NEGATIVE SPACE

Whit Stillmans "Love & Friendship" © Protagonist Pictures

Absteigend aufgelistet sind hier die Sundance-Filme 2016, die mich persönlich am meisten interessieren. Die eigene Vorfreude wie auch das Kritiker-Feedback vor Ort sorgen für die Abstufungen, die ich mit Sternen von fünf bis drei kenntlich mache. Der Ticker wird täglich upgedatet:

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Most-Wanted 2016:

* The Greasy Strangler (Jim Hosking)
* Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
* The Lure (Agnieszka Smoczynska)
* Wild (Nicolette Krebitz)
* Tickled (David Farrier & Dylan Reeve)
* Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)

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★★★★

"The Greasy Strangler" (Jim Hosking): "GREASY STRANGLER is the weirdo midnighter we needed. MAJOR props to star Elizabeth De Razzo for sheer unadulterated ballsiness." (Jen Yamato, The Daily Beast) "GREASY STRANGLER is some real deal dare the audience shit." (Sam Zimmerman, Fangoria) "THE GREASY STRANGLER: Vile in every way, periodically disgustingly funny. Dares any audience to watch until the end." (Russ Fischer, L.A. Times) "THE GREASY STRANGLER is the most 'midnight movie' since John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING. I am in awe." (Jordan Hoffman, Guardian) "It's a mind fuck full of potato chips, nudity and GREASE." (Leigh Blickley, Huffington Post) "The Greasy Strangler is an absurdist comedy-horror mashup that delves to Dadaist levels, never lets up & overstays it's welcome on purpose." (Jeff Goldsmith, The Q & A) "THE GREASY STRANGLER just happened to me." (Drew McWeeny, HitFix)

[Produzenten sind unter anderen der "Kill List"-Regisseur Ben Wheatley und der Alamo Drafthouse-Chef Tim League, der mit seinem Drafthouse Films-Verleih "Four Lions" und "Tore tanzt" in die US-Kinos gebracht hat.]

"Manchester by the Sea" (Kenneth Lonergan): "It's fantastic, and also like having your heart slowly cut out." (Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed) "It will be a Best Picture nominee 12 months hence -- guaranteed. Casey Affleck will be Best Actor nominated -- locked." (Jeffrey Wells, HE) "It's an immense, funny & beautifully realized portrait of grief & giving in to it. Made me like a Bruins fan." (David Ehrlich, Rolling Stone) "Oh, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA. All they say. Heartbreakingly fine tale of a lost soul in coastal Mass. Casey Affleck never better." (Ty Burr, Boston Globe) "MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is the ugly cry masterpiece of Sundance." (Drew McWeeny, HitFix)

[Beim Rechtekauf stach Amazon mit seinem 10 Millionen-Angebot prestigeträchtige Studioarme wie Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight und Lionsgate aus.]

"Tickled" (David Farrier & Dylan Reeve): "Starts as doc on competitive tickling, goes to some fascinating and dark places. Wanted more oomph from ending, but: fun!" (Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed) "It turns into a surprisingly tense and increasingly weird detective story about the shadowy, threatening, abusive figure." (Lee Marshall, SD)

"Love & Friendship" (Whit Stillman): "A supremely elegant and delicately filigreed adaptation of Jane Austen’s epistolary novella Lady Susan." (Justin Chang, Variety) "Whit Stillman returns – and on absolute peak form – with this drastically delightful Jane Austen adaptation." (David Jenkins, Little White Lies) "Whit Stillman and Jane Austen make a most agreeable marriage. Kate Beckinsale is wonderfully diabolical." (David Ehrlich, Rolling Stone)

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★★★½

"The Lure" (Agnieszka Smoczynska): "A gorgeously shot Polish goth musical about homicidal teen mermaids hired to sing at a nightclub. obviously essential." (David Ehrlich, Rolling Stone) "It was a barmy, Eurovision-esque fever dream, but sublime staging and catchy tunes couldn't save its narrative muddle." (Total Film) "It's the neon Polish killer mermaid musical of my dreams. A stunning fairytale." (Sam Zimmerman, Fangoria)

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★★★

"Wiener-Dog" (Todd Solondz): "Buñuel by way of AU HASARD BALTHASAR, WIENER-DOG is probably Todd Solondz's angriest movie, and certain to be his most divisive." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "Todd Solondz's WIENER-DOG melted me. An All-American companion to PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH." (Matt Patches, Esquire) "The more I think about Todd Solondz's WIENER-DOG, the more I like it. And I'm thinking about it a lot." (Guy Lodge, Variety)

"Swiss Army Man" (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert): "SWISS ARMY is the sweded REVENANT with more to say about mortality and 1,000 fart jokes. Bonkers." (Matt Patches, Esquire) "Yeah, no idea what to make of this fable about depression, magical realist corpses, and flatulence." (Alison Willmore, Buzzfeed) "I've never seen anything like SWISS ARMY MAN. Example: Paul Dano riding a dead, farting Daniel Radcliffe like a motor boat." (Adam B. Vary, BuzzFeed)

"The Birth of a Nation" (Nate Parker): 17,5 Millionen Dollar bezahlte Fox Searchlight für die Nordamerika-Rechte des als schwarzen "Braveheart" titulierten Sklavendramas. Das ist gerade auch dank der #OscarsSoWhite-Kampagne ein neuer Sundance-Rekord, nahezu 100 Jahre nach der Weltpremiere des gleichnamigen, rassistischen Stummfilmklassikers von D. W. Griffith.

"Dark Night" (Tim Sutton): "If there is a more heartbreakingly tender, dread-inducing, cinematically expressive film in Sundance than Tim Sutton’s DARK NIGHT, I’ll be surprised." (Amy Taubin, Film Comment)

"Under the Shadow" (Babak Anvari): "UNDER THE SHADOW is the first great horror movie of the year." (Eric Kohn, indieWIRE) "UNDER THE SHADOW is so good. Wish it was eligible for jury awards." (Gregory Ellwood, HitFix) "Shrieks all over the theater for UNDER THE SHADOW, an awesome mother-daughter spook story set in '80s Tehran during Saddam's missile strikes." (Amy Nicholson, MTV) "Creepy, creepy mix of the (maybe) supernatural with wartime dread, maternal anxiety. Setting specific and key." (Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed) "UNDER THE SHADOW is this year's THE BABADOOK." (Peter Sciretta, Slashfilm)

[Ich bin wirklich kein Fan dieser aktuellen Meta-Horror-Welle, wo Subtext gleich Plot ist. Gerade "The Babadook" ist da eher ein Reizwort als eine Empfehlung.]

Links: - 2015, - 2014, - 2013, - 2012, - 2011