Skip to main content

Sundance Film Festival · 2012

Sundance Film Festival 2012

US Dramatic Competition

The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.

Programme

16 films · 9 reviews

Jump to a film

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Review preview for Beasts Of The Southern Wild

There's poetry, tough love and, above all, a fierce stoicism on the bayou in Benh Zeitlin's strikingly beautiful and haunting debut.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna return from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’ under, in this tale of a six-year-old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Benh Zeitlin; Writer: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin; Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry) , Official site

Full review See: Quvenzhané Wallis, Jessica Chastain, Benh Zeitlin, Rich Moore, Famke Janssen and Daniel Craig on the National Board of Awards red carpet , Sundance Episode 3: Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Robot & Frank and Lay The Favourite

World premiere

The Comedy

Indifferent even to the prospects of inheriting his father's estate, Swanson whiles away his days with a group of ageing Brooklyn hipsters, engaging in small acts of recreational cruelty and pacified boredom.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Rick Alverson; Writer: Rick Alverson, Robert Donne, Colm O'Leary; Stars: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alexia Rassmusen, Gregg Turkington)

World premiere

The End of Love

A young father unravels following the loss of the mother of his child.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Mark Webber; Writer: Mark Webber; Stars: Mark Webber, Shannyn Sossamon, Michael Cera, Jason Ritter, Amanda Seyfried, Frankie Shaw)

World premiere

Filly Brown

Review preview for Filly Brown

As Majo, Gina Rodriguez's zest, combined with some genuinely catchy tunes performed by Rodriguez herself, helps paper over the cracks.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
A Latino girl counts the cost of becoming a rising hip-hop star.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Youssef Delara, Michael D Olmos; Writer: Youssef Delara; Stars: Gina Rodriguez, Jenni Rivera, Lou Diamond Phillips, Edward James Olmos, Emilio Rivera, Chrissie Fit) , Official site

Full review

World premiere

For Ellen

Review preview for For Ellen

It took me a while to warm to this film...But as Yong Kim explores her characters a more nuanced, rewarding movie emerges.

Jeff Robson · 3.5 out of 5
A rock musician in the middle of an acrimonious divorce tries to gain access to his six-year-old daughter.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: So Yong Kim; Writer: So Yong Kim; Stars: Paul Dano, Jon Heder, Jena Malone, Margarita Levieva, Shay Mandigo) , Official site

Full review

World premiere

The First Time

Two high schoolers meet at a party. Over the course of a weekend, things turn magical, romantic, complicated and funny, as they discover what it's like to fall in love for the first time.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Jonathan Kasdan; Writer: Jonathan Kasdan; Stars: Brittany Robertson, Dylan O'Brien, Craig Roberts, James Frecheville, Victoria Justice)

World premiere

Hello I Must Be Going

Divorced, childless, demoralised and condemned to move back in with her parents at the age of 35, Amy Minsky's prospects look bleak – until the unexpected attention of a teenage boy changes everything.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Todd Louiso; Writer: Sarah Koskoff; Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott, John Rubinstein, Julie White)

World premiere. Day one film

Keep The Lights On

Review preview for Keep The Lights On

A gently paced but unsparing and unglamorous portrait of a gay relationship where love doesn't and perhaps never could conquer all.

Owen Van Spall · 3.5 out of 5
An autobiographically inspired story of a passionate long-term relationship between two men driven by addiction and secrets but bound by love and hopefulness.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Souleymane Sy Savane, Paprika Steen) , Official site

Full review

World premiere

LUV

Review preview for LUV

Succeeds on an emotional level even if it fails to deliver anything very surprising in terms of plot.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
An 11-year-old boy has a sharp coming-of-age as he spends a day in the company of his uncle.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Sheldon Candis; Writer: Sheldon Candis, Justin Wilson; Stars: Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton)

Full review

World premiere

Middle Of Nowhere

Review preview for Middle Of Nowhere

Everything that is wrong with the contemporary US indie movie is here.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A devoted wife finds her life is on hold whilst her husband is in prison.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ava DuVernay; Writer: Ava DuVernay; Stars: Tracie Thoms, David Oyelowo, Omari Hardwick, Sharon Lawrence, Dondre Whitfield, Renee Victor, Maya Gilbert, Lorraine Toussaint, Edwina Findley, Emayatzy E. Corinealdi, Bob Rumnock, Andy Spencer, Sancho Martin, Bruce Katzman, William 'Bill' Connor) , Official site

Full review

World premiere

Nobody Walks

Martine, a young artist from New York, is invited into the home of a hip, liberal LA family for a week. Her presence unravels the family’s carefully maintained status quo and a mess of sexual and emotional entanglements ensues.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ry Russo-Young; Writer: Lena Dunham, Ry Russo-Young; Stars: John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie DeWitt, India Ennenga, Justin Kirk) , Official site

World premiere

Save The Date

As her sister Beth prepares to get married, Sarah finds herself caught up in an intense post-breakup rebound. The two fumble through the redefined emotional landscape of modern day relationships, forced to relearn how to love and be loved.

(Year: 2012; Director: Michael Mohan; Writer: Jeffrey Brown, Michael Mohan, Egan Reich; Stars: Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr, Geoffrey Arend, Mark Webber) , Official site

World premiere

Simon Killer

Review preview for Simon Killer

There’s no reassurance to be found in this cold world but Campos’s talent for getting mood whistling abominably through your ears is worthy of admiration.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 4 out of 5
A recent college graduate goes to Paris after breaking up with his girlfriend of five years. Once there, he falls in love with a young prostitute and their fateful journey begins.

(Country: France, US; Year: 2011; Director: Antonio Campos; Writer: Antonio Campos; Stars: Brady Corbet, Mati Diop, Michaël Abiteboul, Alex Desjoux, Marc Gaviard, Alexandra Neil, Nicolas Ronchi, Etienne Rotha Moeng, Constance Rousseau, Lila Salet, Solo) , Trailer

Full review See: Keeping score: Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurrians talk about Last Days In The Desert, Enemy and Wolfpack

World premiere

Smashed

Kate and Charlie are a young married couple whose bond is built on a mutual love of music, laughter and... drinking. When Kate decides to get sober, her new lifestyle brings troubling issues to the surface and calls into question her relationship with Charlie.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: James Ponsoldt; Writer: Susan Burke, James Ponsoldt; Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally)

World premiere

Safety Not Guaranteed

Review preview for Safety Not Guaranteed

Part of SNG’s festival success is down to the sweetness that lies beneath each of the characters.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 3 out of 5
A trio of magazine employees investigate a classified ad seeking a partner for time travel.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Colin Trevorrow; Writer: Derek Connolly; Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karen Soni)

Full review

World premiere

The Sessions (The Surrogate)

Review preview for The Sessions

It takes messy and unresolved dynamics and finds their poetry. Can’t say sexier than that.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 4.5 out of 5
A man in an iron lung hires a sex surrogate to help him lose his virginity.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ben Lewin; Writer: Ben Lewin; Stars: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks, Adam Arkin)

Full review

World premiere