Every year countless films vie for one of the few coveted spots in the Sundance Film Festival program. Set to join the ranks of Winter's Bone, Reservoir Dog, Napoleon Dynamite, The Blair Witch Project and Swingers, filmmakers know that inclusion doesn't necessarily guarantee admiration by the masses, it does go a long way in validating the countless hours spent crafting their film.
In the past, the festival's programmers have worked hard to keep the club small and exclusive. Repeat directors have become a regular occurrence, and seeing an actor in multiple films in the same year happens a bit too often to be a coincidence.
It's as if they are all members of the cool table, sitting back with a smirk as others long to be part of the group. They play the game, adhering to the formula that Sundance loves so much, and they are rewarded as a result. Those who do go against the grain are often left on the outside looking in, shut out due to their creativity and willingness to venture far outside the box.
That is, until 2015.
Going completely against stereotype and showing a refreshing sense of understanding for the Millennials, Sundance opted to open things up with Bryan Buckley's The Bronze, a crude, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek comedy that shows the importance of remembering yesterday, living for today, and preparing for what life will throw at you tomorrow.
The film follows Hope Annabelle Greggory, a former Olympic gymnast who overcame all odds to land a vault moments after tearing her ACL during a beam routine, solidifying the USA's bronze medal in the Seoul Olympics. Hope was on top of the world, a true American hero and a celebrity in her small town. But that was 2004. Time has passed and everyone has moved on"¦that is, everyone except Hope. Living in her father's basement, Hope continues to live in the past, reveling in her fifteen minutes of fame and using her small town as a crutch to her own personal growth and maturity.
Though the premise alone doesn't necessarily scream change, the film itself marks a remarkable shift for a festival that has rarely ever ventured so far away from "safe" for its Opening Night Selection. Granted the change was definitely coming, especially since Opening Night has expanded from one to four films since I made my first trip to Park City in 2008. That year the animated Mary & Max served as the lone Opening Night offering, and people were mumbling then about its unusual placement. But the transformation of films being showcased has progressed, and its hard to ignore.
The Bronze greeted this year's audience with highly offensive language, disturbing sexual innuendos, female masturbation, drug use and a highly flexible (and overall immensely impressive) gymnastic hotel room sex scene that literally had everyone talking. None of this was present in Wish You Were Here, May in the Summer or Whiplash the three films that have occupied the same Opening Night slot of The Bronze over the past three years. While the change was much needed, the chatter outside the theater afterwards assured my original notion that Sundance was evolving. Not everyone seemed keen on it, but I for one was ecstatic.
While it is hard to ignore the minimal changes to the Festival over the last few years, most notably in the form of James Franco's Interior. Leather. Bar. and kink, neither of those films served as Opening Night Selections, or in competition. The Bronze is the first major statement from Sundance that they are taking notice to the rapidly changing landscape of the film industry. Movies don't have to be deep character studies or formulaic dramas with Oscar worthy performances to be good, solid, entertaining films. Comedies can refuse to be politically correct, showcase a rougher side to a woman and leave nothing to the imagination - and audiences will laugh, cry and relate to them just the same.
The beauty of film lies within the basis that everyone is independently entertained. For years Sundance has played things safe, this is no longer the case and in my opinion it will bode well for them. In 2015 they gambled"¦and while I won't go as far as to say the selection of The Bronze was a bona fide home run, It was clear that people took notice, and I for one am excited about what is to come.
