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Quint sees his favorite Sundance movie so far: ROCKET SCIENCE!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I've got a little bit of a break before the next film, so I'm doing my first round of catch-up. Day 2 has been covered... that day feature ONCE, THE SAVAGES, THE TEN and 2 movies I really didn't like (WEAPONS is one of them, but as of yet has no distribution so I'm not going to write up a big review to kick a small movie to the curb... but if anyone attending the fest is reading this I thought I'd give fair warning).
The one film I saw yesterday that I haven't talked about yet is ROCKET SCIENCE, which also happens to be my favorite movie after nearly 3 full days of festing. I still have 5 full days to go, so I hope most of those days are filled with films that challenge ROCKET SCIENCE.
Immediately, the focus is going to be on the comedy. Expect people to start comparing this film to NAPOLEON DYNAMITE for no other reason than it's a quirky comedy. In truth, the tone of ROCKET SCIENCE is its own, but the characters are exaggerated, yet set in a world not as cartoonish as they are. So, that's where the ND comparisons will spring from, methinks.
Like most great comedies, the plot is simple: here an adorable, but ambitious high school debate champion uses her charm to lure an introverted stutterer up to the podium. Why? Well, that's why you watch the flick. But there isn't much more to the plot than that. The focus is on the characters.
You have the lead, the young stutterer (played perfectly by Reece Thompson) whose speech problems might be associated with his mother and father always fighting. You have his older brother, a hulking bipolar thief. You have the mysteriously disappeared "legend" of debating (Nicholas D'Agosto). You have the cute, but cruel ambitious young girl who kicks off the plot and steals the heart of Reece Thompson's character. You have the Korean Judge who slides into the stutter's mother's bed when the dad is booted out and loves to loudly talk about the different sexual acts he performs to her in front of both of her kids. You have the weird little bastard that lives across the street of cruel but cute girl (Anna Kendrick), spending his days studying the Karma Sutra and trying it out... with his dog.
That's the main group, but there are dozens more littered throughout the movie.
Thompson as the lead is just so enjoyable to watch. It is painful watching him try to speak publicly or even just order a pizza, but it's the kind of fun painful, like watching Larry David or David Brent dig themselves horrible, embarrassing holes. You feel for him, but it's just absurd enough to make it funny.
The performances are top notch all around. There are a few faces I recognized, but we're talking indie character actors. I didn't know anybody else in the movie, which made it all the easier to buy these people.
HBO Films produced this film and Picturehouse looks to be releasing it in August. This is a great audience movie and one that, if marketed correctly, could be extremely lucrative. It's quirky enough to keep fresh, but mainstream enough to draw in the big crowds. I really loved this movie and I appreciate it the more I think about it. Can't wait to see this again.
Please forgive any sloppiness in these reviews. I'm getting between 4 and 5 hours of sleep a night and seeing 5 or 6 movies a day. I'm kinda writing these on the fly, whenever I have a moment, even if that moment is over buffet lo mien... Yes, there's a Chinese place, with wi-fi, right next to the press screenings...
I'll be back tomorrow!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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I am confused on the title though. Rocket Science is not like debating? Okay. Can someone fill in my blanks?
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This sounds like a great film to me. I want to see it.
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You can bump my first post if ya like, no worries.
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Quint, this is why I am pleased as spiked punch you are at Sundance, I get to hear about a film like this so early! I'm sure this will get a lot of press, and months from now it will be all over the place (with a "just like ND quote, as you said, on the poster) but I get to hear about it early, e-mail all my friends now, and then appear uber-cool later when it blows up.
my fragile self-image aside, this does sound like a fun comedy, looking forward to it. -
LOL....she turned him into a pile of crap...
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but I'll place a bet that he doesn't make $5 mil in his lifetime...sorry buddy...oh, and I have paypal, and I'll take that bet for Rocket Science. Quint is a smart cookie, bitch!P.S. what happened to Stooprider? (I used to think of him as Stupider) he was fun shit.
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It will make more than twice that in Europe alone (with ND and Sundance things plastered all over it).
You are really unaware of the love people have for movies like this. -
I'll bet $20,000 that Yackbacker is sleeping and I'm playing fulltilt poker semi-drunk...any takers?
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Jan 21, 2007 4:04:03 AM CST
Wonka, no thanks. that sounds like too much of a gamble
by talkbacker with no name
But I'll bet Yackbacker is here the moment he wakes to see if there are any replies to all his posts.
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because in reality, Yackbacker was asleep, and I WAS awake playing poker semi-drunk...I woulda won!! shit!!! I thin k I'm gonna puke...
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Maybe he's hiding out with Lazlo Hollyfeld. Now I know you're around MrWonka... how the #*( do I find Henri? I've searched YouTube and Google Video.
