has helmed several episodes of “Mad Men,” God’s Pocket marks the actor’s first time directing a feature film. Fellow “Men” player Christina Hendricks stars, as does Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, and John Turturro. A suspicious accident at a construction site in a blue-collar town has fatal consequences.

Lionsgate/Roadside: The Skeleton Twins
Funny people Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader take a turn for the dramatic in this dramedy about estranged twins whose independent near-death experiences on the same day bring them together.

Fox Searchlight: Calvary
Any film that puts Brendan Gleeson front-and-center is all right with us – and, apparently, with the folks at Fox Searchlight. Gleeson is a kindhearted priest who, while attending to his fragile adult daughter and administering to the moral needs of his parish, senses the interference of sinister forces.

I Origins
A molecular biologist’s (Michael Pitt) study of the human eye has unforeseen and resounding implications. Such a vague tagline points to a humdinger of a cerebral experience.

ICM Partners: Infinitely Polar Bear
Infinitely Polar Bear is that rare breed of buzzy film that manages to secure distribution before the festival even opens. ICM Partners scooped up Bear the day before Sundance began, as did The Solution Entertainment Group, which will handle the film’s international rights. Mark Ruffalo stars as a bipolar father of two who is forced to look after his children on his own after his wife leaves to pursue her MBA.

Magnolia & Paramount: Happy Christmas
The Lena Dunham Movie does not in fact revolve around Lena Dunham, but rather about Anna Kendrick, who plays Dunham’s friend.  The confusion is understandable, however, as Kendrick also happens to play the latest cinematic variation on the arrested-adolescent character Dunham has made so popular on her HBO series “Girls.” Kendrick is an “irresponsible twentysomething” who moves in with her older brother (Joe Swanberg, who also wrote and directed), his novelist wife (Melanie Lynskey) and their toddler son. Kendrick’s wild ways both jeopardize her relationship with her brother and help enliven the increasingly domestic world of her sister-in-law.

CNN Films & Lionsgate: Dinosaur 13
Paleontologist Peter Larson may have helped uncover the nearly intact fossilized skeleton of a 65-million-year-old TRex he and his partners subsequently christened “Sue,” but that’s only the beginning of the excitement in Dinosaur 13. The documentary follows Larson as he fights for the rights to Sue’s remains, with fellow paleontologists, museums, and Native American tribes all attempting to claim the fossil for themselves.

Pivot and Univision: Cesar’s Last Fast
As the title suggests, Fast chronicles Cesar Chavez’s last act of peaceful protest, a 36-day hunger strike Chavez hoped would draw attention to the plight of farm workers harmfully effected by the use of pesticides. The doc features contemporary footage of the iconic leader enduring his water-only diet.

Well Go USA: Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead
The sequel to 2009’s Nazi zombie horror flick, Dead Snow. What more can we say – or rather, do you need?

Projections for Sunday's Oscar ceremony

After months of speculation, the Oscars will finally be awarded on Sunday. So before you print out your Oscar ballot and mark your choices, take a look at Screener's picks and talking points for the leading categories..

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway for Les
Misérables. There is zero chance of an upset here.

Best Actress
My vote is for Jessica Chastain. This is the best chance for Zero Dark Thirty to get recognition.
Kathryn Bigelow didn't get a directing nomination, and Mark Boal will face competition from Django Unchained and Amour in the Original Screenplay category. That being said, those that favor Silver Linings Playbook may want to reward star Jennifer Lawrence in this prominent category. If voters split on that category, Emmanuelle Riva may win for Amour. The movie on aging was a favorite with the older demographic that belongs to the Academy. Riva is already the oldest nominee in the category, ever, and if she won she would be the oldest winner. If there's one thing the Academy loves, it's firsts.

Best Picture (and Best Director)
What will win: I'm betting on Argo. Ben Affleck won the Directors Guild Award, which traditionally predicts the Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Director. The catch is that Affleck didn't even receive a nomination for Best Director at the Oscars, and Best Director and Best Picture almost always go together. My predicted split: Argo for Best Picture and Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Argo is also the lead in the Adapted Screenplay category, though, again, it's a tough race, and both Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook have people batting in their corner.

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. Chastain was pretty much a lone wolf in Zero Dark Thirty, but Day-Lewis had lots of help from Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones, who were also nominated for their performances. But that doesn't change the fact that Day-Lewis' performance is critical to the success of Lincoln. Great actor, great part = Oscar.

Best Supporting Actor
Some are leaning towards Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master in this category. Although I can't vouch for that performance (one of the few I missed), it has gravitas, which is something the Academy tends to like. Robert De Niro's performance as a bookie father (who cries!) in Silver Linings Playbook is also a frontrunner. Personally, I think Tommy Lee Jones' chuckle-inducing performance as Thaddeus Stevens has been woefully unheralded among the press. He provided some much-needed comic relief in a sometimes dour historical account. Seeing this social liberal compromise in order to pass the amendment was an emotional and intellectual highlight of Lincoln, and Jones is my underdog favorite.

With tight races among great films, this should make for one of the most exciting ceremonies in recent memory. There will also likely be more viewers watching. This year, seven out of the nine nominees for Best Picture have earned over $100 million, which has helped build interest compared to years dominated by micro-indies. And did we mention that Seth MacFarlane is hosting?

