Park City. Cleanup.

With the last of the dispatches in and the Berlinale opening tomorrow, it's high time to wrap last month's festivals in Park City. Several films stirred up enough coverage to warrant entries of their own; others, not quite but almost.

Below, a bit on those:

Updated.

Sundance:

World Cinema:

• Blame It on Fidel: Site. Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• "Turning to a muchmore rewarding realm of deadpan dark comedy after his erratic 2004 Nina, rising Brazilian helmer Heitor Dhalia succeeds with the risky Drained [site]," writes Robert Koehler in Variety. "Critics have already begun to weigh in, starting with a Fipresci prize at Rio in advance of the pic's North American preem at Sundance. To be sure, though, while men will be drawn into a comedy that willfully exposes some of the nastier aspects of their gender, most women may turn away in disgust. Vive la difference." IndieWIRE interviews Dhalia.

• Ezra: IndieWIRE interviews director Newton Aduaka.

• Ghosts: Site. Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• How Is Your Fish Today?: IndieWIRE interviews director Xiaolu Guo.

• How She Move: "One of the surprising highlights of the world competition," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "The audience is treated to some great dancing, as well as a standard series of trials and tribulations and in the end everything wraps up nicely with a sweet little love story along the way." IndieWIRE interviews director Ian Iqbal Rashid.

• "By far the best international feature I've seen here is Peter Brosens and Jessica Hope Woodworth's Khadak [site]," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "[T]he film boasts a dreamlike thirty minutes that are so on point and effective they make you wish Lynch had taken a few tips from Brosens and Woodworth when constructing the second half of Inland Empire." IndieWIRE interviews Woodworth.

• "Gimmicky Oz cop drama Noise is a slickly executed experiment full of sound and fury, signifying nothing more than technical prowess," growls Russell Edwards in Variety. IndieWIRE interviews director Matthew Saville.

• "The ideals around the kibbutzim movement were lofty and utopian, but life in utopia came with a cost," writes Kim Voynar at Cinematical. "Sweet Mud shows us the shiny side of the kibbutizm coin - the quality of life, the picturesque farmland, the democratically run community meetings - but helmer Dror Shaul dares to look at the darker side of the movement as well." IndieWIRE interviews Shaul.

• "Pavel Longuine's The Island [site]... is a moving tale about sin, faith and redemption," writes Kim Voynar at Cinematical. "The film as a whole serves as an analogy contrasting materialism versus spiritual values, creature comforts versus salvation." When it screened in Toronto, Opus wrote at Twitch, "At times I was reminded of Jesus' parables, which often seem silly, inconsequential, and downright obtuse, but which contain deeper spiritual truth."

Documentary Competition:

• For the Bible Tells Me So [site]: "I've always believed that there is such a thing as a documentary filmmaker who loves his subject too much and while I praise and support Karslake's advocacy for equal rights for all Americans, his passion cripples his film terribly," writes Steve Ramos at indieWIRE. Salon's Andrew O'Hehir has notes from the post-screening Q&A: "Someone asked [Dick] Gephardt whether it had been painful to learn that [his daughter] Chrissy was gay. He got up and spoke briefly and movingly, and said it had not. 'I was brought up to believe that you were supposed to love other people more than yourself; that was the principal commandment,' he said. 'I was only worried about Chrissy. I was worried that she would suffer discrimination and hatred, and to some extent she has. There are so many millions of people with gay sons and lesbian daughters - so many! - that need to see this movie. We need to get off the path of hatred and onto the path of love.'" O'Hehir adds that the film is "a brave and noble (and perhaps doomed) effort to heal a gaping wound in our society." The Reeler interviews director Daniel Karslake.

• War/Dance: Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

Spectrum:

• Angel-A: Site. Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• Bugmaster: "[W]hen I heard that Katsuhiro Ôtomo had a live-action film at Sundance, it became one of my must-sees," writes Kevin Kelly at Cinematical. "Fittingly, it is an adaptation of the Mushishi manga from Japan, and I wasn't disappointed with this film." On the other hand: "I was one of the hardy/foolish few who stuck it out to the film's bitter end, hoping the finale might tie at least some of this nonsense together," writes Jason Silverman for Wired News. "No dice. Major disappointment #1." Earlier: Kuriko Sato in Midnight Eye.

• Fay Grim: The Reeler interviews Hartley and Craig Phillips takes extensive notes on a panel featuring Hartley, Gregg Araki, David Gordon Green and Tamara Jenkins. Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• Fraulein: Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• If I Had Known I Was a Genius: Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• "An emotionally rich core goes a long way toward redeeming some manipulative storytelling and overly simplistic handling of a divisive issue in The Same Moon [La Misma Luna], writes Justin Chang for Variety.

