2011 Sundance and Spirit Awards titles to see

New Low: this looks funny. The lead actor almost seems to be channeling Adam Goldberg at times. This is not included at Sundance or the IFP's as far as I know. I just stumbled upon it on youtube. It was part of last year's Sundance Film Festival, which might suggest it'll finally show up at 1 of the Landmark theaters in 2011.



Obselidia: this looks potentially rather moving. It depends if it becomes boring or movies too slow or not. But it resembles 1 of those movies I might see at Lagoon or Edina theater after a bad day at work (or needing to forget about something bad). Therapy film.

First Screenplay nomination at the 2011 IFP's



Tiny Furniture: this also looks funny in a confused early 20's girl dramedy kind of way. It definitely reminds me of some movies I stumble (or used to stumble) upon on Sundance, IFC and lately, Indieplex.

First Screenplay and First Feature nomination at the 2011 IFP's



Everything Strange and New: This looks funny, sarcastic, profound and potentially quotable among other things. A movie that maybe doesn't take itself too seriously.

First Feature nomination at the 2011 IFP's


Sundance premieres:

The Details Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks. No Trailer available at this time.

I Melt With You. This trailer really doesn't do a ton for what the plot/story is about. But whatever, I like Jeremy Piven, Carla Gugino and Rob Lowe. I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt, even if that trailer seems to do nothing for me save for some nice visual footage.



Margin Call Awesome cast: Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Zach Quinto, Stanley Tucci. It might even be a bit over-casted. But the premise is a group of people work at a bank that's about to deal with a huge financial crisis. I'm game.


Margin Call A Contingency plan
Uploaded by teasertrailer. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Life in a Day. This is I guess a documentary-like montage of people submitting their daily lives on to youtube. The premise sounds interesting, but after reading some comments, I'm maybe lukewarm at best about it.



Perfect Sense. Ewan McGregor and this atrractive British actress Eva Green in a movie about 2 people who fall in love while the rest of the world is losing their sensory perception. Again, another trailer that really doesn't show what the movie actually is about. McGregor is good in almost everything he does, so that is partially why I'm still on board here.



My Idiot Brother Paul Rudd along with Elizabeth Banks, Zoey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer. Rudd's 3 sisters let him live with them for periods of time until he gets his life in order after being arrested.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

no trailer available at this time, at least that I can find. But this is a movie from the guy who made Super Size Me about how product placement and advertising works and can reveal the all-style/no-substance side of the industry.


I haven't looked at more of the work appearing at Sundance, and the dailies they used to post on their site (they still may). But in other words, I'll have to post something soon about what has been buzzing at Sundance, what to look forward to, etc.

That along with a list I made a few weeks ago of other 2011 movies I'm looking forward to.

But this list is among movies I'm hoping will impress me, like Easier With Practice did last year.

Please Give (2010)

So I finally got around to seeing all but the 1st 5-10 minutes of this movie. Like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it ended up staying at the Uptown Theater for many weeks. Based on that, I probably had higher expectations for it than when I originally saw it was coming.

I 1st saw some stuff about it during the Sundance Film Festival coverage. The trailers looked good, and it had a cast I like with Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet among others. The actress who plays the grandmother I recall liking in some interview she did at Sundance.

And the At-the-Movies and I think a few other sources gave it an endorsement.

Well, I was frankly underwhelmed. The acting was good. Keener pretty much couldn't miss with me with her work especially in the last 10 years. Where the Wild Things Are, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Synechdoche, NY and Being John Malkovich. And I do feel she was good in this movie. So was Platt and Rebecca Hall. But the story just didn't really go all that far.

I suppose you could call it a movie about a bunch of people who go through their lives, feeling guilty about things they do, like selling furniture for more than it's worth, infidelity, or looking forward to a neighbor dying for the chance to expand the size of your apartment. But they don't really learn a ton from them. Or even at the end when they do sort of, it's so subtle and downplayed, you don't really care too much that they do.

I also thought their would be more humor in this movie. There was a bit here and there, namely from the grandmother, played by Ann Morgan Guilbert. Even Lois Smith who recently has been quite good on True Blood, was worth seeing, but maybe not as involved in the story as much as I might have liked.

I would add this to a movie like The Joneses and TiMER in 2010 movies that looked potentially good on cast and previews, but overall didn't offer nearly as much promise as they seemed to.

54/100