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Talks retiring his band LCD Soundsystem and new documentary.
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain wrote in his suicide letter. The New York-based, electro-dance band LCD Soundsystem, which formed in 2001 and released three critically-acclaimed albums, took Cobain’s—by way of Neil Young’s—advice, choosing to abruptly retire at the height of their fame.
On Feb. 5, 2011, a letter was posted on the band’s website, saying, good people of earth: lcd soundsystem are playing madison square garden on april 2nd, and it will be our last show ever. we are retiring from the game. gettin’ out. movin’on. but for just one more night, we will be playing with friends and family for nearly 3 hours–playing stuff we’ve never played before and going out with a bang. and we’d like you to be there.
British filmmakers Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, who filmed the 2010 documentary NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN about the band Blur, decided to chronicle the mega-concert in the documentary SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS, which made its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Fox Searchlight broke out as the festival’s leading dealmaker, snapping up rights to the hottest title of the year, ‘The Surrogate,’ and winning a bidding war for the magic-realistic ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild.’
Although a series of blizzards has battered the festival, dumping several feet of snow throughout this winter-sport wonderland at the base of the Wasatch Mountains and making the schlep from screening to swag suite to open bar tricky to navigate, Sundance dealmaking heated up Tuesday with Sony Pictures Classics and Focus Features acquiring the distribution rights to festival entries. And Fox Searchlight has emerged as most purchase-happy of studio suitors so far, picking up two movies here in Park City, Utah.
Helen Hunt and John Hawkes in a scene from 'The Surrogate' (Courtesy of Sundance FIlm Festival)
On Monday, Searchlight paid $6 million for the North American distribution rights to what has arguably broken out as Sundance’s hottest title this year: The Surrogate, an uplifting drama about a middle-aged man (Oscar-nominated John Hawkes of Winter’s Bone fame) confined to his bed by an iron lung who hires a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) to finally relieve him of his virginity.
Then on Tuesday, Searchlight prevailed in a bidding war for Beasts of the Southern Wild, a dreamlike drama starring a cast of nonprofessional actors that juxtaposes gritty scenes of bayou poverty with nature-based magical realism to tell the story of a 6-year-old girl trying to find her way in the world. Although Beasts’ Friday premiere was greeted by rapturous audience and critical response that had acquisitions agents reaching for their checkbooks, no dollar-amount announcement was made concerning how much the studio paid for the movie.
Sundance’s dark, raunchy comedy features strippers, bathroom sex, and mounds of cocaine—and has the meanest group of girls you’ll see onscreen this year. Marlow Stern talks to ‘Bachelorette’ stars Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, and writer-director Leslye Headland about cocaine, bathroom sex—and real-life weddings.
After blowing rails upon rails of cocaine and verbally undressing everyone in her path, Kirsten Dunst’s Regan has a stern warning to douche bag Trevor (James Marsden), as he jackhammers away at her in a strip-club bathroom, in a line that pretty much sums up Bachelorette: “Don’t cum on my dress.”
Take the vanity of Charlize Theron’s Mavis in Young Adult; add a pinch of Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) petty jealousy in Bridesmaids; and top it off with the iciness of Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in The Iron Lady and you have the recipe for Regan—one of the nastiest characters ever put to film.
“I feel like Sharon Stone in Casino is fucking crazy, but in her craziness, she’s so put together and awesome,” Dunst told The Daily Beast. “That’s kind of the essence that I went for.”
Xanax binges, sex at a strip club, and Dunst as an ice queen you won't forget. Chris Lee on the pitch-black pre-nuptial Indie comedy premiering at Sundance.
Explosive bathtub puking? Check. Lengthy monologue about blow-job semantics? Affirmative. Copious cocaine consumption? Strip-club bathroom sex? A suicidal Xanax binge? Check. Check. Check. Such are the many and varied wonders of the pitch-black indie comedy Bachelorette, starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and James Marsden—a movie that premiered here in Park City on Monday that your rangey correspondent managed to watch in a secret ski-chalet screening Friday morning.
Jacob Hutchings / Courtesy Sundance Channel
Early on in the film, a druggy, barely hinged party girl portrayed by Lizzy Caplan characterizes one of her friend’s romantic entanglements as being “like a Jane Austen novel on crack.” That’s as apt a description as any for Bachelorette, an antic caper shot through with doses of Neil LaBute-esque cross-talking dialogue. Sight unseen, the movie has already been tarred by comparisons to last year’s breakout hit Bridesmaids for the films’ shared marital milieu and shoot-milk-out-your-nose-laughing raunch factor.
