This Is The End

SUNDANCE FINAL :: My viewing is at last complete, and the awards are in. I won't go into detail about the winners, except to say that yet again the jury opted to bring attention to movies (Padre Nuestro and Manda Bala) that did not yet have distribution. Whether that's a good, admirable thing or an indication that the title of the award should be changed to Grand Jury Prize Excluding Movies That Don't Really Need Our Help, is up to you.

Here's a complete grade report of the 50-some features of which I saw all or part. Please note that the "Incompletes" at the end don't necessarily indicate the festival's worst films, just the ones that I was unable to finish either due to a pressing appointment, or fatigue, or ennui.

A: Once
A-: My Kid Could Paint That
B+: Waitress, Rocket Science, Joshua, Son of Rambow, Protagonist
B: The Last Dining Table, Reprise, Away from Her, Offscreen, Acidente, Driving With My Wife's Lover, Chicago 10, Chasing Ghosts, Angel-A, The Signal, Starting Out in the Evening, Manda Bala (Send a Bullet),
B-: Delirious, A Very British Gangster, Crazy Love, Grace is Gone, Smiley Face, Snow Angels, Padre Nuestro, For the Bible Tells Me So, The Pool
C+: Banished, Drained, Ghosts, Enemies of Happiness, Hot House, Summer Rain, Broken English, Zoo, Black Snake Moan, The Savages
C: Fido, Hounddog, Dark Matter, We Are the Strange
C-: The Island, Year of the Dog
D+: The Good Life
D: Weapons
D-: Adrift in Manhattan
Inc: Bugmaster, Clubland, Four Sheets to the Wind, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

Until 2008 ... (Scott Renshaw)