PARK CITY, Utah – A recurring question at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was: Exactly what constitutes an independent?
One festival favorite was the “The Illusionist,” a lavish romantic drama set in 1900 Vienna starring Edward Norton that, for all intents and purposes, was indistinguishable from a big studio prestige picture.
Indeed, sources said executives at Universal Studios were trying to decide whether to acquire it for the studio’s specialty film division, Focus Features, or put it out themselves.
Another well-received film, Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep,” snapped up by Warner Independent, blurred the line between indie and foreign-language films.
This French romantic comedy from the French director of the American art-house hit “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” stars the Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal as a man who cannot separate his dreams from his waking life.
Though the story takes place in Paris, Bernal speaks almost exclusively in English, while the rest of the cast performs in French with English subtitles – a conceit that works in this quirky, beautifully designed brain twister of a movie.
Then there was an ambitious attempt a classic big-budget genre – the disaster movie – on a minuscule indie budget.
Much hyped by festival programmers, “Right at Your Door” (bought by Lionsgate) depicts a dirty-bomb attack on Los Angeles by unspecified enemies.
But while the film makes clever use of limited special effects, the drama quickly grows tedious by focusing almost entirely on a hugely unsympathetic character, an unemployed rock musician who is forced to quarantine his wife in their home after she is exposed to deadly toxins.
With 118 features screening over 10 days, it was impossible to see more than a fraction of the offerings, but the consensus of veteran fest watchers was that there was nothing this year to compare with such past Sundance sensations as “sex, lies and videotape,” “The Motorcycle Diaries” or “Memento.”
Instead, many of the offerings stuck with familiar, depressing themes: Maggie Gyllenhaal gave a standout performance in “Sherrybaby,” but there was little novel in this story of a recovering addict trying to connect with her young daughter.
Actress Joey Lauren Adams made an impressive directing debut with “Come Early Morning,” which returned Ashley Judd to her indie roots. But this tale of a hard-drinking Southern woman grappling with her past is familiar stuff.
With so much gloom and doom – several films focused on suicide – Maggie Maggenti’s “Puccini for Beginners,” a gay-themed screwball comedy set in Manhattan, was a breath of fresh air in the mountains.
Elizabeth Reazor is hilarious in a star-making role as a lesbian with commitment issues who gets involved with a man (Justin Kirk), then simultaneously hooks up with the woman (Gretchel Mol) who, unknown to her, has just dumped her new lover.
“Puccini” was the kind of fresh movie that continues to justify Sundance, even as commercialism continued to besiege this bastion of independent film during the festival’s 25th anniversary edition.
Lou Lumenick’s field reports from the Sundance festival are available at blogs.24hbongdda.site/sundance