WeLiveInPublic Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When you get half-way through a festival and find yourself liking every film, you begin to wonder if you're not being critical enough. Were they all really that good? Did excitement cloud the picky nature of judgment? It can happen. How many times do we go see a movie with a crowd who loves it, then watch it on our own and hate it? As much as we can gripe and moan about the foibles of Hollywood, it's not entirely difficult to get swept up in excitement. (Or, for that matter, distaste.)

Inevitably, a film will pop up into the mix and you'll realize: no, you're not being too kind. Some are bad, and some fail. Hitting the half-way mark at HotDocs, I got the balancing slap of failed promise, some more worthy picks, and only one true stinker. Read on for docs about the one-and-only Thelonious Monk, living in the public eye, and more.

SXSW jumped their own gun last night by announcing their line-up of film titles for this year's festival in Austin, TX.

Right around the ides of March, we'll be treated to the world premieres of:

• Best Worst Movie (all about the cult surrounding Troll 2 and supposedly containing an appearance by none other than our own Scott Weinberg),
• South By staple Joe Swanberg's latest, Alexander the Last,
• Gerald Perry's For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (Scott's in this too? WTF?!),
• John Hamburg's bromantic comedy I Love You, Man,
• Gary Hustwit's new doc, Objectified (go queue up Helvetica already!),
• Jody Hill's Observe and Report (because we can't all love Paul Blart: Mall Cop),

...and much, much more! Personally, I'm also psyched to catch up with Sundance hits like Grace, Moon, We Live in Public, Humpday, and a couple of others -- not to mention the U.S. premiere of The Hurt Locker and a special anniversary screening of Office Space (yes, Austinites, another one). All I'd otherwise beg for is 500 Days of Summer, but who am I to look a gift fest in the mouth?

SXSW '09 runs from March 13-21, and you can expect plenty of coverage around these parts.

(Warning: This one goes up to eleven...)

1. Moon -- Most were admittedly intrigued by the prospect of Sam Rockwell alone and yet potentially not on a lunar station going into the fest, and this seemed to be the first film to live up to its promise as a modest yet straight-up sci-fi endeavor (that just happened to have a Kevin Spacey-voiced robot, and just tell me you wouldn't want one of those waking you up and telling you to pay it forward all the friggin' time).

2. 500 Days of Summer -- I'd liked the vague stuff I'd been hearing about this one going into the fest as well -- namely, "Zooey Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel" -- and I certainly liked the teaser trailer that made its way out just hours before the film's formal premiere. Does it look like Fox Searchlight's particular brand of indie hipster quirk that's just begging to get too popular for its own good by about Labor Day? Sure, but if it's as adorable as it seems, that's a chance I'm willing to take, Zooey.

The second Friday at Sundance is a day when many observers have returned home. But the festival is not over, and our intrepid crew remains on the scene.

Deals. The sight of Ashton Kutcher 's naked gigolo butt evidently convinced Anchor Bay Films that David Mackenzie's Spread was the movie for them. Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE reports that the sister company of Overture Films paid nearly $4 million for US and Australian rights. Kutcher served as a producer on the film, which also stars Anne Heche, Rachel Blanchard, Margarita Levieva, and Sonia Rockwell.

Speaking of Rockwells, Brian Brooks (also of indieWIRE), says that Sony Pictures Classics will distribute the Sam Rockwell-starring Moon, the science fiction flick directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisition Group pre-bought the film's rights before the festival. Sony Classics plans a June 2009 release. James Rocchi reviewed it for Cinematical last week.

Reviews/Interview. Our man James followed up his review of the doc We Live in Public by talking with director Ondi Timoner and subject Josh Harris. James also discovered Noah Buschel's The Missing Person, starring Michael Shannon; James says the film "isn't merely a clever, cool spin on the classic private eye story, but it also works as a private eye story." Finally, James got An Education from suddenly hot actress Carey Mulligan, director Lone Scherfig, and scripter Nick Hornby; the film's evocation of 1960s England struck James as "superbly constructed, yes, but those elements also connect." Be sure to catch up on all of Cinematical's coverage via the Sundance hub at Moviefone.

Blog Talk. Continue onward, brave reader, for a few more quotable quotes.

Getting ready to interview director Ondi Timoner and subject Josh Harris about the documentary We Live in Public (reviewed here) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, I sat with my recorder and got ready with my questions as Timoner offered me a T-shirt for the film. A nice gesture, and a casual one -- but the fact that Timoner, Harris and I were being filmed at the time by a camera capturing their Sundance experience for future use turned a gracious, friendly gesture into a curiously weighted proposition: What if I didn't take it? What if I didn't want it? And how long would my reaction endure?

Revolving around Harris' spectacularly failed internet art projects Quiet and We Live in Public, Timoner's film uses Harris as a case study in the perils of our over-broadcast age and offers an examination of the numbing, overwhelming possibilities the internet offers. Timoner and Harris spoke about the film, why the subject of the film refuses to watch it, information theory and the power behind pointing a camera, plus much more.

You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Sundancers enjoyed unseasonably warm weather (41 degrees in the afternoon) as the festival headed toward its concluding weekend.

Deals. After picking up the Nazi zombie flick Dead Snow, IFC Films added another comedy to its roster, acquiring Armando Iannucci's In the Loop just hours before its premiere, according to Mike Jones at Variety. The film stars Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, and Steve Coogan. A 2009 theatrical release is planned, per indieWIRE. But where's the bidding wars for docs? A. J. Schnack of All these wonderful things writes: "For the first time in anyone's recent memory, the first half of the fest had come and gone without a major doc sale."

Reviews/Interviews. Would-be comedy Paper Heart is "partially built around Charlyne Yi's persona," says Eric D. Snider, "and I find her persona boring." Oh, dear. The "typically hilarious" Michael Cera also appears. James Rocchi was busy, interviewing the great Kevin Spacey about Shrink and talking with actor / director / writer John Krasinski about Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. James also reviewed Ondi Timoner's documentary We Live in Public, which he called "incisive, exciting and thought-provoking."

Prison drama Bronson, from Pusher trilogy director Nicolas Wining Refn, has created a fair amount of buzz, and Scott Weinberg knows why, describing it as "raw, blistering, harsh and compelling." Scott also took a bemused gander at Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad, with Robin Williams essaying the titular role of a father dealing with life after his teenage son "dies while masturbating." Yes, folks, it's a comedy! To end on a musical note, Erik Davis caught The Carter, a doc about rapper Lil' Wayne, "a passionate, talented man who's slowly losing himself." You can check out all our coverage at the fabulous Sundance hub at Moviefone.

Blog Talk. After the jump: Woody Allen's soul, Bobcat's schedule, and Paris Hilton.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." -- Socrates

"Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button." -- William Gibson, Neuromancer (1986)

We Live in Public, the newest documentary from director Ondi Timoner (Dig!, Join Us), looks at internet technology and how it's changing us, prying into these larger issues through looking at the life and times of Josh Harris, who the press notes call "The greatest internet pioneer you've never heard of ..." Harris made a fortune from the internet before you ever heard of it with his consulting and analysis firm Jupiter Communications, then launched a revolutionary web-based set of video programs called Pseudo and then descended into a series of ornate and risky multimedia art projects: First was Quiet, a constantly-broadcast bunker and residence in 1999 New York that offered participants comforts and privileges in exchange for certain rights and concessions. Then came We Live in Public, where Harris and his girlfriend Tanya Corrin lived in a loft with a 24/7 web broadcast of everything they did, said and were to each other.