Seattlest at Sundance: Take 3
Today is an absolutely lovely day in Park City, sunny and so warm that we had to take off our coat and scarf to walk around. Yesterday was lovely too, but we wouldn't know, because we spent, oh, approximately fourteen hours in a single theater. Was it worth it? You be the judge:
After seeing Never Fovever, we stuck around for another Vera Farmiga flick, Joshua. The movie's title is in reference to the smart/creepy little boy (played by a kid from Wonder Showzen) who gets a bad case of sibling rivalry when his parents (Farmiga and the always-winning Sam Rockwell) bring home his new baby sister. It's a thriller, but not in the cheap "boo" way, more in the Rosemary's Baby atmospheric and increasingly freaky school of cinema. We thought it was effective (and it was certainly effective enough for the distribution rights to get snatched up by Fox Searchlight), but we heard a range of complaints from others, that it seemed unfinished or that it verged on an exploitation of the child actor.
Speaking of exploiting children, the next movie up was Hounddog. There's been so much talk about this film that it really tainted the experience for us, because instead of watching and enjoying the picture for what it was, we spent the entire time wondering, "When's Dakota Fanning gonna get raped?" Oh, it happens alright, but it's odd to us that that scene has become the media focus, when it's a (relatively) minor, non-explicit incident in the film. Not to downplay the seriousness of child rape, but this film is about more than that, mainly the terrible conditions and limited opportunities to be found in a nameless backwater Southern town. The film itself is fine, nothing spectacular, so it's really Dakota's fierce, fearless performance that carries the picture. Girl can act, for sure.
Next up was the world premiere of Craig Brewer's heavily-anticipated follow-up to Hustle and Flow, Black Snake Moan. All the big stars were on hand---Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and (omg!) Justin Timberlake---and the excitement in the theater was beyond palpable. Jackson plays yet another Bible-minded badass, who's out to save Christina Ricci's character from her bitch-in-heat ways. While we appreciated the sexploitation throwback and the soundtrack (no JT, but plenty of Samuel L. singing the blues), the film lacked the energy and the attitude of Hustle and Flow...but considering that was one of our favorite films from 2005, we may be just a bit biased.
Our final film of the night was another world premiere, this one for King of California, a comedy in which Michael Douglas plays Krazy Dad and Evan Rachel Wood is the Responsible Daughter who must deal with him and his delusions. The film was adequate enough, but what we really appreciated about it was the portrayal of the California exurbs, chockful of Applebee's and gated communities where orange groves once flourished. Douglas, however, does a mean (and refreshingly ugly) crazy.
Then we went home and crawled into bed, in preparation for our last full day at the fest.
