It’s about 3/4 through the festival and here’s an update on what we’ve seen and what’s been good…

Rudo y Cursi  – 6 or 7 out of 10.
This is a pretty good movie about two brothers in rural Mexican who make it big for about a year in the Mexican Futbol (soccer) leagues.  It’s produced by Guillermo del Toro (most famous for directing Pan’s Labyrinth) and a couple others from an increasingly heavyweight Mexican movie scene.  This movie was pretty good, a comical feelgood movie that doesn’t push you too hard, about what you’d see in the theater other than it’s in subtitles (so you’d never see it).  Probably one of the better movies about soccer made though…
Relevant link:  Sundance Blog about it.

Sin Nombre  – 10 out  of 10
Carrie & I were reading on the blogs about this movie and there was a ton of hype about it.  We always wonder about the hype and the movie in reality.  In this case it was accurate…

The setup of this movie was really interesting and big gamble on the part of the studio behind it, Focus Features.  The director was a first time feature maker that somehow drew full studio support to make a movie in subtitles with actors that had never acted before – a pretty remarkable feat!  He did have direct support from the Sundance Film Institute though.   The guy to the right in the photo above (the lead) is a kid from Honduras who was literally never  in a movie before.    But the gamble paid off..  He was *amazing.*    This movie is gut wrenching, out there and violent, it told an awesome story, and really frankly scared the shit out of me about some of the Mexican gangs in way southern Mexico in the border towns.  I have friends and acquaintances who drive down there through Chiapas (where much of the movie takes place) and really looking at this really accurate portrayal, if frankly scares the shit out of me to ever take such a trip.  These guys care about nothing…

We still have a lot of movies and award winners to see.  I have a good feeling this movie will be an award winner.  It is that good.   That said the question is if it ever makes it.    It is just as good as Slumdog Millionaire, if it helps, and it’s always a shame to see movies like this go unnoticed…

Relevant link: Review that talks about the hype too.

Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience – 9 out of 10.
I looked all over for a photo of the film or even a press photo and it doesn’t exist.   I found this one on the ‘net and it’s a picture of Sasha Grey, the porn star who stars as the lead in the movie all about being a high priced call girl.  It’s a porn pic though, not anything to do with the film.  We caught the world premier/sneak peak on Wednesday night in an edit that was supposedly “rough” but actually flowed and told the whole story really really well.  This movie was *awesome,* really natural and real-feeling and may possibly be the next Sex Lies and Videotape, one more time, from the same guy who made that movie too.   It has the look and feel, but way trendier, hipper.  The movie is actually not lewd at all, hardly shows nekidness, just gets to the grit and has a real New York feel…

Soderbergh is a real pro.  It turns out in this movie, not a single actor was an actor as well.  He just sort of turned on the camera, told them what the plot or synopsis was, and let the actors go.  As a result they were really natural.  I mean, really really natural.  This is also why he cast a pornstar to protray the character, someone who would handle the subject naturally.  It was almost amazing, some of the best performances I’ve seen.  Sized up with Soderberg himself (Ocean’s 11, Che, a slew of other big movies) it comes to life well.   This one will be out, it might be obscure but if you can handle hip and trendy, sexy, New York, you should dig it.  It also actually covers the slumping economy pretty well too.  Relevant Link: Another blog posting from someone else in the crowd.

Honorable mentions:
Yes Men Fix the World.  About a 5 or maybe 6 out of 10.  You can google this for more info.  The tale of two extremely balzy Greenpeace style activists who do a bad job of preaching to anyone else but the choir.  But it is nice to see actually and they are funny guys in funny situations.  Polarizing though, unfortunately.    Bummer they don’t have more money to do the subject some good and build the film into something better or more honorable for themselves.

Movies that weren’t so hot,or were decent but “Sundancy” and won’t make the screen, and/or maybe rightfully shouldn’t (sorry if anyone reads this and is offended):

• Rough Aunties.  Documentary that felt like Dog the Bounty Hunter meets women in South Africa doing good work on behalf of women and children.  But they never develop the story, location, etc.  The film maker is completely captivated or sold so as a result she does a piss poor job developing the characters, location, story, etc.  I was almost even polarized against the main characters.
• Toe to Toe.  About two lacrosse players.  Good story but we already saw it with Kiersten Dunst in Crazy/Beautiful and this version doesn’t do much better.  The bummer is the actors were really good actually, especially the white lead actress.

Enjoy!   We have audience & jury winners coming up so I’m sure there will be a couple more.  I really like documenting this stuff as it’s sad when these killer movies never make it anywhere…