Skip to main content

Sundance Film Festival · 2010

Sundance Film Festival 2010

US Dramatic Competition

This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,058 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

Programme

15 films · 7 reviews

Jump to a film

3 Backyards (Three Backyards)

A quiet suburban town becomes an intense emotional terrain for three residents over the course of one curious autumn day.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Eric Mendelsohn; Writer: Eric Mendelsohn; Stars: Embeth Davidtz, Edie Falco, Elias Koteas, Rachel Resheff, Kathryn Erbe, Peyton List, Dana Eskelson, Danai Jekesai Gurira, LeRoy Wilson Jr., Kathy Searle, Cory Nichols, Antonio Ortiz, Catrina Ganey, Paul Urcioli, Victor Pagan) , Official site

World Premiere

Blue Valentine

Review preview for Blue Valentine

There's potential with no pay-off, desolation with little downslide.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A couple love and lose.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Derek Cianfrance; Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne; Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Ben Shenkman, Liam Ferguson, Maryann Plunkett, Faith Wladyka, Samii Ryan, Tamara Torres, Carey Westbrook, Eileen Rosen, Michael J. Kraycik) , Official site

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2010: Day Five - shorts in the snow, Blue Valentine

World Premiere

Douchebag

On the verge of getting married, Sam Nussbaum insists he escort his younger brother, Tom, on a wild goose chase of a journey to find Tom's fifth grade girlfriend.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Drake Doremus; Writer: Andrew Dickler, Drake Doremus, Ben York Jones, Marius A. Markevicius, Lindsay Stidham; Stars: Andrew Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey)

World Premiere

The Dry Land

Review preview for The Dry Land

Ryan O'Nan is good value. He is ably supported by Ferrera, as the long-suffering spouse. They're stuck with a script that can't quite find the right voice for its concerns.

James Benefield · 2 out of 5
A US soldier returning home from war struggles to reconcile his experiences abroad with the life and family he left in Texas.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Ryan Piers Williams; Writer: Ryan Piers Williams; Stars: Ryan O'Nan, America Ferrera, Jason Ritter, Starwind, Kate Schroeder, Benito Martinez, Jeremiah Bitsui, Candice Costello, June Diane Raphael, Ethan Suplee, Zion Sandoval, Melissa Leo, Evan Jones, David Smith, Misty Upham)

Full review

World Premiere

Happythankyoumoreplease

Review preview for Happythankyoumoreplease

This is a movie in serious need of pruning.

Nick Da Costa · 3.5 out of 5
A mumblecore romcom following a group of friends struggling with their relationships.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Josh Radnor; Writer: Josh Radnor; Stars: Malin Akerman, Josh Radnor, Kate Mara, Zoe Kazan, Tony Hale, Pablo Schreiber, Michael Algieri)

Full review See: Sundance Daily Diary 2010: Happythankyoumoreplease, Restrepo, Last Train Home and Hesher

World Premiere

Hesher

Review preview for Hesher

An odd mixture of the striking and the squandered.

Nick Da Costa · 3.5 out of 5
A mysterious, anarchical trickster descends on the lives of a family struggling to deal with a painful loss.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Spencer Susser; Writer: Spencer Susser and David Michod, based on a story by Brian Charles Frank; Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch, Audrey Wasilewski, Frank Collison, Devin Brochu, Lyle Kanouse, Paul Bates, Monica Staggs, Allan Graf, Biff Yeager, Brendan Hill, Van Epperson) , Official site

Full review

World Premiere

Howl

Review preview for Howl

The real standout performance is Franco’s.

Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
The story of Allen Ginsberg’s ground-breaking poem is told through a mixture of reconstruction and animation.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Writer: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Stars: James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker, Jon Hamm, Jeff Daniels, Alessandro Nivola, David Strathairn, Treat Williams, Aaron Tveit, Bob Balaban, Jon Prescott, Todd Rotondi, Andrew Rogers, Cecilia Foss, William Fowle, Anna Kuchma)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2010: Days Seven and Eight

World Premiere

The Imperialists Are Still Alive!

