Sundance: Day Two

Dave Calhoun previews the cream of the early Sundance films and parties with the Hilton sisters and Pamela Anderson.

Jan 23 2005

Day Two: A rocking doc, sub-'Donnie Darko' and, er... Paris Hilton.

Only at Sundance could you begin the day watching an excellent documentary about an after-school music boot-camp in Philadelphia ('Rock School') and end it with Paris Hilton throwing your jacket around in search of a precious fur-lined jumper at a party thrown by the photographer and filmmaker David La Chapelle.

The first screening of the day, 'Rock School' proves a treat. Paul Green, a big kid himself, runs his unorthodox rock music school from a shabby warren of practice rooms in Philadelphia.

Loud, rude and devoid of the basic etiquette of teaching (ie no swearing in front of nine-year-olds), Green emerges as an inspirational force who manages to nurture incredible performances from a motley crew of teenagers.

The film climaxes with the kids performing the music of Frank Zappa at a German music festival. Moving and funny. Rock on.

Sadly, 'The Jacket', the new film from British director John Maybury ('Love is the Devil'), turns out to be a major disappointment, even if it's gratifying to find this left-field director making a feature again.

Produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's production company, Section Eight (the pair's effort to bring more experimental filmmakers to the mainstream), 'The Jacket' starts well but swiftly deteriorates into an illogical supernatural thriller.

It sees Adrien Brody, a soldier in the first Gulf War, shot in the head during battle and arriving back in the US with his memory and sanity only partly intact.

Framed for the murder of a policeman, he ends up in a spooky asylum where Kris Kristofferson rules the roost as a creepy doctor.

Kristofferson experiments on Brody by injecting him with drugs, putting him in a straitjacket and stuffing him into a mortuary drawer.

Maybury displays some visual daring in the opening scenes when he presents Brody's disturbed and distorted flashbacks, but the film goes downhill from there, becoming unconvincing and treading the same ground – but with less success – as 'Donnie Darko' and 'The Manchurian Candidate'.

It's also marred by a poor performance from Keira Knightley, who clearly believes she's giving a worthy, down-and-dirty turn as a screwed-up alcoholic.

The other two films of the day are in the festival's American Dramatic strand, the competition for low-budget American filmmakers.

'Loggerheads', a depressing story of adoption in North Carolina, is a snore, but 'Ellie Parker' turns out to be real throwaway fun.

Naomi Watts is the struggling Hollywood actress of the title, who dashes from audition to audition, changing her make-up and clothes as she drives, and living from one moment to the next.

Shot on handheld digital, it's a pleasing if scrappy satire of Hollywood that's both funny and energetic.

The day closes with parties for David LaChappelle's film 'Rise' and the documentary 'Inside Deep Throat', about the seminal '70s porn flick.

The first event sees Pamela Anderson strutting her stuff in the company of the Hilton sisters; the second features go-go dancers in Stars-and-Stripes bikinis.

All in the name of cinema, of course.

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