One of our favorite streaming services, Fandor, reached their 5th birthday this week. To celebrate, they have created a special Spotlight series called “Fandor Essentials,” highlighting the films that most fit the Fandor spirit. Nineteen films are featured, spanning foreign cult films and avant-garde indies, with most of the films available to stream in HD. A few of our favorites include Yorgos Lanthimos’s breakout Dogtooth, Mario Bava’s chamber murder mystery Blood and Black Lace, Werner Herzog’s epic Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Jeff Malmberg’s unforgettable doc Marwencol, and Guy Maddin’s insane The Forbidden Room. Even if you’ve seen all of these, there are undoubtedly others completely off your radar. What better way to revel in the wonders of streaming cinema than by taking in the best on Fandor? For other films new to streaming this week, check out the list below:

Netflix

Batkid Begins (Dana Nachman, 2015)

It’s pretty easy to be cynical about a doc chronicling the highly publicized Make a Wish Batkid project from 2013. For one day, San Francisco was transformed into Gotham City and a six-year-old kid was the only hope to save the estimated 12,000 onlookers from the Penguin, the Riddler and other super villains. The doc meets all the major players and goes through the steps on how they built this incredible event—and you’ll find it tough to keep the smile off your face. There isn’t a lot of heavy substance to Batkid Begins, but it’s a wonderful condensed recap and look at the greater cultural impact. It’s a breezy profile doc entertaining enough to restore your faith in humanity, if only for its runtime. For more on Batkid Begins, check out our full review.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
The Art of Organized Noize (Quincy Jones III, 2016)
Bombay Velvet (Anurag Kashyap, 2015)
The Forbidden Kingdom (Rob Minkoff, 2008)
The Pearl Button (Patricio Guzmán, 2015)
A Promise (Patrice Leconte, 2013)

Fandor

La haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)

In this week’s “Criterion Picks,” Fandor takes a look at some beautiful and insightful films tackling one of the most pressing political issues of our time, the immigrant experience. Among the highlighted films is the stylish ’90s French breakthrough, La haine (Hatred). In the lower class suburbs of Paris, the film takes place over a 24-hour span in the immediate time before and after an act of violence and ensuing riot. The main characters’ immigrant status plays a large role in their position and actions they’ve taken, shining a light on the complicated nature of the hot topic. Other films in the series include El Norte, Stromboli, Colossal Youth, Le havre, and more. These films are all available on Fandor for a limited time, until Sunday, April 3.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
Discontinuity (Lori Felker, 2016)
Heavenly Pursuits (Charles Gormley, 1986)
Lou! (Julien Neel, 2013)
Potiche (François Ozon, 2010)
Sister (Ursula Meier, 2012)

MUBI

I Used to be Darker (Matthew Porterfield, 2013)

Matthew Porterfield is one of the more interesting independent filmmakers working today, and his 2013 film I Used to be Darker was a definite progression from his previous work, which tended to be very raw aesthetically and in narrative. This film is a simpler character study of a young woman from Northern Ireland who finds herself emotionally lost while living in the Baltimore area and navigating the troubled lives of her family. I Used to be Darker is filled with musical performances that build the emotional resonance of its characters while working outside of the overall narrative. Porterfield’s experience in non-narrative filmmaking really shows off throughout I Used to be Darker, allowing for a simple narrative structure to be subtly infused with much more life. You can stream I Used to be Darker on MUBI until April 22.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Night Train (Diao Yi’nan, 2007)
Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin, 2009)
La Sentinelle (Arnaud Desplechin, 1992)
Something, Anything (Paul Harrill, 2014)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

iTunes & Video On-Demand

The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)

Love it or hate it, the 2016 Academy Award winner for Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Actor is one of the most bombastic technical achievements of last year. If you were hesitant to go through the 160-minute trek through the treacherous Western wilderness in theaters, you can now take the dangerous journey in the comfort of you living room on demand. And if you’re still on the fence, check out the epic amount of content on Way Too Indie: our plea for an honorable mention among the year’s best, our praise of Leo DiCaprio’s Oscar-winning performance, our full theatrical review, and a different opinion on the most annoying aspects of the very self-important work of art. Check out the film on iTunes weeks before its release on DVD and Blu-ray, if only to have your own opinion on the critical divide.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
The Forest (Jason Zada, 2016)
Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade (Ricardo Curtis, 2016)
The Last Treasure Hunt (Patrick Biesemans, 2016)
The Letters (William Riead, 2014)
Riot (John Lyde, 2015)

A natural reaction towards conflict is avoiding the threat by escaping, a common theme found within Matt Porterfield’s indie drama I Used to Be Darker. It is hard to say if the film achieves what it intends to, because frankly I am not confident what the true intentions are. Porterfield seems content with focusing on the music and family drama while mostly ignoring exposition of the characters. The end result is a film that feels very natural given the non-actors and realistic situations, but also one that is too subtle to be truly effective.