 

Jessica Chastain's 'Mama' and 'Zero Dark Thirty' could go 1-2 this weekend

Jessica Chastain just won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. Now she has a standard horror genre picture coming out this weekend, though it does come courtesy of executive producer Guillermo del Toro. Still, it's unlikely that she'll be "Norbit-ed." The term refers to how Eddie Murphy, nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Dreamgirls in 2006, may have had his changes torpedoed by his starring role in the lowbrow comedy. With a 63% positive rating on Rotten
Tomatoes (compared to Norbit's 7% positive rating), it's unlikely Mama (2,647 theatres) will be an embarrassment. The PG-13 rated picture is a "throwback and a modest delight
for people who like a good scare but prefer not to be terrorized or
grossed out," observes THR's critic Todd McCarthy. "Bloodthirsty female teens" will be a prime audience for the movie, which centers on Chastain and two young girls she takes in after a traumatic experience. An opening in the high teens would put the picture ahead of Zero Dark Thirty (also starring Chastain), though they should be neck and neck. If Zero Dark Thirty loses a third of its audience, which would be a particularly good hold, it will end up around $16 million, which should be enough for second place, if not first.

Last Stand and Broken City will both compete for adult male audiences this weekend. They're
expected to do fairly similar business, with each one ending up in the low teen millions. The Last Stand (2,913 theatres) is Arnold Schwarzenegger's first leading-man role since he underwent the transition from movie star to politician, becoming a two-term governor of California. However, the action hero had much-touted cameos in the Expendables movies that many already considered his "return." Wittily self-referential, the film
particularly sends up Schwarzenegger’s age," reports FJI critic Marsha McCreadie, noting a scene where he has to don glasses to get a look at a bullet wound. The answer to the "implied question behind the film: Can
Schwarzenegger still deliver?" is yes.

A corrupt mayor (Russell Crowe) hires a P.I. (Mark Wahlberg) to find out if his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is being unfaithful in Broken City (2,620 theatres). Of course, that initial hint of betrayal spirals into something much bigger in this "noir-ish" look
at New York City. The "broad, splashy pieces of easily digestible
narrative, visual and character components...provides
an easy ride into a cheesy, lazily imagined New York political
scandal," offers critic Doris Toumarkine. That might be enough to get adult males into seats this weekend, at least the ones who prefer to see power wielded cerebrally, not physically.

After spending three weeks playing in around 750 theatres, Silver Linings Playbook will open wide, into, 2,523 locations. The romantic comedy has earned $43 million to date. This weekend should add at least another $10 million to the total. All four lead actors (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver) received Oscar nominations for their performances. With a cipher of a title and a premise that's hard to reduce to a one-line plot description, this movie has sought to gain viewers primarily through word-of-mouth, which is why it has rolled out so slowly.

On Monday, we'll see which Jessica Chastain film led the box office and how many Academy Award nominees kept their spot in the top ten.

 

 

'Zero Dark Thirty' is ambiguous about torture. It would have been a bad movie if it wasn't.

Just as Zero Dark Thirty is accruing awards, controversy is also accelerating over the movie's depiction of torture. New York Magazine's David Edelstein has voiced unease over the torture scenes, saying in his review "As a moral statement, Zero Dark Thirty is borderline fascistic. As a piece of cinema, it’s phenomenally gripping—an unholy masterwork." I'm with Edelstein on the "masterwork" part, but I disagree completely about the "fascistic" part. Zero Dark Thirty is carefully neutral about torture. I went into the screening against torture, and I came out against it. I think it's also possible to
go into the movie approving of torture, and come out also approving of torture. It's the movie's lack of evangelism for the anti-torture standpoint that has people getting nervous. When really, that's what makes director Kathryn Bigelow' and screenwriter Mark Boal's follow-up to The Hurt Locker so great.

Compare Zero Dark Thirty to the upcoming release of Promised Land, a love letter to liberal concerns over drilling for natural gas. The filmmakers are clearly against drilling, and though they try to present other opinions, those positions are only really used as more evidence to support their stance. It's baby food for liberals: bland, unchallenging, guaranteed to be safe going down. Imagine if Zero Dark Thirty had taken this approach, using the movie not to document the hunt for Bin Laden but as an indictment of torture. The entire feel of the movie would be different, and the audience would be guided into being a critic, not an observer.

I found plenty in Zero Dark Thirty to support my anti-torture position. The sequences themselves are brutal, both for the victims and those that are reduced to their basest levels by inflicting violence onto another person. The "big lead" does not come from torture but from its aftermath. CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) and her colleague (Jason Clarke) trick someone into thinking he has already confessed information under duress. He confirms what they say while gorging himself on hummus. Sure, some may think that the kindness method would only work after cruelty, but I'm not one of them.

Besides torture, there are other things that are startling about the raid on Bin Laden. How they call someone's name and shoot him when he turns to respond. The way one of the wives is killed. The fact that I didn't like the way many of the characters acted makes Zero Dark Thirty feel less like a movie and more like the "docudrama" some are calling journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal's take. These are unpleasant truths. America tortured. In a raid, there is no time for those movie-style hesitations, where a character looks the other in the eye for long moment before pulling the trigger, perhaps accompanied by a speech. The things that make us feel better about right and wrong, the good guys and the bad guys. Zero Dark Thirty shows us another reality, and challenges us in our reaction. Do the ends justify the means? People are coming away with the movie with different answers to that question, a sign that Bigelow and Boal have done their job.