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CNN Sunday Morning

Sundance Features Fascinating Flicks

Aired January 13, 2002 - 10:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: They aren't your typical Hollywood movies. The romantic thriller "Cherish" is just one of the independent films in competition at this year Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The festival is a hodgepodge of big movie stars, unknown filmmakers, studios shopping for bargains and of course, film critics.

Well one of those reviewers is CNN Radio Network and CNN.com's Paul Clinton. He's also a correspondent for "Entertainment Weekly." Paul joins us now from Park City, Utah where the festival is in full swing and the snow is started to fall.

PAUL CLINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes it is. Are you nice and warm back there Kyra?

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry. I don't mean to rub it in.

CLINTON: It's freezing.

PHILLIPS: I know. I wish I were with you, though. I have to tell you that. Well look...

CLINTON: It's beautiful.

PHILLIPS: It is. I mean what...

CLINTON: It's highly beautiful.

PHILLIPS: ... a perfect setting, and I'm curious -- I mean the Olympics, has that affected the Sundance Festival at all, as it started?

CLINTON: Totally. In fact, the parking is the biggest problem this year at the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, they're calling it "No Park City" here in Park City, and that's because of the Olympics. And most of the skiing venues are going to be up here in Park City, and they're doing a lot of construction. It's not done yet.

In fact, one event -- they usually have 2,000 parking spaces and this year they're down to 200. So if you're a news crew running out in a van, it's very difficult. But festival goers, it's pretty good because they have a very, very good system here to get you around the screenings for the filmgoers.

PHILLIPS: All right, well we showed a little -- we showed a little clip from "Cherish" at the beginning there. Why don't we start off by talking about this love story/thriller and this is a very talked-about film, right?

CLINTON: Yes "Cherish" is one of the ones I'm hearing is going to be one of the big competitors in the dramatic category, and it seems there's a lot of romantic movies in "Sundance" this year. I've been coming seven or eight years and I haven't seen as many romances as I have this year.

Now don't get me wrong, they are not Meg Ryan romances. They are Sundance romances with an edge, and "Cherish" is a romance that is also a thriller. And then you've got "Tadpole," which is a younger man and an older woman and the older woman is Sigourney Weaver and Aaron Stanford plays the younger man.

Another movie that is being talked about, that is also a romance is "XXXY" about a triangle between two men and a woman. So romance seems to be an underlining theme here. I don't know whether it was a conscious decision on the part of the judges, but the picking was done after September 11.

PHILLIPS: Yes that's what I was going to ask you. Do you think maybe it was because of 9/11 and they were chosen afterward that maybe this is why you see sort of this theme.

CLINTON: Well they're really not owning up to that, but I think it may be on a subconscious level, yes.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, well let's -- we've got to talk about Christina Ricci. Boy she's in three films, her name is all over the place. Let's get into the three -- the three movies.

CLINTON: OK, well they are calling her this year's "Queen of Sundance" who Parker Posey used to have that title, but now it's Christina Ricci and at 21, she is really, really making a name for herself. One of her films, again, with a romance theme, is "Pumpkin." I believe you have a clip.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, PUMPKIN)

CHRISTINA RICCI, ACTRESS: Our first day (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Guess what Carolyn: We are going to beat those (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for Sorority of the Year. Look at them, those (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

RICCI: This isn't a special training session. I had to fib a little to your mother. I didn't think she'd understand. To be honest Pumpkin, you're a mystery to me, but I have the sense that with a little of love you could really flourish. No, no, no -- Pumpkin, I have a boyfriend. You have to understand that, but that doesn't mean that you can't have a meaningful connection with someone else who might really be simpatico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about this and this relationship. Set up -- set up the plot for us Paul.

CLINTON: With "Pumpkin" she plays a very, very self-involved sorority girl in southern California, which never happens of course. And she is -- does -- has -- takes on this sort of like handicapped Olympics as a charity for the sorority because they're trying to win some kind of contest. So they're doing it for a very superficial reason, but what happens is that she really becomes attached to her athlete who is called Pumpkin. And they actually supposedly fall in love and he is mentally handicapped.

