How does one navigate through the 124 feature films playing at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival without going bananas?
How do you know which movies are worth seeing, and which ones should be avoided?
Having a strategy helps. Are you into documentaries? Foreign films? Cutting-edge films? The festival has programs just for you - respectively, the documentary competitions, the World Cinema programs and the New Frontier sidebar.
I usually suggest that you avoid the Premieres section of the festival, because most of those films have big stars and distribution lined up. Some already have release dates in the next month or so (”In Bruges,” the opening-night film, hits theaters Feb. 8, while “Be Kind Rewind” opens Jan. 25, before the festival’s even over.) But those are also the movies with the biggest movie stars in attendance, so there’s always the allure of being in the presence of celebrity.
But maybe your focus needs narrowing. Here are some suggestions for mini-programs based on some very specialized criteria:
The concert tour: “U2 3D,” “CSNY Deja Vu,” “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” “Anvil! The True Story of Anvil.”
The Hollywood-insider double feature: “The Deal” and “What Just Happened?”
The controversial directors documentary double bill: “Roman
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Polanski: Wanted and Desired” and “Derek” (about Derek Jarman).
The all-”American” program: “American Son,” “American Teen,” “An American Soldier.”
The married couple program (part 1): “Diminished Capacity” (Matthew Broderick) and “Smart People” (Sarah Jessica Parker).
The married couple program (part 2): “Phoebe in Wonderland” (Felicity Huffman) and “The Deal” (William H. Macy).
The used-to-be-married couple program: “Smart People” (Dennis Quaid) and “The Deal” (Meg Ryan).
The brothers Quaid double bill: “Smart People” (Dennis Quaid), “Real Time” at Slamdance (Randy Quaid).
The brothers Fiennes double bill: “In Bruges” (Ralph Fiennes), “The Escapist” (Joseph Fiennes).
The Ben Kingsley double feature: “The Wackness,” “Transsiberian.”
The “Sideways” cast reunion: “Diminished Capacity” (Virginia Madsen), “Smart People” (Thomas Haden Church) and “Pretty Bird” (Paul Giamatti) - and Sandra Oh is on the U.S. Dramatic jury.
The “Saturday Night Live” cast reunion: “The Year of Getting to Know Us” (Jimmy Fallon), “Hamlet 2″ (Amy Poehler), “Pretty Bird” (Kristen Wiig).
The “Full House” mini-reunion: “The Wackness” (Mary-Kate Olsen), John Stamos (”A Raisin in the Sun”). (Note: These films also constitute the “rappers-turned-actors” double feature, as Method Man appears in “The Wackness” and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs stars in “A Raisin in the Sun.”)
The “Jane Austen Book Club” reconvened: “Downloading Nancy” (Amy Brenneman and Maria Bello), “Towelhead” (Bello), “The Yellow Handkerchief” (Bello), “Sunshine Cleaning” (Emily Blunt), “The Great Buck Howard” (Blunt), “Savage Grace” (Hugh Dancy).
The indie bookshelf: “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” (based on a Michael Chabon novel), “Choke” (based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel), “Towelhead” (based on an Alicia Erian novel), “The Wave” (based on a Todd Strasser novel).
The tabloid-scandal-during-filming program: “The Wackness” (make-out scene between Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen makes “Page Six”), “American Son” (Tom Sizemore arrested for possession of meth in Bakersfield, Calif., during production).
The “will that fit on the marquee?” program: “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?,” “Assassination of the High School President,” “The Year of Getting to Know Us,” “A Complete History of My Sexual Failures.”
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* SEAN P. MEANS writes the daily blog, “The Movie Cricket,” at http://blogs.sltrib.com/movies. Send questions or comments to Sean P. Means, movie critic, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com. hine,jane austen,michael chabon,movie stars,Novel,phoebe
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