courtesy Sundance Institute
The Sundance Film Festival isn’t a place known for superhero fare. It’s not Comic-Con International and there are no dudes in capes (usually). But that doesn’t mean there aren’t heroic feats on display. From brave performances to courageous moments of documentary filmmaking, there were a lot of people in Park City who served as our personal heroes—sometimes if only for providing a moment of levity after we’d sat through our umpteenth bleak drama of the day. Now that we’re back from the snow-capped hills of Utah (and kind of caught up on sleep), it’s time to call out our own cinematic Justice League. (At least the first half of them; there’s more to come tomorrow.)
The Dynamic Duo of Jemaine Clement and Jessica Williams (above)
The “dude finally gets his life together” trope isn’t a new one, but People, Places, Things is such a funny, warm movie that it doesn’t matter. And at the sweet center of it all is a friendship between graphic novelist Will (Jemaine Clement) and his student Kat, played by The Daily Show‘s Jessica Williams, a completely believable relationship leavened by spot-on dry comedic timing. One particular crossed-signal moment—when Kat tries to arrange a threeway dinner with Will and her mother, and Will thinks she’s asking him out—might have been one of the funniest scenes at the entire festival. And as you can imagine with two volleying comedians at the top of their game, things could get feisty. “She’s cutting,” Clement says of working with Williams. “Sometimes Jim [Strouse, the director] would let us go off-script, and whatever I’d say she’d just cut me down. She was really quick.”
Sarah Silverman
courtesy Sundance Institute
Can a woman who once sang “I’m f*@#ing Matt Damon” on her real boyfriend’s late-night talk show summon the subtlety to play a wife and mother on the cusp of total self destruction? Apparently. In I Smile Back, Sarah Silverman goes in and doesn’t let up for the film’s entire 85 minute running time of booze, coke, adultery, and teddy bear humping. (Yes, really.) “We didn’t change anything for her as Sarah Silverman the comedian,” says Amy Koppelman, who wrote the book the film was based on and also co-wrote the script. “She brought herself to every thing, to every line.” For years Silverman made a name for herself as a comedian by being unafraid to go there (wherever “there” happened to be); with I Smile Back she does the same, but in the darkest and most troubling ways possible. It sticks with you for days.
Hailee Steinfeld
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In the midst of a great festival slate, Ten Thousand Saints wasn’t able to rise above the “Solidly Good” category. But we can’t say the same for Hailee Steinfeld, who took a turn for the tough as pregnant, punk-rock-loving teen Eliza. It was a knockout performance that, if nothing else, proved she won’t be destined to a life of playing young prairie women. “I kind of went non-stop for about two years,” Steinfeld says of her post-True Grit acting bender. “When it rains it pours; I love what I do so much that when I do it, I don’t want to stop.” Get ready for the HailStorm.
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