Sundance Journal

Life in a Day: Sundance gets down to business, and it's Like Crazy

A scene from "Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times" directed by AndrewRossi
Newspapers on the press in "Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times"
A scene from "Like Crazy," directed by Drake Doremus
From "Like Crazy" at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

After a weekend of non-stop partying, glitz, and glamour, the work week brings a subtle shift in tone to the Sundance Film Festival as the Hollywood crowd thins out and the real wheeling and dealing begins. Investors are much more optimistic this year with an abundance of deals inked in the first four days.

Though 2010 was an anemic year for movie deals, the community is ecstatic over the 14 Oscar nominations Sundance films received. The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone each garnered four nominations (including a nod to Annette Bening for best actress in All Right) and documentaries Exit Through the Gift Shop, Gasland, Restrepo and Waste Land dominated, claiming four of the five nominations in the category.

Among this year's crop of movies, Like Crazy was acquired by Paramount Pictures in a robust bidding war. It's the story of a long-distance relationship between Anna and Jacob who meet at an Los Angeles college but are separated by Anna’s visa issues. Themes of the poignancy and urgency of first love evolve to a more adult and, in this case, cynical love. Stellar performances by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation) and British up-and-comer Felicity Jones make it an enjoyable viewing experience.

Although formulaic, I found myself thinking later about the ending. As director Drake Doremus said, “Does the couple make it or not? That is up to you to project.”

Another movie getting a lot of buzz, Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times follows reporters who focus on trends in technology as part of the paper’s newly created Media Desk and how they affect the newspaper industry. Andrew Ross (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven) presents a fascinating backdrop of how free online content and the rise of aggregator sites like the Daily Beast, Gawker and Huffington Post have drastically impacted the financial stability of the newspaper industry.

Fans of the New York Times will enjoy putting faces with the names they read every day. The film also includes industry experts, reporters from other publications (Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame) and noted journalism professors. But the title promises more than the movie delivers. Perhaps 90 minutes is not enough time to cover a year in a business where things are changing by the minute. Participant Media and Magnolia acquired the film for an August release.

Life in a Day is a YouTube documentary experiment in which the site asked its users to submit a one minute video of their day on July 24, 2010 with the goal of capturing an entire day on our planet. Director Kevin McDonald and producer Ridley Scott reduced 80,000 entries to a series of emotional and ordinary vignettes — none lasting more than a minute — that illustrate the cycle of life and ultimately how connected we are. National Geographic acquired the film.

Jon Foy’s documentary, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, explores the mystery surrounding hundreds of tiles carrying a cryptic message that were embedded in city streets from the East Coast to St. Louis, and in South America, beginning in the early 1980s. I found myself asking “Who cares?” as artist Justin Duerr went from one paranoid, outer space theory and nut case theorist to the next. As he exclaimed at one point, “Another dead end!" I thought to myself, “Your dead end is not as bad as the dead end I am experiencing as a trapped movie goer.” No word if it has been picked up for wider distribution.

Sightings: Oprah Winfrey is apparently in an acquisition mode, too. She hosted a party at Snow Mountain Lodge in Deer Valley for about 500 as part of the premiere of Becoming Chaz, the story of Cher’s daughter, Chastity Bono, and her transition to becoming a man. Winfrey's OWN network has acquired the movie. Winfrey was overheard telling guests she wants to use OWN to do for documentaries what her syndicated talk show show did for books.

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Movie Review

New movie Friendship pairs Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in a bizarre bromance

Photo courtesy of A24

Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara), and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin — a weatherman at a local TV channel — even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, many things in the story go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

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Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

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