Sundance Student Screening 2016

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to take some of my students to see the film The Fits as part of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.  Every year the Sundance Institute, through the support of generous donors such as the Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Zoo, Arts, and Parks (ZAP) Program, provides free tickets for high school students to experience the power of independent film and I've been taking my students since 2010.  I think this is such a great opportunity!  Even though arranging a field trip can be a bit daunting, being able to share my passion for independent film with my students makes it so worthwhile!  My students absolutely loved the film (so did I) and, because it had a very ambiguous ending, they have been talking about it ever since the screening!  In fact, the entire theatre (filled with high school students) erupted when the screen went black at the end of the film!  One of my favorite aspects of the Sundance Film Festival is having a Q & A with the filmmakers (and sometimes cast members) after the screening.  Royalty Hightower, who gave an absolutely incredible performance, was there for the Q & A much to the delight of the audience.  Many of my students were able to get pictures with her!  It was an incredible experience and I am very grateful to the Sundance Institute for the opportunity they give to my students!  (A full wrap-up of my Sundance experience is coming soon).

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Note:  I was interviewed by The Salt Lake Tribune a few years ago about my experiences taking my students to the Sundance Film Festival.  Go here to read it.

Brooklyn

The film Brooklyn premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year and it got so much buzz that I really wanted to see it.  The only way I could get a ticket was to see it in Ogden, about an hour away from my house, on a school night.  It was worth it!  I liked it so much that I wanted to see it again now that it is in wide release.  Marilyn and I went Saturday night and she liked it just as much as I did.  Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is a young girl living in a small town in Ireland in the 1950s with no prospects for the future.  A priest arranges for her to emigrate to America and finds her a boarding house and a job in a department store in Brooklyn.  At first she is almost debilitated by homesickness but she eventually meets Tony (Emory Cohen), starts a course in bookkeeping, and begins to make a life for herself.  When a tragedy occurs, she goes back to Ireland for a visit.  She is viewed as a glamorous American in her small town, a young man (Domhnall Gleason) begins to pursue her, and her bookkeeping qualification lands her a job.  She must decide whether her home is in Ireland or Brooklyn.  It is a sweet and sentimental story and Saoirse Ronan gives an affecting performance.  She is simply luminous on screen.  Emory Cohen is incredibly endearing as Tony and I loved Julie Walters as Mrs. Kehoe, the no-nonsense owner of the boardinghouse, especially when she warns her boarders against being  "giddy girls."  Marilyn and I laughed and laughed at that because we have been accused of being giddy once or twice!  The cinematography is beautiful and I loved the use of light.  The scenes in Ireland before Eilis goes to America are all very dark and dreary but when she returns the scenes are dazzling.  I also loved all of the period costumes and vintage cars.  I definitely recommend this lovely film.

Note:  After Brooklyn premiered at Sundance, there was a bidding war for the distribution rights.  Fox Searchlight eventually won in one of the biggest deals to come out of Sundance.  Good stuff!

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

On Sunday night my weekend film trifecta was complete when I saw The Diary of a Teenage Girl.  In my opinion, seeing three movies in three nights is a perfect way to spend your time!  I saw Diary of a Teenage Girl at Sundance this year but I wanted to see it again because it is incredibly powerful with an astonishing performance by Bel Powley.  Minnie Goetze (Powley) is a typical teenager who enjoys drawing comics and lives in San Francisco during the late 1970s.  Her mother Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) is a party girl and leaves her to her own devices most of the time and her father is not in her life.  One evening, as she is roughhousing with her mother's boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard), she inadvertently gets him aroused and feels a tremendous sense of power by her ability to excite him.  She then pursues him and loses her virginity to him.  They have an on-again off-again affair because Monroe knows what they are doing is wrong but can't seem to help himself.  Minnie really enjoys her new-found sexuality and begins a relationship with a boy at school and even pretends to be a prostitute to make Monroe jealous.  When she receives a response to a fan letter from Aline Kominsky encouraging her to continue drawing comics, she realizes that she has more to offer than just her body and says goodbye to Monroe.  I love so many things about this movie!  Minnie narrates the story into a tape recorder as an audio diary so we hear everything from her perspective, including all of her teenage delusions about love, her insecurities, and her inconsistencies.  I love that no one rescues Minnie from her behavior.  She sees for herself that she is not emotionally ready for a sexual relationship and that Monroe is weak and not worthy of her.  Powley, who is in every scene, is absolutely brilliant as Minnie and her portrayal is real and honest.  I loved the 1970s rock and roll soundtrack and the art direction is fabulous (her house has a sort of Wes Anderson vibe to it).  Some people may object to the subject matter (there is a lot of sex and nudity in this movie) but Minnie's journey is ultimately so empowering, especially for girls, that I would highly recommend it.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

