Spike Jonze short will play at Sundance
Source: Los Angeles Times
Spike Jonze enthusiasts will get a dose of the offbeat auteur when the Sundance Film Festival kicks off next month.
A small dose.
The director will bring a short to the festival, premiering his "I'm Here" in Park City, Utah -- and marking the first time in 12 years that he's coming to Sundance with a film he directed. (Jonze did bring shorts to the festival in 1997 and 1998, and has come as a producer.)
In true Jonzeian fashion, though, no logline is being offered. So let your imagination run wild.
The festival, which begins at the end of January, will screen a total of 70 scripted and documentary shorts. Other film-world names who will be showcasing their work in miniature, according to the festival's announcement Monday, include "Married Life" director Ira Sachs ("Last Address"), "Paper Heart" director Nicholas Jasenovec ("Para Fuera"), "He's Just Not That Into You" author Liz Tuccillo ("Gone to the Dogs") and Austin auteurs the Zellner Bros. ("Fiddlestixx").
A documentary short from journalist Rory Kennedy about the consequences of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border (titled 'The Fence") will also make its premiere.
And the festival will screen the James Franco-directed "Herbert White," a film with a necrophiliac plotline that drew an, er, mixed reaction when it played a shorts event in Los Angeles this summer.
The titles of the Sundance shorts can sometimes feel like a tour through the discography of a Norwegian black metal band. "Chicken Heads," "Meatwaffle" "The S from Hell" and "Let's Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates" are among the films playing this year's edition.
But as the festival is wont to remind, the Sundance shorts program also serves an important purpose: it's the venue where American notables like Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jason Reitman -- and, of course, Jonze himself -- brought some of their first films.
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Trailer: http://www.imheremovie.com/
http://blog.imheremovie.com/
Film will be 31 minutes! Does that mean it has a shot at the 2011 Xixax Awards?
take it down a few notches, Spike.
Sundance: Spike Jonze's 'I'm Here', Opening Night Themes
Source: Cinematical
The 2010 Sundance Film Festival opened its doors last night with fist pumps and cries to rebel, to destroy, to fight for what you believe in and to not be afraid to lean on someone for help, guidance or a solution. Thematically, the new regime at Sundance did a superb job programming their opening night slate -- spreading it across three different screenings (a full-length narrative, a shorts program and a documentary), all of which featured the aforementioned themes loud and clear. The festival had announced its return -- its rebirth -- and if you weren't game to jump onboard, these opening night films would grab you by the arm and toss you into the middle of the dance floor.
Most buzzed-about right out of the gate was Spike Jonze's 35-minute short, I'm Here. What was essentially a depressingly honest look at a deteriorating relationship set against a whimsical not-so-distant future where robots and humans co-exist, this, to me, felt like Jonze's most personal film to date. I know nothing of his prior relationship with Michelle Williams, or what went wrong there, but it was pretty obvious that Jonze crafted this "love" story -- about one robot who keeps giving to his self-destructive partner until he's nothing but a shell of his former self -- after experiencing this sort of thing first hand, either personally or through a close friend.
Sweet and heartfelt, yes, but a sobering reminder that we sometimes lose ourselves in these relationships that aren't healthy because we're in love with the idea of being with a person, or the idea of being in love -- of doing something different with your life that breaks away from everyday boredom and exposes you to what is perhaps our most dangerous drug: love.
When you step away from the film's central themes, though, you find yourself immersed in the fantastical mythology that Jonze and his team created. The robots themselves feel very "thrown together", constructed not out of new technology, but out of our 20 or 30-year-old computers and computer parts. These were robots who were designed to serve a purpose -- to take on menial work -- but they're also robots who are slowly evolving and recognizing their presence in the world; recognizing that they exist, that there's a reason why they exist and that they're allowed to celebrate this existence by dancing and partying and taping hand-drawn pictures of happy faces that say "I'm Here" to benches and street lamps and anything that will, at least temporarily, carry on their message, their legacy.
