They can’t all be winners at Sundance. Here are some signs of a potentially bad film: there is hardly anyone in the wait list, people come to sell unwanted tickets to the wait-listers, and people walk out during the film. All three of these things happen at Bestiare, a New Frontier film which is basically a silent slide show filled with images of animals in a Quebec zoo. Chris asks a question during the Q&A about why taxidermy scenes were stuck in the middle of the film, and the director mutters something about the circle of life. Sorry — we are just not buying that the film can even muster up that semblance of meaningfulness.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.