Yawn...

SLC

Three hours of sleep later, I'm back in the queue at the SLC festival box office. It's going to be tight: I've got one film that has six tickets left and another that has twelve. Fortunately I got here a bit earlier than I have been and secured a spot two people in from the front of the line. We'll see how things go...

So... Black Snake Moan. This was the world premier (I'd say at least half of the films at Sundance are premiers) of Craig Brewer's follow up to Hustle & Flow. This film, much like his previous, is another story set around music in the Deep South. Whereas Hustle focused on underground rap, Moan takes inspiration from the blues. Here we follow two souls in a small Tennessee town who are thrown together in the crossroads between rage and love. Discovered beaten and half dead on the side of the road by Lazarus, a farmer and ex-blues guitarist played by Samuel L Jackson, is Rae, a no-self-respect anemic nymphomaniac played by Christina Ricci. Lazarus takes her into his house to nurse her back to health and then goes to extremes to "cure" her of her wicked ways. Oh yeah... and Rae is white and Lazarus is black. The film ultimately becomes a journey toward salvation for the both of them that, while lacking some of the beauty and spontaneity of Hustle, proves to be an intensely compelling and emotional morality tale. This film is hugely intense and powerfully raw, but is also quite enjoyable. It also wins the prize for best line uttered in a festival film this year:

"Lazarus, why is there a half-naked white woman chained to your radiator?"


So... the rundown on films for the day:
Girl 27 - Amazing story. Worth seeing just for that.
Scaredycat - Intriquing.
Chasing Ghosts - Biggest surprise at the fest so far. Great!
Hot House - Extremely interesting but requires some general knowledge of Middle Eastern political issues.
Black Snake Moan - Good, but nothing like Hustle & Flow