Funded by Absolut vodka, there's no sign of them at all inside the film, which should comfort those who may have thought this was all one big commercial cleverly wrapped in a fun, hipster vibe. Of course, on repeat viewings, one may spot a bottle on a table or a tagline on a bus stop, but it's not immediately recognizable. I'm sure many will ask Jonze whether he plans to revisit this universe at some point down the line, and I'm pretty sure he won't, but once this finds its way online (here's hoping iTunes does some sort of distribution with it), you genre geeks are going to have a field day dissecting this new world. And perhaps those of you in similar destructive relationships will take a step back, recognize that you still have a say -- that you're still here -- and maybe then you'll begin to piece back together what once was or should've been.
Sundance 2010: Spike Jonze renews his career
Source: LATimes
If only Spike Jonze had made "Where the Wild Things Are" with robots instead of animatronically enhanced animals.
The eclectic auteur hasn't been on the minds of many filmgoers or buyers coming into Sundance, maybe because his festival entry was nestled in a shorts program (and debuting opposite the much anticipated, and eventually much maligned, "Howl" on Thursday night), maybe because his most recent effort kind of bungled a children's classic.
But after his extended short "I'm Here" screened first Thursday night and again Friday morning in Park City, all that's changed. We were hardly alone in thinking that, even at this early stage of Sundance, his movie may be among the best pieces of filmmaking that plays the festival this year.
The narrative for "I'm Here," which Jonze wrote and directed, is at once high-concept and difficult to explain. In a world that looks much like our own, robots mingle among the rest of us as vaguely second-class citizens. One robot in particular, a mild-mannered machine named Sheldon (Andrew Garfield) leads a humdrum life, doing little but taking the bus to and from his menial library job and coming home at night to sleep (er, recharge) before starting it all over again the next day. His life changes, however, when he meets a punky young femmebot, and the turns their relationship takes are fresh, funny, soulful, Jonezian (let's just say it involves robot amputation, among other things).
(Side note: Sundance routinely brings in some great emerging filmmakers and plays their shorts in a block. This year organizers brought some great established filmmakers and played their shorts in a block, and the results have been solid. Several of the other movies sharing screen time with Jonze had their virtues -- a stylish if unevenly executed animated critique of consumerist culture called "Logorama," a thoughtful if not entirely surprising border-policy documentary "The Fence" and a pleasantly absurdist Scandinavian effort called "Splitage" -- though none was as strong as "I'm Here.")
Comparisons for the film to "Wall-E," David Cronenberg's "existenZ" and a Jonze-shot Ikea commercial all rolled off festgoers' lips, and the movie evokes all of that, but also something far more original. While it employs the same tech guru who brought the "Wild Things" creatures to life, the film returns the director to his "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" days -- it's bristling with ideas and imagination, but doesn't forget the heart either. And it inadvertently points up the problems with "Wild Things," which short-shrifted most of these elements. It's almost as though with less time and a lower budget (not to mention a lack of studio interference; Absolut financed this movie, and clearly left him alone), Jonze was able to infuse his work with a lot more energy.
For Jonze fans and skeptics, "I'm Here" shows, after the dispiriting example of "Wild Things," that he can skillfully write a movie without Charlie Kaufman. With Jonze still contemplating his next film, one can only hope it's as good as this short -- or, better, that he decides to develop this short into a feature.
God, I can't wait to see this.
At a halfhour long, it's surprising he was able to make it so quick cosidering the time he takes between lengthy projects.
I think thats WHY he made it so quick.
IFC To Show Spike Jonze's Short Film 'I'm Here'
Source: Cinematical
Director Spike Jonze's 30-minute short film I'm Here, which played as part of the Short Films program (number 1, in case you're here and want to catch it), will be airing on IFC sometime later this year, according to EW. The ink probably hasn't dried on the deal yet, or it's waiting to be written, but this is a fantastic little short film that needs to be seen by a wider audience.
