Any Given Sundance

"Any Given Sundance" (a play on the title of the film Any Given Sunday, but otherwise unrelated) is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season. It first aired on May 4, 2008.^[1] It guest-starred Jim Jarmusch and John C. Reilly as themselves.^[2] After Lisa enters a film about her family into the Sundance Film Festival, Homer, Marge, and Bart are embarrassed by the candid behind-the scenes look at their family. Meanwhile, Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers decide to enter the movie business.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Reception
3 Cultural references
4 References

[edit] Plot

The Simpson family head to a tailgating party, and while Homer and Bart steal other tailgaters' food, Lisa busies herself by filming the events for a school project, and notices life in its own perspective. Lisa shows the film to Principal Skinner, who reviews her film and says he enjoys it, but says it lacks drama. Skinner reveals he has a secret cinema passion. He forces Lisa to create a film that will include plenty of drama, and Lisa concludes that the only true source of drama is her family. Lisa stars to video her family doing their every day activities.

Superintendent Chalmers takes notice of Lisa's filmmaking and convinces Skinner to enter Lisa's film in the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance organizers agree to premiere Lisa's film, as she's an intellectual misfit. Lisa's movie, Capturing the Simpsons is accepted. When the family learns Lisa's film had been accepted, they all go to Park City, Utah to see the premiere. At Sundance, Homer meets director Jim Jarmusch and the two become friends. Marge, who can't find any movies to watch, patiently waits for the premiere of Lisa's movie. The family is anxious to see the premier of the film. Skinner and Chalmers try to enter but are turned down. Capturing the Simpsons, produced by "Chalmskinn Productions" begins. Lisa shows her family in all of its dysfunction. Audience members begin giving sour remarks about her family. One scene features Bart breaking dishes and Homer walking in with bare feet. Marge cleans up after them and Lisa wishes her a "Happy Birthday," embarrassing the entire family. The film ends, and receives a standing ovation. But Homer, Marge, and Bart are all appalled at how the film portrays them and cannot believe Lisa would do such a thing. Comic Book Guy posts a glowing review on his blog, so that the whole world would know about the film.

Lisa hallucinates that her family may be monsters.^[3]

The family ignores Lisa, which makes her want to take back her film. Meanwhile, some distributors find Skinner and Chalmers and want to buy Lisa's movie. Skinner negotiates the terms of the sale, which include access to the most exclusive VIP tent at the fest. The film becomes very popular, but Lisa's family realize others hate them because of the way the were portrayed in the film. Lisa feels sorry for what she did to the family, and while deep in thought, Jim Jarmusch approaches to her and says he can relate because his movies are also about "social misfits experiencing the dark side of the American dream". Lisa however, feels that she may have, deep inside, humiliated her family on purpose. He tells her the answer to her question of whether or not her family will forgive her is in a film: Life Blows Chunks, a documentary by Nelson Muntz, produced by Chalmskinn Productions. It shows Nelson's struggling life, where Mrs. Muntz is a thief and drinks heavily. When his film ends, Lisa learns that although her family may embarrass her, humiliate her, or infuriate her, there are other families with tougher problems. She apologizes to her family, and they gratefully accept her back. Nelson and Mrs. Muntz, who are now in the spotlight, enjoy the attention.^[3]^[1]

[edit] Reception

Richard Keller of TV Squad called "Any Given Sundance" a "so-so episode"^[4] and said "it just had the feeling of one of those installments where you look up and the show is over.^[3] And, the bad thing is you really don't remember what happened".^[4] His favorite part of the episode was Nelson's documentary which he compared to that of Barney Gumble in "A Star Is Burns".^[4] "Any Given Sundance" was watched by 6.18 million people during its first airing on May 4, 2008, which, at this point, was the lowest watched episode in The Simpsons history.^[5]

[edit] Cultural references

The title of this episode is a reference to the 1999 film Any Given Sunday. The closing scene of Nelson's documentary is reminiscent of the one in François Truffaut's 1959 French film, The 400 Blows.^[4]