For reasons not revealed until the very end, Taryn (Deragh Campbell) decides to visit her aunt and uncle’s at their home in Baltimore. Her unexpected visit comes at an incredibly inconvenient time for the husband and wife as they are in the middle of a separation, though they do their best to accommodate their guest despite their marriage problems. Taryn’s cousin Abby (Hannah Gross) is understandably having a difficult time dealing with her parent’s separation; most evident when she attempts to make waffles at her father’s house only to realize that the waffle maker is now at her mother’s, resulting in verbal outbursts and an emotional breakdown. Needless to say, this puts Taryn in an awkward position to come forth with her own issues.

The fact that Taryn’s uncle Bill (Ned Oldham) and aunt Kim (Kim Taylor) are musicians plays a very crucial role in the film. Not only does it serve as a dramatic plot point when Kim starts to sleep with a member of her band, but it naturally benefits the film when they preform musical interludes—which end up being the most memorable scenes the film has to offer. While it is easy to tell that the two are talented musicians in real-life—the soundtrack is undeniably good—their lack of acting experience is equally as obvious.

There are plenty of long takes in I Used to Be Darker and for the most part they work well in capturing the different states of emotion these characters go through. Specifically, the long takes allows us to see when the characters cross over into their breakdown stage. The best example of this is when Bill sings and calmly strums an acoustic song for a full 3 minutes before standing up and violently smashing his guitar in half. But there are some uses of the long takes that loiter enough for the storyline to stall and ultimately become tiresome.

The deliberate pacing and lack of dynamic range makes I Used to Be Darker a demanding film to sit through, especially considering the payoff is nonexistent. The emotional punch the film aims for feels more like a gentle nudge because the characters are not as interesting as the situation they are in, thus there is very little reason to care about them when we are asked to. There are some qualities about I Used to Be Darker that can be appreciated from a technical standpoint, but the film is too underwhelming to leave a lasting impression.

I Used to Be Darker trailer:

This is my first time at a large film festival. I honestly arrived not knowing what to expect. Albeit, I have been in and about the independent film community for several years now, and have had my taste of low profile, fledgling films on a local and regional level; but nothing like this.

What I have always loved about independent film and those who are involved with the art is the energy. The excitement. Sure, it can be glamorous, and everyone dreams of red carpets and photo backdrops, but in the end we are here because we belong. It’s a convention of the craft. Everyone here is present to either hear or tell a story, possibly–and likely–both. The film festival is a stepping stone. Whether it is the first or the last depends on the artists dreams and ambitions; but for everyone here, this has been a goal at one point or another and we are here to celebrate the accomplishment of ” getting there.”

Berlin brought me on board in a pool of sunshine–a welcome in the midst of the typical cloudy German winter. I walked to my hostel from the Bellevue S-Bahn station loaded with gear and clothes to last the 11 days of the festival, checked in to my modest 15 Euro a night room, and made my way to the press center at the Hyatt Berlin right across form the Berlinale Palast where many of the films will premiere. Having been a journalist for the past two and a half years, it is a warm welcome to finally enter a media circus that has a positive focus.

After receiving my credentials, I spent much of the afternoon getting my bearings. Certain press screenings require nothing more that a flash of the credentials, while other higher profile films require you to obtain press tickets a couple of days in advance, and certain tickets are only available at the specific venue on the day of the screening. Fortunately most of the venues are all centered around the Berlinale Palast and press center. I grabbed my tickets for the the red carpet events I wanted to attend between Thursday and Friday–most notably being Don Jon’s Addiction, the feature directorial debut of Joseph Gordon-Levitt–and made my way to the theater.

The regular program for the first day of the festival only included three films in the regular competition, and much of the hubbub was for Wong Kar Wai’s film, The Grandmaster, a Kung Fu epic. Visually breathtaking, the film juxtaposes the external actions of the characters with their own internal struggles.

I Used to be Darker

My first press screening for the festival was for the film, I Used to be Darker from Matt Porterfield. The film tells the story of nineteen year old Taryn, who ran away from her home in Ireland to work the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. After discovering she is pregnant, she rushes to Baltimore where her aunt, uncle, and cousin live. Upon her arrival, she realizes this family–which she has always pictured as ideal–is in the midst of being torn apart. Her aunt and uncle are in the beginning stages of a separation, while her cousin, whom she has always been able to relate to, is rejecting her parents and the lie she feels she has been told all her life.

