We’ve got so many Sundance reviews today you’re going to feel like you’re there. This is the first of them, and this guy’s seen a whole fistful of films for you:
Dear Harry, Quint, and the AICN Nation,
I'm out here at the Sundance Film Festival as part of a Winter Term class at Eckerd College. We're suppose to see at least 15 films, and I have about 6 under my belt so far. I just wanted to give some reviews on the films I thought are worth mentioning that I've seen so far.
AMERICAN SOLDIER
This is a powerful documentary by Edet Belzberg about military recruiting in a small town in Louisiana. It focuses on the main recruiter, Sergeant First Class Clay Usie, who is the most successful recruiter in the history of the U.S., and it focuses on the lives of four of his recruiters before and after basic training, and deployment to Iraq. Usie is not only a recruiter to these high schoolers, but he is a motivator and in some cases a father and a brother.
THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A POLITICAL FILM, even though at the Q&A Belzberg did say she had a very serious problem with military recruiting. It allows audiences to draw on their own conclusions and form opinions. To me, it was an emotional experience because I have friends who are on their 2nd tour in Iraq, and seeing what they had to do to prepare themselves, and the family and friends they had to leave was overwhelming. God bless our troops.
AMERICAN SON
This film by Neil Abramson is about a young Marine named Mike who gets deployed to Iraq in 96 hours, and within those 96 hours he goes back home to his dysfunctional family and wild, troublesome friends. He meets a beautiful latino girl named Christina, and their relationship grows everyday that he is home. However, Mike does not want to tell anyone, even his own family, that he is going to Iraq. He goes back home as a new man, bringing discipline and principles that he never had before enlisting. All this happens in this set time frame makes it a dramatic and powerful film.
I really enjoyed this film; it’s one of the best feature films I’ve seen so far. It has very good performances, especially by Nick Cannon. This is major jump for him, who was in teeny-bopper films like Drumline. I never knew he had it in him.
The performance that really hit me was Jay Hernadez's cameo as a Hispanic Marine whose leg was blown off in the line of fire. I highly recommend this film.
DOWNLOADING NANCY
This was an unexpectedly dark and gritty film that was based on true events. It follows the fate of a suicidal wife named Nancy (Maria Bello) of an interior designer named Albert who doesn't treat her right (Rufus Sewell), and instead of trying to kill herself, she hires a man named Louis (Jason Patric) that she met on the internet to sexually please her and kill her, but the two of them fall in love. Excellent cast with excellent performances.
SLINGSHOT HIP-HOP
I'm not the biggest fan of rap, especially todays with artists like Souljah Boy. However, I am an huge fan of Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and less popular known groups like Hieroglyphics, Jedi Mind Tricks, and Sage Francis. Palestinian hip-hop is much different. It's political, and it's fresh. This documentary from Jackie Reem Salloum is about the rise of the Palestinian hip-hop scene that is getting more popular around the world everyday. The artists she follows, such as DAM and PR, talk about their oppression from the Israeli's and their anger and depression from the circumstances happening in that part of the world through their music. It's far worse than the everyday life in the hood. Their friends are killed randomly from Israeli snipers, or taken to prison for activist acts. It's sad and scary to look at the people of Palestine and Gaza, who lives in fear everyday.
U2-3D
This is my absolute favorite film of Sundance thus far. Not only because I am a big U2 fan (The Joshua Tree is one of my favorite albums ever), but because it was one of the greatest film experiences I ever had. This 3D technology makes the audiences feel like they were part of the concert! The entire audience in Eccles theater the night I went were clapping, cheering, and singing. Even though it was annoying at times, I couldn't help but smile watching everyone have a good time at this movie. The camera angles and transitions were very well executed. The most of the energy from this film comes from the concert audience, who were going nuts. There was a moment in the film where Bono was clearly overwhelmed by their reaction. My favorite performance was probably "Bullet The Blue Sky."
I'm having a blast here at the festival, and can't wait to see more films. I'm looking forward to "Choke" tonight.
If you decide to post this, call me BlackbirdAB
