ComingSoon.net and our associated horror/genre site ShockTillYouDrop.com are in Park City, Utah, for what is always one of the biggest and most prestigious United States film festivals, where thousands of independent filmmakers, journalists and celebrities converge on the town’s movie theaters and clubs for eleven days of movies, music, more movies, food and lots of fun!
The Sundance Film Festival is so vast and rich with things to do I’m still working out exactly what I’m going to be able to see and do as well as which filmmakers and actors I’m going to have a chance to talk to. My preview ran a bit earlier than normal, although you can still check it out in the gallery below. Since putting that together, other movies have come up that I’m curious about including The Forbidden Room, the latest from Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin, who I’ve become a fan of, as well as James White, the latest from Borderline Productions, specifically the directorial debut by that group’s Josh Mond. He has some tough tough footsteps to follow in, considering that it was proceeded by Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer, both which premiered at Sundance in past years.
I’ve seen a good deal of the movies playing at Sundance this year that have already done the festival circuit like Damien Szifron’s Wild Tales (nominated for an Oscar in the Foreign Language category) and ‘71 starring Jack O’Connell, both which could end up in my Top 25 this year. I recently saw the Hungarian thriller White God and the drama Aloft, which had also been playing the festival circuit in 2014 and are making Sundance their last stop before theatrical release.
While I’m a fan of genre films and there’s lots of cool genre films to choose from in the Park City at Midnight section including Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, I’m probably going to let Shock’s new managing editor Sam Zimmerman handle that stuff while I focus on other things.
I’m sure I’ll find a number of other hidden gems that I wasn’t expecting, especially in the second week when I’ll have more time. (The next couple of days are absolutely insane with premieres as everyone tries to be the first out of the gate.) Who knows, maybe there’ll even be a Whiplash or a Boyhood in the bunch, movies so good that they sustain themselves through the year right up until Oscar night.
Tonight is Opening Night and I’m planning to catch two of the narrative features in competition, Melissa Rauch’s The Bronze about a washed-up Olympic gymnast and Alainte Kavaite’s Lithuanian coming-of-age drama The Summer of Sangaille, which kicks off the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Stay tuned to ComingSoon.net’s Sundance Film Festival channel and ShockTillYouDrop.com for reviews, interviews and other updates. I’m sure I’ll be doing a lot of writing while standing in line to see my next movie of the day as things are fairly non-stop from here on in.
2015 Sundance Film Festival Preview
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Being Evel
One of the many interesting docs being brought to Sundance is this one from Dan Junge (Beyond the Brick) about the great '70s stuntman Robert "Evel" Knievel. Produced by "Jackass" founder Johnny Knoxville, of course.
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Best of Enemies
Less than a year after winning an Oscar for his Sundance doc 20 Feet From Stardom, director Morgan Neville is back, co-directing this doc with Robert Gordon about the 1968 political debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.
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Brooklyn
This 1950s Irish drama, directed by John Crowley (Intermission) and adapted by novelist Nick Hornby (An Education), stars Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson and Emory Cohen in a love triangle over two countries. Ronan also stars in the competition film Stockholm, Pennsylvania.)
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Call Me Lucky
Former stand-up comedian Bobcat Goldthwait switches gears for this doc about Barry Crimmins, a relatively unknown bar comic who changed gears and became a peace activist and political satirist.
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The D Train
Yup, that's Jack Black, all cleaned up for Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel's comedy about a guy who's nervous about his upcoming 20th high school reunion so he befriends the most popular guy in his class (James Marsden) getting him into more trouble.
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The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Set in 1970's San Francisco, Marielle Heller's directorial debut stars newcomer Bel Powley as 15-year-old wannabe comic artist Minnie Goetze who has an affair with her mother's boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgard).
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The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Heller's movie is also one of two movies at Sundance starring Kristen Wiig, who is becoming a regular on the festival circuit following her stint on "Saturday Night Live" and the hit Bridesmaids.
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Digging for Fire
Joe Swanberg teams with his Drinking Buddies buddy Jake Johnson ("New Girl") for this star-studded mystery movie co-starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Orlando Bloom, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson and Sam Rockwell.
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Don Verdean
Speaking of Sam Rockwell, whose name is almost synonymous with Sundance at this point, he stars in the new movie from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess , playing a biblical archaeologist. The comedy co-stars Jemaine Clement, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, Leslie Bibb and Will Forte.
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The End of the Tour
Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel star in the new movie from James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now) about the tense interview between a Rolling Stone reporter with late author David Foster Wallace.
