Christopher Beyer/ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Daniel Radcliffe stars in "Kill Your Darlings," playing gay Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg. Entertainment Weekly
PARK CITY, Utah â" The 2013 Sundance Film Festival got off to a rowdy and wry start Friday with âDon Jonâs Addiction,â written, directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and co-starring Scarlett Johansson.
As a wanna-be womanizer hooked on porn, Gordon-Levitt (âLooperâ) lends his charming smile to a role that highlights his offbeat sensibility. Johansson plays the woman who could reroute his libido to the real world.
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Johansson â" whose current Broadway role in âCat on a Hot Tin Roofâ kept her from attending the festival opener at the Eccles Theatre â" adds mainstream marketability to âDonâsâ indie spirit, still the hallmark of Sundance as it laps its 25th official year.
ScarJo may not have had to endure the frigid Park City temperatures, which struggled to hit the double digits, but Naomi Watts was looking great to promote âTwo Mothers,â which also bowed Friday.
The film, about lifelong friends (Watts and Robin Wright) who fall in love with each otherâs grown sons, marks the Australian starâs return to edgier material. Female audiences at the Eccles may have been distracted by Watts and Wrightâs on-screen objects of affection, newcomers Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville.
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Earlier, festival-goers got a look at âKill Your Darlings,â part of âHarry Potterâ star Daniel Radcliffeâs transition from boy wizard to grownup. Playing gay Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg, Radcliffe is unrecognizable in dyed black hair and horn-rimmed glasses (on the red carpet, he added some chin scruff).
The film, co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the Beatsâ guardian angel, Edie Parker, is one of two Beat flicks at the fest, sharing space with the Jack Kerouac flick âBig Sur.â
Keri Russell, TVâs former âFelicity,â gives a comic turn in the adaptation of the best-selling novel âAustenland,â as a woman so obsessed with Jane Austenâs âPride and Prejudiceâ that she heads to a theme park devoted to the 19th-century author. And Shailene Woodley sparked the high school dramedy treat âThe Spectacular Now,â which was met with thunderous applause.
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Kristen Bell goes from box-office sinker âWhen in Romeâ to the thoughtful indie âThe Lifeguard,â about a frazzled New York reporter going back to her Connecticut hometown to take a job at a local pool.
The serious-minded âMud,â a chewy Southern tale from âTake Shelterâ director Jeff Nichols stars Matthew McConaughey as a criminal hiding out in a swamp who is discovered by two Arkansas kids. A de-glammed Reese Witherspoon co-stars as his wild girlfriend.
Another buzz-maker was âEmanuel and the Truth About Fishes,â in which Jessica Biel plays a mysterious neighbor to a troubled girl (Kaya Scodelario).
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Finally, one of Saturdayâs midnight slots was occupied by the hyperjumpy horror flick âS-V/H/S.â A sequel to a cult hit about videotapes that reveal ghastly happenings, it debuted in the spot that unleashed âThe Blair Witch Projectâ from Sundance nearly 15 years ago. If that kind of success happens again, itâs an example of another thing Sundance does best â" create heat even when the temperature is crazy cold.
jneumaier@nydailynews.com
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