The mastermind behind Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock, is back to reveal the presumed, yet damaging truth about another industry—one less likely to lead to death via French fry or McFlurry. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is Spurlock's ultimate and unapologetic look at the entertainment industry's use of product placement and integration. For his meta-movie, the filmmaker attempts to earn financing entirely from the brands he examines in the film—exactly the type of bold move documentary-lovers have come to expect from him. "Everywhere you look it seems like something's being brought to you by some sponsor or some corporation," Spurlock told The Hollywood Reporter, which recently claimed that Sony was already interested in picking up The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. "So we said, 'Why not make a doc that looks at that and have the brands actually pay for it?'"
Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey leads the all-star cast of this thriller that takes place during a 24-hour period at an investment firm in the early stages of the U.S. financial meltdown in 2008. Margin Call, which in the finance world is when a broker's capital falls below a set amount of a client's total investment, follows one entry-level analyst (Zachary Quinto of Heroes), who discovers a glitch in the system. After appearing on the famous Black List, which recognizes Hollywood's most admired un-produced screenplays, writer/director J.C. Chandor's script inspired actors such as Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, and Demi Moore to take on the economic downfall as well.
Courtesy of Sundance
Ed Helms ( The Office and The Hangover) stars in Cedar Rapids as Midwestern insurance agent, Tim Lippe (Helms). As someone who has yet to travel outside his Wisconsin town of 300, Tim heads to what he perceives as Iowa's bustling metropolis for a convention after his boss dies in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident. John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, and Isaiah Whitlock Jr. ( The Wire) star as convention veterans who corrupt Helms into partaking in some Vegas-like activities. And based on the Cedar Rapids trailer, yes, tigers are once again involved in Helms' antics. The Phil Johnson script first garnered attention in 2009 when it also made the Black List. Luckily, The Good Girl's Miguel Arteta has helped make it a reality.
Courtesy of Sundance
Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times has "extra, extra, read all about it!" written all over it. Documentarian Andrew Rossi gives an insider's view of the media by spending an entire year behind-the-scenes at one of the country's most prestigious newspapers. Rossi looks into how it's run, the problems print faces with the Internet news boom, and the concerns raised by a fading medium trying to stay afloat. While filming, he discovered an intriguing thread of journalists, focusing mainly on media and culture columnist David Carr. "We tackle head-on the failures in reporting during the run-up to the war in Iraq, the Jayson Blair scandal, the layoffs and buyouts in 2009 and the declines in the print advertising market," Rossi told IndieWire.com. "Insight on those issues comes from remarkably candid conversations with those inside the Times as well as interviews with industry watchers who can provide a counterpoint."
Andrew Rossi / Courtesy of Sundance
Kevin Smith's latest film surprisingly has nothing to do with New Jersey or getting kicked off a Southwest airplane, as far as we can tell. His foray into the horror genre, Red State, stars John Goodman and Melissa Leo, who won a Golden Globe on Sunday for her role in The Fighter. Smith offers a daring, yet artistic look at Christian fundamentalist extremism, which he told Rotten Tomatoes UK was inspired by the controversial Westboro Baptist Church and its notorious leader Fred Phelps, who've taken a radical stance against homosexuality. Smith has been working on the dark story for years, which reportedly follows three Minnesota high-school boys who respond to an ad from a woman proposing a gangbang—but instead of their lady in waiting, they come face-to-face with a crazed preacher (played by Michael Parks). "Visually speaking, it's the most ambitious movie we've ever made," Smith told Collider.com. "There's some gallows humor, some dark fucking laughs. And Michael Parks' performance is not to be believed… to me, it plays like an exploitation film. When I was growing up, my favorite kind of movies were devil worshipping movies. This is an angel worship movie. You'll see what I mean."
Courtesy of Sundance
On July 24, 2010, YouTube started a global experiment, allowing users to submit video of life on Earth documented during one 24-hour period from his or her unique perspective. Producer Ridley Scott collected the most compelling footage the website received for a new feature-length documentary called Life in a Day. He also offered co-director credits to those whose submissions made it into the movie alongside the Oscar-winning director, and editor of the film, Kevin Macdonald ( The Last King of Scotland). It may be the only time that many directors can create one product.
Courtesy of Sundance
30 Rock's Elizabeth Banks and former Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire play married couple Nealy and Jeff, whose seemingly perfect suburban life gets disrupted when a family of raccoons terrorizes their flawless yard in The Details. The disastrous invasion unveils a metaphor—the couple's superficial relationship is torn to shreds, revealing concealed emotional turmoil, infidelities, and even murder. Filmmaker Jacob Aaron Estes' script inspired enough pre-production buzz that Laura Linney, Ray Liotta and a number of other stars signed on for small parts in this dark comedy.
