Sundance Film Festival 2012

Sundance. There’s nothing filmier than Sundance. And this year’s 28th Annual Sundance Film Festival launched some pretty impressive new feature films. The slew of Sundance prizes recognizes comedies, dramas and documentaries, including Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Surrogate, Safety Not Guaranteed and Smashed. More…

With most of the entries picked up by big name distributors, it’s only a matter of time before the films find release dates and hit a theater (or television) near you. After ten days at the festival, this week’s Indie Seen takes a look at the movies I think stand out as the best of the best of Sundance 2012: More…

Combine the investigative slant of Al Gore’s environmental call-to-arms An Inconvenient Truth with the destructive, mind-blowing visuals of Koyaanisqatsi or Tree of Life and the final product would be something like the new documentary Chasing Ice. More…

Every year, along with the light-hearted comedies, harrowing character dramas and revelatory documentaries, Sundance drops a few genre-bending nuclear bombs on its unknowing audiences. They’re bold, occasionally crass, usually provocative and generally stand out as the controversial films of the festival. More…

It took me awhile to warm up to Aubrey Plaza on Parks and Recreation. In the beginning of the show, as the not-quite-Office-spin-off was finding its own voice, Plaza’s character April was stuck on one note. She was the angsty, dead-pan twenty-something—and while Plaza had no problem landing hilarious punchlines, that’s really all the show let her do. More…

just when one thinks they’ve seen it all, Sleepwalk with Me, the new movie from comedian Mike Birbiglia and This American Life producer Ira Glass, sneaks up under the radar to break all the rules. More…

With every passing year, Sundance becomes a bigger breeding ground for awards contenders, with studios paying top dollar for independent movies that could breakout with best performance or picture buzz. As festival-goers can attest, the crowd is already talking up movies that could score big at next year’s awards. More…

Taking the stage before the premiere of her new comedy 2 Days in New York, writer/director/actress Julie Delpy joked that “since they aren’t going to let me do a Bourne movie, I might as well make my own sequel.” Fair enough. More…

I’ve been told that, before weighing in on the new documentary concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits, I should acknowledge that my relationship with LCD Soundsystem is not one of fandom, but casual familiarity. More…

There’s a flip side to the arc of an addiction that’s less overt, but equally powerful. In Smashed, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Kate, an alcoholic who quickly realizes, after dry heaving in front of her kindergarteners and waking up one morning with a bunch of homeless people under a bridge, that she has a serious problem. More…

We all know that Seth Rogen is one of the king’s of foul-mouthed, cinematic comedy, but not until Sundance did I realize his wife, Lauren Miller, is just as colorful, crazed and hilarious. More…

There’s an easy comparison to make with the Sundance-premiering Bachelorette. On the surface it looks like an inevitable indie riff on 2011’s blockbuster Bridemaids. But where that film used the wedding model as a platform for raunchy, mainstream comedy, Bachelorette exists on a whole other twisted, sadistic level. More…

When I attended the first screening of the new film The Surrogate (which has just been picked up by Fox Searchlight for release this year), a woman behind me realized the movie starred William H. Macy and exclaimed, “The guy from Shameless? How am I going to take him seriously?!” More…

One of the biggest films of Sundance 2012 is The Words, an interesting drama story starring Bradley Cooper as a fraudulent novelist, and boasting a cast of Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons and Olivia Wilde. So, it’s not a big surprise that CBS is closing a 7-figure deal to acquire the film. More…

What was the last new Richard Gere movie you saw? If I were a betting man (and I am a betting man), I’d guess it was 2002’s Chicago, where the actor lit up the screen as sly lawyer Billy Flynn. More…

A few years ago, construction began on billionaire David Siegel and his wife Jacqueline’s Florida dream home: a three story, 90,000 square foot replica of Paris’ Versailles. To this day, the home, which would have been the largest house in the US, has never been completed and currently sits, collecting dust, on the real estate market… More…

I have a love/hate relationship with Rashida Jones. When she blew up, after joining The Office as Jim’s coworker-turned-girlfriend Karen, she rubbed me the wrong way (no one steps on Pam’s turf; I don’t care who you are). Then she struck me as charming and adorable… More…

The major misconception about Sundance is that it’s a marathon of no-budget, navel-gazing character dramas tacking heavy issues like breaking up with your girlfriend or Tylenol addiction. The festival certainly sports those types of films (and of varying degrees of quality), but the programming doesn’t shy away from diversity… More…

Hello I Must Be Going, the latest film from director Todd Louiso, is a likable dramedy that tackles the not-so-heavy turmoil of divorce, wealth management, liberal arts degrees and love in Westport, Connecticut. Amy is a broken 34-year-old…More…

The crowd who caught Beasts of the Southern Wild’s first screening this afternoon ate up director Benh Zeitlin’s first feature film, a moody, vividly-captured portrait of life in a Southern delta subculture. But the buzz is deserved. More…

The Sundance Film Festival waits for no man. Immediately upon touching down in the snowy tundra of Park City, Utah, the marathon of film consumption began.More…

The independent film scene is a playground for top notch talent, and every year, a flock of familiar faces descend into Park City, Utah ready to prove their not just destined for studio romantic comedies, generic action movies or TV co-starring roles. More…

Good news, everyone: only a week and change until John dies! Don Coscarelli’s upcoming mind-twister John Dies at the End, based on David Wong’s comedic horror novel of the same name, is premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and there’s a new poster circulating… More…

With the 2012 Sundance Film Festival primed and ready to kick off next Thursday and with awards season in full swing, it only makes sense to take a closer look at where the two cross over. More…

With preparations for the awards season in full swing, bits and pieces of information are beginning to come out of the woodwork regarding specific details to all of our favorite award shows and festivals. For example, the Sundance Institute announced today… More…

I know a few things about The Words. I know that it has wrangled an impressive cast including Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Irons. I know that it focuses on a failing writer’s theft and plagiarism of a renowned author’s lost works. I know that its writing/directing team of Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal are newcomers to the filmmaking game, but show some solid potential with this introspective story. More…

Ah…the Sundance Film Festival. The center of the independent film galaxy. Contendors have been announced for the 2012 competition, and there are more than a few heavy-hitters in line. While it’s unfair to select your hopefuls based on the below synopses and cast listings alone, it’s hard to ignore that fanning through the list might offer you a few peaks of excitement. More…

Earlier this month, the lineup for 2012’s Sundance Film Festival was announced. The list of films and featured talent was impressive (as you can see here), but Sundance is not done thrilling us: as of this afternoon, four more films have been added to the film festival’s schedule. More…