BOOK REVIEW: THE SUNDANCE KIDS

The Sundance Film Festival continues to be one of the most popular havens for upcoming American independent filmmakers, and "The Sundance Kids" by James Mottram explores its significance on mainstream cinema from 1989-mid 2000s. More specifically, it elaborates on how an abundance of prominent directors got their start in Hollywood due to some affiliation with the festival. These directors include Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, Bryan Singer, and Kimberly Peirce. Not too shabby a list, eh? Several of these I would consider the current greatest filmmakers, and many of the finest films of 2012 were made by people in this group.

The book starts with the creation of the festival by Robert Redford, and the struggle of early years until Soderbergh's sex, lies, & videotape premiered at Sundance, and became an international sensation. It gives the backstory on each director, and the struggles they had to go through with each of their films. Mottram also delves into similar throughlines of theme and character in their filmography during the aforementioned time period. There are candid snippets of interviews with the filmmakers, and also mentions of older films that were huge influences while in pre-production.

The book is heavily laden with plot descriptions, so someone who's not a film geek like me, may lose interest if it's a movie they haven't heard of. Mottram analyzes the films really well, and I feel like I learned a lot about movies that I've even seen several times. I finished it knowing a lot more about each director's personal taste in film and artistic aspirations. And perhaps, most exciting, a sizable list of new films to check out.

-Rex

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