An American Crime
For every undiscovered gem at the Sundance Film Festival, comes the one film that is unanimously loathed, and such a film is An American Crime. Directed with an unsubtle sledgehammer approach to filmmaking by Tommy O'Haver, his American Crime purports to tell the true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, [played by a one-note Catherine Keener] who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the mid-1960s.
Switching back and forth between the trial and the events, much of the film depicts the tragic teenage character in question, Sylvia Likens [a strong performance by Ellen Page] in the basement being tortured, in gruesome fashion, not only by this overprotected mother, but also her children and their friends.
While I am all for the power of cinema to explore the dark nature of humanity, this is such a consistently unpleasant film, made with no subtlety or sense of character, that there is no reason for its existence at a film festival. Here is a perfect example where a ratings board decides to say no to such a cinematic monstrosity.
Apparently due for US release in the late summer [yes the perfect counter-programming to the likes of Harry Potter I'm sure], one cannot imagine an intelligent member of the movie-going public forking out $12 to see a teenage girl being tortured. What is torture is having to sit through a film that offers little but graphic violence and characters imbued with simplistic amorality. That, coupled with a hokey, pretensions third act, makes it a crime to see what may well be the worst film to unspool at Sundance in years.
The Good Life Darkness and despair also tend to permeate through the ironically titled The Good Life. Written and directed by former actor Stephen Berra, a sublime Mark Webber delivers a haunting, beautifully delineated performance as Jason, who is encouraged by a new friend, Frances, (Zooey Deschanel) to cope with living in a small Nebraska town where he doesn't necessarily fit in.
The Good Life is a melancholy, but ultimately rewarding piece, on isolation, love, despair, family and the need to connect. Apart from Webber who encapsulates a young man's desperation to succeed, the film's performances are all superb, especially the always stunning Deschanel, here at Sundance with another film.
Chris Klein is also magnificent as a town bully, delivering his finest performance to date, and the film is mesmerising in its attention to detail and reality of human desperation. This won't be an easy sell, but it deserves attention.
It was a time for a brief break to do my first interview, with the perennially sexy and talented Gina Gershon. We talked extensively about her career and despite an up and down acting career, the philosophical actress is also focusing on her music, and recently co-wrote a young adult novel with her brother. "We just found out that Spielberg and Nickolodeon are combining to turn it into a movie," she revealed. Gershon said that she tends to turn down acting roles "if I don't like them", but will appear next opposite Hilary Swank in P.S I Love You, due out next year. More on my interview with Gina soon.
Broken English The end of my second day was at least a film that made me laugh, and is an irresistible treasure. Zoe Cassavetes' feature debut, Broken English, is a comically luminous study of a young woman's plight trying to find the perfect boyfriend. In a career-defining performance, the exquisite Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, a customer service manager of a small New York Hotel.
Within her mundane life, everyone around her is in a relationship, while she is in her thirties, alone with job she's outgrown and a mother who constantly reminds her that she's single. After a series of disastrous dates, Nora unexpectedly meets Julien, a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love, but when he returns to Paris, she must decide what it is she really wants.
While in many ways, Broken English is a conventional love story, it is more a wonderfully rich character study, exploring a woman's need to become truly independent. Fresh, sexy, funny and wonderfully real at the same time, Broken English shows us how truly extraordinary Parker Posey really is. Each facial gesture, each line delivery, is an exercise in the purity of acting, and whether she's being comedic here or vulnerable,
Posey delivers a great performance in an auspicious, emotive debut by another talented member of this family. Commercial success with Broken English is a strong possibility. Magnolia will release the film later in the year.
