Sundance: What's Happening NEXT?

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Lovers of Hate

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More About

• Trevor Groth
• Mark Duplass
• Katie Aselton
• Bryan Poyser
• Film Festivals

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There is a film in Sundance that beautifully embodies NEXT's stated mission — and it's in the main competition. Bryan Poyser's Lovers of Hate (yet another Mark Duplass production) is a star-free, bare-bones comedy in which three actors talk and walk around a house for 90 minutes. It's also the most exciting American indie I've seen in a while.

A cracked love triangle between a loser, his ex-wife and his absurdly successful younger brother, Lovers works on multiple levels. It's both an uncomfortable comedy and a voyeur-driven suspense film with genuine gasp cues; it squeezes dick and poop jokes into a cutting examination of lust and envy as twin types of madness. Though it's only Poyser's second feature (following 2004's Indie Spirit–nominated Dear Pillow), there's a sophistication and confidence to his staging and storytelling that make the NEXT films look amateurish. Turns out there is a great low-budget, auteur-driven discovery at Sundance 2010 — it's just not in the section for low-budget discoveries. Better luck NEXT year?