Sundance '08 goodies

In addition to bone chilling cold and broken New Year’s resolutions, January, to me, also means another crop of films at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The Park City at Midnight programme at Sundance has showcased some great films over the years, including The Blair Witch Project, Haute Tension, Oldboy and The Descent.

This year’s lineup looks promising, as well. Here are some that piqued my interest. Click on the titles for more info.

The Broken (USA)
Dir: Sean Ellis
Feat: Lena Headey
A psychological thriller about an average woman’s life that starts to unravel when she thinks she sees herself drive by in a car one day. An interesting concept, but I’d be interested to see if this cool idea can be stretched out to feature length.

Donkey Punch (UK)
Dir: Olly Blackburn
Feat: Robert Boulter, Sian Brecklin
Come on! I have to see this movie on its title alone. The story revolves around passengers on a yacht turning on each other after one of them ends up dead.

Time Crimes (Spain)
Dir: Nacho Vigalondo
Feat: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández
This one sounds like a very interesting time travel film, handling a complicated concept in a minimalist kind of way – much like the 2004 time travel film Primer did.

Hell Ride (USA)
Dir: Larry Bishop
Feat: Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper, Vinnie Jones
Larry Bishop’s – who some will remember as the sleazy titty-bar boss in Kill Bill Vol.2 – first film Mad Dog Time strikes me as a lot like this one. Mad Dog Time was a small production about a mob boss (Richard Dreyfuss) coming back from a stint in the loony bin. It has a cast of stars in it as long as my arm (see for yourself), but flew completely under the radar when it was released in 1996. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call it a good movie, but it was entertaining. It certainly had personality. Hell Ride has this same vibe. Again, an impressive cast to be used this time in a biker gang revenge story.

Also, on the Midnight schedule are Michael Haneke’s Funny Games remake and George A. Romero’s newest feature Diary Of The Dead. I saw the latter last September and it’s tons of fun.

Lastly, not in the Midnight programme, but still caught my eye, was the animation anthology Fear(s) Of The Dark. It is an exploration of the nature of fear by six different artists.

Check out the Sundance website here for info on the other films playing there this month.