Art by Francisco Kjolseth for the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Tomorrow I leave for Salt Lake City to attend the Sundance Art House Conference (where special guest Michael Moore will address the 100+ exhibitors in attendance). After that it’s off to Park City to attend the Sundance Film Festival and watch as many films as possible. As I can only stay for four and a half days before leaving in the afternoon, I put together an alphabetical flow chart by day of my options to help me prioritize the screenings. Here’s my crib sheet with excerpts from the program: 

Friday, Jan. 22nd

7 Days (Park City at Midnight): A surgeon gets his brutal revenge against the rapist and murderer of his 8-year-old daughter. “Director Daniel Grou aka Podz does a masterful job of immersing the audience in this dark and gritty world, deftly capturing the psyche of a sane man gone mad.”

A Prophet (Spotlight): A young French Arab in prison finds himself caught between rival Corsican and Arab factions. “An outstanding crime drama, Jacques Audiard’s Cannes winner transcends genre through its character complexity, thematic depth, and sheer cinematic intensity.”

A Small Act (US Doc Competition): A once impoverished boy in Kenya’s life was radically changed thanks to a Swedish sponsor – now he wants to find her to repay the generosity. “With clarity and grace, Jennifer Arnold’s film bears cinematic witness to the lasting ramifications of a small ripple of human kindness.”

Enemies of the People (World Cinema Doc Competition): Unravelling The Khmer Rouge atrocities. “The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now.”

Enter the Void (Spotlight): Gaspar Noé’s tackles sex, drugs, life, and death in this 156-minunte-long monster. ” Words cannot describe the visually rich and assaulting epic tale of death and its aftermath of memories and spiritual travel that unfolds.”

Get Low (Premieres): A miserable hermit plans his funeral party. “
Director Aaron Schneider places his humorous fable in 1930s Tennessee, and his attention to period detail is extraordinary. Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek are exceptional, but it’s Robert Duvall’s masterful performance as Felix that brings everything together in this heartfelt story about guilt, loss, and forgiveness.”

happythankyoumoreplease (US Dramatic Competition): Six NYers juggle love and friendship. “With honesty and humor, (director Josh) Radnor captures a generational moment—young people on the cusp of truly growing up, struggling for connection, and hoping to define what it means to love and be loved.”

Hesher (US Dramatic Competition): The title character is a loner who helps a family struggling with loss. “Hesher is that rare film that manages to be a completely original vision, a thoroughly entertaining story, and a provocative metaphor.”

His & Hers (World Cinema Doc Competition): A 90-year-old love story told through the collective voices of 70 women at different stages of their life. “Director Ken Wardrop has established a sterling reputation by crafting elegant short films that capture humanity in quick bursts.

Last Train Home (World Cinema Doc Competition): A chronicle of “the world’s largest human migration” which occurs in China on the New Year’s Holiday. “To overwhelming effect, (director Lixin) Fan illustrates the cost incurred by fractured families and reveals a country tragically caught between its industrial future and rural past.”

Nowhere Boy (Premieres): A dramatization of John Lennon’s childhood. “Written by Matt Greenhalgh (Control), and featuring bright newcomer Aaron Johnson and a smattering of the early repertoire, Nowhere Boy avoids biopic nostalgia, focusing instead on an adolescent soul discovering his voice.”

The Red Chapel (World Cinema Doc Competition): Three subversives travel to North Korea under the pretext of being a small Danish theatre group. “Fusing elements of activist filmmaking with theater of the absurd, The Red Chapel is an acerbic romp, as subversive as it is wildly original.”

Restrepo (US Doc Competition): Truly embedded in Afghanistan. “Restrepo may be one of the most experiential and visceral war films you’ll ever see.”

The Shock Doctrine (Premieres): Based on the book by Naomi Klein. “Filmmakers Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross use a brand of artistic license to present a cinematic experience that takes this theory to a new audience. They make heavy use of archival images, offset with new footage of Klein’s interviews and lectures. Warning: After viewing this film, you may interpret our world history in a new light.”