Jonze admits he was partly inspired by Shel Silverstein's book The Giving Tree, and it's a lovelorn robot tale starring Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory, which you can read all about right here on Cinematical. Or, if you really want to build up some anticipation for this, check out the trailer here. I'm glad the IFC is putting shorts on their channel, and I hope they pick up a few more from the festival, including the incredible Logorama, and the extremely awesome Six Dollar Fifty Man. Come on IFC, in for a penny, in for a pound.
Spike Jonze's weird, sad robot movie gets a weird, cool Web site
Source: SciFi Wire
Remember that odd, wistful trailer for Spike Jonze's weird robot romance movie, I'm Here?
There's now a cool Web site to go along with it, with the promise that the film itself will eventually show up.
It's got an age gate, so we're thinking some material may not be suitable for, you know, kids.
The short sci-fi film was made in collaboration with Absolut vodka and debuted at the recent Sundance Film Festival.
http://www.imheremovie.com/
Watch it now: http://www.imheremovie.com/
Quote from: modage on March 19, 2010, 10:54:40 AM
Watch it now: http://www.imheremovie.com/
"theatre is full. Next showing: in 1hr 50mins"
this is bullshit, i'll wait for the youtube version.
This was really sweet. Watch it people.
Pretty good stuff.
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There Are Many Of Us (Book + DVD + CD)
Spike Jonze
THIS IS A PREORDER—BOOKS ORDERED NOW WILL SHIP IN EARLY JULY.
Filled with gorgeous photography, behind-the-scenes ephemera, and funny, inspiring interviews, There Are Many of Us celebrates the uniquely spontaneous making of Spike Jonze's new movie I'm Here, a boy-meets-girl love story, set in LA, experienced by robots. The book includes an original CD soundtrack as well as a DVD of the thirty-minute movie I'm Here, with special bonus content.
Praise for Spike Jonze's short film, "I'm Here"
"It's haunting, beautiful, whimsical, and overwhelmingly heartbreaking all at the same time."
–Erik Davis, Cinematical
"Director Spike Jonze has proven again that he can make magic in any format."
—Nicole Sperling, Entertainment Weekly
"The film [is] bristling with ideas and imagination, but doesn't forget the heart either."
—Steven Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times
"Strangely affecting, beautifully made, oddly haunting half-hour film."
—Nathan Rabin, The Onion A.V. Club
To order this book and the next seven books we publish after that (for only $100, or $12.50 per book), subscribe to our Book Release Club.
http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.detail/object_id/6c063296-7d89-422f-9ee8-2fad7dcd5fbb/ThereAreManyOfUs.cfm
I received my picture book/cd/dvd combo this weekend and it's really great. Easily worth the $20 I paid for it. The book is very big and clunky and doesn't really fit anywhere in my house so coffee table it is.
As for the film which I was holding out on watching until it came out on dvd. It's just a joy to look at. It's gorgeous. Everything about it. And the world in which it inhabits is exactly like our own, except with robots and shit. Kind of surreal.
Spoilers
The story I thought was pretty stupid. Urban Outfitters stuff. Dumb bitch robot takes and she takes and she takes until the boyfriend nerdy robot has nothing else to give. And she gives him nothing in return except a sense that he's cool because she's with him. Plus it has that scene that every hipster movie has where the girl goes, "Oh I love this song! Do you like this song?" and then she turns it up. That's like a staple in every movie made for people in their late teens/early twenties. It had it's moments. The old lady at the busstop yelling, "You can't drive a car. You are a robot." had my dying laughing. Also the two songs Sam Spiegel did for the score are really great.
who does the music on the CD?
wiki / order page does not seem to have the info unless i'm overlooking.
Apparently Jonze will be in NYC at the IFC Center tonight to show this and do a Q&A with David O. Russell.
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/spike-jonze-in-person-im-here/
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Got the book/dvd for Christmas. The short is a bit silly and trite. I think Xixax has developed a distaste for the 'ineffectual male saved by an extroverted female' story. But, when done well, I'm still a sucker for it. I guess the robot fellah isn't really saved in the end.
I've really been enjoying the soundtrack over the past few days. Best soundtrack for 2010? The book is really beautiful too.