The 25th Annual Sundance Film Festival Wrap-up
January 15 – 25, 2009
 

Yes, folks, the (ugh) lagging economy is inevitably taking its toll on independent film. The buying season at Sundance was significantly slower, and so far only a handful of films have secured coveted multi-million dollar deals (Brooklyn’s Finest, An Education), as opposed to the high seven- and even eight-figure distribution contracts of recent years (Hamlet 2). Hopefully, buyers will remain in negotiations, otherwise some of the most significant of the year’s achievements would certainly be missed.

Still reportedly waiting on distribution is this year’s three-time winner Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire. Swiftly described as this generation’s The Color Purple, but perhaps bearing more similarities to the brutally expressionistic 2004 film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, Lee Daniels’ adaptation depicts the daily struggles of Claireece “Precious” Jones in 1980’s Harlem. The startling events in the story, based in part on the life of author, poet, and musician Sapphire, are a laundry list of today’s inner-city problems, including sexual abuse, drugs, and extreme poverty. Sixteen-year-old Precious barely survives through all of them, finding humanity and humor even as her situation worsens. “I want you to laugh with her,” says Daniels of his optimistic lead, portrayed skillfully and with pride by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe.

Push garnered the Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Dramatic Film, as well as the Audience Award. A Special Jury Prize for Acting went to comedienne Mo’Nique, whose portrayal of Precious’s mother will no doubt incite fear, anger, and eventually sympathy. Neither the filmmakers nor actors shy away from the usually implied topics of incest, morbid obesity, and exploitation of the welfare program. As yet unrated by the MPAA, the difficult subject matter might hinder this film’s theatrical release, but, in fact, it’s essential to the story.

Like Asia Argento’s Heart is Deceitful (based on the famously untrue story by J. T. LeRoy), Daniels’ film glimpses below the surface of stereotypes, exploring the psychology that perpetuates many of these horrors. He falters slightly with his treatment of Ms. Rain, an alternative educator (Paula Patton), whose heroic altruism—a la Dangerous Minds—nearly jars the film off course, but, surprisingly, Mariah Carey’s deadpan welfare caseworker offers a more intuitive take on the trials of poverty as she sorts through the mess of Precious and her mother’s lives. Social programs may be exploited, but in the end they do good. Just as violence and abuse may be cyclical, in the end, the cycle can break, as Precious discovers.

Another Special Jury Prize went to Humpday, a funny and memorable film by Lynn Shelton about a reunion between former college friends whose lives have taken different turns. Andrew (Joshua Leonard) is a free spirit, sufficiently tempered, tattooed, and accessorized by his random global adventures, while Ben (Mark Duplass) is recently married and trying for a baby with his loving wife. The odd couple cliché, though, is soon deconstructed, when the two men flirt with the idea of shooting a porn video together in the name of art.

True, it may sound eerily like the next Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly gag, but seasoned indie vets Leonard and Duplass keep a lid on the ridiculous premise, and are far less hilarious than they are, well, likeable. The smoothly delivered lines resemble improvisation, and Shelton’s commitment to the premise never falters. What would it be like if they fu*#ed? Her exploration of the material is professional and sensible, never schlocky, and walks the line on another cliché (yet carefully remaining fresh)—Andrew and Ben learn that maybe they’re not the men they thought they were.

It’s this kind of flirtation with convention that perhaps finally marks a film as post-mumblecore? Where that hip, hand-held sub-genre chronicled 20-something malaise by specifically removing all pretension from its content, leaving its heroes vulnerable and, by design, without direction, Humpday is a film that’s unafraid to build on familiar premises, plot structures, and relationship idiosyncrasies. It does this, I might add, to great success.

Picking up a directing award this year for Sin Nombre was Cary Joji Fukunaga. Only his second feature, it’s set in Mexico and tells an intertwining story of a teenaged thug escaping from the horrors committed by his hometown gang and a Honduran family’s journey to the U.S. border. Also meriting a cinematography award for its fluidity and gripping visuals, the film is astounding on a technical level, especially for such a young director. Unmistakably standing on the shoulders of the iconic City of God, though, the slum’s organized crime system is all surface this time. Stereotypes and popular fears provide the weight for this revenge story, as opposed to anything earned in the actual script. Not surprisingly, by the end, the locomotive has lost most of its steam.

Fukunaga does explore the emigration experience, tracking a makeshift family as they ride a train’s rooftop as far northward as they can make it. Poignant details, like the Mexican authorities’ inhumane treatment of such families, occasionally make the film more than just the typical action flick posing as social drama, as so many of these tend to become (see Elite Squad). It’s worth a look when it hits select theaters.

The major Sundance awards include:

Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic – Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, Lee Daniels
Grand Jury Prize: World Dramatic – The Maid (La Nana), Sebastián Silva

Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary – We Live in Public, Ondi Timoner
Grand Jury Prize: World Documentary – Rough Aunties, Kim Longinotto

Audience Award Dramatic – Push, Daniels
Audience Award Documentary – The Cove, Louie Psihoyos

World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – An Education, Lone Scherfig
World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Afghan Star, Havana Marking

For more information, and a complete list of winners, please visit: http://festival.sundance.org/2009/news/article/awards_celebrate_2009_storytellers

Sundance 2009, Part One
Michael Lee
February 4, 2009