So it is the end of the weekend. A weekend
that was amazing and inspiring. This weekend I went to Sundance London the film
and music festival hosted in the O2 Arena. Over the last 3 days I saw a total
of 6 films. In this post I will give my full write up of each day and then
hopefully in the next week or so my video blog will be up about the event. So
let’s start with day one:
DAY
1 – FRIDAY
The festival actually began on the Thursday
but unfortunately my dad and I were not able to make it up to London until the Friday. We started off the
day by having a look around the O2 Arena and ended up in the Sundance Inc Club where we had a few
drinks and watched a couple of live bands. The first live band we saw were a
competition winner sponsored by Gibson Guitars. They were an unsigned band
named Orlando
Seale and The Swell. They had 10 members who played a range of instruments,
this included flute, drums, guitars and an awesome string section. The band was
incredible and I have no doubt that they will go on to do great things, their
music was a mixture of genres including, indie, pop and folk. I found an
instant connection to the music and immediately bought their CD after they had
performed. You can check out the band here. In terms of music they
were definitely the highlight of the weekend and recommend them highly to
everyone. We only saw one film that day, and that film was Safety Not Guaranteed.
What a way to start off the first day of the festival. This was actually one of
the best films of the weekend and I have also read reviews that say it could be
‘the film of the year’. The film follows a magazine reporter and his two
interns on a journey to find out if a man can time travel after he had placed an
advert in paper looking for a partner to go with him. The advert in the paper
is actually real and happened a while ago and turned into something of an
Internet phenomenon. The screenwriter Derek Connolly saw potential in this and
the idea for this film was born. The film was mix of sci-fi and romantic comedy
and it fulfilled all expectations and more! The characters were all cast
brilliantly especially the character of Darius played by the brilliant Aubrey Plaza.
The film was very funny and very touching and you are left throughout wondering
if this man can actually time travel or is he simply mentally unstable. All the characters were well written and
loved even though they are all misfits and have their flaws. I can’t really say
anything bad about this film apart from that it took me a while to see the
relationship between two of the leads but by the end I loved it. Being able to
meet the director Colin Trevorrow afterwards really confirmed that this film
was made by the right people who really cared about telling this story to the
audience.
DAY
2 – SATURDAY
On Saturday we saw 3 films. The first being
For
Ellen, this film was about a young rock star named Joby who travelled
to a town to meet with lawyers to discuss the divorce with his wife and who
will get the custody of his child Ellen. The film had a great cast with Paul
Dano proving yet again he is one of the best actors around. The story was also
great and had so much potential to be better then it was. Because unfortunately
this film was not that good, it was very slow and was filled with scenes that
dragged out too long or made no sense to the narrative at all. The director So
Yong Kim touched upon other subplots including the breakdown of his band and
how his experiences were changing what music he wanted to play. These were well
set up but after that they were not touched upon again. I would have loved to
hear one of his songs as it would have made sense of the character he was,
because he could have been anyone, not a rock star. The film had a great story
with so much potential which was wasted and in the end created a slow and
boring film. The second film of the day was LUV, which was about an
11 year old boy who in one day takes a trip out with uncle and ends up
witnessing a side of Baltimore
which a young child should never see, we watch the events unfold that witness
this boy becoming a man in one day. The film and the story was great and had
one of the most emotional and compelling performances of the weekend which was
actually from 11 year old boy, Woody played the by the incredible Michael Rainy
Jr. The young boy puts on a performance better then the rest of the cast which
included the extremely talented Danny Glover, Common, Dennis Haysbert and
Michael Kenneth Williams. When the film ended I had enjoyed it but found some
of the set pieces a bit unbelievable, but the director Sheldon Candis gave a
talk about the film and how it was loosely based on his experiences with his
uncle and how it was a coming of age ‘fable’. The man was incredible and his
talk made me love the film even more. Shelodon described the film as ‘a
gangster film with love’, which is true, but to me it was much more then
another gangster film. The final film of the day was the 25th
anniversary of the screening of the cult classic film Rivers Edge, this was a
special event made possible by MGM who also gave away some pretty nifty goodie
bags including a studio blanket. The film is about a group of friends who’s
loyalty is tested when one of the members kills his girlfriend. Many of the
audience had seen this film or were big fans, this was my first time. I really
enjoyed the film and saw it as black comedy that raised questions on society in
that era. Crispin Glover played a weird a wacky druggy named Layne and actually
came out after the show with director Tim Hunter to talk about the filmmaking
experience. I liked the film and it came across to me as an adult’s version of
E.T.
DAY 3 – SUNDAY
The last day of the festival and it ended
in style. I got to see two more films, a panel and Robert Redford stood a
couple feet away from me at one point. The first film of the day was Liberal
Arts, this film was written, directed by and starred Josh Radnor. The
film follows the character of Jesse who is invited back to his old university
for a retirement dinner for one of his old professors. While he is there he
meets and starts a relationship with a student who is 19 years old. There is a
difference of 16 years between the couple. The film strikes up the themes of
age, love and most importantly morals. It was one of the best films of the
festival and really was a brilliant and touching story. My Dad said that it might
possibly be one of the best films he has ever seen and nearly made him cry.
Most of the audience were welling up near the end and made you want to do
something more with your life. One of the best things about the film was the
cast and the great chemistry between them all especially Elizabeth Olsen and
her characters relationship with Jesse. I asked Josh Radnor if the chemistry
was hard to find in actors and he replied that he would rather work with actors
he got on with, rather than because of who they are. My favourite scene was between the two actors and
they are reading the letters they have been sending to each other, they talk
about classical music and why it is surprisingly good. The whole scene is
edited really well and is accompanied by the music which just makes it even
cooler. After this film we saw the panel Making
LUV that gave director Sheldon Candis even more time to talk about the
making of his film. The talk was really inspiring and made me even more determined
to fulfill my dream of becoming a filmmaker. He also talked more about the
young actor Michael Rainy Jr and how he was a godsend to the film and how
without him the film would have fallen apart. The last film of the festival I
saw was 2 Days in New York, this was
the sequel to the excellent 2 Days in Paris. This time the
character of Marion
lives with her new boyfriend Mingus played by the hilarious Chris Rock. The
plot is similar to the first one, in terms of the testing of the couples
relationship, especially when Marion’s
dad, sister and ex-boyfriend come to ‘The Big Apple’ to see them. The
consequences are very funny and you will not get bored once. The new addition of
Chris Rock really helps the push the sequel into new heights, some of his one
liners are brilliant; ‘KKK Bunny’ being one of them. Julie Delpy wrote,
directed and starred in the excellent film, unfortunately she couldn’t make it
to the festival but either way this was a great end to what was one of the most
amazing weekends of my life.
Well I think I chose well, when it came to
my first ever film festival. I saw some amazing films and met the most
inspiring people! There was one thing that stayed the same throughout all the
films I saw, this was that they all had incredible stories. This is not
something you get as much in mainstream cinema these days. There was always an
advert before each of the screenings where Robert Redford would say ‘Imagine a
world without stories.’ Films are about telling a story and these films did
this and more! These films had heart and should be the ones that
are dominating the box office. I haven’t just seen some incredible films
this weekend, I have also been told some incredible stories which will stay
with me forever.
Thank you for reading! If you attended the
festival please let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did in the comment
bellow! Or feel free to email me at alex-moppy@hotmail.com
My video blog for the festival will
hopefully be up in the next few days along with my review of Avengers Assemble.
Thank you Sundance London!
