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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
MONDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2015
A Kansan perspective on Sundance Film Festival
ANDREW HOSKINS
@KansanNews
One of the most enjoyable parts of the Sundance Film Festival is the wild scramble around the Salt Lake City area to chase down the films you want to see. The festival is so spread out that each screening you attend has its own mini-adventure surrounding it, complete with a new crowd, a slightly different vibe and a fresh angle on one of the nation's most scenic mountain regions. Below is a brief recount of the films I saw and my experiences from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 — the last four days of the festival.
YARROW THEATRE
PARK CITY
SUNDANCE SCREENING ROOM, NEAR PROVO
The first film I saw was called "Cloro," the first feature film for Italian director Lamberto Sanfelice. It follows the story of Jenny, a teenaged synchronized swimmer who is forced to put her swimming career on hold and move to a new part of Italy to care for her depressed father and younger brother after her mother dies. Sara Serraiocco, the up-and-coming actress who plays Jenny, gives a powerful performance as a young woman forced to face incredibly difficult circumstances, yet hold on to her dreams. 2/4 STARS
After spending most of my day in Park City and expecting to have time to walk to my second movie, I was informed by who I think was a Sundance box office employee that my next film, "Christmas. Again," was actually about 45 minutes away. After a poorly lit drive through the mountains, I
made it to the Sundance Resort in time to see a film from director Charles Poekel. The film is about a young man named Noel who operates a Christmas tree stand in Brooklyn, N.Y. Noel is heartbroken after a seemingly recent breakup and seeks love among the local women he interacts with while trying not to let despair and loneliness overtake him. 2.5/4 STARS
TEMPLE THEATRE, PARK CITY
I zipped back over to Park City the next morning to watch what turned out to be one of the worst films I've ever seen. "Princess" is an awful film about child abuse that has no artistic merit and deserves no further mention. I highly recommend against seeing it. 0/4 STARS
TEMPLE THEATRE, PARK CITY
After trekking back to Salt Lake City, I saw an excellent film called "Tangerine", which exposes areas of modern day Los Angeles' underbelly that I had no idea existed. Unique, edgy and shot on an iPhone 5S — so I heard — this ended up being one of the best films I saw at the festival. It was directed by Sean Baker. 4/4 STARS
BROADWAY THEATER
SALT LAKE CITY
PEERY'S EGYPTIAN THEATER, OGDEN
Nearly 40 minutes north of Salt Lake, Ogden is home to the famous Peery's Egyptian Theater, which was packed for a screening of "A Walk In The Woods," starring the festival's founder himself, Robert Redford. Based on an autobiographical Bill Bryson book by the same name, it follows the story of the aging author and his friend Katz (Nick Nolte) and
their adventures hiking a portion of the Appalachian trail. Ken Kwapis directs this film. 3/4 STARS
SLC LIBRARY, SALT LAKE CITY
SLC LIBRARY, SALT LAKE CITY
The next morning I made the drive to the SLC library, an enormous and impressive structure, to see "6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia." This was an odd documentary about a crew who goes and traces a journey taken to Sardinia by author DH Lawrence in 1921.
Mark Cousins directs this oddly narrated and slightly confusing film. 2/4 STARS
After initially thinking I received bogus directions from Siri, I finally managed to locate a screening of "99 Homes," which seemed to be in a community college auditorium in a suburban part of town. This film is a very "Wall Street-esque" story about young Andrew Garfield who is lured into the temptingly lucrative world of shady real-estate deals made on foreclosed Florida homes by a mogul played by Michael Shannon. This film, directed by Ramin Bahriani, was very entertaining and I highly recommend it. 3.5/4 STARS
GRAND THEATRE,
SALT LAKE CITY
For the final film the next day I made the trek back to the Sundance Resort to see "71," a very gritty drama about a British soldier who gets trapped in an unfriendly part of Belfast during the tension between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Yann Demange directs this tense, bloody and very entertaining film. 3/4 STARS
SUNDANCE SCREENING ROOM,
NEAR PROVO
— Edited by Kayla Schartz
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