Sundance Journal

Five Sundance gems: Even Taylor Swift wants to see the Ethel Kennedy documentary

Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon star in Arbitrage
Photo by Myles Aronowitz
Ethel and Robert Kennedy in Ethel
Photo by Paul Schutzer/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Big Boys Gone Bananas
Photo by Anna Sivertsson

PARK CITY, Utah — One of the pleasures of the Sundance Film Festival is discovering hidden gems you would never find anywhere else. As someone (not named Forrest Gump) put it, “Films at Sundance are like a box of chocolates…you just never know what you are going to get until you bite into them.”

That being said, here are the movies I will be seeing over the next week in hopes of getting my chocolate fix.

Ethel

I love a good documentary. In prior years biographies on Ronald Reagan and Joan Rivers were big hits critically and financially at Sundance. And let’s face it, most of us find the Kennedy family highly intriguing. What a witness to history Ethel Kennedy has been. Ethel, made by her daughter, award-winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, is sure to attract some big stars as well as a huge contingent of the Kennedy family including Ethel Kennedy herself, now 83.

Country music star Taylor Swift will make her first trip to the Sundance Film Festival and will attend the premiere Friday afternoon. She commented in the February issue of Vogue that meeting Ethel Kennedy was one of the few times she has been starstruck.

Arbitrage

This film from director Nicholas Jarecki is about a crooked hedge fund manager who tries to sell his trading empire on the eve of this 60th birthday before the extent of his fraud is discovered. Starring a high wattage cast of Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, the movie is one of the most sought after tickets in town.

Last year, another financial thriller, Margin Call, starring Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Simon Baker, was one of top five grossing movies of Sundance. I am hoping that the Wall Street vibe works its magic again.

Big Boys Gone Bananas

I love a good story of filmmakers vs. corporate America if it is combines humor with a message. Michael Moore doesn’t do it for me, but fans of this genre may remember 2010’s The Yes Men which followed a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonated World Trade Organization spokesmen.

I’m hoping that this film which details what happened to two Swedish filmakers in the aftermath of making a documentary about corporate giant Dole Food Company — they were sued, bullied and subjected to PR spin — strikes that tone. ScreenDaily.com says the movie "should be compulsory viewing for any wannabe documentary filmmaker embarking on their investigative opus without a fear in the world."

Smashed

This film about a young couple (Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul) battling alcohol addiction is produced by the same filmmakers behind last year’s Like Crazy. Their new movie carries high hopes because it promises to strike a tone that’s light and even dryly comedic. The Hollywood Reporter predicts that it could be a breakout role for 27-year-old Winstead, who portrays a woman struggling to redefine her marriage beyond alcohol. (Her prior credits include The Thing, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Final Destination 3.)

I like movies that deal with what I call crisis of character and self. Although the premise has been done many times — think Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia in When a Man Loves a Woman — I’m hoping the “Sundance” sensibility will bring a fresh look at this age-old problem.

About Face

Each year Sundance has what I call a “behind the scenes” documentary that attracts attention because we are all curious about what life is like for the institutions and people we read about. In 2010, it was The September Issue with a in-depth look at Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour. Last year it was Page One: Inside the New York Times. These types of documentaries are highly popular at the festival and typically are often acquired by TV or even are released for the big screen.

This year all eyes are on About Face, portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ intimate view of the supermodels whose images have defined our sense of beauty for the past 50 years. Expect to see interviews with iconic models Paulina Porizkova, Beverly Johnson, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Jerry Hall, Christy Turlington Burns, Christie Brinkley and Isabella Rossellini, where they discuss the enormous pressure society puts on women to be beautiful and youthful.

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Movie review

Adam Scott explores creepy Irish hotel in moody horror movie Hokum

Photo courtesy of Neon

Adam Scott in Hokum.

There are relatively few actors who can switch back and forth between comedy and drama easily, but Adam Scott is the rare exception. He’s equally as well known for starring in comedy projects like Parks & Recreation, Party Down, and Step Brothers as he is for dramas like Big Little Lies and Severance. He’s going the latter route again in the new horror film, Hokum.

Scott plays author Ohm Bauman, who’s trying to finish his latest book. In an effort to avoid distractions and also pay tribute to his parents, he retreats to an Irish hotel where his mom and dad spent their honeymoon. Bauman, who is about as stand-offish as you can get, and the staff of the hotel are at odds almost right away, although Bauman finds a kind of kinship with Jerry (David Wilmot), a seemingly-homeless man he meets in a nearby forest.

Bauman becomes intrigued with the story of the hotel’s closed-off honeymoon suite, which is said to be haunted. His curiosity, though, seems to trigger a variety of strange things, one of which ends with him in an extended stay at the hospital. He returns to the hotel determined more than ever to discover what’s really happening in the honeymoon suite, with things both normal and supernatural blocking his way at every turn.

Written and directed by Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy, the film’s approach to horror is both subtle and overt. On the good side is Bauman’s story, which gradually gets deeper as more is revealed about his past, especially the premature death of his mother. Bauman’s trauma over her loss influences his thinking and actions, and a possible connection between his current situation and his personal history broadens the scope of the plot.

There is plenty of creepiness to be found in the film, starting with the dark and decrepit nature of the hotel itself. Any building where a particular room is off-limits naturally inspires intrigue, and McCarthy does a solid job of building tension. That’s why it’s strange and disappointing that he gives in to the lamest of horror tropes - a sudden appearance by an odd-looking person accompanied by a big screeching noise - on multiple occasions.

The film is at its best when it features weird moments that are never or only slightly explained. A dead body in a rabbit suit is echoed by the unexplained broadcast from Bauman’s youth featuring a terrifying TV host with bulging eyes and rabbit ears. Bauman’s explorations take him into the hotel’s basement via a dumbwaiter, where he encounters all manner of strange things, including what seem to be witches. Because most of these things are left to the audience’s imagination, they hit harder in the moment.

Scott is known to be understated in his acting, and that skill works well in this particular role. Although he clearly plays Bauman as freaked out, he never indicates panic, and that level-headedness makes his character someone you want to follow no matter how dark the path might be. The mostly-Irish supporting cast is not well-known, but Wilmot and Florence Ordesh make the most of their short time on screen.

Hokum — a title that is also not explained — is a horror film that earns its bona fides through mood more than action. Even though not much of consequence happens throughout the film, it still keeps you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what will happen next.

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Hokum is now playing in theaters.

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