Here are a few gems from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival that'll be in theaters within the year.
COMEDY
Assassination of a High School President - Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis
Director by Brett Simon
Written by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski
A geeky high school journalist (Reece Thompson from Rocket Science) is determined to get into a summer journalism program, so he tries to reveal a scandal in school that'll turn everyone's world upside down.
RELEASE DATE: August
Be Kind Rewind - Jack Black, Mos Def
Written and Directed by Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep)
"A man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films."
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 22
The Deal - Meg Ryan, William H. Macy & L.L. Cool J
Directed by Steven Schachter
Written by William H. Macy
A reckless movie producer decides to bet all his chips on a recently converted black action star who wants to act in a Jewish film---hilarity ensues.
Diminished Capacity - Matthew Broderick & Virginia Madsen
Directed by Terry Kinney
Written by Sherwood Kiraly
"Full of wit and observant character humor, [this comedy] is cleverly set in the world of baseball cards and commercialized nostalgia that allows us to explore the value of our memories and who we are without them."
Hamlet 2 - Steve Coogan (Around the World in 80 Days), David Arquette & Amy Poehler
Directed by Andrew Fleming (Nancy Drew)
Written by Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady (Hot Rod)
"The plot revolves around an ex-actor, ex-user, relentless dreamer, and sometimes-delusional high school teacher played by Coogan. He has just mounted one of his infamous screen-to-stage productions—this time it’s Erin Brockovich—but the reviews aren’t all that he hoped for. When his students rebel and his job is threatened by budget cuts, he is forced to...stage an original production of Hamlet 2, a sequel to Shakespeare’s classic."
In Bruges - Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
"Holed up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men (Farrell and Gleeson) begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs." "As they wait for their boss Harry's (Ralph Fiennes's) call, they are caught up in a series of weird encounters with locals, tourists, a dwarf American filmmaker, and Dutch prostitutes, and a romantic liaison that is not what it seems. When the call finally comes, it prompts a life-and-death struggle that is violent, darkly comic, and surprisingly touching."
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 8
Sunshine Cleaning - Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Written by Megan Holley (Sylvia)
"Two sisters who, in their effort to escape the malaise and general shabbiness of their day-to-day existence, undertake a very specialized business: cleaning up the blood and body parts at various crime scenes and suicide sites."
DRAMEDY
Birds of America - Matthew Perry
Directed by Craig Lucas
Written by Elyse Friedman
Perry plays a guy who is forced to raise his siblings, Ida and Jay, after their parents die. Naturally, they don't turn out as great as they would've with real parental supervision. Ida is a poor artist who sleeps around and Jay is severely antisocial. Meanwhile, Perry's character Morrie is a stressed out people-pleaser, who has been giving so much of himself for so long that he's forgotten how to relax. The truth is he can't relax if he's still "raising" his siblings, which will ultimately get in the way of his own life.
Great Buck Howard - John Malcovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Tom Hanks, Steve Zahn
Written and Directed by Sean McGinly
"Law-school dropout Troy Gable answers an ad for a ;personal assistant to a celebrity performer,; hoping it will catapult him to a glamorous career in the entertainment industry. Little does he know that performer is Buck Howard, a 'mentalist' infamous for his 61 appearances on The Tonight Show, who has been reduced to a has-been magician in need of a pretty big trick to get him out of this slump."
Henry Poole is Here - Luke Wilson, George Lopez, Morgan Lily
Directed by Mark Pellington
Written by Albert Torres
"Henry Poole abandons his fiancée and family business to spend what he believes are his remaining days alone. The discovery of a 'miracle' by a nosy neighbor ruptures his solitude and restores his faith in life."
RELEASE DATE: April 4th
The Wackness - Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen, Josh Peck (Drake & Josh), Method Man, Olivia Thirlby (Juno)
Written and Director by Jonathan Levine
"Luke Shapiro is trying to figure out how to solve his parents’ insolvency, beat depression, and get laid before pushing off to college. Luckily he’s got a nifty deal with a psychiatrist, Dr. Squires, who trades him therapy sessions for weed. It happens that the oddball doctor’s marriage is crumbling, so the two—one in late adolescence, the other in late middle-age—embark on messy passages into new life stages. As Luke falls for a classmate who just happens to be Squires’s daughter, the summer heats up, and he follows doctor’s orders, learning to coexist with pain and make it part of him, rather than let it become his downfall."
What Just Happened? - Robert De Niro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, Moon Bloodgood
Directed by Barry Levinson
Written by Art Linson
"Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made."
Year of Getting to Know Us - Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Lui, Tom Arnold, Illeana Douglas
Director - Patrick Sisam
Written - Patrick Sisam & Ethan Canin
"A commitment-phobic man reunites with his estranged, ailing father and comes to terms with his own childhood."
ROMANTIC DRAMEDY
Good Dick - Jason Ritter, Mark Webber (The Hottest State), Tom Arnold
Written and Directed by Marianna Palka
"A look at the relationship between a lonely introverted girl and a young video store clerk vying for her attention."
Last Word - Wes Bentley, Winona Ryder, Ray Romano
Written and Directed by Geoffrey Haley
"Evan Merck is a writer who has found a most peculiar niche. Evan makes his living composing other people’s suicide notes. His reclusive world is thrown for a loop when, at a client’s funeral, Evan meets the beautiful, free-spirited Charlotte, the dead client’s sister. Unaware of his real day job—much less his connection to her brother’s suicide—Charlotte develops a fascination for the young writer."