• Low and Behold: Ben Walters for Time Out: "The location photography and documentary-style interviews with claimants are as eye-boggling and sobering as you'd imagine but the fictional framework struggles to do justice to the enormity of the situation. Probably best stick with Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke."

• "As in most beauty pageants, contestants in the Miss Navajo Nation competition have to exhibit poise, grooming and talent," notes John Anderson in Variety. "They also have to butcher a sheep - which is the kind of thing that makes Billy Luther's affectionate look at tribal tradition, pride and change in his docu Miss Navajo so eye-opening."

• Reprise: Site. Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• "A less glossy but substantially more interesting treatment of teenage sexuality amid lush vegetation [than Hounddog's] can be found in Tuli, Philipino director Aureus Solito's follow-up to The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros," writes Ben Walters for Time Out. "That was very much a city film, but this is unmistakably rural, set in thin-walled little houses and concerning adolescents dealing with village mentality. Both films, however, offer stimulating takes on machismo and alternative sexualities as well as intriguing windows onto a culture little seen in Western cinemas."

• Wonders Are Many: Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

• Year of the Fish: James Ponsoldt talks with director David Kaplan for Filmmaker; the Reeler has an interview as well.

Dramatic Competition:

• Four Sheets to the Wind: "[A]n identity film with a lower-case 'i'," writes Susan Gerhard at indieWIRE. "It seeks, and sometimes finds, universal emotional appeal within a story that's rich in regionalism. Moments of cinematography that capture lush green and decaying brick, the subtleties of a not unattractive Oklahoma countryside against a not necessarily overwhelming Oklahoma cityscape, are what gives Four Sheets its more fascinating textures." IndieWIRE interviews director Sterlin Harjo.

• The Pool [site]: "In our globalized economy, it only seems natural that Chris Smith, director of working-class portraits American Job and American Movie, would turn his attentions to India," writes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE. "Small, by today's Sundance standards, but immensely resonant in its well-crafted storytelling, The Pool is an admirable continuation of Smith's interests in the social conditions that define us, and the desire to transcend them." Online listening tip. Cinematical's James Rocchi talks with Smith.

World Cinema / Documenta:

• Cocalero: "Seeing [then-candidate, now Bolivian president] Evo [Morales] and Hugo Chavez address an ginormous, rowdy and completely engaged crowd of newly empowered citizens is one the most rousing scenes of my Sundance to date," write Jason Silverman for Wired News. "Cocalero peters off a bit by the end, but as a power-to-the-people doc provides an excellent counterpoint to last year's Our Brand Is Crisis, in which slick Americans create a slick Bolivian presidential candidate." And IndieWIRE interviews director Alejandro Landes.

• "Petr Lom's disappointing On a Tightrope paints a portrait of a group of orphans in Uighur, part of China's largest Muslim minority, who are trying to uphold the great tradition of tightrope walking," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "Reeking of a botched opportunity, Tightrope suffers from acute repetition." IndieWIRE interviews Lom.

• The Monastery: Michael Lerman at indieWIRE finds an "inner beauty that slowly reveals itself throughout the eighty-four minute running time. The film displays extremely careful construction that sneaks up on you when you least expect it."

• Welcome Europa: IndieWIRE interviews director Bruno Ulmer.

Premieres:

• King of California: A "funny, poignant, crowd-pleasing dramedy." That's Tommy DiChiara's verdict at Cinematical. To back up: "Michael Douglas excels at portraying middle-aged men who are a few yards shy of being neurologically balanced. Witness his turns as a pot-smoking writer in Wonder Boys and as a same-sex-loving cop on TV's Will & Grace for examples of this. And now there's another role to add to this list - that of the mentally unhinged Charlie in King of California."

• "The message is all too clear in Life Support, writer-director Nelson George's feature debut based on his HIV-positive sister, Andrea Williams," writes Robert Koehler in Variety. "Subtext and subtlety have little place in this melodrama of a Brooklyn woman working in an HIV awareness support group and wrestling with her own family issues. As a kind but flawed mother and wife, Queen Latifah brings a quiet command and humanity."

• Resurrecting the Champ: "Charged by a knock-out performance from Samuel L Jackson, this compelling story of manly redemption will deliver a winning boxoffice combination of word of mouth and ultimately step outside the generic ring of sports lore," writes Duane Byrge in the Hollywood Reporter.

• Trade: Reviews: IMDb and MRQE.

