Page 6 February 2, 2017 Entertainment Nine Films from Sundance Alumni to Watch Now By H. Nelson Tracey for www.cinemacy. com Cinemacy is excited to be returning to Park City, Utah to cover the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, kicking off a new year in cinema. We realize that many of the movies seen here won’t have a release date until later in the year, so we compiled a list of movies related to the buzzworthy films that will be forthcoming. This list represents some of the past work from the directors you will be hearing about this year…the ones we recommend that you watch while you wait. Next week, we will be bringing you all the festival highlights and most importantly our favorites from Sundance! An Inconvenient Truth–It’s a rarity for an independent film, especially a documentary, to get a sequel, but this year we have Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power playing as the festival’s opening night film. If this doesn’t show the mass urgency on the current worldwide environmental crisis, then I don’t know what does. If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to check out the original Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. An Inconvenient Truth is available to rent on Amazon. The One I Love–Three years ago, Charlie McDowell’s directorial debut was a provocative and standout entry into the Sundance dramatic competition. It represented a storyteller who could combine higher-level concepts with indie aesthetics and not miss a beat. His second film, The Discovery, starring Jason Segel and Rooney Mara, is screening in the premieres section and is set to be released on Netflix in March. Caption: (L-R) Hello, My Name is Doris (Roadside Attractions), Green Room (A24), An Inconvenient Truth (Participant Media), Obvious Child (A24). The One I Love is available to stream on Amazon. Green Room and Blue Ruin–Director Jeremy Saulnier is an indie favorite with two impressive back-to-back thrillers premiering at Sundance--Blue Ruin and Green Room. Each film stars one of Saulnier’s childhood friends, Macon Blair, who is excitingly stepping behind the camera to direct the crime/ thriller I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. We love his work as an actor and he’s an essential new voice for independent cinema, so here’s hoping he can continue to find success at the helm. Green Room and Blue Ruin are available to stream on Amazon. Obvious Child–A Sundance alumnus who forged new ground by realistically and comedically depicting abortion in cinema (notably from a female perspective), director Gillian Robespierre is back this year with Landline and I wouldn’t be surprised if her new film feels as fresh and original as her last. Obvious Child is available to stream on Amazon. Cartel Land–An absolutely explosive vérité documentary, border saga Cartel Land established Matthew Heineman as an essential new voice in nonfiction film. He’s back at Sundance with City of Ghosts, which promises to similarly transport us to a dangerous part of the world we’d otherwise know little about. Cartel Land is available to stream on Netflix. Pariah–Six years ago, Dee Rees’ breakout debut Pariah was a sensation at Sundance and continues to find new audiences as a rare portrayal of queer youth. Rees has gone on to direct for TV and segments of anthologies, but her second feature has yet to come out until now. Mudbound is in the premieres section of the festival and looks to have plenty to offer. Before that one makes it to your home, catch the one that got her career off the ground. Pariah is available to stream on Netflix. Hello, My Name Is Doris–Last year, this indie feature starring Sally Field was one of the few sleeper hits of the limited releases--enough that Field is a dark horse Oscar contender for her comedic role. Director Michael Showalter, best known as a writer for Wet Hot American Summer, is screening his highly anticipated film The Big Sick in the premieres category. Hello My Name Is Doris is available to rent on Amazon. I’ll See You in My Dreams–A Sundance alum returning to the screen is Brett Haley, whose previous film I’ll See You in My Dreams debuted very quietly at the festival in 2015 but went on to become a theatrical hit due to its representation of the 60-plus demographic. His new film, The Hero, reunites him with Sam Elliott in the U.S. Dramatic competition. I’ll See You in My Dreams is available to stream on Amazon. • Grindhouse Comedy I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore By Ryan Rojas for Cinemacy.com Cinemacy just came back from covering this year’s Sundance film festival (the first time for me and Morgan!) and we were lucky enough to see the film that took home the top prize. That film was Macon Blair’s comedy-thriller I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, which won the coveted Grand Jury Prize after leaving audiences in stitches with its raucous tonal mixings of genuinely side-splitting comedy and shock-violence action that plays like an indie grindhouse comedy. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is built on the premise that the world is full of self-centered jerks. It’s certainly the world that Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) lives in, where minor violations like witnessing lifted trucks pumping out black exhaust, people carelessly discarding items on the floor at the grocery store, and finding constantly not-picked-up dog droppings on her lawn are a part of everyday life. The easygoing nice-person levee breaks when, after the discovery of a home invasion with personal affections stolen, Ruth decides to take matters into her own hands and track down the culprit- -if for nothing more than to confront Wins Sundance Grand Jury Prize Elijah Wood and Melanie Lynskey in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. Photo Courtesy of Sundance. the perpetrator for the moral wrongness. Ruth enlists the help of her quirky karateobsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) to help find the burglar, but little do they know that they’re tracking down a band of junkie nutsos led by slithery and vampiric Marshall (Tony Zow), who are planning an even bigger smash and grab job--which sucks them into an underbelly world full of bloodbath mayhem that puts them in way over their heads. As Ruth, Melanie Lynskey is great as an elder’s nurse turned homespun moral crime-fighter, playing the full comedic range of meekly expected disappointments at the beginning of the film up through passing her tipping point and boiling over into DIY revenge when she steals back her grandmother’s silver from a seedy pawn shop in one of the film’s most jarringly and unexpectedly hilarious moments as the store owner tries to stop them. Even the notion of being one of the last few moral defenders in a world run amuck by schmucks is a feeling that taps into the collective conscious that we all have (haven’t we all fantasized about confronting that jerk who uncaringly spoils a major twist in that fantasy novel?), making the cathartic and comedic effects here even greater. Wood as Ruth’s nerdy, karate-loving loner neighbor Tony may have never been funnier onscreen. With his rattail hair, old man specs, and nunchucks and ninja stars, Wood plays the punchline sidekick that keeps the filming motoring confidently ahead on its screwy head. Wood gets rich deadpan dialogue at every turn from Blair’s original script (after struggling to get a ninja star out of a wall, Tony surmises, “That’s how hard I threw it…”). But Wood’s sensitivity also conveys the introverted antisocial neighbor that makes his Tony a perfect companion. He’s more looking for a friend than a reprobation, and the chemistry between him and Ruth makes one wish those two would get into more adventures. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (its mouthy title comes from a gospel LP that Blair received from director pal Jeremy Saulnier, whose name ended up fitting the tone of the film perfectly) is a true belly-laugh of a film and a great watch for when you’re in the mood for a weirdly hilariously and insane hybrid of a movie. Director Blair, who Morgan and I had the fortune of actually running into while walking down Park City’s Main Street earlier in the day before his film would win at the Awards Ceremony later that night, could not have been a more pleasant and nice person. Which just goes to show--as the film will be streaming on Netflix later this year--that nice people don’t always finish last. • Douglass MORTUARY “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M AT I O N - W O R L DW I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P RO D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Te l e p h o n e ( 3 1 0 ) 6 4 0 - 9 3 2 5 • F a x ( 3 1 0 ) 6 4 0 - 0 7 7 8 • F D 6 5 8
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