The film strives on long takes, which is fun to see after years of fast cutting films. The pace brings a powerful sense of melancholy to the film, and gives the audience the time to reflect on the moment along with the characters. Profoundly long periods of silence also add to this effect, some lasting nearly 10 minutes without a word of dialog as the characters interact with their environment and emotions. Original musical interludes serve as soliloquy, as well as providing an enjoyable soundtrack.

In all, not much is resolved in I Used to be Darker, and the piece serves more as a “slice of life” style of portraiture. The audience is able to poke their heads into the world of the characters, witness this period of conflict, and then return home. We are not left with unanswered questions, because no real questions were raised. Well produced and finely executed, I Used to be Darker is an enjoyable film on a technical level, though I would have liked to have seen more epiphany within the characters.

RATING: 6.8

COMING UP: Friday, things really take off at Berlinale with the screenings press conferences of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon’s Addiction, Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, and Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Hope. All three are much anticipated films from familiar faces on the film circuit. It will be great to see what direction these filmmakers are taking to define themselves in early twenty-first century cinema.

With 2012 behind us and the Oscars only weeks away, the year in film for 2013 is just about to get underway. Park City, Utah is home to the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase for new independent films in America and (to a lesser degree) the rest of the world. Despite running at the start of the year, Sundance has premiered plenty of films that have eventually gone on to successful runs at the box office and award shows. If you want an example, look no further than last year when Beasts of the Southern Wild premiered to raves and ended up with four Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

So now with Sundance already getting underway, will there be another film ready to ride a wave of success all the way to awards season at the end of the year? Since Way Too Indie won’t be attending the festival this year we won’t be able to see any of the films playing yet, but we’ve gone through the festival line-up and picked the movies we’re most excited to watch. If you want to check things out yourself, the Sundance 2013 line-up can be seen here.

Way Too Indie’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Films Playing Sundance Film Festival 2013

Before Midnight (dir: Richard Linklater, Premieres)
Back in 1995 Richard Linklater released Before Sunrise, a simple but enjoyable film about an American (Ethan Hawke) and a French woman (Julie Delpy) spending the day together in Vienna. Nine years later Linklater, Hawke and Delpy reunited for Before Sunset which found the two characters reuniting in France. Sunset turned out to be one of Linklater’s best movies, and ever since then people have been wondering if a third film would ever get made. Now, nine years after Before Sunset, the three have reunited again for Before Midnight. It remains to be seen whether or not Midnight will live up to the quality of Sunrise and Sunset, but either way it’ll be nice to catch up with Jesse and Celine again. [C.J.]

Before Midnight

Touchy Feely (dir: Lynn Shelton, U.S. Dramatic)
Lynn Shelton is no stranger when it comes to Sundance, Touchy Feely will be her third film in a row that will play at the festival. Her previous film, Your Sister’s Sister, was one of my favorite films of 2012, so I was naturally excited to hear that she would be presenting a new film this year. Back again for a lead role is Rosemarie DeWitt who plays a free-spirited massage therapist but develops a mysterious aversion to bodily contact, which makes her job intolerable to do. Shelton explains that the film is “Literally and figuratively about attempting to live in your own skin.” If it is anything like her previous films, we should expect a film with less script thus more natural feeling dialog, which helps maker her films so genuine. [Dustin]

Touchy Feely

Concussion (dir: Stacie Passon, U.S. Dramatic)
When the line-up was announced I ran through the lists as quick as I could, looking for familiar names and faces, I picked up on the storylines I thought I’d like instantly, and ignored one or two I knew I wouldn’t. Looking through the list again, with personal taste and bias set aside, I noticed quite a few more that had originally got tossed aside. I saw the film still that promoted Concussion on the festival’s programme for U.S. Dramatic and was drawn in to read more. The woman looked exhausted yet beautiful; I read the small description below and was eager to find the About the Director video. Written and directed by Stacie Passon, one of the many female directors amid the Sundance 2013 line-up, the film depicts the life of a married lesbian couple, and primarily focuses on one woman’s struggle of feeling alone, jealous and ultimately sexually abandoned by the person she thought loved her the most – an interesting and diverse storyline. [Amy]

