Manohla’s Sundance Wrapup
“What I do know is that Sundance has become a very big machine in which it has become increasingly difficult for modestly scaled films without stars, without powerful brokers and backing and manufactured buzz to attract attention,” writes N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis in a 1.29 piece.
Especially, I would add, when front-line newspapers like the N.Y. Times overlook — i.e., fail to pay attention to — certain modestly scaled but high-quality films that don’t have stars, powerful backing & manufactured buzz…like John Carney‘s Once.
Manohla may not have deliberately bypassed Once — perhaps she simply never got around to seeing it — but given the raves it’s received thus far (particularly this one from the Chicago Tribune‘s Michael Phillips) on top of it having won the World Cinema Audience Award last Saturday…well, you’d think the Times would have said at least something, no?
I wish I could write an article bemoaning the fact that small films get ignored because of the big studio’s films and stars, and then the only movie from this year that I mention by name is a Molly Shannon studio release. Wait – damn it, Manohla beat me to it!
She couldn’t slip even ONE of her small great films from this year into the article? She says they were there, but she didn’t do them any favors in this piece. I’ve gotten pretty pissed about almost all of the coverage of the festival this year because shitty articles like this one are the norm.
I’ve got big problems with the way Mr. Wells covered this thing too, but at least he’s pushing for “Once” to get some love instead of only, say, the John Cusack movies of the world that’re hardly going to go hungry for attention when they need it.
For those of you who think that Jeff is insane for all the love he’s been giving “Once”, why not check out this performance by Glen and Marteka. If you don’t fall in love after hearing this song, then the movie’s not for you:
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/sundance/archive/2007/01/28/2338.html