Sundance 2013 | Geekscape

First Trailer For Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Directorial Debut, ‘Don Jon’

by Derek KraneveldtMay 22, 2013

Relativity Media has just released the first trailer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut, Don Jon. The film was a hit at the 2013 Sundance Festival (read our review here), and after watching this first preview, I can see why. The trailer is well cut, and the feature looks hilarious.

Don Jon stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlet Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, and more, and will hit theatres on October 18th! Watch the first trailer below, and let us know what you think!

Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old-fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to “pull” a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn’t compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old-fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she’s determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old-fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Geekscape’s Sundance 2013 Review: ‘The East’

by Anna AgadjanyanJanuary 21, 2013

The East is an AWESOME thriller! It draws you in with its high stakes situations and the intense moral quandary facing the main character, played by Brit Marling, keeping you on the edge of your seat for almost two hours. The tight script was co-written by Marling and director Zal Batmanglij and contains a bunch of memorable lines that I have been quoting non-stop since the screening. There is some similarity to their previous Sundance collaboration, Sound of My Voice, but this is a different, larger, and more complex film that stands to do well commercially.

Jane, Marling’s character, is an ex FBI agent who starts her first assignment in her new job at a top corporate intelligence (aka ‘espionage’) firm. Patricia Clarkson, Jane’s boss (think the younger & crueler Judi Dench M) sees a lot of potential in Jane and sends her on a very complex mission to infiltrate a group of environment/corporate terrorists. After a full immersion, and a few false leads, Jane finds her targets, but soon realizes the group, led by the charismatic Benji, played Alexander Skarsgard, is actually doing good and creating social change. She must wrestle her obligations as a law-abiding citizen, a well-paid employee, and an impassioned revolutionary as the group’s terrorist strikes become increasing dangerous with larger amounts of collateral damage to civilians.

Before starting the script, Zal and Brit spent a summer on a road trip where they tried living for a month on barely any money by dumpster diving for food and riding on empty cargo trains to get around. They lived with a group of young people who are essentially modern drifters and used that experience to create the tight knit terrorist group featured in the film. They also, expertly connected the group’s missions to current hot topics giving the film strong relevance. It is particularly interesting to see Brit’s take on corporate greed as she has a degree in economics and used to work as an investment banker, a profession made famous in American Psycho and the epitome of American capitalism.

Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård in 'The East' — Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård in ‘The East’

Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgård’s performances are powerful yet nuanced and when you include the killer jobs by Ellen Paige, Patricia Clarkson, and Julia Ormand and it is clear that Zal Batmanglij is doing an amazing job in the director’s chair. During the Q&A Brit and Zal revealed that during the writing process they would often act out scenes to both improve dialogue and make sure they would work off the page. This craftsmanship is clear throughout the film making it a really enjoyable and visually enticing film that will hopefully spawn both some social change and more Brit and Zal combinations. As a former business student myself, I am thrilled.

Cast and Credits

Director: Zal Batmanglij

Screenwriters: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling

Executive Producer: Tony Scott

Producers: Ridley Scott, Michael Costigan, Jocelyn Hayes-Simpson, Brit Marling

Cinematographer: Roman Vasyanov

Editors: Andrew Weisblum, Bill Pankow

Production Designer: Alex DiGerlando

Costume Designer: Jenny Gering

Principal Cast: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Patricia Clarkson

Check out Anna’s other reviews from Sundance 2013 here!

Geekscape’s Sundance 2013 Review: ‘Don Jon’s Addiction’

by Anna AgadjanyanJanuary 21, 2013

Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a raw, funny, memorable, and very commercial comedy about a very little addressed issue: a guy’s addiction to pornography. He wrote, directed, and stars in this film about a young NJ male, Jon Martello, who gets the “Don” nickname from his friends for his ability to bring home “10s” every time he goes to a nightclub. Don Jon’s issue is that even after he sleeps with these hotties, he is still left unsatisfied emotionally and needs to use his laptop to get a healthy dose of porn. Like women, Don Jon objectifies everything in his life including his body, his religion, his apartment, his car, and his family.

