Big Screen Little Screen

With well over 100 films of all shapes, sizes, and genres (and more than a few defying description) screening in Park City at the moment, only a small percentage are fated to successfully navigate from the festival circuit to your local art-house or cineplex.  Not the best indicator of a film’s worth or substance, but someone with deep pockets has to want to pick up and distribute the films that screen for Sundance audiences, and for better or worse, it often comes down to the buzz, baby. After a flurry of screenings and aquisitions this weekend, the pundits are naming names.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Anne Thompson (Risky Biz) participates in a video roundtable with Cinematical editor James Rocchi and Kim Voynar - editor of new offshoot Cinematical Indie, to talk up the noteworthy screenings over the kick-off weekend, and more to watch out for - Sarah Polley’s directorial debut - Away from Her, Russian drama The Island, docs Chicago 10, The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, and Nanking.  A lengthy discussion, also including: Catherine Keener in An American Crime, Adrienne Shelly’s posthumously released film Waitress, Snow Angels, Black Snake Moan, Red Road, and horror-comedy Teeth. Speaking of the latter, it appears that “vagina dentata” may reach overused insider catchprase status at some early point this year.

See also: Blurby buzz from middle-brow tastemakers Entertainment Weekly, and hearsay - both good and bad, from Variety. Lastly, Deadline Hollywood’s roundup of early Sundance deals - i.e., films you might actually catch in your neck of the woods, someday.