Archive for the 'Compliance' Category

The Sundance Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday, a key step for several new movies — and faces — that will be hitting theaters in the next year. Titles acquired by studios include the Richard Gere-Susan Sarandon finance drama “Arbitrage,” also featuring one of last year’s breakout ingenues, Brit Marling; “Red Lights,” the Sigourney Weaver-Robert De Niro paranormal thriller with past Sundance darling Elizabeth Olsen, and Josh Radnor’s “Liberal Arts,” also co-starring Olsen. Here are four fresh faces whose movies are also stirring up buyer buzz in Park City.

DREAMA WALKER

Starring in a gritty, low-budget Sundance film is one way to break out of a mainstream television mold. The tactic seems to have worked for 25-year-old Dreama Walker, who until now was best known for playing mean girl Hazel Williams on two seasons of “Gossip Girl.” In “Compliance,” directed by Craig Zobel, Walker plays a fast-food employee who falls victim to a prank caller. The film, which polarized audiences at the festival — some called it misogynistic and others praised the tension-filled plot, which was based on true events — has been garnering acquisition buzz.

“I was interested in showing the perspective of a naïve young girl who felt as if she didn’t have a choice,” Walker said. “These people were not idiots. They were put in a horrible situation.” She’ll be switching gears to co-star in ABC’s new comedy, “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23,” which will follow “Modern Family” in April. “I’m all for proving women can be funny,” said Walker, who plays a small-town girl living in New York City with a manipulative man-eater played by Krysten Ritter.

Since her first role as a drunken teen on “Law & Order,” Walker has appeared in “Gran Torino” and “The Invention of Lying” and has three more films in the pipeline: the family dramedy “The Discoverers,” the teen coming-out tale “Gay Dude” and the comedy “The Kitchen.” “I am still at a place in my career where nobody sees me in a certain way, so I can do different things,” she said.

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Sophia Lin, Lisa Muskat, Tyler Davidson, Theo Sena and Zobel produced the provocative film about the limits of authority. Ann Dowd and Dreama Walker star.

Magnolia svp of acquisitions Dori Begley negotiated the deal with John Sloss and Dana O’Keefe of Cinetic Media. Magnolia said it planned a theatrical release later this year.

Source

Boomtron have interviewed the Compliance cast at Sundance the day after the film’s world premiere. You can watch it below.

Yesterday Compliance premiered at Sundance and the Q&A afterwards seems to have been very controversial, because the film emitted such strong emotional reactions from the viewers. I’m going to post some review excerpts and reactions to the film later today.

For now I have added pictures of Dreama from the Compliance premiere, two lounges at Park City and two adorable portrait sessions.

Dreama is currently attending Sundance Film Festival in Park City (Utah). Yesterday she was at the first Chefdance night and GenArt’s 7 Fresh Faces In Film event. I have added pictures of both to the gallery. Additionally I have uploaded some screencaps of the Compliance behind the scenes video here.

The world premiere of Compliance has taken place today (just a short while ago) but no pictures have been released so far. There have been some reactions to the film; you can check them out on Twitter.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted a behind the scenes video of Compliance. It features Dreama in a short scene from the film and in a few behind the scenes glimpses.

The world premiere for Compliance will take place “at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Library Center Theatre at 11:30 am as part of the NEXT<=> sidebar”.

Compliance is part of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival NEXT lineup and will be shown a few times during the festival. The website has a few production stills of the film which have now been added to the gallery.
I have decided to post the summary below. For the reaction to the film and the screenings details please visit the Compliance page at the official Sundance Film Festival website.

Becky and Sandra aren’t the best of friends. Sandra is a middle-aged manager at a fast-food restaurant; Becky is a teenaged counter girl who really needs the job. One stressful day (too many customers and too little bacon), a police officer calls, accusing Becky of stealing money from a customer’s purse, which she vehemently denies. Sandra, overwhelmed by her managerial responsibilities, complies with the officer’s orders to detain Becky. This choice begins a nightmare that tragically blurs the lines between expedience and prudence, legality and reason.