Sundance in H-Town
Sundance Film Festival comes to Houston with exclusive screening of Bachelorette
Who needs to travel to chilly Utah for the Sundance Film Festival when you can experience the flavor of the noted film conclave right here in Houston?
The creators of the nation's most famous film festival are making a stop in H-Town on Jan. 26 to show the movie,Bachelorette, at Sundance Cinemas. It's part of Sundance Film Festival USA, a project that allows moviegoers across the nation to see new and unique films just days after their premiere at the festival in Park City, Utah.
Houston is on the roster of cities for the first time, thanks to the recent opening of Robert Redford's film complex at Bayou Place.
Houston is on the roster of cities for the first time, thanks to the recent opening of Robert Redford's film complex at Bayou Place.
Though it sounds like a reality series, Bachelorette is not about Erica Rose. With a stellar cast of young stars, including Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Christian Roberts and Adam Scott, the movie revolves around a group of women asked to be bridesmaids to a woman they used to bully back in high school.
"It's a great R-rated comedy," Marsden told MTV last fall when the movie was filming in New York. "The bridesmaids and the groomsmen meet up the night before a wedding and, as you can imagine, all hell breaks loose, many drinks and stumbling around the city . . . It's just a good Bridesmaids, sort of Hangover-type movie."
Indiewire recently picked it as one of 15 movies to watch at this year's festival. Nigel Smith wrote that Bachelorette is more than just an indie film knockoff of Bridesmaids:
For starters, Bachelorette marks the directorial debut of playwright Leslye Headland, a writer known for her biting wit and pull-no-punches approach to touchy subjects. If the film's inspiration — Headland's play of the same name — is any indication, Bachelorette will be a no-holds-barred portrait of women embarking on a self-destructive odyssey (alcohol, grudges, bulimia and bad boyfriends are all involved). Leading the impressive ensemble is Kirsten Dunst in her first post-Melancholia performance as Regan, an entitled beauty who is mortified to learn that the girl everyone called Pig Face in high school is getting hitched before her. Bridesmaids bit player Rebel Wilson (she played Kristen Wiig's invasive roommate) is said to steal every scene she's in as the bashful bride."
Producers Matt Parker and Carly Hugo will be on hand to answer questions from the audience after the 7:30 p.m. screening and I will moderate the discussion. For more information or to purchase tickets ($17 each), click here.
The Sundance Film Festival opens Thursday in Park City and continues through Jan. 29. Look for CultureMap contributor Jane Howze's reports on the latest movies and the scene at Sundance.