My favorite film from Sundance this year was definitely Me and Earl and the Dying Girl so I was really excited to see it again last night!  It is a quirky and touching story about the power that friendship has to change your life and I loved it just as much as I did the first time.  Greg (Thomas Mann) is an awkward high school senior who is completely alienated from everyone in his life, including his wacky parents (I loved his father, a tenured Sociology professor who has so much time on his hands that he spends his days watching classics in foreign cinema and making exotic recipes such as cuttlefish).  Greg is isolated, ambivalent about his future, and suffers from a severe case of low self-esteem.  His goal is to survive high school without making a mortal enemy.  His only significant relationships are with Mr. McCarthy, his eccentric history teacher ("Respect the research"), and Earl (RJ Cyler), a childhood friend with whom he makes movies that parody classic films (my favorite is still 2:48 P.M. Cowboy, an homage to Midnight Cowboy).  He is so afraid of being close to anyone that he refers to Earl as his "co-worker" rather than his friend.  When Rachel (Olivia Cooke), the daughter of his mother's friend, is diagnosed with leukemia, his mother forces Greg (in an absolutely hilarious scene) to befriend her.  Even though neither of them want this friendship, they eventually become inseparable and Rachel ends up teaching Greg some invaluable life lessons.  To be sure, this movie is a tear-jerker but there are so many funny elements that I was laughing out loud, even the second time around.  All three of the lead actors give wonderful performances and I found Mann to be incredibly endearing.  The parodies are a hoot (A Sockwork Orange, Senior Citizen Kane) and classic film aficionados will love trying to figure out all of the references.  The depiction of high school culture is absolutely spot-on (I should know because I spend my days there) and I especially loved the theatre nerds.  Many of my students had the opportunity to see this film when it was screened at Sundance and they could not stop talking about it.  I feel like it has the potential to become a touchstone for this generation the way The Breakfast Club is for mine.  Do not miss it!

Note:  It was awarded both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance.  Good stuff, I tell you!