Courtesy of Sundance
Oscar-nominee Vera Farmiga wowed audiences as a police psychiatrist opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed, a Nazi commandant's wife in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and George Clooney's sexy foil in Up in the Air. But this year, she's bringing us Higher Ground, her directorial debut based on Carolyn S. Brigg's memoir This Dark World. The film focuses on Corinne (played by Farmiga) and her journey of spiritual awakening, sexual discovery, and emotional development in the 1960s. Corinne's faith is challenged when she joins a small fundamentalist community with her guitarist boyfriend Ethan, leading her to question her beliefs and begin to reexamine exactly who she is.
Courtesy of Sundance
Though she started off as a Nickelodeon tween star and was branded the youngest member of an acting family, Julia's niece and Eric's daughter Emma Roberts ( Valentine's Day) has proven herself worthy of Hollywood roles. In writer/director Gavin Wiesen's feature film debut Homework, she plays opposite Freddie Highmore ( Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland). He's your typical teenager facing his senior year in high school as a loner until he discovers an unforeseen connection with the popular, yet melancholy, school beauty (Roberts). Wiesen said the difference with his coming-of-age story to those prior is its "youthful energy" and "authentic take on the emotions kids feel at that age when everything in their life changes."
Mark Schafer / Courtesy of Sundance
Using archival footage and interviews, Bobby Fischer Against the World depicts the troubled life of chess-playing prodigy Bobby Fischer, whose bizarre journey straddles the line between mastermind and mad man. At just 29, Fischer, who grew up largely without any parental presence, held the weight of the free world on his shoulders—representing his country in the notorious Cold War chess battle against the Soviet representative, Boris Spassky. Oscar-nominated documentarian Liz Garbus, takes audiences on the tumultuous trip of Fischer’s whirlwind successes, exhibiting how his genius deteriorated into delusion and paranoia and eventually led to his demise as a fugitive. Bobby Fischer is also tragically the last work of critically acclaimed film editor Karen Schmeer, who died in early 2010 after she was run down by a getaway car while crossing the street in New York.
AP Photo
It's been five years since Miranda July first made the full-length feature scene with Me and You and Everyone We Know, which earned Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005 and was deemed one of the five best movies of the decade by Roger Ebert. This year, July brings us The Future, which she not only directs, but also wrote and stars in. The film depicts the deeply realistic underbelly of a relationship (think fear of commitment, rejection, abandonment, etc.) after a thirtysomething couple takes in a terminally ill cat named Paw Paw, who also serves as the film's narrator. With July at the helm, a sick kitty, and Jon Brion ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) scoring the film, hipsters would likely be lining up already if it weren't the un-hip thing to do.
Todd Cole / Courtesy of Sundance
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney ( Taxi to the Dark Side) and his co-director Alison Ellwood will take audiences on the journey of a lifetime with Magic Trip. The film uses archival footage from 1964, when Ken Kesey, the famed author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and his disciples traveled from their home base of Northern California to Tomorrowland at the World's Fair in New York for an LSD-induced sociological experiment. Kesey and his "Merry Pranksters" used their cross-country journey to promote the hallucinogenic drug on their psychedelic school bus called "Further." The LSD devotees—including Jack Kerouac's companion Neal Cassady—chronicled their journey using cameras and audio recordings, all of which are expected to create a mind-altering experience.
Courtesy of Sundance
Once we learn Ned (Paul Rudd) has been conned into selling pot to an undercover cop, it's easy to understand why Grammy Award-winning music video director Jesse Peretz labeled his movie My Idiot Brother. Peretz, the son of The New Republic's editor in chief Marty Peretz, takes audiences along Ned's comedic ups and downs as he proceeds to couch hop among his three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer): the struggling journalist, bisexual flake, and mom with a struggling marriage, respectively. And though this film has earned plenty of stereotypical heterosexual male attention since Rashida Jones and Deschanel play a same-sex couple, we think it has much more going for it.
Courtesy of Sundance
Those who are fans of adorable animal blogs might be surprised by what the latest work from Oscar-winning director James Marsh ( Man on Wire) has to offer. In the early 1970s, a team of language and behavior specialists at Columbia University set out to examine one chimpanzee, whom they named Nim Chimpsky, to learn whether or not humans could communicate with the species by way of sign language. Marsh examines his story in Project Nim, exploring the controversy of the initial experiment which led The Fund for Animals to rescue Nim from being sold to a research lab. "There are some quite shocking twists in the narrative that no one involved could have foreseen," Marsh told IndieWire.com of his project. "But it's not a film about a warm and cuddly animal who wants to be our friend. Like Nim himself, the film is tough, unsentimental and wildly unpredictable in its narrative."
AP Photo