Smart People - Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page
Director: Noam Murro
Written by Mark Jude Poirier
"Smart People is the darkly comic story of Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid), a widowed, acerbic, and self-absorbed literature professor who has alienated his son and turned his daughter into an overachieving, friendless teen. He falls for Janet (Parker), one of his former students; at the same time, his ne’er-do-well brother (Church) unexpectedly shows up at his door, low on cash and needing a place to stay. Suddenly, Lawrence's well-thought-out, though not well-managed, life comes crashing down on him. All the intelligence in the world can’t unstick his life."
RELEASE DATE: April 11
DRAMA
American Son - Nick Cannon, Chi McBride, Jay Hernandez
Directed by Neil Abramson
Written by Eric Schmid and Neil Abramson
"The story of a young Marine, fresh from Camp Pendleton, who is forced to confront the complexities of adulthood and a volatile home life during a four-day Thanksgiving leave." He needs to say his good-byes before he heads off to war, except he fails to mention that to his family and friends.
August - Josh Hartnett
Directed by Austin Chick
Written by Howard A. Rodman
"August centers on two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks." It also touches on the hubris of Americans who think they're financially untouchable.
Bottle Shock - Chris Pine & Eliza Dushku
Directed by Randall Miller (Houseguest)
Written by Randall Miller and Lannette Pabon
This dramedy is about two wine lovers in 1976 from opposite sides of the world, who both have a passion wine that could change the industry forever. It's literally is a comedic love letter to wine and a dramatic examination of ambition and passion.
Death in Love - Josh Lucas & Adam Brody
Written and Directed by Boaz Yakin
It "depicts the effects of a Jewish woman's love affair with the doctor in charge of human experiments in a Nazi concentration camp on the lives of her sons many years later." It "is a piercing exploration of the effects of choices made by one generation on the next."
The Guitar
Directed by Amy Redford
Written by Amos Poe
"The life of a woman is transformed after she is diagnosed with a terminal disease, fired from her job and abandoned by her boyfriend. Given two months to live, she throws caution to the wind to pursue her dreams."
Incendiary - Michelle Willaims, Ewan McGregor
Written and Directed by Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones' Diary)
"An adulterous woman's life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a soccer match."
Merry Gentleman - Michael Keaton, Kelly Macdonald (Nanny McPhee), Tom Bastounes
Directed by Michael Keaton
Written by Ron Lazzaretti
"The film begins with a woman who leaves an abusive relationship to begin a new life in a new city, where she forms an unlikely and ironic relationship with a suicidal hit man (unbeknownst to her). Enter a worn, alcoholic detective to form the third party in a very unusual triangle, and this dark, soulful, sometimes-funny story begins to unfold."
Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte
Director - Rawson Marshall Thurber
Screenwriter - Rawson Marshall Thurber, Michael Chabon
"Based on Michael Chabon's novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city."
Phoebe in Wonderland - Elle Fanning & Felicity Huffman
Written and Directed by Daniel Barnz
"This is at once a tale of Phoebe, a young girl who is different, and a portrait of her mother, a woman caught between trying to raise a child and striving for success in an academic career, while feeling a failure in both. It also includes an unusually gifted, but peculiar, educator—a drama teacher, who is directing the school production of Alice in Wonderland, which Phoebe longs to be part of. As talented and exceptional as Phoebe appears to be, she is also increasingly far away, retreating into fantasy and frustrating her parents and teachers."
Quid Pro Quo - Vera Farmiga (The Departed), Nick Stahl (Terminator 3)
Written and Directed by Carlos Brooks
"Isaac, a paraplegic, is a popular New York City public-radio reporter who is investigating a story from an anonymous source about a man who walked into a hospital demanding that his leg be amputated. While pursuing the story to satisfy his own probing curiosity, Isaac meets the strikingly beautiful and mysterious Fiona, a restoration artist. Isaac's investigation not only initiates a relationship with Fiona but also leads him into the strange subculture of 'wannabes,' those longing for wholeness—or lack thereof—in rather peculiar ways. Will Fiona lead Isaac to answers about this underworld of seekers, or will their stormy association push him toward a more painful truth?"
Sleepwalking - Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson
Directed by William Maher
Written by Zac Stanford (The Chumscrubber)
"Tara is a 12-year-old girl whose mother, Jolene, can’t seem to get her life together, let alone build a stable environment for her daughter. When her boyfriend is arrested for growing marijuana, Jolene takes off, and Tara is put in foster care. Jolene’s brother, James, isn’t much better off than Jolene, but he feels a responsibility toward Tara, and when he decides to break her out of her foster home, they set off on a journey with no set destination except to find a better life. The road leads them to James and Jolene’s father’s farm and the violent childhood that James has never confronted. Tara learns of Jolene’s past and the reasons why she has lived such a scattered, scarred life, and James is forced to finally stand up to a cold, scary father while there is still a chance to save Tara from a gloomy future."
Sugar
Written and Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
"Sugar follows Miguel Santos, a Dominican baseball player struggling to make it to the big leagues and pull his family out of poverty. He gets his break at age 19, when he advances to the United States's minor league system and travels from his tight-knit community to a small town in Iowa. Miguel struggles with the new language and culture despite the welcoming efforts of his host family. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely the world around him and his place within it, and ultimately questions the single-mindedness of his life's ambition."
THRILLER
Downloading Nancy - Maria Bello (History of Violence), Rufus Sewell (Knight's Tale), Amy Brenneman ("Private Practice")
Directed by Johan Renck
Written by Pamela Cuming & Lee Ross
"The story follows the fate of the unhappy wife Nancy who orders the guy she meets over the Internet to kill her, but the two of them fall in love."
Funny Games U.S. - Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt
Written and Directed by Michael Haneke
Two young guys torture a family betting them that they can’t survive the next 12 hours. Haneke is actually remaking his own 1997 Austrian film.
RELEASE DATE: March 14
Check out the documentaries, shorts, and other films at Sundance.
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