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I'm there!!! Seriously, what's up with these movies trying to one up each other with gross out humor. This seems quirky enough that it might pull it off, but too often the film is just trying to gross out the audience rather than make them laugh. On a good day South Park is a great example of gross out humour done well, usually through the use of a conflicting setting or mood (like when the parents try and explain pornography to their children during that Lord of the Rings parody, that's South Park at its best).
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One of the appeals of ND was its "PG" rating here in the US and A. Because of its family friendly rating, I'll bet ND has been screened in every public school junior high or high school in America on "reward day" or something similar. Don't underestimate the 12-17 year olds that loved that film and helped make it a hit. They won't be able to have the same access and exposure to a film featuring a kid getting intimate with the family pooch.
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are getting old. After sitting through the vastly overrated Little Miss Sunshine, I'm ready for a movie where the characters don't have stutters, haven't taken a vow of silence, don't have relationship issues with their parents, aren't in the least bit precocious young geniuses with depression, aren't contemplating suicide, and don't have quirks that are supposed to be cutesy but are really just the screenwriter giving himself a self-congratulatory handjob.
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"You have the Korean Judge who slides into the stutter's mother's bed when the dad is booted out and loves to loudly talk about the different sexual acts he performs to her in front of both of her kids. You have the weird little bastard that lives across the street of cruel but cute girl (Anna Kendrick), spending his days studying the Karma Sutra and trying it out... with his dog."........OK, why isn't this getting all the negative attention? Oh yeah, no famous blonde star.
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on sex with Koreans!
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from Barney Miller...that guy was a supporting genius of a character actor. One of those guys,who, even if you didn't know his name you knew he was "that guy." Drag.
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Ron Carey would make it as an aicn obit, so I attached a rider to this tb. apologies, but I wanted folks to know.
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nomeansno?
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otherwise PETA will be all over this.
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I've tried to catch up with you and give you a link to Henri like 4 times. evidently every time I post this link, you've already passed on the talkback and don't recheck it. I'll try again: http://tinyurl.com/y9t7wa
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I can stop stalking you now. "Henri" reminds me of Barney Gumble's short film on The Simpsons. "I made a movie?"
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ok..Sundance is covered on this site for years...it's a basic. Still this year feels like some kind of Sundance ressurrection. There's some kind of newly gained trust in that festival and its energy. Or is it just the lack of Tbers moaning about their rejected films?
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I'm on day 4 of the Sundance Festival myself, and I have to agree with Quint about Rocket Science. I've seen 11 movies here so far, and of the comedies this one has been the best by far. It has some of the wittiest dialogue I've heard in quite a while. The music was also very clever, paricularly the piano and cello duet of the Violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun"--performed by two parents as "relationship therapy" -absolutely hysterical. The female lead, played by Anna Kendrick, will no doubt be compared to Reese Whitherspoon's character in "Election". She is absolutely perfect as the driven, manipulative leader of the speech and debate team. I pray that this is picked up and released asap- it could be a hit on the order of Napoleon Dynamite- I'll forward some pix I took at the Q&A from Rocket Science (and some candids I've taken at the Fest) to AICN-
Regards, -
bananas
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bananas
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...I advise you to go into the bathroom and take a swig of the little brown bottle in my shaving kit. Hope you're having a blast, man...
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Rocket Science sounds good - I'm up for it.
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Can AICN set up a cookie/session so those of us who've actually given this movie a shot (the first 3:20 at least) can be spared the spamming? And SK229: "You, sir, are talking to a nigger!"
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will d-d-d-d-definitely check it out.
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I've also seen this warm witty just feel good movie and it's nothing like ND. It's not surreal or set in some alternate universe where dumb people rule the earth. ND is a not funny overrated film. Rocket Science is a witty well-made film.
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since you've seen it, what other movie does it compare to? Just curious as to what to expect in terms of comedy feel.
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It's basically a teen agnsty movie with stuttering substuting as the handicap, but it's so well-written and the lead character is so endearing it feels original. There is no smirking here. It was clear during the Q And A that the movie and the lead character is close to his heart. Also, the debating wonder woman he becomes friends with is very election-ish, but the actress and the writing makes it fresh.
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Sounds good to me.
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Methinks Quint overstated some elements of this movie. There is NO gross-out humor, and it's a soft PG-13 at worst. I don't want to give away the gag, but this film is every bit as family-friendly as NP. But it happens to be much better, have more of a heart, and also is the best movie that played at Sundance opening weekend. (ZOO, on the other hand, is about a man fucked to death by a horse. Sweet.)
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word.
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Really enjoyable, classically "indie" flick. I have no doubt this one will get picked up.
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My bad.
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bring on more cutesy stories of unconventional bonding!
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