SUNDANCE 2005

But no, probably not.

Will there be many Garden State clones?

The patriarch (Jeff Daniels) of an eccentric Brooklyn family claims to once have been a great novelist, but he has settled into a teaching job. When his wife (Laura Linney) discovers a writing talent of her own, jealousy divides the family, leaving two teenage sons to forge new relationships with their parents. Linney's character begins dating her younger son's tennis coach. Meanwhile, Daniels' character has an affair with the student his older son is pursuing.

and

Brendan Fry is a loner at his high school, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves turns up dead, he plunges into the school's social strata like a fist through a honeycomb to find the "who" and "why," with the same single-minded devotion to his self-appointed task as the hard-boiled heroes of old.

The film is rife with familiar character types in deliciously unfamiliar roles: the sociopathic sexpot is the queen of the drama geeks; the chief of police is the vice principal; the trusty operative is a nerd in coke-bottle glasses; the heavy (brilliantly portrayed by Lukas Haas) is a 26-year-old drug dealer who lives in his mom's basement; and of course the femme fatale is now the head cheerleader.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt unleashes an inspired performance as the fast-talking, ultracool protagonist. Johnson displays a complete understanding of cinematic language, paying homage to the classics but also creating his own style by injecting the film with contemporary exuberance, humor, and locale. Brick is a directorial debut of extraordinary promise.

et al.

So basically American Beauty except they've staved off the "Hollywood views Middle America as stultifying and conformist" critique by setting it in Brooklyn.

While there is no nudity, no sex, and no violence in The Aristocrats, this is one of the most shocking and, perhaps for some, offensive films you will ever see. But its provocativeness is never gratuitous; it creates in its own singular fashion an absolutely arresting portrait of comic art. (Directed by Paul Provenza AND PENN JILLETTE)

Director:
Alexandra Kerry

A nine-year-old girl faces reality through her imagination as she welcomes her father home from war.

"First-timer Ben Wolfinsohn artfully employs a peppy art-rock score to lend the production a tenderly satirical glow. His actors, hailing from bands in Los Angeles's underground music scene, deliver unpretentious, wonderfully dorky performances that will have you laughing out loud, falling in love, and thanking your lucky stars you're no longer 17.— Caroline Libresco" = "Napoleon Dynamite made how much?"