Bachelorette follows three female BFFs—Dunst, as a bulimic perfectionist with ice in her veins and a snarl of pure scorn; Fisher, as a near-suicidal yet effervescent bubblehead prom queen; and the aforementioned Caplan—as they ready for the wedding of Becky (Bridesmaids’ hilarious Rebel Wilson), the high school ne’er do well, whom the other three used to scorn as “Pig Face” behind her back.
Melissa Leo on her costar's Sundance accident.
That was the question on everyone’s mind Monday morning at the Sundance Film Festival after hearing the 30 Rock star had collapsed at the festival Sunday evening. He was in town promoting the ensemble comedy Predisposed, but ended up at the hospital. People immediately began speculating that substance abuse was to blame—a rumor that was quickly debunked by a hospital spokesman, who said no alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Two years ago, Morgan had a kidney transplant and is a diabetic. Turns out it was the altitude.
“I just got off the phone with him,” said Predisposed codirector Ron Nyswaner Monday afternoon. “He said, ‘I’m A1 Steak Sauce.’ That means he’s fine.”
Bingham Ray, a celebrated studio head who helped foster the independent-film boom, died after suffering a stroke at the Sundance Film Festival. Chris Lee reports from Utah.
Bingham Ray, a widely admired indie-film veteran and former studio head, has died, the Sundance Film Festival announced on Monday. He was 57.
Bingham Ray in 2007. (Jesse Grant, WireImage / Getty Images)
Ray had reportedly been in serious but stable condition at a Provo, Utah, hospital and was surrounded by family when he died. His daughter told The Wrap that he had suffered a mild stroke last week followed by a “more serious” stroke on Friday during the festival.
The news registered like a death in the family in Park City, with many friends expressing outpourings of genuine sadness upon hearing of Ray’s passing.
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
At Sundance Film Festival.
30 Rock star Tracy Morgan had just received an honor at the Sundance Film Festival’s Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards Sunday night in Park City, Utah, when he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital. Morgan reportedly left the event after his acceptance speech and fell unconscious outside the building. A hospital spokeswoman said that no drugs or alcohol were found in Morgan’s system, and his publicist said the combination of exhaustion and altitude caused the actor to faint.
The controversial performance artist’s documentary, Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present, breaks through with art-house movie lovers as well as non-“elites” at Sundance.
On paper, the documentary’s premise seems like an exercise in art-house tedium: film a woman sitting in a wooden chair, moving as little as possible, and engaging in a staring contest with other people eight to 10 hours a day for three months. And action!
Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images
But, as the subject of the movie—legendary performance artist Marina Abramović—is fond of pointing out, context is everything, and even an incredibly simple act like sitting still for a really long time can become profound, inspiring, even transcendent if you go about it the proper way. “I understood that by doing nothing, you reduce, reduce, reduce,” Abramović, 65, said, seated in a Park City hotel atrium Saturday. “All you have is your state of being. That’s what performance should be: pure energy flow.”
The documentary Marina Abramović : The Artist is Present premiered at Sundance on Friday to rapturous response, exerting strong appeal not only to the type of high culture lovers Newt Gingrich might deride as “elites” but also to people who think the hoity-toity world of performance art and its goofball intellectual antics are so much emperor’s new clothing.
Interview with star and director about creepy film.
Filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés caused a feeding frenzy among buyers when his last film, BURIED, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film starred Ryan Reynolds as an Iraq-based American truck driver who’s attacked, and finds himself buried alive in a coffin with only a lighter, flask, flashlight, knife, glowsticks, pencil and a mobile phone. His captor torments him via cell phone, making him perform a series of sadistic funny games in order to win his freedom.
RED LIGHTS is Cortés’ latest exploration of how far people are willing to go to satisfy their curiosity. Tom Buckley, played by Cillian Murphy, is the assistant to psychologist Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver), who specializes in debunking paranormal phenomena. When the legendary blind psychic Simon Silver, played by Robert De Niro, reemerges after thirty years in hiding, it threatens to challenge the two psychologist’s theories. The film, which also stars Elizabeth Olsen, Toby Jones, and Joely Richardson, made its premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Aziz Ansari, not so much.
