January 30, 2005 – Hollywood Elsewhere

Ask anyone — the Sundance Film Festival award that really counts is the Audience Award, and yesterday’s (Saturday, 1.29) winner of that honor was Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow….right on. Another thing you can usually depend upon is that the Sundance jurors will give their dramatic competition Grand Jury prize to a film that a lot of people didn’t get or flat-out didn’t like. This was clearly the case when they give their big trophy to Ira Sachs’ Forty Shades of Blue, a romantic triangle drama set in Memphis. At least four times during the festival I was told in no uncertain terms that Blue is highly problematic, dislikable, tiresome, irritating, etc. A sharp industry watcher and good friend agrees with me that Blue had “no buzz” during the festival, and Hollywood Reporter critic Duane Byrge called it “a drab, minor-key melodrama.” I’m not saying the jurors are wackjobbers or off on their own cloud…but you can bet that some people are thinking this or wondering if this is the case. I’m speaking of actor John C. Reilly, director Chris Eyre (Skins, Smoke Signals), critic B. Ruby Rich, producer Christine Vacchon, and actress Vera Farmiga (Close to the Bone). Cheers, in any case, for Eugene Jerecki’s Why We Fight for taking the Grand Jury Prize in the American documentary category.