The Sundance Film Festival announced its 2012 lineup yesterday, featuring the premiere of films by Spike Lee, Julie Delpy, Joe Berlinger, and Stacy Peralta. Also on the roster: a slew of big-name celebrities like Chris Rock, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Roberto De Niro, plus women-helmed comedies, robots, and more. Here, ARTINFO selects our most anticipated picks.
"Red Hook Summer"
Director: Spike Lee
Screenwriters: James McBride, Spike Lee
Cast: Clarke Peters, Jules Brown, Toni Lysaith, James Ransone, Thomas Jefferson Byrd.
After the big-studio 2008 flop that was "Miracle at St. Anna," Spike Lee makes a refreshing return home. His latest film tells the story of a young Atlanta boy who meets his grandfather for the first time in Brooklyn, the borough where Lee spent his formative years. He also reprises Mookie, the main character from seminal Spike Lee joint “Do the Right Thing.”
“2 Days in New York”
Director: Julie Delpy
Screenwriters: Julie Delpy, Alexia Landeau
Cast: Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Alex Nahon.
Rock plays Delpy's boyfriend in this follow-up to her 2007 cross-cultural romantic comedy "2 Days in Paris." The love interest and title city may have changed, but the rest appears to have stayed the same: she introduces him to her eccentric French parents when they visit New York, he suffers from grand misunderstandings, and inevitable hijinx ensue.
"Celeste and Jesse Forever"
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Screenwriters: Rashida Jones, Will McCormack
Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Ari Graynor, Chris Messina, Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts.
Following the summer blockbuster "Bridesmaids," the festival is full of comedies with strong female leads this year, and Jones is not the least of them. She and fellow NBC primetime darling Samberg play the title characters, a pair of high school sweethearts now in their 30s, attempting to stay best friends through their divorce.
"Lay The Favorite”
Director: Stephen Frears
Screenwriter: D.V. DeVincentis
Cast: Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall, Vince Vaughn.
Zeta-Jones stars in what appears to be another Las Vegas-heist comedy: she somehow gets involved with a nerdy group of older gentlemen who've figured out how to beat the sportsbook system.
"Liberal Arts”
Director and screenwriter: Josh Radnor
Cast: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro, Elizabeth Reaser.
Indie it girl Olsen’s sophomore role on the indie screen has her playing a 19-year-old object of infatuation to thirtysomething Jesse, played by "How I Met Your Mother" star Radnor.
"Red Lights”
Director and Screenwriter: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Olsen, Toby Jones.
With his dramatically angular features that naturally lend themselves to terrifying roles (see "28 Days Later," and "Batman Begins"), Murphy is a fitting leading man for Cortés, who helmed claustrophobic 2010 coffin thriller "Buried." "Red Lights" follows a psychologist, played by Weaver, as she investigates paranormal activity with the help of a psychic. It's also the other Olsen pic that will be playing on the Sundance screens.
"Robot and Frank”
Director: Jake Schreier
Screenwriter: Christopher Ford
Cast: Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Liev Schreiber.
Fulfilling every frustrated child's fantasy, siblings played by Marsden and Tyler enlist a robot to care for their curmudgeonly aging father, played by Langella. Schreiber provides the voice for the mechanical caretaker in this futuristic family comedy.
“Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap”
Directors: Ice-T, Andy Baybutt
Chuck D, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, MC Lyte, Mos Def, and Kanye West and other influential artists in hip-hop reflect on the history of the genre, revealing some of their own creative processes.
Director: Joe Berlinger
Berlinger follows the legendary singer/songwriter to South Africa as he revisits the site where his historic "Graceland" album war born, reflecting on the ensuing political backlash for his breaking the UN cultural boycott of the country during Apartheid.
"Bones Brigade: An Autobiography”
Director: Stacy Peralta
Former Z-boy Peralta covers what he knows best: the West Coast skateboard scene of the 1980s. "Bones" presents interviews with a few of the most influential names in the sport — Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Rodney Mullen among them — as they recall the era that led to its formation.