The Dance 2009!

 

What’s up YALL! Just got back from picking up Sundance TIX. I got almost everything I wanted to see (with K's help...MUAH!). Lot's O' Sci Fi & Nazi Zombies!...check the line up:

The Clone Returns Home
In the tradition of Solaris and other deeply philosophical science-fiction works, The Clone Returns Home is art cinema at its best. Kohei, a young astronaut, agrees to participate in an experimental cloning program that will “regenerate” his body and memory should he die. So when he’s killed during a space mission, scientists are able to regenerate his clone. But problems occur with its memory, which regresses to Kohei’s youth and the accidental death of his twin brother. Distressed, the clone flees the lab in search of his childhood home. Along the way, he finds his own lifeless body in a space suit. Mistaking it for his brother, he continues his journey carrying the body on his back. Set somewhere between the near future and a dream, as if a figurative mist drifts through it, Kanji Nakajima’s first feature is distinguished by the metaphysical space it conjures. With each new incarnation of Kohei—his clone, his body, his soul, his twin—our literal sense of story gives way to a metaphysical one. With exceptional artistry (lyrical images, elegant moving masters, and evocative sound motifs), Nakajima explores identity, memory, and the ethical responsibilities of science. But, enriched by spiritual conceptions of life and death and the soul, the film’s emotional center and its poetry lie in these successive versions of Kohei, wandering in search of a home that no longer exists.

Cold Souls
In response to shiny, bigger, better American consumerism comes Cold Souls, a metaphysical tragicomedy in which souls can be extracted and traded as commodities. Balancing on a tightrope between deadpan humor and pathos, and between reality and fantasy, the film presents Paul Giamatti as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of Uncle Vanya. Paralyzed with anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by deep-freezing souls. Giamatti enlists their services, intending to reinstate his soul once he survives the performance. But complications ensue when a mysterious, soul-trafficking “mule,” transporting product to and from Russia, “borrows” Giamatti's stored soul for an ambitious, but unfortunately talentless, soap-opera actress. Rendered soulless, he is left with no choice but to follow the trail back to bleak St. Petersburg. He comes to value that happiness isn’t merely the absence of pain, but the integration of the full range of emotion into life.Sophie Barthes’s debut feature is strikingly original, not only for its haunting concept but for its poetic execution. Inspired production design and lyrical cinematography create a melancholic, heightened world. Perfectly cast, Giamatti and a gifted ensemble maneuver seamlessly through shifting ontological landscapes without ever betraying the surrealism. With this dazzling accomplishment, Barthes establishes herself as an auteur to reckon with.

Good Hair
When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head! Director Jeff Stilson’s camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture.An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Celebrities such as Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter’s question. What he discovers is that black hair is a big business that doesn’t always benefit the black community and little Lola’s question might well be bigger than his ability to convince her that the stuff on top of her head is nowhere near as important as what is inside.

Paper Heart
Charlyne Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. At the very least, she doesn’t believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology, and her own experiences have made her—at minimum—a modern-day skeptic. But this inquiry into love and its present-day manifestations suggests she hasn’t entirely given up hope. As she and her friend (and director), Nicholas Jasenovec, together search for answers and advice, you get the idea that this new generation’s cynicism isn’t the whole story. And when she meets a man after her own heart…well, you can guess the rest. Yi, a Los Angeles–based artist and comedian, certainly has an interesting array of friends and acquaintances. They offer diverse views on modern romance, as well as various answers to the age-old question: does love really exist? But is this all for real? Is it fantasy? Or is it a just a filmmaker’s quest?This is a wonderfully imagined journey of one girl’s search for love. This self-conscious and self-reflective film leads us all down a “rabbit hole” of emotion, hope, and confusion that give this poignant, funny, and intelligent film its…heart. Only people as aware and knowledgeable about their craft as Yi and Jasenovec can make a film as entertaining and absorbing as Paper Heart.

Big Fan
For legions of people, sports teams are religion, and their favorite players are their idols. This notion sparks the hilarious premise of Big Fan, the exhilarating directing debut from Robert Siegel, the screenwriter of The Onion Movie and The Wrestler.Paul Aufiero, a 35-year-old parking-garage attendant from working-class Staten Island, is the self-described “world's biggest New York Giants fan.” One night Paul and his best friend, Sal, spot star Giants linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station in Staten Island. They impulsively follow his SUV into Manhattan to a strip club, where they finally muster up the courage to talk to their hero. What starts out as a dream come true turns into a nightmare as a misunderstanding ignites a violent confrontation, and Paul is sent down a path that will test his devotion to the extreme. Patton Oswalt is perfectly cast as Paul, infusing him with a humanity that renders him empathetic instead of pathetic. Siegel has an innate understanding of—and reverence for—his characters but finds humor in every scene by perfectly capturing the details of their world. From the posters on the walls, to the NFL bed sheets, to the ""spontaneous"" smack talking, he nails it. Big Fan resonates with truth and insight, and the result is a film that will make you laugh and wince at the same time—a very winning combination.

Black Dynamite
When “the man” kills his brother, pumps heroin into the local orphanage, and floods the ghetto with a secret weapon disguised as Anaconda Malt Liquor, there is only one brother bad enough, strong enough, and brave enough to take them on: the legendary Black Dynamite.Black Dynamite is a throwback with an attitude. Hilarious, campy, hot, and sexy, it plays with every cliché from 1970s film and television, with a few new ones thrown in for color. Director Scott Sanders doesn’t need to show his hand to get his point across, making it even more fun to watch. He has miraculously assembled a huge cast that all perfectly tread the line between satire and spoof. Crazy kudos need to go to our leading man, played by Michael Jai White, who offers a pitch-perfect performance in every take. Art direction and costumes are flawless, and the flocked wallpaper holds it own against the faux fur and poly-blend wardrobe. Black Dynamite has something for everyone: chase scenes, gunfights, a house of ill repute, some karate action, and a star with a killer body who takes on bad guys with—and without—his shirt on. And if this isn’t enough, Sanders does the near impossible: he sustains the comedy while taking a nice big sucker punch at the underlying politics of our time.

Dead Snow
For eight medical students, Easter vacation begins innocently enough. They pack their cars full of ski equipment and enough beer to fuel their escape from everyday life to the snowy, isolated hills outside of Øksfjord, Norway. Once there, they receive a late-night visit from a shady hiker, who tells them a story about Nazi occupation of the area during World War II. After doing their fair share of raping and pillaging, the dreaded battalion faced a brutal and vengeful uprising by the citizens of the town. The soldiers who managed to survive the onslaught, including their dreaded leader Colonel Herzog, were driven into the hills by the angry mob, where they supposedly froze to death, never to be seen again. But if the horror genre has taught us anything, it’s that the raucous behavior and promiscuity of the younger generation always have a way of bringing evil spirits back to life.Director Tommy Wirkola pulls no punches in the carnage department—heads roll, blood flows, and entrails ooze as the young vacationers attempt to make it through the night. Wirkola adeptly utilizes the snow’s eerie and ominous backdrop to its fullest extent while orchestrating this wickedly gory, yet somehow delightful, tale of Nazi zombie terror.