Sundance 2009: Final Scorecard

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EASY TO LIKE, DUBIOUS DEPTH

• The September Issue (Cutler)
I liked rooting for Grace Coddington as much as anybody, but let's not mistake that for fightin' the power. She could almost have been a talking head in Art & Copy, you know.

• Big River Man (Maringouin)
Martin Strel is putting himself through quite an ordeal for almost no acclaim, but I have a feeling the film is overstating both his accomplishments and the degree of his insanity. I can imagine almost any narration over those ambiguous images, but that's the nature of the medium, is it not?

• You Wont Miss Me (Russo-Young)
At times this improvisational film manages to bottle electricity, but other times it feels like people trying very hard to do just that.

• 500 Days of Summer (Webb)
It's coming our way this summer, to delight many and make others shrug their shoulders and wonder what the Sundance fever was all about. I like about half of it, and the other half, which is chopped up and sprinkled throughout, is tolerable.

• Black Dynamite (Sanders)
This one makes no claims at depth, and it's especially fun if expectations are low.

• Thriller in Manila (Dower)
Tried my patience in the first half, made me reconsider that early dismissal in the riveting second half.

• It Might Get Loud (Guggenheim)
A fake, chemistry-free guitar summit is nevertheless a good occasion for three fun walks down memory lane.

• Art & Copy (Pray)
An argument for advertising that skirts every issue can still be fun, and if it weren't for the statistics-heavy dead zones that pop up regularly, this might be as highly regarded as The September Issue.

• Spring Breakdown (Shiraki)
Expectations were very low, and the film with Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Parker Posey, and Jane Lynch is indeed stupid and noisy, but it's also kind of funny, and it's certainly not the disaster I was afraid it might be.

• Mary & Max (Eliot)
The beautiful craftsmanship and odd sense of humor is easy to watch for a good half hour, but beyond that I start wanting something more to think about.

• Paper Heart (Jasenovec)
It's not as bad as some are saying, but it, too, overstays its very tentative welcome.

INFORMATIVE AND WELL-INTENTIONED

• Before Tomorrow (Cousineau and Ivalu)
My impression is based only on the first half of the film: while I appreciate the work of filmmakers who capture vanishing Inuit culture, I like the films that executive producer Zacharias Kunuk directs himself.

• Over the Hills and Far Away (Scott)
I have mixed feelings about a family that takes their autistic son on a horseback ride across Mongolia to visit shamans. But even from a distance I have a sense of what these parents feel, and the movie does a good job of describing their daily roller coaster by magnifying it.

• 211: Anna (Serbandini and Massimetti)
An important topic — the safety of dissenting journalists in Russia — is given competent but TV-level treatment.

NO, THANK YOU

• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Krasinski)

• Adam (Mayer)

• Toe to Toe (Abt)
Be wary when the festival program uses the word "power" three times in a short description of a film.

PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP

None this year.