Juggling the sudden abduction of her childhood sweetheart as well as a blooming love affair, a French Manhattanite makes her way as an artist in an indifferent, sometimes hostile world.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Zeina Durra; Writer: Zeina Durra; Stars: Élodie Bouchez, José María de Tavira, Karim Saleh, Karolina Muller, Armin Amiri, Marianna Kulukundis, Rita Ackerman, Pierluca Arancio, Karen Lynn Gorney, Oksana Lada, Robert Prescott, Anthony John Crane, Alexander Wraith, Vitali Baganov, Jessica Pimentel)

World Premiere

Lovers Of Hate

The shaky reunion of estranged brothers takes a turn for the worse when the woman they both love chooses one over the other.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Bryan Poyser; Writer: Bryan Poyser; Stars: Chris Doubek, Heather Kafka, Alex Karpovsky, Zach Green, Josh Meyer, Dan Brown, Adam Donaghey, Lana Dieterich, Garry Peters, Kim LeBlanc, Rebecca Beegle, Harper Cummings, Eric Moorhead, Brett Hill, Ray L. Perez)

See: Sundance Film Festival 2010: Days Seven and Eight

World Premiere

Night Catches Us

In 1978, complex political and emotional forces are set in motion when a young man returns to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age during the Black Power movement.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Tanya Hamilton; Writer: Tanya Hamilton; Stars: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamie Hector, Wendell Pierce, Jamara Griffin)

See: Sundance Film Festival 2010: Day Four

World Premiere

Obselidia

A lonely librarian believes love is obsolete until a road trip to Death Valley with a beguiling cinema projectionist teaches him otherwise.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Diane Bell; Writer: Diane Bell; Stars: Michael Piccirilli, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Chris Byrne, Gaynor Howe, Grant Mathis, Michael Blackman Beck, Kim Beuche)

World Premiere

Skateland

In the early 1980s, in small-town Texas, dramatic events force a 19-year-old skating rink manager to look at his life in a very new way.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Anthony Burns; Writer: Anthony Burns, Brandon Freeman, Heath Freeman; Stars: Ashley Greene, Brett Cullen, Shiloh Fernandez, Taylor Handley, James LeGros, A.J. Buckley, Haley Ramm, Melinda McGraw, D.W. Moffett, Ellen Hollman, David Sullivan, Casey LaBow, Krystal Mayo, Heath Freeman, Halley Rachal)

World Premiere

Sympathy For Delicious

A newly paralysed DJ gets more than he bargained for when he seeks out the world of faith healing.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Mark Ruffalo; Writer: Christopher Thornton; Stars: Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Linney, John Carroll Lynch, Noah Emmerich, Nathan Wetherington, Dov Tiefenbach, Diana Terranova, Milissa Skoro, Daniel Escobar, Erin Way, Sandra Seacat, Niko Nicotera, Tiffany T. Tynes)

World Premiere

Welcome To The Rileys

Review preview for Welcome To The Rileys

While this might sound like a trite story of redemption, it’s one infused by both a unique aesthetic and compelling central performances.

Nick Da Costa · 4 out of 5
On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman.

(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Jake Scott; Writer: Ken Hixon; Stars: Kristen Stewart, James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, Lance E. Nichols, David Jensen, Kathy Lamkin, Michael Wozniak, Sharon Landry, Russell Steinberg, Kim Collins, Elliott Grey, Tiffany Coty, Garrett Allain, Allen Boudreaux, Kerry Cahill)

Full review

World Premiere

Winter's Bone

Review preview for Winter's Bone

An unrelenting, yet utterly mesmerising cinematic vision.

Nick Da Costa · 5 out of 5
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Debra Granik; Writer: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Daniel Woodrell; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Isaiah Stone, Shelley Waggener, Ashlee Thompson, William White, Casey MacLaren, Valerie Richards, Beth Domann, Tate Taylor, Cody Brown, Ronnie Hall, Sheryl Lee)

Full review

World Premiere