Sundance Leftovers: 5 Films Surprisingly Left Unclaimed

We are getting closer to mid-March, some would say Sundance feels like yesterday’s news and SXSW begins today. But not so fast. There are some well-hyped titles that have yet to be picked up and accordingly to our chart below there either are some oversights on the part of some distrubs and/or some tough negotiations on the part of the sellers.

I originally wanted to get this grid up right after I was over and done with the festival, and now with the first slew of titles upon us, I thought it might be time to get this thing together. I asked fellow critics Comingsoon.net’s Edward Douglas, Cinemablend.com’s Josh Tyler, Slashfilm.com’s Peter Sciretta and FilmSchoolRejects.com’s Neil Miller to share their thoughts by grading the films they screened. Note: I only included the titles that were seen by at least two critics, which meant that many docs and foreign films aren’t on the list, and neither are films that were among my favorites in Sin Nombre and The Messenger. According to the grid these are some titles that should be picked up.

Mystery Team
If I had to make a comment about Dan Eckman‘s directorial debut without having seen the film – I’d say think Rian Johnson‘s Brick with half the budget, more sleuths and about 200 more laughs. For those who haven’t heard about the “team”, Derrick Comedy is a comedy troupe of NYU students (Dominic Dierkes, Dan Eckman, Donald Glover, Meggie McFadden, and DC Pierson.) who’ve used viral sphere to their advantage. After making tons of shorts, it resulted in what Peter from Slashfilm says its the most marketable film from the untouched lot. I took a look at the youtube numbers. That is affirmative.

Why it hasn’t been picked up?
Production value is fine, but the language would be an issue, and perhaps a good numbers of the distributors are weary about selling to a viral fan-base. They are currently setting up east and west coast screenings to increase popularity and the positive buzz.

We Live in Public
If you need proof that the industry is listening, filmmaker Ondi Timoner will now be working in feature films – she just signed up to helm a biopic. While plenty of documentary films that were shown at the festival have been picked up as of late, this one is still waiting. So how is it that a Grand Jury Prize winning docu with a timely subject matter (Josh Harris:“Warhol of the Web”) can’t find a home yet? Though it was on my shortlist of films to see, I criminally missed out on this one, but here is the reason why it might not have been bought already. 

Why It hasn’t been picked up?
I imagine that this might be a case of who can offer the best package and not an indifference from the part of the buyers. If this gets the proper backing it could be the event documentary film of the year.

World’s Greatest Dad
He either “hits” or “misses” — not only with his sense of humour but his choice in film roles. Robin Williams toplines a comedy that is so non-mainstream, and so off the deep-end that it may even be considered uncharacteristic for the actor/comedian. The funny thing is, Williams’ character is so politically correct and polite that we cheer for him, even when he takes his major misstep. I’m not sure how long Sleeping With Dogs‘ (a.k.a Stay) director Bob Goldthwait had to wait to sell his first picture, but when you trade a misuse of pets for sexual asphyxiation and envy, I guess you need to stand in line and wait for the number to be called.

Why it hasn’t been picked up?
The language, the crudeness and the fact that it is for a very select crowd of people that aren’t easily offended. It played extremely well for critics, the laughs were just as generous as crowd-pleasers such as Little Miss Sunshine from Park City’s past. Seriously, Goldthwait has some crazy ideas, but he cares about his characters and comically he is on cue. Only he can merge sweetness with crudeness and not come across as some xerox from the Apatow family. 

Mary and Max

It looks as if it should be for kids, but this is no Wallace and Gromit. Adam Elliott‘s feature film debut is one of the rare great films to open the Sundance Film Festival, and speaking about rare — how many examples can we cite where a clay-mation film is made strictly for adults and has nothing to do with Tim Burton? In a nutshell, it is hard to categorize because it has no comparisons.

Why It hasn’t been picked up?
Some of the concerns listed above are the primary reasons why it has not been picked up. Phillip Seymour Hoffman offers a great voice perf, but no one will recognize it. Not many distributors deal with animation, especially in the kind that talks about the number 2 with so much ease.

My two cents worth: The Messenger.
It is not mentioned in the grid below, but it rests in my top 5 films from the festival. In a year where we will see the best post 9/11 war film in The Hurt Locker, this is perhaps just as poignant and important. Belting out some great, handheld aesthetic unedited scenes that are tension filled with a volcanic pressure, Oren Moverman‘s debut behind the camera is the real deal in detailing complex human emotions.   

Why It hasn’t been picked up?
It went on to pick up a major award at the Berlin Film Festival, hopefully this will help in both the short and long term, but with no happy endings, no A stars, difficult subject matter, long takes, long pauses and almost no tolerance for Iraq-war themed pictures from the movie going public means that it will take a brave soldier to show off this emotionally-gripping drama to a public who need to see this .