Arteta, Miguel

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    At Sundance Lab, Movie Economics Can’t Be Ignored This Year

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    Funding is a perennial problem for the indie filmmakers who workshop their latest works here. But now Sundance itself is feeling the financial pressure.The storied Sundance Directors Lab has helped develop the early films of Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay. But when this year’s cohort of filmmakers arrived for the intensive workshop, the setting could easily have felt ominous. For the first time, the lab was taking place not at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah but in Colorado, at the Stanley Hotel, known more as the inspiration for “The Shining” than for fostering little movies that could.Contrary to the inn that gnawed at Jack Torrance’s sanity, the hotel in Estes Park is actually a thriving operation and as good a place as any to collaborate and create in peace. Yet the behemoth in the Rockies — with its seances, ghost sightings and, yes, a hedge maze — can’t help but seem like a symbol for an especially chilling moment for Sundance and the movie industry at large.This year the Sundance Directors Lab was held at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo.Jimena Peck for The New York TimesThe advisers gathered twice a day to compare notes. Jimena Peck for The New York TimesFOR MORE THAN FOUR DECADES, the Sundance Film Festival has been a beacon to hungry filmmakers with stories that often proved there were moviegoers beyond those Hollywood courted. The festival remains the bright object that the Sundance Institute presents to the world. But it is the organization’s founder, Robert Redford, and the artist-support programs to which he is committed — for Indigenous filmmakers, for financiers, for producers and others — that have quietly, steadfastly nurtured the young talents so many associate with the festival’s breakout films.Of all the programs, the flagship Directors Lab embodies the Sundance Institute’s long game. Since 1981, a carefully chosen cohort of filmmakers and an equally curated group of veteran advisers, along with small crews and actors, have regularly convened to shoot scenes from the up-and-coming artists’ screenplays.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      In ‘The White Lotus,’ Mike White Takes You on Vacation

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      The writer’s latest investigation of human frailty and craven behavior focuses on wealthy resort guests and the hotel workers who cater to their whims.Last September, the writer-director Mike White checked into a recently reopened but still deserted Four Seasons on Maui. He was the first guest since March. The staff gave him a standing ovation. More

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      in Movies

      ‘Yes Day’ Review: It’s a Family Affair

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Yes Day’ Review: It’s a Family AffairA sunny family of five agrees to a day where a mother and father must consent to whatever the kids want in this broad Netflix comedy.From left, Edgar Ramírez, Jenna Ortega, Everly Carganilla and Jennifer Garner in “Yes Day.”Credit…NetflixMarch 12, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETYes DayDirected by Miguel ArtetaComedy, FamilyPG1h 26mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Ice cream for breakfast? Silly costumes in public? Parents are required to give the green light to every request on Yes Day, a designated 24-hour period when kids take charge.Despite the farce and chaos such a premise could contain, there is little that’s edgy or engaging in “Yes Day,” a mediocre comedy streaming on Netflix. Directed by Miguel Arteta, the film follows the Torres family, a sunny and fairly conventional suburban household. Mornings find the dad (Edgar Ramírez) dancing and bantering with the kids while the mom (Jennifer Garner), type-A and in the kitchen, wags a finger.All seems well until parent-teacher night, when teachers suggest the Torres children are suffering from draconian rules at home. No matter that the kids construct waffle volcanoes at breakfast, scatter toys around the house and appear to lead an altogether breezy life. Once the siblings call their mom a fun-killer, she schedules a Yes Day to prove them wrong.[embedded content]Adapted from a children’s book, “Yes Day” ticks off a series of youthful wishes as the Torres clan engages in extravagant — but never out-of-the-question — behavior. Using slow motion and montage, the film follows the family as they give Mom a makeover, slurp an enormous sundae and visit a carwash with the windows down. Later, in the movie’s grandest set piece, the siblings escort their parents to a game of capture the flag with water balloons — a sequence that feels less like a forbidden desire granted than an oddly elaborate event for three kids to have organized.But though “Yes Day” does not lack for energy, the jokes are too broad and the mishaps too safe for the movie to emerge as an honest or imaginative journey through family conflict and compromise. Dad is chased by vindictive birds, Mom picks a fight at a theme park and the kids come to appreciate that, sometimes, adults are right to say no to things — like this movie.Yes DayRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More