Two years ago, Microsoft’s search engine Bing occupied the basement of Cisero’s off of bustling Main Street, where it played host to the after party of the Sundance hit WAITING FOR SUPERMAN—a documentary about the failings of the U.S. public education system. In the restaurant’s cramped, caliginous basement, John Legend, the film’s co-producer, teamed up with The Roots to perform an intimate show for about one hundred-plus people. To the right of the stage, behind a VIP rope flanked by three colossal security guards, stood a bespectacled middle-aged white guy in a fleece, cradling a beer and doing the Macarena. It was Bill Gates.
“We love the spirit of independence at Sundance, encouraging up-and-coming filmmakers, and the indie nature around it,” said Bing director Lisa Gurry. “Our first year at Sundance, we had such a great reception from the Sundance community that we decided last year to make a bigger investment.”
“WHERE THE F–K IS DRAKE?”
YOUR SISTER’S SISTER: The funniest comedy at Sundance (so far)
There were a plethora of highly touted comedies boasting heavy-hitting casts that had buyers—and audiences—salivating prior to the festival, but a little indie shot in just over ten days has emerged as the dark horse candidate for funniest film of Sundance 2012.
YOUR SISTER’S SISTER comes courtesy of “mumblecore” filmmaker Lynn Shelton, whose last film, HUMPDAY, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival en route to a Special Jury Prize and critical raves for its uproarious portrait of two best friends locked in a no-holds-barred game of macho one-upmanship that leads to them agreeing to shoot a gay porn together.
The actor made an unexpected showing at Sundance with 'This Must Be the Place,' in which he plays a Goth rocker on a hunt for vengeance. Chris Lee reports from Utah on the eccentric new role.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Sundance Film Festival is no exception.
Coming into 2012, the fest’s line-up appeared to be absent one of Sundance’s most reliable boilerplates from over the years: a feature drama focusing on characters undertaking a cross-country journey of self-discovery. Google “cross-country journey of self-discovery” and “Sundance” and you’ll see what I’m talking about—there are enough of these films to constitute a legitimate sub-genre. Little Miss Sunshine features a dysfunctional family going such a journey; The Motorcycle Diaries has a young Che Guevara doing it; the 2005 mumblecore comedy The Puffy Chair follows a failed indie rocker taking the drive; and the YouTube mockumentary Catfish has a trio of social media enthusiasts behind the wheel.
But this year, a cursory scan through the festival line-up revealed no such cross-country journey of self-discovery movie—a seemingly glaring oversight for any Sundance. Enter Sean Penn’s extreme oddball dramedy This Must Be the Place.
Andy Samberg on CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, Sundance and Lana Del Rey
It was by all accounts a momentous occasion. Harvey Weinstein loitered in the hallway. Seth Rogen politely acknowledged some overzealous fans with his trademark chuckle. Shailene Woodley, with a gaggle of girlfriends in tow, waited patiently out in the cold to be let inside. The stars were aligned for the world premiere of CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER on Friday evening at the Sundance Film Festival’s 1,270-seat Eccles Theater.
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger (THE VICIOUS KIND, Sundance ’09), the film follows Celeste (Rashida Jones, who co-wrote the screenplay), a branding exec, and Jesse (Andy Samberg), an unemployed artist who, after a life-long friendship and six years of marriage, decide to split and see other people. Both parties, however, struggle to close the book on their storied past and start new, separate chapters in life.
Arthur Mola / WireImages-Getty Images
Bingham Ray, a celebrated former studio head who helped foster the independent-film boom, suffered a stroke at the Sundance Film Festival, and is getting "very good care," according to his daughter.
Bingham Ray, a widely admired indie-film veteran and former studio head, suffered a stroke at the Sundance Film Festival this week and on Saturday was reported to be convalescing at a hospital in Provo, Utah. Ray's daughter told The Wrap that he had a mild stroke earlier in the week and then suffered a "more serious" stroke on Friday morning. Ray's daughter said he is getting "very good care."
The news registered with the strength of a bombshell in Park City, with many friends and confidants expressing horror upon hearing of Ray's medical condition.
The movie stalwart was named executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in October and from many years of attending the festival has become a cherished figure at Sundance. Ray famously cofounded October Films in 1991, a seminal indie distributor that released a number of acclaimed and Oscar-nominated movies including Secrets & Lies, Celebration, Breaking the Waves, and Lost Highway.
Having begun his career in moviedom as a projectionist for New York's Bleecker Street Theater in 1981, Ray went on to become president of United Artists and worked at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. More recently, he worked as a consultant to Snag Pictures, a digital distribution company, and as an adjunct professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