It takes a perfect 10, Barbara, played by Scarlett Johansson, to shakes things up when she is not willing to sleep with Jon after dancing the night away in the club. Luckily, his streak is upheld as he quickly finds another target, but he just can’t get Barbara out of his mind. He start to properly date and court her, but unknowingly becomes completely whipped to her every wish, but one. It’s the one promise that he doesn’t uphold, that leads to a real shake-up in his life, when Don Jon meets Esther, Julian Moore’s character.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julianne more on the set of 'Don Jon's Addiction' — Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julianne more on the set of ‘Don Jon’s Addiction’

In his feature directorial debut, Gordon-Levitt does a ton of things excellently. The NJ characters are so well portrayed that they feel like some NJ residents I know from college. The characters are real, endearing, yet also super funny. All the scenes in the nightclub are hilarious. Additionally, Tony Danza, as Jon’s dad is so great that he gives Robert DeNiro a run for his money on his Silver Linings Oscar nomination. At the same time, he also balances the montages of Don Jon’s pornography with really clever and tight narration that advances the story while also drawing the viewer into why Don Jon really likes porn. The porn scenes are all real and many contain recognizable faces, but were re-framed in post production to maintain an R rating. However, several female audience members still felt it was a little more than they would have liked to see.

The always lovely Scarlett Johansson as Barbara

During the Q&A, Gordon-Levitt laid out the bigger theme that he targets in the film – the influence on today’s youth from the skewed messages they get in both mainstream media and pornography. The film contrasts Don Jon’s stilted perceptions on life and women he gets from porn with the absurd messages about love and relationships that Barbara takes from the numerous Hollywood romance movies she is constantly watching. Adding in the layers of family pressures, religious conventions, and peer pressure he makes a strong case for what a crazy world we live in. The silver lining is that this film is so entertaining that a bunch of people will watch it and hopefully fuel some open discussion on this otherwise hushed topic. One final benefit is that finally some of Jenna Haze and Alexis Texas’ best work will be coming to a big screen near you.

Cast and Credits

Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Screenwriter: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Executive Producer: Nicolas Chartier

Producer: Ram Bergman

Cinematographer: Thomas Kloss

Editor: Lauren Zuckerman

Production Designer: Meghan C. Rogers

Composer: Nathan Johnson

Principal Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headly, Rob Brown

Check out Anna’s other reviews from Sundance 2013 here!

Geekscape’s Sundance 2013 Review: ‘Escape From Tomorrow’

by Anna AgadjanyanJanuary 21, 2013

This eerie and chilling comedy is shot in B&W and completely illegally at the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, FL. While this may really affect distribution options, director Randy Moore and his movie are already the talk of Sundance, so who knows…maybe that was a very wise move. The film chronicles the final day in a family’s vacation in the Sunshine State at its biggest resort.

The monumental day starts with Dad, played beautifully by Roy Abramsohn, getting a call from his boss that he is being laid off for no particular reason. Not wanting to spoil the fun, Dad doesn’t tell his wife and two young kids, but is clearly immediately affected. The family takes the monorail from their hotel to the Magic Kingdom and engages in a day of surreal rides and amusements. By mid morning, Dad notices two barely legal French girls and becomes increasingly engrossed with them to the point where he starts following them. While the girls weave in and out of the narrative, a host of hallucinations, marriage issues, mistaken identities, scrapes and bruises, and general mayhem start shortly thereafter.

Having grown up in Florida, Moore was shaped by the “artificial fantasy” of such family entertainment amusement parks and still has issues with wanting to live in a world that doesn’t really exist. Through clever framing, good story telling, and a slight bit of VFX, Moore makes the actual Disney rides that the family takes feel really creepy and borderline horrific. This is particularly effective as many of us were on these rides many times and kids and didn’t have such an experience. But a horror film this is not, because by making Abramsohn’s character likeable and a inserting a bunch of funny one-liners, Moore keeps his social commentary firmly cemented as a dark comedy.