Southern District (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): A look at Bolivia’s upper class. “Juan Carlos Valdivia’s revolving camera poetically articulates the devolving drama while exposing the bubble of decadence in which the bourgeoisie exist.”

Vegetarian (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): A Korean woman reaches for a mystical transformation. “Working both literally and figuratively, the film’s title is as much about her compulsion as our primal desires and rejection of feminine norms.”

Saturday, Jan. 23rd

Armless (NEXT): A guy leaves his wife to have his arms cut off. She gets enraged and becomes determined to cut off his balls. “So begins director Habib Azar’s delightful debut feature Armless, a deliciously twisted romp of comedic drama filled with mistaken identities, missed chances, and revealing consequences.”

Bran Nue Dae (Spotlight): A screen adaptation of Jimmy Chi’s popular stage musical. “With songs and dances rooted in traditional Aboriginal performance, blues, rock and roll, Hollywood musicals, and the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass, Willie sings and dances his way back to his own land and inspires the people around him to find their own truth.”

Boy (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): Set in 1980s New Zealand, three boys have to reconcile reality with their fantasies. “Inspired by his Oscar-nominated short, Two Cars, One Night, Taika Waititi offers a charming, funny, and earnest coming-of-age story where everybody has some coming of age to do—particularly Alamein (affably played by Waititi himself).”

Catfish (Spotlight): A photographer in NY establishes a MySpace relationship with a model in Nevada. “Catfish centers on a riveting mystery that is completely a product of our times, where social networking, mobile devices, and electronic communication so often replace face-to-face personal contact.”

Daddy Longlegs (Spotlight): Lenny, the divorced father of two boys, only gets to see them a couple of weeks a year. “Because of the film’s fluid style, we feel that we are in the boxing ring alongside Lenny, as flawed as he is charismatic, champion of each day, yet totally black and blue.”

Douchebag (US Dramatic Competition): A comedy about sibling rivalry. “Douchebag will make you squirm, laugh, and get pissed off—all at the same time.”

Family Affair (US Doc Competition): A personal examination of a shattered family. The director visits his relatives and “what unfolds is a personal film that’s as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any in the history of the medium.”

Homewrecker (NEXT): An all day adventure in a stolen vehicle. “Codirectors (and brothers) Todd and Brad Barnes infuse screwball sensibility into their version of the romantic comedy.”

The Oath (U.S. Documentary Competition): A look at two men with associations to Al Qaeda in the 1990s. “The film delves into Abu Jandal’s daily life as a taxi driver in Sana’a, Yemen, and Hamdan’s military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay prison.”

Obselidia (Dramatic Competition): How to deal with obsolescence? “George believes that love, among other things, is obsolete. In his quest to document nearly extinct occupations, he befriends Sophie, a beautiful cinema projectionist who works at a silent movie theatre.”

One Too Many Mornings (NEXT): A guy with a drinking problem and a friend who was recently jilted face life’s problems. “In One Too Many Mornings, director Michael Mohan intelligently explores the nuances of friendship and responsibility and keeps it charming.”

Please Give (Premieres): A Manhattan couple develop an unlikely relationship with a cranky elderly neighbor. “Nicole Holofcener infuses her story of love, death, and liberal guilt with a rare balance of humor and complexity that stems from her uncanny ability to understand people—their motivations, interactions, and contradictions.”

Secrets of the Tribe (World Cinama Doc Competition): A look at how anthropology is conducted. “Director José Padilha brilliantly employs two provocative strategies to raise unsettling questions about the boundaries of cultural encounters.”

Sins of My Father (World Cinema Doc Competition): Pablo Escobar’s son comes forward to tell his father’s story. “Unsatisfied with simply relating history, Marroquín (formerly Juan Escobar) requests a meeting with the sons of two celebrated Colombian political leaders who were among hundreds of victims that his father had killed in the 1980s.”

