while at sundance, i somehow saw all the movies that no one cared about. the ones that didn't win awards. the ones that had no buzz. well, that's not true, a couple of them had decent buzz. but nothing i saw will make the "best of sundance" list, and i didn't see anything that would make such a list. which is kind of weird, because i thought the movies i saw were pretty damn good. let's go through them.

1) the vicious kind
adam scott and brittany snow and jk simmons were in this movie, which i think gives it the strongest cast of any movie i saw, unless you consider robin williams (and basically no one else) a stronger cast. which, maybe you do. getting ahead of myself. the short plot synopsis is as follows: boy comes home from college for thanksgiving with new girlfriend, who older brother torments. dad somehow gets involved, and younger brother is generally clueless. this movie was beautifully shot with excellent post production. the plot had a few holes and was almost unbelievable, except the cast all gave pretty excellent performances and brought it back from the brink. i'm not sure how a movie like this doesn't get picked up - strong cast, and great production value. if this movie doesn't have a home in a theatre or netflix, well... that's sad. i'm not saying it was the greatest movie i've ever seen, but it definitely beat expectations and was fairly solid.

2) humpday
the hypiest hyped movie that i saw at sundance. low-budget indie film that was mostly improv'd about what would happen if two straight dudes who were college buddies somehow came into a situation in which they wanted to star in a gay porno together. a few hilarious moments, a lot of pretty funny moments, and already picked up by magnolia. at least watch it on dvd if you can.

3) shorts program II
shorts are terrible. i read that over 9600 shorts were submitted to sundance this year and, given that there were 5 shorts programs of 7 movies each, the 35 best made sundance. well, 5/7 of these shorts were either boring or stupid or both. 2 of them were good, and one was good by being the most by the book movie ever made (predisposed), and the other was good by being pretty stylish (miracle fish). i guess shorts are tough to make in general, but i expected more, and the result of this was discussion on how to make and enter our own short for the next sundance. knowing that 9600 were submitted last year tempers my hopes, but only a bit.

4) lunch break / exit
the artsiest art house film ever. we walked out 45 minutes into the 80 minute lunch break and didn't make it to exit, the 40 minute 'short'. i'm not going to bother explaining the concept - google it, and then spend the next 13.4 seconds forgetting this movie was ever made and entered into sundance.

5) big river man
this movie made a huge impression on me and possibly changed my life forever (still pending). i will explain the latter at another time, but the former ... well, it's a documentary about a man who swims the longest rivers in the world. his next challenge is the amazon, in order to bring attention to the destruction of the rain forests. the catch is that he is pretty overweight and almost always drunk, but despite this is one of the greatest endurance swimmers in the world. he's from slovenia, and i've said too much. i hope to god this one makes it to dvd, not because it was particularly polished or well-made as a documentary, but because this man's story is powerful and it affected me greatly.

6) the clone returns home
i got so much grief for wanting to see this movie. japanese science fiction art-house movie about a near-future in which clones of people can be made in the event of their death. an astronaut enters this program and dies while in outer space. his clone is generated but an error occurs when transferring his memory, causing the clone to believe he is 6 or 7 and his twin brother just died (a memory from his youth). the clone rushes off to save his brother, only to find his original body, in a spacesuit, fallen from space. it is incredibly stylish, incredibly interesting, and i strongly recommend if you haven't already read this and said "niv is weird". if you have said that, i feel sorry for you.

7) kimjongilia
a documentary about north korea, centered around interviews with people who have escaped north korea. i found it a little too 'shallow', but it was well done and the woman who created it is passionate about fixing the problems in north korea. pretty impressive and kind of upsetting. recommended if you didn't know that there are concentration camps in north korea for anyone who dissents. or if you're interested in the subject at all.

8) world's greatest dad
bobcat goldthwait directed, robin williams starred in (and is superb, i think). this dark comedy is very, very, very dark, and i think it might have been funnier than i realized at first. it's pretty damn funny, but also a bit disturbing. i figure if election can be a decent sized hit, then world's greatest dad probably has a life as a dvd release somewhere. don't want to say too much else, lest i allow you to brace for the jokes.

9) five minutes of heaven
liam neeson. incredibly moving. incredibly acted. read a review that called it 'hamfisted' and complained that it 'brought nothing new to the debate' about northern ireland's occupation and the violence. i say who gives a shit. clone was my favorite film, but this movie, about reconciliation in northern ireland between two men, one who killed the older brother of the other, was my favorite movie. the acting was just superb. will be terribly, terribly disappointed if i cannot own this on dvd in the next year.

10) it might get loud
documentary. jam session. the edge. jack white. JIMMY FUCKING PAGE. will be more disappointed if i cannot own the dvd and soundtrack in the next 10 minutes. in-cred-i-ble. i think i was smiling slash gleeful all the way through this movie, from the opening scene in which jack white builds a 'guitar' out of a block of wood and a piece of wire and some nails all the way to the end in which the three cover the band's the weight (so fun to write that in the style i've been writing this so far, that is to say without italics or quotes). fucking gleeful. wonderfully awesome.

11) the only good indian
an interesting story brought down by bad acting, clunky pacing, awkward story-telling devices, and terrible dialogue. i'd say 'skip it' but it won't get picked up and no one will ever hear of it again. not sure how this one snuck in amongst all the other amazing movies i saw, especially given that the amazing movies i saw won a grand total of 0 awards between all of them.

in conclusion, sundance is awesome and you all should go.