So, again, it's a romance, but it's a Sundance edge. Now her other films are quite different. She's in a movie called "Laramie Project." Now that's about the murder of a college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Colorado (sic), and she plays a resident of that town and that was the opening movie here at "Sundance." It premiered on Thursday.

PHILLIPS: Wow, how ...

CLINTON: And her other films ...

PHILLIPS: ... was it reviewed? I'm just curious. You know, what were the -- what was the talk about this film?

CLINTON: About "Laramie"?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

CLINTON: It's quite good. I've seen it. In fact I went down and I covered the opening in San Diego of the play that this is based on. What happened was that a theater group in New York City went out to Laramie and they interviewed residents of the town, and then they took those transcripts and created a play -- word for word, out of the mouths of the residents of Laramie. And the play was quite well received and then HBO made a movie out of it, and it's very, very good. It's very moving.

PHILLIPS: All right, then there's "Miranda." This is the other Christina Ricci film.

CLINTON: Again, that's Sundance. It is a really strange film. She plays this woman who leads all these different lives and there is this guy that's in love with her, and he has no idea that she has all these different personas and talks -- and shows all the problems that are created because of that.

PHILLIPS: All right, another big name, Lisa Kudrow. Let's get a little sound up of this film "Bark."

CLINTON: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BARK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Would you just hear me out? We're in a public place. Nothing's going to happen.

LISA KUDROW, ACTRESS: OK. Just tell me your story.

(BARKING)

KUDROW: Wow. You know, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: So.

KUDROW: It's yummy. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Bizarre, edgy, how do we define this one, and talk to us a little bit about the "Bark" and what exactly that means.

CLINTON: Well Lisa plays a veterinarian who is called into help this man whose wife suddenly believes she's a dog. She's a dog walker and a dog sitter, and she starts identifying with her clients and she becomes a dog in her own mind, and all she'll do is bark.

This is a Sundance movie. I can't say anything more about it. Now...

PHILLIPS: Isn't that the truth? Gritty and obscure.

CLINTON: Yes. But that's what -- that's the beauty of Sundance. I mean movies come in here with no hopes of anything. They're made for $24 and then they get picked up for distribution. Now that is the, you know, exception rather than the rule. Now the Sundance film that I liked the best in terms of the quintessential Sundance story is called "FUBAR."

PHILLIPS: "FUBAR," yes.

CLINTON: And that -- yes. And you explain that title, why don't you Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Now this is a -- we won't say exactly what that means. We'll let everyone figure that out for themselves, if they don't already know. But this is the ultimate story, right, I mean these guys maxed out their credit cards, then the dad take a -- what did you say, sold the house?

CLINTON: No he didn't sell it. He took a mortgage on the house...

PHILLIPS: OK.

CLINTON: ... then he maxed out all their credit cards. They sold everything they owned, and it started out as a small little film, a short film, and it grew and grew and grew. And the film is sort of like a "Wayne's World," there's a couple, you know Canadian guys with mullet haircuts who are really, you know, real jerks and idiots. And it follows them in their -- in their trials and tribulations and their women problems. But what the thing is when it got accepted by Sundance, the family and friends who spent all this money and are in the film, they rented a Winnebago, and they've driven down from Calgary and they're here in town. They are making signs out of bed sheets, held up by hockey sticks, and they have their Winnebago and lawn chairs they are passing out flyers, and it's been called one of the top 10 movies to watch by the "Hollywood Reporter."

And we'll be talking to them later and that's going to be on the morning program Wednesday here on CNN.

PHILLIPS: Excellent. I love it. Well I can't wait to see who won and all the talk about these films. I can't wait to see the majority of them. Paul Clinton, having a good time in Sundance there. Stay warm and thank you so much. Have a great time. We'll check in with you again.

CLINTON: Thank you Kyra.

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