Tuesday, January 28, 1997
Tom LegoffBy Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Contributor
PARK CITY, Utah — Small talk at Sundance Film Festival parties
has always been predictable. People talk about the films, the
weather, how exhausted they are and then they complain about how
the festival is "getting too big," or "growing too commercial."
This brand of condemnation isn’t by any means limited to Sundance,
as epithets like "mainstream" and "popular" are routinely flung at
all aspects of art and culture, but the whining at Sundance reached
a fever pitch two years ago. In 1995, the very safe, very
conventional "Brothers McMullen" won the Grand Jury prize and a
sour-grapes festival called Slamdance formed to illustrate
Sundance’s perceived abandonment of the independent spirit.
This year the complaining stopped. No one said anything about
excess commerciality. In fact, acquisitions execs were complaining
about the very opposite. And not only were the majority of this
year’s festival’s films highly uncommercial, there also were fewer
conventionally satisfying movies. Thus, the festival was turned
into a treasure hunt; whenever a high-quality film hit the screen
people went wild.
In the awards ceremony held Saturday night, winners of the
10-day festival were announced. The varied members of this year’s
Grand Jury ("Courage Under Fire" scribe Patrick Duncan, actor
Giancarlo Esposito, actress Catherine Keener, cinematographer Ellen
Kuras and Vogue critic John Powers) chose Jonathan Nossiter’s
"Sunday" as the best of the Dramatic Competition.
The bittersweet film about two middle-aged Queens residents and
their romantic involvement over the course of a day was
well-received over the course of the festival, though its victory
was somewhat of a surprise, since most of the hype surrounded Bart
Freundlich’s family drama "The Myth of Fingerprints" and Morgan
Freeman’s take on life in the Lower East side, "Hurricane." "Myth"
enlisted a fine ensemble cast, including Julianne Moore, Blythe
Danner and Noah Wyle, to tell the tale of a Thanksgiving weekend
where the children return to occupy different positions in their
parents’ lives. "Hurricane" followed the struggle of a
well-intentioned young teenager to escape the lures of street life,
and featured a brilliantly nuanced performance by Brandon Sexton
III (the bully from "Welcome to the Dollhouse"). "Hurricane" earned
a Best Director award for Freeman, a Best Cinematography trophy for
Enrique Chediak, and half of the Audience Award. "Myth" was
overlooked at the awards, perhaps because of its polished look and
conventional story structure. "Love Jones," an inconsistent but
endearing African-American romantic comedy starring Larenz Tate and
Nia Long, was also voted by audiences as the best film.
On the nonfiction side of the coin, Jane C. Wagner and Tina
DiFeliciantonio’s look at four young women in Philadelphia, "Girls
Like Us," captured the Documentary Grand Jury’s prize. The final
chapter of an AIDS activist and author’s life, "Paul Monette: The
Brink of Summer’s End," won the Audience Award.
"Licensed to Kill," a set of chilling interviews with convicted
killers of homosexuals interspersed with gruesome crime-scene
photographs, was given the director’s award and the Filmmaker’s
Trophy, a prize awarded by the directors of the competition. The
thoughtful "Family Name," Macky Alston’s three-year quest to learn
about his lineage in the South, and the insightful "Fear and
Learning at Hoover Elementary" (concerning the effects of
Proposition 187 on an L.A. school) won the Freedom of Expression
Awards.
Other awarded dramatic entries were Mark Pellington’s look at
1950s ennui, "Going All the Way" (recognized for Production
design), the theatrical "The House of Yes" (Parker Posey’s lead
performance was singled out), and Neil LaBute’s controversial "In
The Company of Men" was given the Filmmaker’s Trophy. All concurred
that "In the Company of Men"’s dark look at woman-hating men who
decide to date an unsuspecting secretary and then dump her
mercilessly was well made, but everyone had a different opinion on
the content. Opinions ranged from disliking the film for its
constant misogyny to others who believed the film was smart satire.
In any case, the film is sure to be the subject of countless
dinner-party conversations if it acquires domestic
distribution.
As always, some of the festival’s best films weren’t part of
either the dramatic or documentary competitions. Like last year’s
"Shine," which emerged as a favorite festival premiere, Richard
Linklater’s soon-to-be-released "Suburbia," the chilling look at
agonizing childhoods in "Blackrock," and the buddy banter of Tim
Roth and Tupac Shakur in "Gridlock’d" received praise and attention
from Park City audiences. Lynne Stopkewich’s non-sensationalist
take on necrophilia, "Kissed," was one of the festival’s
best-performed pieces.
Yet even though one of the traditional topics of party
conversation were eliminated and some of the films were
disappointing, the never-ending sequence of Park City parties
didn’t suffer. Packed receptions for films and organizations still
lined Main Street’s pricey eateries, and often many bashes would
compete for the same time slot.
Slamdance, Sundance’s no-frills competitor, surfaced again, this
time in a hotel at the top of Main Street, and threw a few of the
best parties around. A party to fete "The Size of Watermelons"
included an entertaining Nancyboy set and watermelon margaritas,
and both the opening and closing ceremonies raised the profile of
the festival.
And yet another sour-grapes festival emerged across the street.
The Slumdance experience (called an experience because they’re
actually not allowed to be considered a festival) emerged from a
hilarious web site (www.slumdance.com) into a flesh-and-blood tent
city in an old cookie factory basement. Armed with attitude, free
soup for all and a creative back story about an old miner who seeks
to kiss Robert Redford’s ass, Slumdance screened films and threw
parties at its Park City slum and at an old silver mine outside of
town.
And through the weather, traffic and chaos of Sundance,
Slamdance and Slumdance, Park City survived. Next year, a new
theater at the base of Main Street arrives (although it’s
questionable how much of a difference that will provide in terms of
screening capacity), and still more filmgoers from around the world
will converge on the ski village above Salt Lake City. Perhaps next
year’s party complaint will be the continued umcommerciality of the
film festival.
This year’s Sundance Film Festival broke with the trend of
recent years and showcased unconventional, uncommercial and
independent-minded movies. Lynne Stopkewich’s "Kissed" (top) takes
a look at necrophilia; "The House of Yes" (left), had a stunning
performance by Parker Posey. "Family Name" (below) documents Macky
Alston’s three-year quest to find out about his roots. "Licensed to
Kill" (far below) earned the director’s award and the Filmmaker’s
Trophy (voted on by the directors of the competition) for its
chilling investigation of gay-bashers who commit murder for their
homophobic beliefs.