The team shot for 45 days on location and sunlight or practical fixtures is the lighting source for the majority of the film. Moore was very keen on avoiding making a “home movie” and even with the lighting and location restrictions, he and his DP, Lucas Lee Graham, made a cinematic film. The B&W greatly augments the picture as it offers both a layer of surreal and covers several of the technical issues that run and gun shooting creates. Personally, the B&W also offers homage to the zany horror films of the 1950s that feel referenced in some of wacky situations that the family encounters.

http://youtu.be/8NFPQfdlDZY

Ultimately, the film is more of a mainstream story than some of the ‘insane’ buzz it’s getting at the festival. However, after watching this film, you will look at any family amusement park differently on your next visit.

Cast and Credits

Director: Randy Moore

Screenwriter: Randy Moore

Producers: Soojin Chung, Gioia Marchese

Cinematographer: Lucas Lee Graham

Editor: Soojin Chung

Production Designers: Sean Kaysen, Lawrence Kim

Composer: Abel Korzeniowski

Sound Design: Paul André Fonarev, David Lankton

Principal Cast: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Annet Mahendru, Danielle Safady, Alison Lees-Taylor

Check out Anna’s other reviews from Sundance 2013 here!

Geekscape’s Sundance 2013 Review: ‘Virtually Heroes’

by GeorgJanuary 19, 2013

VIRTUALLY HEROES is a fun comedy about the sarcastic and self-aware hero of a first person shooter, Sgt Brooks. It is actually the first Roger Corman produced film to be programmed at Sundance in the festival’s history. The director, G. J. Echternkamp, and screenwriter, Matt Yamashita, were given the task by Corman of coming up with a story that could make use of 11 Vietnam War action films in his vault that were all produced in the 1970’s & 80’s. Their first attempt was a story about a Rambo inspired character who goes on a brutal mission in the jungle while taking time to pursue his passion for bird watching. No joke, they revealed this tidbit at the Q&A after the screening. Fortunately for us, Corman passed on that treatment and the guys wrote a video game inspired script that became this film.

The movie starts with Sgt Brooks realizing his life in a rut. Yes, video game heros have feelings too. He and is partner, Nova, are playing the same levels over and over again as they tirelessly try to advance in the game. The attractive female at the end of every level constantly eludes Brooks because right as she is freed from the level boss, another villain appears to take her to the next stage. Amidst severe depression and in search of his true self, Brooks abandons the missions and seeks counsel from an elusive monk thought to be a flaw in the programming code.

The filmmakers craft an engaging story mixing the footage they shot with all the fighting, explosions, and action sequences taken from those 11 films in the Corman archive. While it is evident that they shot in the canyons outside of LA, clever editing and filmmaker cheats blend the scenes together nicely. Sprinkled in are countless video game references to such classics as Call of Duty, Streetfighter, World of Warcraft, and even Contra. The cast’s performances are solid and Robert Baker owns the role of Sgt Brooks. Unfortunately for you die hard Corman fans, there is no gratuitous nudity. For the scene in which it would have been most appropriate, the director hired his girlfriend and her BBFs as extras and it would just have been to too awkward for him…bummer for us. The good news is that there is a sweet cameo by Mark Hamill.

Expect this laffer to come to DVD and VOD soon and if it does well, I bet Mr. Corman can find another bunch of films in his archives to convert to a modern day video game.

Cast and Credits

Director: G. J. Echternkamp

Screenwriter: Matt Yamashita

Executive Producer: Roger Corman

Coproducer: Dwjuan Fox

Cinematographer: James Mann

Producer, Editor: G. J. Echternkamp

Principal Cast: Robert Baker, Brent Chase, Katie Savoy, Mark Hamill, Ben Messmer