..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Ray Pride
..Patricia Vidal

If there has been a theme at Sundance this year, it is the power of the individual.

Perhaps that seems the norm for independent film. But there is a unique streak going on here this year. It started on opening night. Riding Giants is essentially a series of big surf tales with individuals making huge strides in the evolution of surfing. Each man taking his giant step for mankind.

The Yes Men, Napoleon Dynamite, Born Into Brothels, Chisolm '72, Edge of America, Dig!, Home of the Brave and Overnight are among the films that focus on an individual who puts his or her hands around the neck of destiny and shakes it for all it's worth. The Machinist, One Point 0 and November are all about individuals having run-ins with reality. Dirty Work is about three individuals who love their careers in jobs that almost no one else would ever consider doing. The Five Obstructions deals with one man trying to shape the work of another, while Dogville is about an individual who comes to a small town and unbalances things utterly. Even The Motorcycle Diaries, though about two men, is in some part about the inspiration of one man, Che Guevara, to reach for more than selfish goals.

And now, Speak.

Speak is the story of a young woman who has gone into a shell after being raped by someone she knows. Sound familiar? We have examined some similar territory in Thirteen and Blue Car. But Speak works on a different level. It does not have to shock you to reel you in and while Blue Car beautifully takes us through a young woman's exploration of the fire, Speak takes you into the life of a young woman who has already suffered the damage and keeps us almost closer to her than she can stand to be herself.

This debut feature was adapted/written and directed by Jessica Sharzer, a young woman who has no right to be as good behind the camera as she is. On a Showtime Pictures budget, Sharzer delivers a gimmick-free but visually dynamic film. Let's give some credit to her cinematographer, Andrij Parekh. But there are none of the signs of a cinematographer dominant set. It's not a style exercise. Every shot matches her directorial intent. And there are few of any misfires.

At the core of Sharzer's success here is her lead actress, Kristen Stewart. Just a year ago, few of us knew Evan Rachel Wood. Ms. Stewart is somewhat reminiscent of Ms. Wood and Blue Car's Agnes Bruckner, but she is her own unique individual. Her energy is cobra-like and the audience ends up anticipating her sudden bobs and weaves. As an actor, she is not a victim. Not ever. Not even when she is being victimized. She has the quiet dignity of Holly Hunter, though without the manic energy. She can burn a hole in you with her stare. And she can make you want to work to help her when her eyes tell you she's lost. The fact that she is quite beautiful doesn't hurt, though she is able to hide behind bad hair or angry angles.

But Sharzer knows how to shoot Stewart and the rest of the cast so that she can, as a writer and as a director, tell her story without falling into classic traps, like repeating in words ideas the audience can understand visually. For spoiler-free example, there is a sequence when a secondary character changes her mind about something and, though we don't know the character very well, we can read the process of her change of heart without anyone having to say anything. Most first timers would have spelled it out. Most would have had to. But not here.

Sharzer also does an excellent job with her supporting cast, who all deliver what they are known for, yet show a comfortable restraint. Elizabeth Perkins gives one of her least mannered performances in years, in part because she is not being used to signal more than her own story, which has been true all too many of her studio roles. Steve Zahn makes you wonder why he is not a bigger star. He is still one of the most inherently magnetic comedians in the business. And Robert John Burke mixes his uptight comedic performance with some nice touches, including one memorable beat while he is out of focus.

All that said, Speak is a greater than the sum of its parts. Every time you think the film is about to stall out or linger in a cliché, it finds a different note. Every time you think you know what our heroine is going to do, she goes in a direction that is as unique as every woman is in real life. The audience falls in loved this moody, angry, depressed young woman and could not be any more anxious for her to find her voice again. There is a great bit of dialogue when another young woman "breaks up" with our heroine as a friend, in part because she is depressed. Instead of disputing her state, she just asks, "Isn't okay for a friend to be a little depressed?" That's Speak in a nutshell.

Speak looks at the most intimate of crimes and reminds us of the power that each of us has as an individual… to speak… to remain silent… to believe in others… to hide… to inspire… to live.

This is a really beautiful film. Jessica Sharzer could be the next great female mainstream director, able to being richness to what might otherwise be obvious, and still making movies that look like movies and not low-budget film. Kristen Stewart is going to be in our lives for a long time. And hopefully, someone will make sure that you get to see Speak on a big screen long before it gets to Showtime TV. This is a film that mothers will want to share with their daughters and that fathers should share with their sons.

ANOTHER REPEATING THEME at the festival this year that I am not as pleased about is the left-wing's inability to move past the 2000 election. It's not just at Sundance. The same thing is showing up in a bunch of Slamdance films. Over and over, there are films with very strong, fascinating ideas that somehow manage to come back to attacks on the Bush administration.

This bothers me politically, not because I am offended as a pro-Bush guy, but because I am anxious to see another Democratic president in office and I think this is a dangerous phenomenon. Not only are there P.O.V. documentaries like The Hunting of the President, but "look at Florida" disease has infected a wide range of documentaries.

There was a Slamdance doc that was absolutely fascinating - Orwell Rolls In His Grave - which looks at the danger of the media consolidation… until it somehow managed to make the issue of government interaction with these massive media concerns into a Republican/Bush only problem. There is nothing wrong with questioning the Bush Administration's involvement with these media skyscrapers. But the deconstruction on Fin-Syn rules and changes in the rule of media concentration were just as significant during the Clinton Administration.

Sundance docs about the S.L.A. and a white woman murdered after a Selma march (the excellent Home of the Brave), both managed to somehow make a connection to the 2000 election and the tumult in Florida.

If someone wanted to make a documentary about what happened in Florida, I'd be happy to watch it. The simple reality is that the tale is still told with a strong spin, whatever side you are on. Left-wing activists still assert that Al Gore would have won had a recount continued even though a media coalition that counted every vote in Florida, by the existing rules, Gore would have lost. That's when the argument goes to badly designed ballots in a few counties (designed by Democrats, by the way) and then to the list of alleged felons that were taken out of the voting rolls by the Jeb Bush administration, and then just "follow the coincidence" games over Brother Bush's governorship.

The point is, preaching to the converted is boring and bad documentary filmmaking. And preaching to the unconverted is useless, as they think justice was done or … even more horrifying to the left… actually like Bush and the job he's done.

Call me crazy, but I actually think that comparing Florida's role in the 2004 election to the civil rights struggles of the 60s is not only inaccurate, but insulting. Rumsfeld and Cheney's connection to the Hearst case is probably not very important…. unless you want to tweak the Bush Administration.

Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One

 

- by David Poland