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Sundance Film Festival · 2013

Sundance Film Festival 2013

Premieres

A showcase of world premieres of some of the most highly anticipated dramatic films of the coming year.

Programme

18 films · 10 reviews

Jump to a film

Adore (Two Mothers)

Review preview for Adore

The situation is played with an off-hand glibness that barely leaves a lipstick mark on the surface of what the quartet are doing.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
A pair of lifelong friends fall for one another's sons.

(Country: Australia, France; Year: 2013; Director: Anne Fontaine; Writer: Christopher Hampton; Stars: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, James Frechevile)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2013: Two Mothers, This Is Martin Bonner, Newlyweeds, Mud, The Moo Man

World premiere

A.C.O.D.

Carter is a well-adjusted Adult Child of Divorce. So he thinks. When he discovers he was part of a divorce study as a child, it wreaks havoc on his family and forces him to face his chaotic past.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Stuart Zicherman; Writer: Ben Karlin, Stuart Zicherman; Stars: Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O'Hara, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clark Duke)

World premiere

Before Midnight

Review preview for Before Midnight

A fairytale for old romantics everywhere, who believe that the weapons of friendship and commitment are as vital in the fight for a relationship, as love.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Jesse and Celine consider their lives together after nine years of living together.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater; Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Ariane Labed, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick)

Full review

World premiere

Big Sur

Unable to cope with a suddenly demanding public and battling advanced alcoholism, Jack Kerouac seeks respite in three brief sojourns to a cabin in Big Sur, which reveal his mental and physical deterioration.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Michael Polish; Writer: Michael Polish; Stars: Jean-Marc Barr, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas, Radha Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, Henry Thomas)

World premiere

Breathe In

Review preview for Breathe In

Director Drake Doremus handles the material superbly, aware of its pitfalls and sensitive to all the vagaries of human behaviour which make these characters so intriguing.

Robert Munro · 4 out of 5
The arrival of an exchange student reawakens a middle aged man's musical ambitions.

(Country: USA; Year: 2013; Director: Drake Doremus; Writer: Drake Doremus, Ben York Jones; Stars: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, Amy Ryan, Alexandra Wentworth, Ben Shenkman, Hugo Becker, Brendan Dooling, Elise Eberle, Lucy Davenport, Mackenzie Davis, Nicole Patrick, Brock Harris, Jenny Anne Hochberg, Naeem Uzimann)

Full review

World premiere

Don Jon (Don Jon's Addiction)

Review preview for Don Jon

Despite the seemingly grim subject matter, Gordon-Levitt goes the upbeat route with his debut feature.

Owen Van Spall · 3.5 out of 5
A porn-obsessed man tries to give up the one-night stands when he meets a woman whose appeal might exceed his fantasies.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Writer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headly, Rob Brown)

Full review

World premiere

The East

Review preview for The East

The setting may be current and sound edgy on paper but beneath the zeitgeist veneer, the mainstream thriller formula they employ is as familiar as your slippers.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A spy who has infiltrated an eco-terrorist group, finds her loyalties tested.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Zal Batmanglij; Writer: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling; Stars: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Elliot Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Patricia Clarkson)

Full review See: Sundance 2013: Capsule reviews of Ain't Them Bodies Saints, The East and Stoker

World premiere

jOBS

The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve Jobs’ life. jOBS is a candid, inspiring and personal portrait of the one who saw things differently.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Joshua Michael Stern; Writer: Matt Whiteley; Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, JK Simmons, Matthew Modine)

Closing night film

The Look Of Love

Review preview for The Look Of Love

This is a serious and entertaining character study - stripping down the lives of Soho and Raymond - that has the looks and acting talent to win over a crowd.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Biopic of porn king Paul Raymond.

(Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Matt Greenhalgh; Stars: Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton, Chris Addison, David Walliams)

Full review See: Michael Winterbottom interview about The Look Of Love , Sundance Film Festival 2013: Austenland, Look Of Love premiere and The Spectacular Now

World premiere

Lovelace

Review preview for Lovelace

The harrowing latter half of the film could easily have become alienating, but Seyfried makes it compelling.

Max Crawford · 3.5 out of 5
The story of Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Writer: Andy Bellin; Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Sharon Stone)

Full review

World premiere

Prince Avalanche

Review preview for Prince Avalanche

The end result is a kind of funny/kind of sad character study that asks questions about our relationships with others and our environment.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Odd couple comedy about two road workers in the backwaters of Texas.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: David Gordon Green; Writer: David Gordon Green; Stars: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Lance LeGault, Joyce Payne)

Full review See: David Gordon Green interview about Prince Avalanche

World premiere

Stoker

Review preview for Stoker

The heightened sense of India's reality is mimicked by Park's style and Miller's creations, who are pushed into the realm of melodrama and perilously close to caricature in pursuit of gothic thrills.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A bereaved girl's charismatic uncle spells trouble when he comes to stay.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Park Chan-wook; Writer: Wentworth Miller; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Dermot Mulroney, Jacki Weaver, Nicole Kidman)

Full review See: Sundance 2013: Capsule reviews of Ain't Them Bodies Saints, The East and Stoker

World premiere

Sweetwater

In the late 1800s, a fanatical religious leader, a renegade Sheriff, and a former prostitute collide in a blood triangle on the rugged plains of the New Mexico Territory.

(Year: 2013; Director: Logan Miller, Noah Miller; Writer: Andrew McKenzie; Stars: Ed Harris, January Jones, Jason Isaacs, Eduardo Noriega, Steven Rude, Amy Madigan)

World premiere

The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete

Separated from their mothers and facing a summer in the Brooklyn projects alone, two boys hide from police and forage for food, with only each other to trust. A story of salvation through friendship and two boys against the world.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: George Tillman Jr; Writer: Michael Starrbury; Stars: Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright)

World premiere

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman

Traveling abroad, Charlie Countryman falls for Gabi, a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in Nigel, her violent, charismatic ex. As the darkness of Gabi’s past increasingly envelops him, Charlie resolves to win her heart, or die trying.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Fredrik Bond; Writer: Matt Drake; Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, James Buckley, Til Schweiger)

World premiere

Top Of The Lake

A 12-year-old girl stands chest deep in a frozen lake. She is five months' pregnant, and won't say who the father is. Then she disappears. So begins a haunting mystery that consumes a community.

(Country: Australia, New Zealand; Year: 2013; Director: Jane Campion, Garth Davis; Writer: Jane Campion, Gerard Lee; Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Holly Hunter, Peter Mullan, David Wenham)

World premiere. This six-hour film will screen once during the festival

Very Good Girls

In the long, half-naked days of a New York summer, two girls on the brink of becoming women fall for the same guy and find that life isn't as simple or safe as they had thought.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Naomi Foner; Writer: Naomi Foner; Stars: Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen, Boyd Holbrook, Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Barkin)

World premiere

The Way, Way Back

Review preview for The Way, Way Back

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's directorial debut may not be breaking any new ground but this is a warm and funny tale, helped enormously by good performances and a snappy script.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An introverted teenager finds friends and confidence over the course of a summer holiday.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash; Writer: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash; Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Liam James)

Full review See: Sundance 2013: Capsule reviews of The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, Upstream Color, The Way, Way Back and Blackfish

World premiere