The Verge - 2013 Sundance Film Festival: technology and film culture mix in Park City

All about Steve: Ashton Kutcher carries 'Jobs' with a feverish take on Apple's co-founder

2013-01-26T18:55:47Z

Cupertino, 1980. Steve Jobs is giving an impassioned motivational speech to a small team working on Apple’s Lisa. "It’s social status. It’s social currency," he says. His voice is deliberate, paced to emphasize the most emotionally-driven words. On the whiteboard behind him it reads "File | Edit | Page Layout | Format." He asks the team how many typefaces are in Lisa, who in turn respond that it was deemed a less pressing issue. This isn’t the answer Jobs expected.

"Everything… is a pressing issue," he says, his once-inspirational demeanor quickly escalating into a quiet rage. One of the programmers continues to disagree, arguing that it was a necessary compromise. It’s at this point that Jobs’ temper boils over. He shouts...

Shane Carruth’s ‘Upstream Color’ is a trippy, sci-fi take on the forces that bind us together

2013-01-22T19:41:54Z

Nine years ago, Shane Carruth won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize for Primer, a complex science fiction tale about the ramifications of time travel. Famously filmed on a $7,000 budget, Primer went on to gain a cult following for its incredibly strong and incredibly twisty plot (spoiler: this is as close as you can get to understanding it all).

Upstream Color is only Carruth’s second film, shot on a decidedly larger budget and coming to theaters in April (it debuted this week at Sundance). Think of it as Terrence Malick-meets-Trent Reznor: abstract, brooding, moody, at times graphic. If you’re willing to accept a broader, more indirect interpretation of “storytelling,” what you get is a flawed-but-fascinating exploration into the...

How one man made a film at Disney World without Disney's permission

2013-01-21T14:16:26Z

There's a palpable buzz at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and much of it is swirling around an obscure, black-and-white movie that may never see a commercial release. That's because Randy Moore's Escape from Tomorrow is more than just a film; it's an exercise in guerilla moviemaking, and a meditation on our own gawk-fueled culture.

The movie debuted at Sundance on Friday to largely glowing reviews, though its incredible backstory began three years ago, when Moore decided to shoot a film at Disney World without Disney's permission. Armed with a Canon camera and a skeleton crew of actors, the 36-year-old director began surreptitiously filming at both Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim, taking every precaution to keep...

Watch these Sundance short films to learn the dangers of catnip and zombies

2013-01-19T23:32:04Z

In what's becoming an annual tradition, YouTube has partnered with the Sundance Film Festival to offer a small selection of short films through its Screening Room channel. This year you'll be able to watch a dozen short movies that will be making their debuts at Sundance; they've been selected from the 64 shorts to be screened at the festival starting this weekend. It's not a huge selection, and you won't be able to see Ashton Kutcher's portrayal of Steve Jobs, but there's quite a range of free movies to enjoy — covering everything from the horrors of catnip to, of course, the undead. And when you're finished watching these, YouTube says the channel will continue to be updated with movies from filmmakers who have been featured at...

Ashton Kutcher's portrayal of Steve Jobs to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January

2012-12-03T22:25:02Z

This coming January is likely to be the first time that anyone outside of a production facility will get a look at jOBS, the new biopic of Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher. The movie, which was initially announced in April of this year, covers 30 years of Jobs' life from 1971 to 2000 as an entrepreneur and leader of such companies as Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. It also stars Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons, and Matthew Modine.

The movie is not based on Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, released shortly after Jobs' death last fall. A separate film that is based on Isaacson's book is also in the works, and is being written by famed screenplay author Aaron Sorkin.

jOBS is set to be screened on January 27, 2013, the...