Sundance 2005: More Crispin Glover

by Karina Longworth Jan 27th 2005 // 10:24PM

We've been getting some pretty interesting reader comments in response to the trailer of Crispin Glover's What Is It? - predictably, it seems to be a love-it or hate-it proposition. The film screens at Sundance tonight at midnight, and I can't wait to post the (surely contentious) reviews and reactions. In the meantime, I dredged up this interview, in which Darius James talks to Mr. Glover as he is in the "final editing stages" of What Is It?:

What Is It? is an outre, bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film. It is brilliant in its sensitivity and humanity and infantile in its excess. For some, the surface narrative will seem confusing, but only because the film represents the interior life of its author. It's not a movie with speeding car chases and explosions (though it has its share of large naked breasts). It reflects how Crispin Glover processes his thoughts and feelings and how he reinterprets that information. What Is It?, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition, invites you inside a musical UFO, the spaceship that is Crispin Glover's brain.

The article appeared in SPIN Magazine … over six years ago.

5 Comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-15-2005 @ 4:45AM

mittens said...

What was the deal with Grizzly Man being replaced halfway through the fest? I was volunteering, even in a management position, but we never heard the reason behind the action. We, like everyone else, have to call the press office for information! But I know you may have the story behind the story.

thanks!

9-15-2005 @ 4:45AM

Adam Parfrey said...

Even if Crispin's film is difficult to come to grips with, and confuses some people, it seems quite strange to me how sheltered many of the reactions seem to be. How do you think people reacted to early Bunuel or early David Lynch? With full understanding and comprehension? Why not simply be interested in films that are in themselves unlike other films, and have compelling and unusual information and visuals within them? Why does every movie have to be like a TV program, with explicable plot points and glorious method actors?

9-18-2005 @ 8:27PM

Karina Longworth said...

I'm just as surprised as you are that no one seems willing to come out and defend Glover in the name of cult filmmaking. With all the bitching we do about Sundance having "sold out", it seems hypocritical to universally lambast the Festival's most underground effort. That said, it seems that those who did go into the screening with an open mind weren't exactly clamoring, afterwards, to defend what was screened...

9-18-2005 @ 8:27PM

Karina Longworth said...

Hi Mittens,

This is the first I've heard about the Grizzly Man "replacement". I'll look into it, and if anyone has any info, it would be much appreciated!

karina

9-15-2005 @ 4:45AM

Tanya said...

From 100 years from now people will understand Crispin, but not now. And that sucks. At least a few people appreciate him. And that's good. :)