Sundance Film Festival 2015

For ten days in January, independent filmmakers, and the occasional Hollywood celebrity, descend upon Park City to screen their movies at the Sundance Film Festival and, hopefully, find studios willing to distribute them for wide-release.  It is an absolutely magical time for film lovers (some travel from all over the world to be here) because many of the films are world premieres.  I always try to see at least one film every year but this year I decided to go for it and see as many films as my schedule (I didn't take any time off but I am thinking about it for next year) would allow.  I had the opportunity to see ten films in seven days at six venues and I loved every minute of my Sundance experience!  Monday night I saw Unexpected at the Broadway Theatre.  A high school Biology teacher (Cobie Smulders) discovers, unexpectedly, that she is pregnant and is conflicted about potentially losing her identity.  When her best student also discovers that she is pregnant, she channels all of her emotions into getting her student into college at any cost with disastrous results. I really related to this movie because I've worked with students to help them get into college and sometimes it was what I wanted rather than what they wanted.  I cried during a particularly heated scene. Tuesday night I saw Entertainment at the Broadway.  This is one of the strangest films I've ever seen.  A third rate comedian (Gregg Turkington) travels through the Mojave Desert to perform at a series of dubious gigs (one is in a prison), stay in one run-down motel after another, and take some bizarre field trips (an airplane graveyard) to pass the time.  It was a powerful character study of a man being driven to desperation which made me uncomfortable (but that was rather the point).  Wednesday night I drove all the way to Ogden (about an hour north of where I live) because I really wanted to see Brooklyn.  This is a very sweet film about an Irish girl (Saoirse Ronan) who emigrates to New York in the 1950s.  I really loved Ronan's performance and this is one of my favorites of the festival.  Thursday night I saw People, Places, Things at the Rose Wagner Theatre.  Will Henry (Jemaine Clement) is a graphic novelist who is getting over a breakup, learning how to relate to his twin daughters, and trying to date again.  This movie was absolutely hilarious with lots of quick and witty dialogue ("I'm a sassy little hobbit").  I also really liked the use of actual comic strips to tell the story.  Friday night I saw a double feature.  First was Z for Zachariah at the Grand Theatre (a really great venue).  I was so excited when I was able to score a ticket to this film at the last minute because I read the book in Jr. High and it has always stayed with me.  After a nuclear war, Ann Burden (Margot Robbie), who lives in an isolated valley protected by mountains, believes that she is the only survivor.  After a year on her own, she is visited by two other survivors who may not be all that they seem.  The movie deviated from the book quite a bit with the addition of a third character but I enjoyed it.  Next I saw Hellions at the Broadway as part of Sundance's Midnight Madness series.  A pregnant teenager (Chloe Rose) must survive Halloween when a group of demon children attack her to steal her unborn child.  This was actually a really awful movie but I had a lot of fun watching it at midnight with a fun crowd.  Saturday afternoon I saw The Diary of a Teenage Girl at the Grand.  A fifteen year old girl (Bel Powley) has a sexual awakening in 1970s San Francisco.  Powley gives an astonishing performance and is considered by many critics to be the break-out star of the festival. I really loved all of the 1970s music used throughout the film, especially Heart's "Dreamboat Annie."  (I really love that song).  Saturday I saw another Midnight Madness film, The Hallow, at the Broadway.  Adam (Joseph Mawle), along with his wife and infant son, moves from London to a remote area in Ireland to evaluate the forest for future development but he is soon warned by his superstitious neighbors that the forest is haunted by spirits.  Soon, these spirits attack and try to take his son.  It was a predictable plot but the tension leading up to the attack was almost unbearable and the creatures were quite scary.  I spent Sunday morning at the beautiful Sundance Resort for a screening of 71.  A British soldier (Jack O'Connell from Unbroken) is left behind after a riot on the streets of Belfast during "the Troubles."  As he tries to make his way back to the barracks, he his both helped and pursued by various factions and doesn't know who to trust.  It was a very powerful and suspenseful movie.  Finally, my friends Rob and Esther gave me a ticket to see the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner at the Eccles Theatre in Park City Sunday afternoon and it turned out to be Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  I was excited because I really wanted to see this film but was unable to get a ticket!  Greg (Thomas Mann), an awkward teenager, and his only friend, Earl, spend most of their time making movies based on classic films (Their version of Midnight Cowboy just about killed me).  Greg's mother asks him to befriend a girl who has recently been diagnosed with leukemia and their friendship is both touching and heartbreaking.  I absolutely loved this film and I laughed and cried through the whole thing.  It is definitely my favorite film of the festival.  The films this year were really great but my favorite part of the festival was getting to have so many wonderful conversations with people from all over the country.  Sometimes I think that people find me to be a bit much when I start talking about music, books, theatre, and movies so it was great to talk to people who are just as passionate as I am.  I am already looking forward to next year!

Note:  For the past five years I have taken my students to see free screenings at Sundance.  Go here for an article in the Salt Lake Tribune.