With regard to their dramatic competition, Sundance state: "One of the most recognisable sections of the Festival, the films in this year's Dramatic Competition employ a range of aesthetic invention and reinvention of genre. From the light-hearted exploration of the darker side of human nature and relationships to stories that address serious issues of class and race, the 2008 Dramatic Competition represents a range of distinctive voices and unique storytelling. This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,068 submissions. Each film is a world premiere."
Before being deployed for active duty, a young Marine takes a four-day Thanksgiving leave to return home to Bakersfield, California. There he meets a young woman, tries to connect with old friends and confronts his volatile home life.
(Year: 2007; Director: Neil Abramson; Stars: Nick Cannon, Melonie Diaz, Matt O'Leary, Jay Hernandez, Tom Sizemore, Chi McBride)
Anywhere, U.S.A.
Told in three segments, ranging from satirical to tragic, the film is a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics.
(Year: 2007; Director: Anthony Haney-Jardine; Stars: Perla Haney-Jardine)
Ballast is absorbing because it bravely avoids dramatic cliches to deliver a more positive experience than might be expected.
An emotionally frayed family find their lives torn apart in a small Mississippi Delta town.
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Lance Hammer; Writer: Lance Hammer; Stars: Michael J Smith Sr, Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail)
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Despite the busy plotwork, surprisingly little actually happens.
A sex-addicted med school dropout pays his mum's hopital bills by running a restaurant scam... but with her memory fading fast, will he ever find out the truth about his dad?
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Clark Gregg; Writer: Clark Gregg, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk; Stars: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brad Henk)
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Although it is an actual river which divides the two countries, Hunt aims to explore societal divisions that run much deeper than that.
Two women enter an uneasy partnership to smuggle illegal immigrants from Canada to the US.
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Courtney Hunt; Writer: Courtney Hunt; Stars: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O'Keefe, Mark Boone Junior, James Reilly, Jay Klaitz, John Canoe, Dylan Carusona, Michael Skye, Gargi Shinde, Rajesh Bose, Azin Jahanbakhsh, Jack Phillips, James Phillips)
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Despite dealing with some very heavy issues Palka has a surprisingly light touch, levening the more bleak moments with some rich, dark comedy.
Offbeat romance between a damaged young woman and exclusive interview with Marianna Palka and Jason Ritter.
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Marianna Palka; Stars: Marianna Palka, Jason Ritter, Eric Edelstein, Mark Webber, Martin Starr, Charles Durning, Tom Arnold, Jesse Garcia, Katherine Waterston, Elisabeth Waterston)
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Familiar situations are the order of the day. Chalk and cheese personalities are thrown together and must overcome some ordeal, which is normally an old flame.
The love life of a man with a morbid calling.
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Geoffrey Haley; Writer: Geoffrey Haley; Stars: Wes Bentley, Winona Ryder, Ray Romano, Brent Miller, Alison Moir, Jill Sayre, Allan Rich, Kurt Caceres, Mickey Mickey)
Based on Michael Chabon's novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city.
(Year: 2007; Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber; Stars: Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Sienna Miller, Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte)
North Starr
After witnessing the brutal murder of his best friend, a young African American man flees the badlands of Houston and finds himself in Trublin, a backward, racially intolerant town where he meets an unlikely kindred spirit who takes him under his wing.
(Year: 2007; Director: Matthew Stanton; Stars: Jerome Hawkins, Matthew Stanton, Chris Sullivan, Isaac Lamb, Zach Johnson, Wayne Campbell)
Phoebe In Wonderland
Confounded by her clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a little girl takes her already dysfunctional family down the rabbit hole when she seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher.
(Year: 2007; Director: Daniel Barnz; Stars: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman, Campbell Scott, Peter Gerety)
A comic tale of three would-be entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. The clash of their mismatched personalities soon dissolves the business into a morass of recriminations, retaliations, kidnapping and murder in this parable of American dreams and delusions.
(Year: 2007; Director: Paul Schneider; Stars: Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Kristen Wiig, David Hornsby)
Made on a minuscule budget the feature took eight years to get from script to screen, one wonders how much more innovative it might have seemed back those eight years.
Node Runner - if they catch you you're through!
(Country: US, Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Alex Rivera; Writer: Alex Rivera, David Riker; Stars: Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas)
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who last teamed up for Half Nelson, chronicle the journey of Dominican baseball star Miguel "Sugar" Santos recruited from his native country to play in the US minor leagues.
(Year: 2008; Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; Stars: Algenis Perez Soto)
What really hold the attention in this playful comedy are the central perfomances.
A teen drug dealer swaps spliffs for psychiatry in the long, hot New York summer of 1994.
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Jonathan Levine; Writer: Jonathan Levine; Stars: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man)
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