A different sort of Top 10 this week. Together with my PlayerAffinity.com colleague Sam Woolf, I've compiled a list of 10 promising titles that debuted at Sundance 2012. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be a very strong festival. I could have easily extended this list to a Top 20. Instead, I'll share my five choices and link you (here) to the Player Affinity movie page, where you'll find Sam's five choices. My honorable mentions include Celeste and Jesse Forever, The Queen of Versailles, Arbitrage, How to Survive the Plague, Red Hook Summer, and 2 Days in New York.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
This year's Grand Jury Prize winner wasn't typical Sundance fare. Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild follows a little girl named Hushpuppy who lives near the edge of the world and must fight illness, melting polar ice caps, and vicious creatures called aurochs if she's to ever find her mother. It also sounds like a coming-of-age story, which will undoubtedly bring an emotional hook to the bizarre story. Regardless, something with such an original premise could perform well, especially with the indie kings at Fox Searchlight behind it.
Liberal Arts
The two stars of this film, Josh Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen, are following up their critically-acclaimed breakouts (happythankyoumoreplease and Martha Marcy May Marlene, respectively) with this crowd-pleaser about a man who goes back to college in his thirties and falls for a young undergrad. It's certainly a test of Olsen's versatility, as she transitions away from the closed of title character of 2011's Sundance darling. Radnor, meanwhile, is looking to prove himself behind the camera once again, and general consensus out of the festival is quite positive. Liberal Arts was picked up by IFC Films.
Safety Not Guaranteed
Here's a bizarre one, with a plot that's ripped from the headlines (Internet headlines, to be specific). Remember that meme about the guy who took out a personal ad looking for someone to travel through time with? Colin Tervorrow's film follows a young journalist (the hilariously deadpan Aubrey Plaza) as she tracks down this guy, Kenneth Calloway (indie hero Mark Duplass), for an interview...or more. The film was picked up by FilmDistrct and promises to be very funny. Consider me sold.
Compliance
Here's another ripped from the headlines film, though this one is very serious. Based on a series of crimes during the mid-2000s, the film takes place at a fictional fast food restaurant and focuses on a boss who's told one of her young, attractive employees has stolen money from a customer. The boss follows the instructions of the "police" on the phone, who tell her to search the employee thoroughly. The film appears to be as scandalous as the events upon which it is based. Reviews are strong, but it's been called disturbing, and it generated multiple walkouts during screenings at the festival. Compliance is a Magnolia Pictures acquisition.
Robot and Frank
High-concept science-fiction films typically sound promising, but they don't always end up working (see In Time). Robot and Frank, by most accounts, is a charmer through and through. Frank Langella (of Frost/Nixon fame) stars as a retired cat burglar in the future whose main company is a robot caretaker (voiced by Peter Saarsgard). Unhappy with the situation at first, Frank's attitude changes when he realizes Robot is the perfect partner for his next and possibly final heist. The film was picked up by Sony, which means it could see a fairly wide release sometime this year.
For five more Sundance debuts to look out for, head on over to PlayerAffinity.com.
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