Sundance Film Festival ’09

January 15 – 25, 2009
Park City, Utah

Jonathan was invited to see three films at the festival.

Arlen Faber starring Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham. A romantic comedy by writer/director John Hindman. The film had its moments but suffered from the lack of originality in its story. Plus, extreme four letter outbursts by the characters seemed unfitting for this otherwise light romantic comedy.

Where is Where? by Finnish director Eija-Liisa Ahtila. This Experimental film was reminiscent of the Surrealism movement in the 1920s spearheaded by Salvador Dali. This film exposed us to the characters’ bizarre thoughts viewed in four boxes that filled the movie screen.

The Informers starring Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, and Winona Ryder. The film was an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel and directed by Gregor Jordan. It showed a realistic view of the high life in Los Angeles in the early 1980s when sex and drugs were tragically easy. The film did disappoint in that there were too many points of view that were not fully developed. Overall, it had promise but lacked the intricate character study of Ellis’ American Psycho.