Filth! Total and utter filth!
Day 6 dawned with a film of such wall-to-wall smut-chat that TF almost had to cover its own ears. Except for the fact that we were loving every single four-letter-word-spitting minute of it.
The film? The slightly awkwardly-titled For A Good Time, Call… , which we’re dubbing a ‘homance’ thanks to its sex-obsessed storyline about two girl friends (Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller) who start up their own slutty chat line.
Deliriously dirty, imminently quotable, and packed with cameos (we won’t spoil them), it’s a laugh riot from start to finish – not least thanks to funny gal Graynor (think a young Bette Midler). In years to come, people will lump it in with Bridesmaids , and that’s no bad thing.
The smut kept on coming (ahem) during our chat with Save The Date stars Alison Brie and Lizzy Caplan, the latter dishing the dirt on her many sex scenes in the film.
Not that we’re all about the dirt, also taking time to grill the indie starlets on the ‘girls can be funny now’ attitude sweeping movieland, as well as future projects (“good horror scripts are so hard to find,” says Caplan).
From there it was over to 2 Days In New York , writer/director/star Julie Delpy’s quirky follow-up to her 2007 indie 2 Days In Paris .
Delpy reprises her role as French artist Marion, now living in New York with new boyfriend Mingus (a surprisingly low-key Chris Rock). They’re living a relatively conventional life with their two young kids, but when her dysfunctional Gallic family come to visit, madcap hilarity ensues.
A charming culture-clash comedy, the film doesn’t always hit its mark – Rock’s asides to a cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama fall particularly flat – but Delpy’s manic, pratfall-heavy script moves at a lick and ensures plenty of laughs along the way.
Next up, Safety Not Guaranteed continued Sundance’s affiliation with actors who appeared in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World . In the eccentric dramedy, Aubrey Plaza plays Darius, a disenfranchised twenty-something investigating a guy who claims to know how to time travel.
Though she’s best known for her caustic wit, Plaza softens off the rough edges while delivering an excess of deadpan goodness. The film’s final act tonal shift will divide audiences, but in general Safety is a hilarious, character-driven film that never takes the easy route. It’ll be interesting to see how they market this one.
So that was Day 6. Tonight we’re off to have dinner with the Shadow Dancer folk ahead of the film’s official premiere tomorrow morning. As always, check back here tomorrow for our verdict on the movie…
Film of the day: The Imposter
Rounding up our day of celluloid viewing was The Imposter , a British documentary telling the story of a Texan boy who went missing and suddenly ‘reappeared’ three-and-a-half years later in Spain.
If you don’t already know the story, to say any more would be to spoil the outrageous, almost unbelievable twists and turns of this dark and fascinating doc. Consistently compelling and superbly shot (the dramatic reconstruction scenes are as cinematic as any Hollywood thriller), this one is a must-see.