Sundance 2012 Round-Up

28) Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) Dir: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim Date Released: March 2, 2012 Date Seen: January 20, 2012 Rating: 2.5/5

29) Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012) Dir: Lee Toland Krieger Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 21, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

30) Filly Brown (2012) Dir: Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 21, 2012 Rating: 1.5/5

31) Robot and Frank (2012) Dir: Jake Schreier Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 3/5

32) For Ellen (2012) Dir: So Yong Kim Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

33) Red Hook Summer (2012) Dir: Spike Lee Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

34) Smashed (2012) Dir: James Ponsoldt Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 23, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

35) The Surrogate (2012) Dir: Ben Lewin Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 24, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

36) John Dies at the End (2012) Dir: Don Coscarelli Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 24, 2012 Rating: 2/5

37) Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012) Dir: Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 25, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

38) V/H/S (2012) Dir: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West and Adam Wingard Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 25, 2012 Rating: 3/5

39) Keep the Lights On (2012) Dir: Ira Sachs Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 26, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

40) Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) Dir: Benh Zeitlin Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 26, 2012 Rating: 4/5

41) Wrong (2012) Dir: Quentin Dupieux Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 27, 2012 Rating: 3.25/5

My 2012 Sundance Film Festival coverage, by outlet:

Esquire: here, here, here, here, here and here.

The Playlist: here, here, here, here and here.

Slant Magazine: here, here, here, here, here and here.

RV!: I Sell the Dead, 118) Strangers Gundown (1969) 119) Today It's Me, Tomorrow It's You (1968) 120) High Kick Girl! (2009)

RV!: I Sell the Dead (2008) Dir: Glenn McQuaid Date Released: August 2009 Date Seen: March 27, 2010 Rating: 3/5

118) Strangers Gundown (1969) Dir: Sergio Garrone Date Released: April 1974 Date Seen: March 28 Rating: 2.25/5

119) Today It's Me, Tomorrow It's You (1968) Dir: Tonino Cervi Date Released: June 1971 Date Seen: March 28 Rating: 2.75/5

12) High Kick Girl! (2009) Dir: Fuyuhiko Nishi Date Released (DVD): March 2010 Date Seen: March 28 Rating: 3.5/5

Like I said, a slow weekend for cinema, nyuk nyuk. Kinda surprised at how much I liked High Kick Girl! though. See my DVD round-up for the New York Press.

250) I Sell the Dead (2008)

250) I Sell the Dead (2008) Dir: Glenn McQuaid Date Released: August 2009 Date Seen: August 12, 2009 Rating: 1.75/5

I Sell the Dead is such a creative runt that I berate it at the risk of sounding like a bully. Writer/director Glenn McQuad's debut feature takes a trio of characters actors that range from adequate to mediocre--in descending order of competence: Lost's Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman and filmmaker Larry Fessenden--throws in a knowingly nonsensical series of comic book vignettes about grave-robbing supernatural things--aliens, vampires, zombies: you name it--and then expects hilarity to ensue. McQuaid never goes far enough to really make his film anything more than a by-the-numbers plot that's too busy winking at the audience to provide any kind of consistent entertainment. 

To start, the film's plot is just a basic means of checking off a laundry list of McQuaid's favorite genre tropes and images and hence never bothers to offer any kind of insight or ingenuity as to how or why the characters get from point-to-point. Worse yet, the film's casting gives you the impression that McQuaid isn't taking any part of Dead seriously, even the scenes that don't have a cheap but meagre punchline at the end of it. (SPOILER WARNING:) The inordinate amount of time we see the mysterious, silhouetted head of the Murphy clan, has to be a bad joke on the audience. I mean, really, Perlman's impossible to mistake, faceless or not. Also, every close-up we get of Fessenden's pineapple-shaped head feels like a joke made in bad tast that ends up being the best running gag in the movie. (END SPOILERS). Phew. I'm spent. The movie sucks. It's tepid at best and ineffectual in every sense at worst. There. Ya happy?