FIRST FULL DAY - KABOOM, BY DEFAULT! !

by Ilene Marder, January 21, 2011

Waking up in Park City this morning, I felt that old high altitude, dull headache coming on. I should have known not to have wine with dinner last night. Even though I had only one glass, the effects of alcohol are said to be heightened until you become used to breathing the air in this historic mining town. Nevertheless, I was out and about early to pick up my allotment of tickets at Sundance headquarters, a short walk from where Meira, Heidi, Reagan Leonard and I are staying. Reagan is a terrific actress currently living in Poughkeepsie, who is actually in TWO films at Sundance- Vera Farmiga's HIGHER GROUND, and James Marsh's PROJECT NIM. I think we'll all be seeing a lot of her! My first choice for my first full Sundance day was MARGIN CALL, one of the film's with the most buzz. Directed by J.C. Chandor with a stellar cast including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, and Demi Moore, it's a thriller set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry during a perilous 24 hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. However, even arriving one hour early, I was one of about 75 journalists shut out of the packed to the gills press screening, and I am hoping Sundance will put on another screening, before the MARGIN CALL news conference I am scheduled to cover on Monday! So, instead, I headed into the next available press screening - KABOOM directed by indie master Gregg Araki. The official film summary says it is a "hyperstylized, pansexual trip...a live action film born out of the graphic novel aesthetic".... a "wild, sex-drenched, comical thriller" featuring an "ambisexual college student who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy" involving lesbian witches, crazy animal-mask wearing cultists, the end of the world and so much more. And, oh yeah, it includes a gorgeous, super hot young cast featuring Thomas Dekker, and the new Sundance "it girl" Juno Temple.

What can I say? Actually I laughed a lot (and in places I'm not sure the director intended) and I liked it. It was very well crafted in a lush-color comic book kind of way, with a cutting edge visual style and outrageously fun. So, a good, fun start to the week. AND, you can judge for yourself--- while KABOOM has its U.S. premiere at Sundance (world premiere was at Cannes), is it now being distributed VOD- video on demand -to cable systems across the country, including Time Warner and Cablevision. But again... warning - there's lot of sex and nudity, along with the laughs. Next up... HERE, directed by Braden King, starring the fantastic young actor Ben Foster, who was at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2009 with the great film THE MESSENGER.