Splice (Park City at Midnight): Genetically engineered monsters! “Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody deliver nuanced performances, and Natali’s lurid special effects and dazzling visual design create a modern-day horror film that will make you scream, squirm, and think.”

Teenage Paparazzo (Spotlight): A teenager finds a mentor in Adrian Grenier (from HBO’s Entourage). “Given the success of Entourage and its place in the Zeitgeist, Adrian Grenier is the perfect person to explore our preoccupation with celebrity and the adolescent desire for fame.”

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (US Doc Competition): Why are millions of children forsaken of a good education? Filmmaker Davis “Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying ‘drop-out factories’ and ‘academic sinkholes,’ methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.”

Winter’s Bone (US Dramatic Competition): A teenage girl living deep in the Ozark Mountains goes on a heroic quest. “The spare precision of Debra Granik’s direction is effortlessly profound. Stunningly genuine performances and exquisite visual details capture the textures and rhythms of a world where the mythic and the naturalistic intermingle.”

Sunday, Jan. 24th

All That I Love (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): Set in 1981 Poland with a touch of punk rock. “Jacek Borcuch refreshes the coming-of-age film and its familiar tropes—teenage rebellion, first love, and sexual exploration—by setting it within a sobering sociohistorical context.”

Animal Kingdom (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): Family and police collide in the Australian tale of survival and revenge. “Wielding a formidable cinematic lexicon, writer/director David Michôd shows complete command of every frame as he shifts between simmering intensity and gut-wrenching drama.”

Buried (Park City at Midnight): A contract worker in Iraq finds himself buried alive inside a coffin. “If the sheer logistics of this premise are enough to make your head hurt, rest assured that director Rodrigo Cortés tackles these issues with relative ease, aided a great deal by a superbly convincing performance by Reynolds, the lone on-screen actor in the film. The result is a gripping and suspenseful thriller that will leave you gasping for air until the very end.”

CASINO JACK and the United States of Money (US Documentary Competition): A portrait of super lobbyist Jack Abramoff. “Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney returns to Sundance, once again wielding the tools of his trade with the skill of a master. Following the ongoing indictments of federal officials and exposing favor trading in our nation’s capital, Gibney illuminates the way our politicians’ desperate need to get elected—and the millions of dollars it costs—may be undermining the basic principles of American democracy.”

Climate Refugees (Spotlight): Population displacement and its consequences. “The quickly submerging islands of Tuvalu in the South Pacific, drought-affected regions of Sudan, storm-susceptible coastlines of Bangladesh, and rapidly expanding deserts in China are forcing millions to relocate beyond their borders. Who will accept these refugees, and how will they impact their adopted homeland?”

Four Lions (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): Good buzz precedes this story about a group of British jihadists by comedian Chris Morris. “Based on three years of research and meetings with everyone from imams to ex-mujahedeen—not to mention a wealth of surveillance material from major trials, Four Lions plunges beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien or evil. Instead, it portrays them as human beings, who, as we all know, are innately ridiculous.”

HOWL (US Dramatic Competition): Recounts the trail of Ginsberg’s masterpiece in 1957 when it faced charges of obscenity. “Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman navigate a seamless segue from their documentary roots to masterful storytellers.”

I Am love (Spotlight): A wealthy industrial family in Milan prepares a birthday for their patriarch. “A feast for the senses, Luca Guadagnino’s magnificent film, I Am Love, possesses a vibrant and formally irreverent style that luminously articulates its themes of passion and constraint.”

Life 2.0 (Spotlight); “Director Jason Spingarn-Koff digs deeply into the core of basic human interaction by assuming his own avatar and immersing himself in the worlds of Second Life residents, whose real lives have been drastically transformed by the new lives they lead in cyberspace.”

