Sundance Day 10: The Award Winners!!! PUSH, 5 MINUTES OF HEAVEN, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC...and annual blogger dinner!
At Saturday nights award ceremony, PUSH: BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SAPPHIRE took home both the jury and the audience awards for best dramatic U.S feature in competition. Having happened only twice before in Sundance history (in 1999 with THREE SEASONS and in 2006 with QUICEANERA) the rare honour of sweeping both categories is a sure sign of a truly groundbreaking work of fiction.
Director Lee Daniels gained international acclaim as the first African-American producer of an Academy Award winning film with MONSTERS BALL and with PUSH he will undoubtedly secure his place as one of the foremost directors as well.
Based on a the memoir-style novel by a writer called Sapphire, PUSH tells the story of a Harlem teenagers struggle to overcome impossibly unfair obstacles, most of which result from the severe neglect and abuse of her parents. To put it frankly, 16 year old Precious Jones is illiterate, obese, and pregnant with her fathers child (for um, the second time).
The power of PUSH is contingent upon the raw, heart-wrenching performances of its actors, notably that of breakout actress Gabourey Sidibe who plays Precious and that of Mo Nique, who plays Precious mother. Mo 'Niques phenomenal interpretation is kind of like a Harlem version of MOMMY DEAREST, and the vicious verbal and physical attacks she rails against Precious will leave you reeling in shock and disgust.
The supporting characters are also incredibly fleshed out and not once do you have the impression of watching a constructed work of fiction. Even notable pop stars such as Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, who play a social worker and a male nurse respectively are so well directed that they blend into the film seamlessly, their celebrity identity only revealed in the films final credits. Daniels expertly showcases his actors performances by employing lots of close ups of the characters during emotional scenes and at times, using subtle jump cuts in order to create an uncomfortable sense of closeness.
Another unique aspect of the film is the production design. When Precious encounters trauma her life, she slips into a state of fantasy and even comedy in order to cope with the reality of her situation. This quality of her personality is illustrated beautifully with rich sequences inspired by scenes from television, theatre,and cinema where through her imagination, Precious is transformed into a romantic heroine, a fashion diva or a soul songstress. The visuals are reminiscent of the style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and give a welcome contrast to the extremely harsh environment of her broken home.
While not the easiest film to watch, PUSH is an unforgettable emotional rollercoaster that will wow many and in the very least, leave audience members with a newfound sense of appreciation for all of the normalcy we take for granted.
Extremely bad parenting can also be seen as a source of conflict in 5 MINUTES OF HEAVEN, a story about confrontation and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. After a young protestant boy named Joe witnesses the brutal murder of his older brother by a gang of catholic teenage hooligans, his own mother turns against him and instills in him a sense of guilt that will follow him well into his adult years. 40 years later, when the grown-up Joe (played by James Nesbitt) is presented with the opportunity to confront his brothers killer Alistair (Liam Neeson) on a reality TV program, he becomes determined to avenge the person who took away his brother, and consequentially, his mothers capacity to love.
German director Oliver Hirscbiegel received the World Competition Directing Award for 5 MINUTES OF HEAVEN and it is a recognition that seems justly deserved. In his portrayal of 1970s Ireland, Hirschbiegel employs camera work resplendent in detail and saturated color, which evokes the aesthetic of legendary filmmaker Hal Ashby. When the film transitions to the present day, the image becomes more monochrome and the shots more condensed which has effect of increasing the tension leading up to the meeting between the two men.
In addition to expert cinematography, Hirschbiegels command of his craft is also evident in his direction of Nesbitt and Neeson, who are both at the top of their games and thoroughly dissolve into the roles of their characters. The contrast between the two characters provides for an interesting dynamic when the two come head to head physically and philosophically, and the film delivers a powerful message about the necessity of letting go of grudges, no matter how painful the process.
While impressive and entertaining on the whole, I had a problem with the ending of the film as it felt unnecessarily dragged out and anticlimactic. The subtle ambiguity that Hirschbiegel establishes so well in the beginning could have been better preserved with a more open-ended finale.
It seemed appropriate to conclude my Sundance blogging coverage with a review of the Jury prize-winning documentary about the advent of Internet pop culture as we know it. Directed by Sundance veteran award winner Ondi Timoner, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC profiles Josh Harris, one of the pioneers of the Internet voyeurism and self-promotion that have now become so commonplace in todays society.
In the 1990s, Harris was one of the .com wiz kids who jumped on the Internet bandwagon at just the right moment and managed to cash in on it big time. In 1999, he decided to use his funds to create a social experiment which he called Quiet which was a similar concept to THE REAL WORLD except instead of seven strangers picked to live in a house there were over a hundred eccentric personalities in an enormous Manhattan bunker, not an inch of which was off limits to the scrutiny of the surveillance cameras (toilets and showers included). The project drew comparisons to Andy Warhols Factory as a result of the hedonistic nature of the place (which featured an indoor firearms shooting range and at one point, a naked marching band) and its diverse group of high profile participants (including the director of the ps1 gallery along with a plethora of artists, filmmakers, actors, musicians, groupies, junkies and porn stars).
When Quiet was shut down by the police after only 30 days due to questionable activities and rumors of cult-like activity. Harris decided to turn the camera onto himself and his then girlfriend Tania in order to create his next project We Live in Public. Installing over 30 cameras in his New York apartment and creating a live Internet feed, Harris turned his relationship into a bizarre spectator sport where every aspect of their life together was captured and simultaneously analysed in a chat room.
Needless to say, Harris relationship was short-lived, as were his finances, and what is so fascinating about this film is the psychological portrait it presents about a man who has spent his life being more attuned with the virtual world than the physical world and who will sacrifice anything in order to get media attention (according to Harris, people dont want 15 minutes of fame in their lifetimes, but rather 15 minutes of fame a day).
Director Timoner uses Harris and his ideologies as a means of discussing why 10 years after Quiet, the virtual world seems to have indeed taken over the physical one, at least on the level of social interaction. Why is it that we feel the need to promote ourselves through blogs and sites such as Facebook and Myspace? Do we also want that 15 minutes of recognition, or it is merely a desire to stay connected?
An extremely thought-provoking and well edited documentary that will leave you wondering why it is we all choose to live in public and what the repercussions of it will be in the future.