Sundance 2010 Favorite films

Meet the Artists: Spencer Susser talks about "Hesher"
- Sundance Film Festival 2010.

"Sundance isn’t the market it was 10 years ago (or even five years ago); few buyers have any real money to lavish on acquisitions, and a “bidding war” today might mean a producer strings out a few interested parties overnight for a million-dollar (or less) deal. It could mean a couple cable channels scrapping over a documentary. Or, in more traditional style, it could mean buyersfighting to release the one where Kristen Stewart plays a hooker.

· Blue Valentine
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A couple (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) on the downslope of a marriage attempts to rekindle some of the spark that began their relationship — a period framed in flashbacks.
UPSIDE: That cast! That drama! Gosling’s reunion with his Half Nelson producers and cinematographer implies he’ll turn in something awards-worthy, and Williams’s performance — matched with her own tormented relationship history — will likely be a publicity magnet.
DOWNSIDE: An intense young cast means little if first-time filmmaker Derek Cianfrance can’t harness them into something beyond abject Sundance melodrama.
POTENTIAL BUYERS: Sony Classics, Focus Features, Apparition
HOW MUCH? $3 million.

· Buried
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A civilian contractor (Ryan Reynolds) in Iraq is kidnapped and buried alive, with only a cell phone, a lighter and about 90 minutes to save himself before suffocating.
UPSIDE: Reynolds is coming off a terrific year in high-visibility hits (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Proposal), and come on: Who wouldn’t want a crack at distributing the Ryan Reynolds-trapped-in-a-coffin movie?
DOWNSIDE: In the end, it is just the Ryan Reynolds-trapped-in-a-coffin movie. Despite a cast that also lists Samantha Mathis and Stephen Tobolowski, I’m told that Reynolds is indeed the only one onscreen in the film. Too much Ryan?
POTENTIAL BIDDING WARRIORS: Lionsgate, Magnet, Screen Gems
HOW MUCH? A little north of $1 million, maybe more if Screen Gems — Sony’s genre label, and not generally a huge fest buyer — gets involved.

· The Company Men
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A corporate hot shot (Ben Affleck) and his peers attempt to come to grips with his downsizing.
UPSIDE: In addition to Affleck, first-time feature director John Wells (best known for writing and co-producing a zillion episodes of ER) has Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner set to deliver the dramatic chops in a story as topical as any at Sundance.
DOWNSIDE: Could be too politically on-the-nose for most buyers, especially if Wells’s small-screen gifts don’t translate to the cinema.
POTENTIAL BUYERS: Summit, Overture, The Weinstein Company
HOW MUCH? $5 million, maybe up to $6 million if the critics buy into it.
· Hesher
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A 13-year-old boy whose mother recently died befriends a batshit anarchist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Chaos ensues.
UPSIDE: Natalie Portman co-stars. Enough said.
DOWNSIDE: Are audiences ready to buy into Gordon-Levitt as a stringy-haired, sociopathic source of madness?
POTENTIAL BUYERS: Fox Searchlight, Magnolia, Lionsgate
HOW MUCH? Not a penny more than $2.5 million.

· Welcome to the Rileys
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A couple (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) mourning the death of their teenage daughter in dramatically different ways attempt to rebuild their lives.
UPSIDE: Jake Scott’s feature directorial debut is all class, with the executive-producer imprimatur of father Ridley Scott and uncle Tony (not to mention Ridley’s collaborator Steven Zaillian) and a cast featuring James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart as a teenaged prostitute in New Orleans. OK, mostly all class.
DOWNSIDE: Could turn out to be this year’s The Greatest, which fizzled at Sundance ‘09 with a similar story line and Big Actor Moments cranked to 11.
POTENTIAL BUYERS: Overture, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate
HOW MUCH? The bidding starts at $4.5 million.
Source: www.movieline.com

More picks for Sundance Festival 2010:
HOWL

"James Franco stars as beat-poet Allen Ginsberg. Need I say more? A whole lot of buzz on this one folks…
HOLY ROLLERS

Jesse Eisenberg stars as a Hasidic Jew, who goes to work as an ecstasy dealer for a friend with ties to an Israeli drug cartel. Eisenberg starred in two of my favorite films last year, ADVENTURELAND, and ZOMBIELAND, so it’ll be interesting to see how he follows them up. He tends to pick good projects, so this could be a real winner.
SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS

Actor Mark Ruffalo makes his directorial debut with this film about a newly paralyzed DJ, who enters into the world of faith healing. Orlando Bloom co-stars.
THE RUNAWAYS

K-Stew’s other big Sundance film, in this one; she plays a circa-1975 Joan Jett, during her formative years with The Runaways. Dakota Fanning plays the band’s lead vocalist, Cherie Currie. While I think Fanning’s too young to play Currie, who was sixteen when she joined the band (Fanning was 14 when this was filmed), I’m nonetheless really looking forward to this one, as I’m a sucker for music biopics.

SPLICE

Vincenzo Natali, director of CUBE, returns with this, the tale of two scientists (Adrien Brody, and Sarah Polley), who mischievously splice the DNA strands of several animals to create a new creature- which I’m sure will run amuck at some point.
THE KILLER INSIDE ME

My most anticipated film of the festival; this stars Casey Affleck as a psychotic sheriff’s deputy, opposite Jessica Alba (as a prostitute), and Kate Hudson. It’s based on a classic piece of pulp fiction by Jim Thompson, and with Michael Winterbottom directing, who previously helmed 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, A MIGHTY HEART, and the awesome TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY, this could be one of the major films of the year". Source: www.joblo.com