UPDATED: ENTERTAINMENT premieres at Sundance, then New Directors/New Films

Last fall, I was brought on as post production supervisor by Arts + Labor for an indie feature film called Entertainment (not to be confused with this Indian film where Entertainment refers to.... a dog?). This is director Rick Alverson's follow up to The Comedy which premiered at Sundance in 2012. This weekend, Entertainment makes its Sundance debut.

Plot synopsis: En route to meet his estranged daughter and attempt to revive his dwindling career, a broken, aging comedian plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave desert.

Indiewire is looking forward to it, listed Entertainment as one of the 30 most anticipated films of the festival. On top of all this Sundance excitement, Entertainment will also be screening at the prestigious New Directors/New Films in New York.

I hope to write a slightly more detailed post in the near future about our post workflow. It was probably the most ambitious technical challenge I've faced to date in post production. I learned a ton. If you are up to your shoulders in ARRI RAW workflow, I'm you're guy. Final color and visual effects were done at Arts + Labor. The final movie is going to look exquisite thanks to the collaborative efforts of editor Michael Taylor, cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman, colorist Joe Malina and visual effects artist Kirby Conn.

Friend and colleague Andrew Logan also served as its executive producer. Want to see a terrific short film he produced not too long ago?

UPDATE 1-26-2015: Entertainment is sparking lots of discussion; few folks seem to fall in the middle and have a strong reaction to the movie no matter whether its positive or negative.

As Scott Foundas - writing for Variety - put it: "...[T]ake it or leave it, Alverson’s fourth feature is singular stuff, and it reconfirms the director as one of the truly bold voices in the all-too-homogenous U.S. indie film scene."

Eric Kohn at IndieWire writes: "offers a fascinating look at the tension between personal aspirations and the harsh realities holding them back."

Rodrigo Perez at The Playlist (an IndieWire blog) sums it up well: "... Alverson may have outdone himself with “Entertainment,” an even more abrasive, alienating, and nightmarish masterwork about the cruel futility of connection, performance, and existence."

It screens next at New Directors/New Films.

UPDATE 1-27-2015: Here is an interview with director Rick Alverson over at Filmmaker Magazine.