Concussion

Upstream Color (dir: Shane Carruth, U.S. Dramatic)
It has been nearly 10 years since Shane Carruth took Park City by storm with his debut film Primer. Since then his name has barely been mentioned, except for a “special thanks” credit in Looper, until just recently when Sundance made its lineup announcement. Sticking the genre he knows best, Upstream Color looks as if it is another science fiction mind-trip from Carruth. Amy Seimetz plays a woman who has been drugged and brainwashed by a small-time thief. She ends up falling in love with someone who may also be under the same influence. The film has generated a lot of buzz around the internet, making people wonder if he could once again win the Grand Jury Prize. [Dustin]

Upstream Color

I Used To Be Darker (dir: Matt Porterfield, NEXT)
Back in 2010 Matt Porterfield released Putty Hill, a radical and surprisingly powerful film that slowly built up a following of critics who passionately supported it. Shot on an incredibly low budget over 12 days, Putty Hill stood out for its gorgeous cinematography, excellent use of unprofessional actors (including pop singer Sky Ferreira) and unorthodox format that made it feel like a hybrid between documentary and fiction. Two years later Porterfield has returned, this time to a bigger venue, and will hopefully make a bigger name for himself. The story in I Used To Be Darker involves an Irish runaway staying with her American aunt and uncle whose marriage is falling apart. Going by the trailer it looks like Porterfield might have another winner in store. [C.J.]

I Used To Be Darker

Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes (dir: Francesca Gregorini, U.S. Dramatic)
There’s an unintentional theme occurring with my choice of films, being that they’re all directed by women, this one however, is a film that gains greater depth given that the auteur is female. Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes represents the personal story Francesca Gregorini has portrayed through a young female character whose mother died at child birth, therefore leaving her daughter with a missing piece to her life. The director admits that this film is autobiographical as being unable to bare children she relates to the main character’s difficulties and hardship. Francesca Gregorini lays out her feelings and emotions towards loss and despair for the world to witness through this promising, very moving film. [Amy]

Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes

Mud (dir: Jeff Nichols, Spotlight)
Mud opened to a warm reception when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it was in competition for the esteemed Palme d’Or award. Though Jeff Nichols’ previous thriller Take Shelter was certainly worth a watch, Mud looks like it could be an even more intense thriller than his previous work. The first trailer for the first recently surfaced on the web, just ahead of its U.S. premiere, and it certainly looks promising. Matthew McConaughey appears to have found his niche in playing the “bad guy” role recently, first with Killer Joe and now with this. [Dustin]

Mud

We Are What We Are (dir: Jim Mickle, Midnight)
Anyone who considers themselves a fan of horror films should keep their eye on Jim Mickle. Years ago his debut feature Mulberry Street, about a virus in New York City that turned people into rat-like creatures, was overlooked by people when it got released in After Dark’s “8 Films to Die For” series. Years later Mickle finally started to make a name for himself with Stake Land, an ambitious film about a vampire apocalypse. Now Mickle has returned with We Are What We Are, a dark story about a family trying to keep its horrifying traditions alive. A remake of the 2010 Mexican film with the same title, Mickle has proven himself to be a unique and talented director in the horror genre and we can only hope that his latest movie will continue that trend. [C.J.]

We Are What We Are

In a World (dir: Lake Bell, U.S. Dramatic)
Trying to keep updated with all Sundance news and updates I immediately began following almost all the directors of the official selection on Twitter in search of more information. Lake Bell was one of the later profiles I came across, and now she feels a very familiar personality and a director whose work I am really eager to see. After reading some of her seriously happy, excitable and endearing tweets towards In a World and watching the interview she gave about the film I picked up instantly on her wonderful charm and have high hopes for In a World to surprise Sundance. [Amy]

In a World

Stoker (dir: Park Chan-Wook, Premieres)
Park Chan-Wook is known best for his Vengeance Trilogy, which includes his outstanding film that previously earned him a trip to Sundance, Oldboy. This year he will be bringing his first attempt at an English-language based film, about a woman who is dealing with the recent passing of her father when a mysterious yet charming family member shows up that she has never met before. Soon she starts to suspect this family member may have some ulterior motives. Stoker is said to be a cross between a psychological thriller and a horror film, so with a veteran like Park Chan-Wook at the helm, consider this writer highly intrigued. [Dustin]

Stoker

Other films we are looking forward to

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s writing and directorial debut Don Jon’s Addiction; George Tillman Jr.’s passion project The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete; teenage drama Very Good Girls; Midnight line-up films including S-VHS (the sequel to V/H/S), Hell Baby, Magic Magic and In Fear; Calvin Reeder’s sure to be divisive The Rambler; Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling`s follow-up to Sound of My Voice called The East; and Blue Caprice, a drama based on the Beltway sniper attacks. The Sundance film festival officially started today in Park City, Utah and will continue through January 27th.