Sundance Film Festival 2015 

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Sundance By the Book
By Scott Renshaw

The Sundance Film Festival may be best known as a showcase for original work by new filmmakers, but that doesn't mean some of the films aren't drawn from pre-existing source material. Here's a preview of a few Sundance 2015 titles by way of the books that inspired them, just to give you a flavor of what you might expect.

Book Overview: Greg, a deliberately anonymous high school student, finds his senior year disrupted when he befriends a girl who has been diagnosed with leukemia. Andrews tells the young-adult story in Greg's engagingly self-deprecating first-person voice, though his brutally low self-esteem gets laid on a bit thick at times. But despite the subject matter, the story is never awash in pathos, instead finding insightful material in a kid engaging with real difficulty on the way to learning he's got more to look forward to than he ever realized.

Book Grade: B+

Reason for Adaptation Optimism: Andrews adapting his own book for the screenplay, which might help it keep some of its darker edge.

Reason for Adaptation Concern: Will there be too much of an attempt to preserve Greg's voice through narration, which often kills narrative momentum?

The Movie Pitch: "The Fault in Our Stars meets Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

Sundance Category: U.S. Dramatic Competition

Book Overview: In early 1950s Ireland, young Eilis Lacey takes advantage of an opportunity to move to New York for work, then finds herself struggling to decide where she belongs in the world. Tóibín's deceptively simple style allows Eilis to develop a beautiful complexity as a woman with ambitions for herself, at a time when neither of the paths from which she's choosing would ultimately allow her to achieve those ambitions. As a result, it's perhaps the most heartbreaking kind of romantic triangle imaginable—one where a reader's most fervent wish might be that Eilis had the option to select "none of the above."

Book Grade: A-

Reason for Adaptation Optimism: Hard to imagine a more perfect choice as Eilis than Saoirse Ronan.

Reason for Adaptation Concern: Director John Crowley has talent, but recent films like Is Anyone There? and Closed Circuit haven't shown a subtlety necessary for this story.

The Movie Pitch: "The Immigrant meets In America"

Sundance Category: Premieres

Book Overview: After the death of his best friend, Teddy, from a drug overdose, troubled teen Jude moves to New York in 1988 and forms a makeshift family including the girl carrying Teddy's baby, and Teddy's straight-edge half-brother. First-time novelist Henderson crafts some absolutely gorgeous prose as she dives into the world of young people united by their sense of devotion to a ghost, and she nails a very specific era in New York City leading up to the Tompkins Square Park riot. The vivid characterizations contribute to a fascinating portrait of kids trying to navigate the path to adulthood despite getting negligible amounts of parenting.

Book Grade: A-

Reason for Adaptation Optimism: Writer/directors Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman previously did great work adapting challenging source material like American Splendor; a solid cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Ethan Hawke and Emily Mortimer.

Reason for Adaptation Concern: Feels more like a work that succeeded because of the author's voice than because of a narrative easily translated to the screen.

The Movie Pitch: "Rent meets Kids"

Sundance Category: Premieres

Book Overview: After a nuclear war, a teenage girl in an upstate New York valley believes she may be the last surviving person—until a scientist appears after almost a year has passed with no other humans in sight. Presented in the form of the girl's diary, the book is focused almost entirely on plot momentum, in a style that has the straightforward sensibility of a '70s middle-grade story yet also features attempted rape and abrupt, violent tone shifts. Intriguing until it gets far too grim as a psycho-chases-a-girl thriller.

Book Grade: C

Reason for Adaptation Optimism: Terrific cast trio of Margot Robbie, Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor; directed by Craig Zobel, who nailed the darkly psychological Compliance a couple of years ago.

Reason for Adaptation Concern: It's clear from the Sundance logline that the concept has been radically changed into something more like a romantic triangle. Come to think of it, maybe that's another reason for optimism.

The Movie Pitch: "The Road meets Straw Dogs"

Sundance Category: U.S. Dramatic Competition