Sundance now has Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, as well as other films that don't sound awful
This year's Sundance slate already has plenty of porn, thanks to the redoubled efforts of James Franco. But there's always room for more, and so it is that Park City will play host to at least two more looks at the adult entertainment industry couched in the intellectual remove of indie film: Lovelace, the Amanda Seyfried-starring biopic of Deep Throat's Linda Lovelace, and The Look Of Love, which reteams Michael Winterbottom with Steve Coogan on a biopic of British skin mag publisher Paul Raymond. Indeed, 2013 is going to be a hot, sexy time of exposing themes of gender and cultural identity, oh yeahhh.
If sex theory failed to get your attention, as with the competition slate, the Premieres section also has a lot of films starring people generally known to be of interest to A.V. Club readers. Besides previously reported or previewed movies like Richard Linklater's Before Midnight, Park Chan-wook's Stoker, and Don Jon's Addiction—Joseph Gordon-Levitt's much-anticipated Angels In The Outfield reunion with Tony Danza (and directorial debut)—this year's A.C.O.D. may take this year's Save The Date prize for film most specifically geared to the A.V. Club audience. It stars Parks And Recreation's Adam Scott and Amy Poehler, respectively, an "adult child of divorce" and his stepmother, alongside a supporting cast that includes Richard Jenkins, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara. In the absence of anything starring Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie, or a film of someone watching two episodes of Breaking Bad, it will do.
Other notables from the narratives: Like Crazy director Drake Doremus returns with another "complicated romance" story starring Felicity Jones as a foreign exchange student; Shia LaBeouf and Rupert Grint both attempt to go dark in The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman; Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen both attempt to grow up in Very Good Girls; David Gordon Green debuts his surprise Icelandic comedy remake Prince Avalanche with Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch; and Descendants co-writers (and Community and Ben & Kate stars) Jim Rash and Nat Faxon reteam on The Way, Way Back, a Steve Carell-starring coming-of-age tale that sounds like Adventureland set at a water park, and also features Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, and Maya Rudolph.
On the documentary side, there are new looks at Anita Hill, Mariel Hemingway, Jeremy Lin, Wikileaks, and Dick Cheney, plus the debut of Dave Grohl's Sound City and a film about the Eagles that finally exposes them as tools of the Illuminati, or maybe just talks about their music. Still, when it comes to real-life subjects, it's guaranteed that almost everyone at the festival will be focused on jOBS: The biopic that one-ups its ridiculous title by casting Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs based on a slight physical resemblance is Sundance's closing-night film, either scheduled so as to send those who see it out into the world with a renewed sense of inspiration, or so as to ensure that those who can't stop snickering about it won't drown out any other screening.
The complete list of just-added Premieres and Documentaries is here.