Lourdes (Spotlight): “A famed city of healing, Lourdes offers hope to countless Christian pilgrims who seek miracles. Not particularly pious herself, Christine, a wheelchair-bound young woman, takes trips with a church group mostly to escape her solitary life.”

Night Catches Us (US Dramatic Competition): A character drama set in 1976.

Nuummioq (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): “The most ambitious film ever to emerge from Greenland, and the first Greenland/Inuit–produced feature, Nuummioq tells the story of a young man’s odyssey from mundane existence into an acute sense of the sacred.’

Peepli Live (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): “
Anusha Rizvi’s auspicious first feature, Peepli Live, is a fresh and intelligently spun satire of the real-life epidemic of farmer suicides that have plagued India for the past decade.”

Smash His Camera (US Doc Competition): “Leon Gast (When We Were Kings) masterfully profiles (original paparazzo) Galella and places him at the center of the debate about the First Amendment right to privacy.”

Space Tourists (World Cinema Doc Competition): “Director Christian Frei (The Giant Buddhas, Sundance Film Festival 2006) explores the impact of space tourism in the heavens and on Earth by adeptly weaving together multiple strands.”

Sympathy for Delicious (US Dramatic Competition): “Mark Ruffalo makes an auspicious directorial debut with a gritty, yet fervent, take on the search for meaning amidst tragedy and the redemptive power that is compassion.”

The Tillman Story (US Doc Competition): “
Featuring candid and revelatory interviews with Pat’s fellow soldiers as well as his family, Amir Bar-Lev’s emotional and insightful film not only shines a light on the shady aftermath of Pat’s death and calls to task the entire chain of command but also examines themes as timeless as the notion of heroism itself.”

Welcome to the Rileys (US Dramatic Competition): “Exacting performances from three consummate actors (James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart) infuse this emotionally raw, gently humorous drama with penetrating humanity.”

Monday, Jan. 25th

3 Backyards (US Dramatic Competition): Three possibly life-altering adventures unfold in one day. “Eric Mendelsohn (Judy Berlin—Sundance Film Festival 1999) shapes an intense and detailed domestic drama of quiet suspense.”

12th & Delaware (US Doc Competition): Shows the conflict between a pro-life and abortion-rights outfits situated across the street from each other in Fort Pierce, Florida. “Using skillful cinema-vérité observation that allows us to draw our own conclusions, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, the directors of Jesus Camp, expose the molten core of America’s most intractable conflict.”

Bass Ackwards (NEXT): A man embarks on a road trip from Seattle going east. “No, the film isn’t mired with the tired mechanics of a typical ‘road movie.’ This utterly original, lyrical, and visually exciting adventure has such a light touch that it quietly sneaks up and tugs you into an overpowering appreciation of being human.”

Bhutto (US Doc Competition): A portrait of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “With exclusive interviews from the Bhutto family and never-before-seen footage, filmmakers Jessica Hernandez and Johnny O’Hara have crafted a sweeping epic of a transcendent, yet polarizing, figure whose legacy will be debated for years to come.”

Blue Valentine (US Dramatic Competition): C.U. Boulder Film Studies alum (and friend) Derek Cianfrance got special props from John Cooper at Sundance, who listed this as one of his favorite entries. “Moving fluidly between these two time periods, Blue Valentine unfolds like a cinematic duet whose refrain asks, where did their love go? Framing the film as a mystery whose answer lies scattered in time (and in character), filmmaker Derek Cianfrance constructs an elegant set of dualities: past and present, youth and adulthood, vitality and entropy.”

Cyrus (Premieres): A wrench gets tossed into a passionate affair. “The Duplass brothers are back with their singular knack: treating us to a tingling, irresistible experience of utter discomfort—suffused with pathos, romance, irony, and a little dollop of horror.”

Frozen (Park City at Midnight): “On a chilly winter night, three skiers huddle together on a chairlift, confused as to why their ride to the summit suddenly stops.”