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Experimenter
Like The Stanford Prison Experiment (also premiering at Sundance), this is another movie about a social experiment, this one involving Stanley Milgram (played by Peter Skarsgard) and his controversial use of electric shock to study how people listen to authority. Directed by Michael Almereyda (Ethan Hawke's Hamlet).
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Glassland
Starring Jack Reynor, Toni Collette (pictured) and Will Poulter, Gerard Barrett's crime drama follows a young taxi driver getting involved with the underworld.
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How to Dance in Ohio
Director Alexandra Shiva gets a special mention for finding a doc-worthy story in Columbus, Ohio, which holds a special place in my heart. (Go Buckeyes!) The doc is about a group of autistic teens and adults preparing for their spring formal.
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I Am Michael
James Franco stars in this movie from Justin Kelly about a gay activist who denounces his homosexuality to become a pastor. It co-stars Zachary Quinto and Emma Roberts
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I Smile Back
Sarah Silverman gets serious in this film in dramatic competition about a mother who dabbles in drugs an infidelities, putting her family life in danger.
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Knock Knock
Eli Roth normally premieres his movies at Toronto but he's making an exception for his latest, starring Keanu Reeves as a married man who encounters two beautiful girls on a stormy night and invites them in.
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
In Dramatic Competition is this dramedy about two high school friends forced to be friends with a girl with leukemia, played by Olivia Cooke. And it co-stars "Parks and Recreation's" Nick Offerman, who has an amazing track record at Sundance so far.
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Mississippi Grind
Half Nelson directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden return to Sundance with this road movie involving two poker players (Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn) traveling to a game in New Orleans.
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Mistress America
Frances Ha collaborators Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig reunite for another comedy about a New York 20-something trying to find her way.
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Nasty Baby
In the new movie from The Maid and Crystal Fairy filmmaker Sebastian Silva, Kristen Wiig plays Polly, who agrees to be a surrogate for a gay couple trying to have a baby while being confronted by a man called The Bishop.
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Nasty Baby
Here's Kristen Wiig with filmmaker and co-star Sebastian Silva in another scene from the film which plays in the festival's Next section.
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The Overnight
Taylor Schilling ("Orange is the New Black"), Jason Schwartzman, and Adam Scott star in Patrick (Creep) Brice's comedy about a young couple who spend an evening with the strange parents of their son's new friend.
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People, Places, Things
James Strouse (Grace is Gone) returns to Sundance with Jemaine Clement as a single father trying to raise twin daughters while navigating love and work.
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Slow West
Just picked up by A24, the feature film debut from John Maclean is an Australian Western road movie, starring Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
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Sleeping with Other People
Leslye Headland's Bachelorette was a big hit at Sundance post-Bridesmaid's and she's back with this rom-com starring Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie as two people who reconnect 12 years after losing their virginity to each other.
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The Stanford Prison Experiment
This film by Kyle Patrick Alvarez is based on the 1971 social experiments and it features an all-star cast of Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano and Johnny Simmons.
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Strangerland
Another Australian film in the World Dramatic Competition, this film stars Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes as parents whose two kids disappear into the Outback.
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Take Me to the River
Logan Miller plays a teen at his dysfunctional Nebraska family reunion in Matt Sobel's feature film debut.
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Ten Thousand Saints
American Splendour directors Pulcini & Berman return to Sundance with this coming-of-age film set in New York's East Village during the late '80s.
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Ten Thousand Saints
This film also continues Ethan Hawke's run at Sundance following hits like Boyhood and Before Midnight with Richard Linklater and many other films over the years.
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True Story
Jonah Hill and James Franco, who last appeared together in Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg's This is the End, get serious in this true crime drama based on Michael Finkel's memoir.
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Unexpected
Joe Swanberg isn't the only filmmaker in the family as his wife Kris Swanberg brings her new movie, starring Cobie Smulders as a teacher who learns she's pregnant at the same time as one of her students.
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A Walk in the Woods
Michael Arndt, who won an Oscar for writing the popular Sundance hit "Little Miss Sunshine," wrote this hiking comedy starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte who travel across the Appalachian Trail. Kind of like Reese Witherspoon's "Wild" for dudes.
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The Witch
Set in 17th Century New England, Robert Eggers' drama involves a mother whose new son vanishes, pointing to a supernatural evil.
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Z for Zachariah
Director Craig Zobel brings his third film to Sundance following 2012's "Compliance," this one starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine and Margot Robbie as three people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, creating a tense love triangle.
