I can’t believe I’ve already been here four days and this is the first time I’m getting to a recap. Well, I did single out some films for full reviews, and there are more coming. It’s also been an oddly busier Sundance this year. Partly it’s the schedule that just happens to have me bouncing from film to film to interview with little writing time in between. There’s also an interesting phenomenon of traffic. The weather has been great, sunny and even 30 degrees feels warm. However, that means there are more cars on the road since it’s not wet and icy, so it takes longer to get around. Good weather actually makes Sundance crazier! So here are some of the first films I saw this Sundance, in alphabetical order.
The Better Angels
The Better Angels is a solid mood piece of the childhood of Abraham Lincoln (Braydon Denney). Writer/director A.J. Edwards is clearly influenced by Terrence Malick, for whom he’s worked (Malick produced the film). That means it’s mostly freeform sequences of families frolicking in the woods and grass, but it kind of works.
The atmosphere gives us a sense of what made Lincoln a man, a man at all, let alone the man we know he became. Education was a luxury in 1817, yet we know he became one of the greatest minds. His father (Jason Clarke) was a disciplinarian which may have had the affect of making Lincoln more compassionate. Death was literally in the water and he lost loved ones to it. He sees slaves at one point.
We really only know it’s the Lincoln story because the film opens with a Lincoln quote and the promotional materials say so. Denney is credited as “Abe” but I don’t recall ever hearing the name spoken in the film. Were it just a generic frontier family, it still would have been a slice of American life. It’s not my preferred mode of storytelling but I’ve learned how to appreciate it over the years and I think if you love this style you’ll love The Better Angels.
Dinosaur 13
Dinosaur 13 is a solid documentary about a gross waste of judicial resources, but I just couldn’t get excited about it. Peter Larson and his paleontological crew discover the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found in the early ‘90s. When they take the dinosaur, Sue, back to their facility, the FBI comes to seize it and the government prosecutes them for violating technical land distribution lines and charges of fraud and theft.
It seems the government is making an example out of Larson, but an example to whom? Even though it’s clear that Larson was not knowingly violating any law and certainly wasn’t doing it for profit, what potential crime sprees are you hoping to prevent? There aren’t roving gangs of paleontologists digging for fossils in other people’s land.
It does make me mad that the FBI was on this case, when there are crimes involving the safety of innocent humans they need to be investigating. I also relate to the emotion of Larson having his life’s work essentially kidnapped from him. Yet Dinosaur 13 takes a really long time to get to the big picture. It is a waste of our courts’ resources by which everyone should be outraged, but for a while it just seems like a weird thing that happened to some paleontologists that sucks but wouldn’t really affect the big picture. The doc is thorough with interviews and archival footage, though re-enactments are glaringly awkward.
Under the Electric Sky
The Electric Daisy Carnival is definitely not my world or my music, but I celebrate the people who live it just like I obsess over Sundance. Under the Electric Sky is a good documentary about capturing the atmosphere of the electronic dance music festival and the passionate people who attend it. I was also pleased to know that most of them don’t like drugs and that EDC is very responsible about doing their best to keep drugs out, and treat people who need medical assistance.
Directors Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz pick a few diverse attendees to follow at EDC 2013. Men, women, couples, groups, people affected by tragedy and people differently abled create a cross section to show the culture of EDC. You feel their passion. It’s touching, romantic and sexy seeing all the costumes and dance moves. It’s also a rowdy party, especially for a midnight movie.
The 3D is minimal. In fact 90% of the movie is not 3D at all. I mean, you could take your glasses off and it’s sharp. Not just watchable, but sharp like there’s no softness or blur at all. That’s appreciated when the filmmakers do some rapid fire editing, which we wouldn’t want to experience in 3D. A few of the concert shots explode into depth, but it adds nothing. What immerses the viewer into the world of EDC are the people who welcome us into the film.
Wetlands
I picked Wetlands out of the Sundance schedule just based on the description alone. Then I learned that it was directed by David Wnendt whose Combat Girls I loved at Fantastic Fest. Wetlands is the kind of crazy, in your face movie I welcome at film festivals like Sundance.
Helen (Carla Juri) is obsessed by her body fluids. She has hemorrhoids at a young age and likes to pick at them, rub herself on filthy toilet seats and save her boyfriends’ ejaculations. When she gets an anal fissure, she hopes the surgery will reunite her divorced parents when they come to visit her in the hospital. So basically, it’s The Parent Trap if the twins were anal blood and semen.
Leave it to the Germans to outdo Blue is the Warmest Color’s intimacy by adding explicit body fluids. It is fun to see how far Wetlands will take Helen’s predilections and she becomes a sympathetic character in the process. The film is also full of surreal interludes, including a CGI exploration of a drop of fluid a la the opening of Fight Club only turning it into a Tim Burton fairyland. Helen also defaces religious memorabilia with her ass blood, so welcome to Sundance!
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