Gasland (US Doc Competition): “It is happening all across America—rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from an energy company wanting to lease their property. Reason? The company hopes to tap into a reservoir dubbed the ‘Saudi Arabia of natural gas.’”

HIGH school (Park City at Midnight): “In his debut feature, director/cowriter John Stalberg Jr. percolates his deliriously manic narrative with sparkling energy and deviant characters, joyously ramming his protagonists deeper and deeper into frenzied chaos. HIGH school paints its slacker wit with lush broad strokes, firmly accomplishing the conclusive stoner fantasia run hilariously amuck.”

Lovers of Hate (US Dramatic Competition): “Director Bryan Poyser brilliantly executes an intricate game of cat and mouse in a ski lodge (incidentally, the film culminates in Park City, Utah).”

Lucky (US Doc Competition): “Dreaming of winning the lottery is as American as apple pie. Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars each year hoping to come up a winner. But what happens to the lucky few who actually pull a winning ticket?”

The Man Next Door (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): “The Man Next Door offers a biting critique of moral shallowness—and what happens when thou dost not love thy neighbor’s window.”

Mother & Child (Spotlight): “Destiny plays a part in the lives of three women—a 50-year-old physical therapist, the daughter she gave up for adoption 35 years earlier, and a woman looking to adopt her first child.

My Perestroika (US Doc Competition): “Crafted during five years of researching and shooting, and based on almost a decade of living in Russia in the 1990s, Robin Hessman’s film poetically interweaves an extraordinary trove of home movies, Soviet propaganda films, and intimate access to five schoolmates whose linked, but very different, histories offer a moving portrait of newly middle-class Russians living lives they could never have imagined when they were growing up.”

The Runaways (Premieres): “Acclaimed video artist Floria Sigismondi directs from her own script, and her luscious camerawork captures every sweaty detail—from the filthy trailer where the women practice to the mosh pits of Tokyo. What really makes the film cook are the sizzling performances by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Not to be missed, The Runaways is an ode to an era and a groundbreaking band.”

The Temptation of St. Tony (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): A bandleader goes unhinged. “Veiko Õunpuu’s second feature asks, what good is goodness when all it brings is loss?”

Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs the New York Knicks (Spotlight): “Winning Time entertains on many levels: it goes beyond the action on the court and delves into the psychology of the game.”

Tuesday, Jan. 26th

A Film Unfinished (World Cinema Doc Competition): A penetrating look at a Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. “Hersonski relentlessly screens each reel as ghetto survivors and (amazingly) one of the original cameramen recall actual events, investing the cryptic scenes with detail, complexity, and authority.”

The Dry Land (US Dramatic Competition): An Iraq war veteran tries to reintegrate into his small-town. “This moving, taut story of redemption and reconstruction extends beyond a post-traumatic-stress-disorder narrative.”

Grown Up Movie Star (World Cinema Dramatic Competition): “Grown Up Movie Star is an accomplished first feature by Adriana Maggs. Using a remote small town in Newfoundland as her backdrop, she orchestrates a highly capable cast.”

The Imperialists Are Still Alive! (US Dramatic Competition): “
Zeina Durra’s atmospheric debut feature is a splendidly alluring and intelligent look at the way the war on terror seeps into the texture of everyday American life. Gorgeous 16 mm grain imbues the film with an anachronistic feel that interestingly evokes times past.”

The Taqwacores (NEXT): “Oh, to be young, beautiful, Muslim—and punk rockers! Here’s one story of disaffected American youth we haven’t seen before.”

Waste Land (World Cinema Doc Competition): “Waste Land is a wonderfully resonant documentary that chronicles Vik Muniz’s journey to Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.”

Off course, the films continue from there… but 2pm is my cut-off. After that, it’s time to catch a ride back down the canyon to hop on a flight to Denver so that I can be around for the kick-off of my Spring Film Series. If my eyes still work, that is.