Midnight:

• "A confident and consistently amusing comedy from Justin Lin, who directed the very fine Better Luck Tomorrow before 'going Hollywood' with the empty-headed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and the nigh-unwatchable Annapolis, Finishing the Game works as sort of a Spinal Tap of the mid-70s kung fu set," writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical. "Completely fabricated and admirably on target, Finishing the Game takes square aim at the ways in which Asian performers spent decades pigeonholed into 'delivery boy' roles, full-bore 'chop socky' caricatures - and pretty much nothing else, really."

• It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE: IndieWIRE has a video interview with Crispin Glover.

• "If you're a fan of comedic experiments like The State, Stella and Wet Hot American Summer, you're bound to find more than a few solid laughs in The Ten, a skit-intensive (and entirely bizarre) amalgam of ideas - clever, silly and just plain stupid," writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical. "Those who don't see the humor in this sort of stream-of-consciousness, ultra-strange and intensely self-referential material will walk out of The Ten with their reaction phasers set firmly on 'hate' - but I discovered a solid handful of worthwhile chuckles in the flick, most of which come from the smoothly reliable Paul Rudd and the still-adorable Winona Ryder."

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Slamdance:

• Bangkok [site]: "Colin Drobnis's understated pic about Americans adrift in Cambodia is an unassumingly engaging and sharply observed drama spiced with tasty nuggets of fish-out-of-water humor," writes Joe Leydon in Variety. "Working from his own script, Drobnis neatly balances elements of picaresque road movies and coming-of-age scenarios while focusing on three men who come to rely on each other while they are strangers in a strange land."

• Joe Leydon: "Appropriately enough for a dramedy about a blocked novelist, Crime Fiction [site] plays like a slapdash rough draft for a potentially more satisfying final product. Scripter-star Jonathan Eliot has dreamed up an intriguing premise - an unsuccessful writer inadvertently causes his girlfriend's death, then uses the tragedy as fodder for a best-selling roman a clef - but pic ultimately is undone by tonal inconsistencies, uneven performances, unsympathetic characters, and an overall air of cartoonish overstatement."

• "One of the best-looking films in Park City, Dante's Inferno [site], is probably also the first feature drawn in crayon," writes Jason Silverman for Wired News. "Alas, bad film writing will be prominent in my own personal Circle of Hell... Still, long after losing interest in the plot (it's really a 70-minute catalogue of bad people) and being inflamed by the film's condemnation of gays and Muslims to Eternal Fire (this is, after all, still Dante), I couldn't take my eyes off it."

• "[A]mong the strongest competition doc subjects is Jeremy Stulberg and Randy Stulberg's Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa [site]," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "Though pointedly haphazard and a somewhat unresolved, Off the Grid is a look at the American Southwest that will still send chills down your spine." Stulberg's got pix and tales at indieWIRE's Park City blog.

• "Unlike a slew of recent low budget drug movies, Nick Gaglia's Over the GW [site] actually has a twist," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "Based on a shocking phenomenon of real drug clinics cum cults during America's War on Drugs in the 80s and 90s, Over the GW may not quite deliver, but it does make a valiant attempt to step up to the level of disturbing films like Mouth to Mouth and Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple."

• Joe Leydon: "Red Without Blue [site] is an understated but compassionate account of twin brothers who struggle to define themselves in terms of individuality and sexual identity.... For all its candor and blunt speaking, Red Without Blue leaves the audience with a sense that some elements of this family saga are being withheld from closer scrutiny." Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

• Joe Leydon: "Tijuana Makes Me Happy [site] is an example of nuevo-realism, with nonprofessionals cast in a semi-documentary-style dramedy shot on location in and around Playas de Tijuana. It's a slight but likable coming-of-age story about a Mexican youngster eager to own a prized cockfighting rooster." Winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature.

• "The shining moment of the narrative competition selection is Baran bo Odar's Under the Sun [site]," writes Michael Lerman at indieWIRE. "[I]t packs quite the sucker punch by luring you in, getting you right where it wants you, then popping a surprise that will leave you with an uncomfortable feeling your stomach, all within its sixty minute running time."

• Joe Leydon: "Deconstructionists will delight in divining the influences that inform Weirdsville, a cleverly constructed, capably crafted and often uproarious shaggy-dog black comedy that riffs on everything from Trainspotting and Quentin Tarantino to Race With the Devil and Elmore Leonard. Nimbly directed by Allan Moyle, this Canadian-produced potential sleeper could command an even larger cult following than the helmer's enduringly popular Pump Up the Volume."

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Coverage of the coverage: The Park City Index.

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Updates: Ok, more wrap-ups: Eric Kohn for the New York Press and Ben Walters for Time Out.

Posted by dwhudson at February 7, 2007 5:50 AM