BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE MOVIE BLOG

The man vs nature genre of action/adventure films is usually a pretty reliable one when it comes to attractive scenery and entertaining scraps between man and beast. From the popcorn perfection of Jaws to the bloody thrills of Savage Harvest there’s a visceral thrill to be found in battles fought fist against claw (or teeth, beak, trunk, etc). With the exception of the very best however the films are usually pure entertainment that stop well short of anything resembling engaging human drama.

The Grey is one of those exceptions.

Mostly.

Not to be confused with Reject Report, The White, which is what happens after we do battle with the Balrog. Reject Report, The White is never NEVER wrong. But in our current form we have to take into account things like star power and demographics and mass appeal, the kinds of aspects that go into making a film financially successful.

This week sees three new movies wanting that success and one Oscar contender expanding to wide release. Liam Neeson fights wolves, Sam Worthington faces a ledge, and Katherine Heigl takes on…money, I guess. I’m not really sure. Only one of these movies can be the victor while the other two scrounge for scraps to make up $10-15m. Not even worth the effort really. It’s the Reject Report, and you shall not pass.

Okay, now you can pass. Go ahead.

Welcome to Pine Hill, the first feature film from Keith Miller, has won the Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative at Slamdance. The film focuses on former drug dealer Shannon (Shannon Harper) who now works as a bouncer when the sun goes down and a claims adjuster when the sun comes up. In this verite-style offering, Shannon receives a bit of life-changing news that sets him on a path to confront the past and contemplate his future.

As you can see in the scene above, there’s something obviously compelling about the delivery and the style. It’s enough to make nerve endings tingle and the brain start thinking about fight or flight. Simple, yes, but effective.

The story behind the film is also fascinating. Director Miller and star Harper met when Miller was walking his dog in New York and an angry Harper approached him claiming that it was his dog. After a huge shouting match, they realized that it was Harper’s dog – a puppy he had previously lost. The next day they met so that Miller could pay him for the animal and could toss out the idea that they make a film together. A short was born, and so was their working relationship. They accidentally shared a dog, and now they share a victory.

Here are the rest of the winners from Slamdance this year – emerging artists truly worth keeping an eye on. The Slamdance pedigree alone ensures that there’s some truly interesting work going on from these filmmakers:

The found fauxtage superhero flick Chronicle comes out next week, but Max Landis has already lined up his next project over at Disney. According to Variety, The Mouse has taken the bait on a space adventure from the writer. Not only is it untitled (or without a title they can release at least), there’s also essentially no information on it at all. It involves a brother and sister going through an emotional journey. And there’s space.

From that, it’s easy to assume that it will be science fiction on a large scale. What’s interesting is that Disney seems to be putting healthy stock in the final frontier and science fiction – with John Carter trying to become a Spring fixture this year, the video game-inspired Wreck-It Ralph, and this new project in the works. It’ll be interesting to see if they stick with the sci-fi tilt and truly move ahead with more Tron movies. They’ve made confidence announcements, sure, but it remains to be seen whether sequels will survive the development process.

That’s not to say that they aren’t placing their narrative bets on other genres. They have Frankenweenie and The Odd Life of Timothy Green coming out this year – a Gothic coming-of-age tale and the organic version of a test tube baby story respectively. Beyond that, they’re supplementing with 3D re-releases of Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo this year. Hopefully they can take the money made by converting and shipping reels to theaters and invest it in 2013. If science fiction is good to them, we might be seeing a resurgence of the genre over at the Mickey Mouse club.

After throwing our annual bloggerati condo party (mainly so we can all watch MacGruber together) last night, my day got switched around a bit so I could get some much needed sleep (Festival Lesson #45: There is no point in getting up early for a screening you will end up just sleeping through) making my first screening of the day, Shadow Dancer.

After helping clean up the condo a bit (the place still smells like beer, but we went through about three cases of the stuff last night so what can you do?) Eric D. Snider, William Goss, and I headed out to the screening in Snider’s car, which is truly a luxury when it means you don’t have to run for a shuttle. While I thought Shadow Dancer was a decent enough film, it was just that – decent. Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough turned in good performances under sharp direction from James Marsh, but it left me lukewarm.

From its very first moments, Mike Birbiglia‘s Sleepwalk With Me establishes a very specific relationship with its audience - Birbiglia, playing a version of himself, turns to the camera and reassures us that what we’re about to hear is indeed true, and then he makes us laugh. Birbiglia is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor, and Sleepwalk With Me is his directorial debut, which is loosely based on his own life. A mix of painful personal stories about a failing relationship, try-and-fail outings at his primary career, and the unraveling of his life by way of a serious medical condition (yup, sleepwalking), the film is (genuinely) both hilarious and heartfelt.

Monty Python veteran Terry Jones has co-written (with Gavin Scott) and will direct a Sci-Fi farce called Absolutely Anything that has been said might be the cause of a mini-Monty Python reunion. Unfortunately, all of the members of the Python crew are no longer with us, but news from Variety says that Jones’ new film is now looking like it will, in fact, manage to get back together at least most of the surviving members. In addition to his own involvement, Jones has already signed up John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Palin, and he’s currently negotiating with Eric Idle.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of links and stories that you won’t know about unless you continue reading. Then come back tomorrow night and read more. Then the night after that. And the… You get the point. The power of Christ compels you.

We begin this evening with a promo image from the 1991 Steven Spielberg fantasy epic Hook, featuring Dustin Hoffman as the titular captain and Robin Williams has his pudgy, crowing nemesis. There’s no news here, though I’m sure you were all thinking remake or sequel for a moment, just that I saw Hook on the big screen last night while eating a giant turkey leg courtesy of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Hook mini-feast. It was delightful. But more on that later.

Multi-hyphenate Katie Aselton returns to Sundance with her second film, a much different outing than her gorgeous and melancholy 2010 entry, The Freebie. This time around, Aselton has ceded writing duties to her husband, Mark Duplass, and the pair have made what will likely be referred to as “Deliverance for girls” for many years to come. But Black Rock is a twisty little horror outing that perhaps shares more with The Freebie than might be obvious from first blush. Both films hinge on interpersonal relationships, the confusion of behavioral signals and perceptions, and mistakes that have far-reaching consequences.

Yet, Black Rock is most certainly a thriller and a genre picture, and its wooded island setting, thumping soundtrack (with remarkably sage picks from The Kills), and grim plotline only serve to show how well Aselton can cross genres with style.