Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Sundance is winding down... I only have a ticket for one movie today, the Jury Grand Prize Dramatic Competition movie, which ended up being a flick called FROZEN RIVER. I'm getting caught up on my reviews and some interviews, but in the mean time I have a few stories for you guys. I avoided this one like the plague at the fest this year. Maybe I made a bad decision, but it does seem the movie was exactly what I was thinking it would be. Here's Patron Saint Salieri with his look at the Jimmy Fallon dramedy THE YEAR OF GETTING TO KNOW US!
I drove out to Park City last night to catch Patrick Sisam’s contribution to Sundance, The Year of Getting to Know Us. He gave a two minute spiel before the lights dimmed about... well, about nothing actually. He mostly just said that the actors couldn’t make it and that he was too sick to stick around for Q and A. He was nice about it, but yeah - not much to report on that. The film itself combines two short stories by Ethan Canin. The first, about a young boy who has to endure the misfortune of having Tom Arnold and Sharon Stone as his parents; the second about that same boy dealing with his father’s inevitable death. The stories jump back and forth throughout, and as a whole, work as a great device to explain why you the viewer shouldn’t hate a completely unlikeable character. While it is being pitched as a dark comedy, I found the jokes a total distraction from an otherwise solid drama. In fact, most of the jokes were those uncomfortable setups where the punch-line hangs out in your head a good 30 seconds before the character actually gets around to delivering (usually Sharon Stone mind you). Having said that, Sharon Stone does a great job of playing my mother-in-law and Tom Arnold, holy jeeze, when did that guy start acting? Jimmy Fallon plays a less funny Jimmy Fallon and Lucy Liu actually pulls off likable, which I believe means she has taken up acting as well. The film is unabashedly preachy, but not in a template-sunday-school sort of way. The lessons here are that most men will always give into sexual temptation no matter their personal conflict and that yes parents, the way your kids turn out really is your fault. Lessons everyone everywhere will come to realize, only without a first person narrator spelling it out for them. In the end, I wouldn’t recommend anyone running out to see this opening weekend, and frankly, I doubt it will ever enjoy a wide release. That being said though, this is a great movie to throw in your que or eventually rent from your Apple TV. Patron Saint Salieri
