Sundance Institute @ BAM.

"Now in its third year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music packages up some highlights from the 2008 [Sundance] festival, including 22 features (some still lacking distribution) and 36 shorts, plus live concerts, art installations, and miscellaneous diversions," writes Aaron Hillis in the Voice. "As is the growing trend at festivals, the Sundance documentaries tend to be more potent than the narrative features overall, but who can tell the difference between the two these days?"

Updated through 6/4.

Dan Sallitt recommends Ballast: "The proof of [Lance] Hammer's artistic intuition is that he hinges the story's climax on a magical event that only a committed realist could get away with; the proof of his artistic commitment is that he lets the film's bleak setting and ominous imagery have their way with the potentially heartwarming ending."

Tomorrow through June 8.

Earlier: S James Snyder in the New York Sun.

Updates, 5/31: "Anvil! revolves around a band that, in all probability, will forever fail to attain Metallica or Megadeth-levels of popularity," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant. "But if fame and fortune elude them, their abiding, unadulterated love of shredding guitars, thunderous drums and growling vocals nonetheless exemplifies something just as vital: the fast, brutal, never-say-die essence of metal."

"[I]f American Teen doesn't at least get nominated for Best Documentary come Oscar time, then folks at the Academy should seriously re-think what, exactly, makes a film one of the best of the year," argues Erik Davis at Cinematical.

Reeler ST VanAirsdale talks with John Magary about The Second Line, screening tomorrow.

"Terry Gilliam captured slash-and-burn counterculture daredevil Hunter S Thompson in his first-rate film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but little of the vehement political creature was evident," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant. "It's this often overlooked side that makes Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson both an absorbing documentary and an apt follow-up to Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side."

Update, 6/3: "[T]he short films that screened yesterday... signified the most important aspect of the two-week event," argues Eric Kohn at Cinematical. "With few exceptions, the films on display received the kind of exposure that helped validate this frequently neglected format. While some of the titles are available on iTunes, many that were shown to a packed house finally got the long-delayed reception they deserved."

Update, 6/4: For the Vulture, Bilge Ebiri talks with Stacy Peralta about Made in America.

Posted by dwhudson at May 28, 2008 12:50 PM