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Ranking the 31 Films Reviewed at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Film Reviews | Comments (10)



4_New_Stills_From_Kevin_Smith_Red_State_1.jpg

If you ever consider becoming a movie critic, probably the boot camp of movie criticism is Sundance. During our stay there, Seth and I reviewed 29 films (and there are 2 reviews yet to come), and we each saw around 25 - 27 movies a piece during a 5-day period (the reason there aren’t 50 reviews is that we saw many of the same movies).

I’ve taken the liberty of linking each of the 29 reviews we wrote (Take Shelter and Page One are yet to come, and both were very well received). I’ve also ranked all 31 in an approximate order of best to worst, with a plus or minus two margin of error to account for my attempt to rank Seth’s on his behalf. There were a few great movies (probably the first five or six on the list), a lot of good movies, and only six or so movies that I’d say weren’t worth our time. It’s an amazing festival, and for those of you in other cities — Austin, Boston, Orlando, etc. — many of these movies will probably end up at your local festivals, too.

It’s also been a huge year for the movies at Sundance, as almost all of the really good movies have already been picked up for distribution, and even some of the terrible ones (like, The Ledge). You should be able to see most of the features in theaters this year, as well as many of the documentaries (others, no doubt, will go straight to Netflix). There were also several films that received positive notices that we didn’t get to see, like My Idiot Brother, with Paul Rudd, Cedar Rapids with Ed Helms, Project Nim, The World’s Greatest Movie and Pariah. All five have already been picked up for distribution.

Anyway, here are the 31 movies we reviewed at Sundance, ranked from best to worst.

  • Martha Marcy May Marlene

  • The Guard

  • Win Win

  • Perfect Sense

  • Take Shelter

  • Like Crazy

  • Higher Ground

  • Red State

  • Submarine

  • Page One

  • The Lie

  • Another Earth

  • BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey

  • The Future

  • Terri

  • I Melt with You

  • The Music Never Stopped

  • Hot Coffee

  • The Cinema Hold Up

  • Bobby Fischer Against the World

  • Crime After Crime

  • Benavides Born

  • The Art of Getting By (formerly Homework)

  • Miss Representation

  • Knuckle

  • Salvation Boulevard

  • Vampire

  • The Woman

  • HERE

  • Kaboom

  • The Ledge










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    Comments

    Only films that failed as films (as in, no real plot, bad filmmaking, stupid decisions) are worst than The Woman? That's impressive.

    More impressive? Lucky McKee has not once lost his cool over the controversy. Kevin Smith could take PR lessons from that man and become the most beloved filmmaker in America. In every interview, McKee is acknowledging the controversy and explaining the opposing viewpoints before he even says one word about his intentions in creating the film. Smart filmmaker is smart.

    Posted by: Robert at January 29, 2011 12:29 PM

  • Robert -- I will most certainly agree with you. I've read several interviews with McKee since his film debuted, and while I didn't care for his movie, I most certainly misjudged the guy. He's an impressive guy, smart and well spoken, and certainly not Eli Roth. I kind of want to interview him and give him a chance to explain his viewpoints on the site.

    Posted by: Dustin Rowles at January 29, 2011 12:42 PM

    "He's an impressive guy, smart and well spoken, and certainly not Eli Roth. I kind of want to interview him .."

    Yeah, I bet you do, Stephanie.

    Posted by: BarbadoSlim at January 29, 2011 12:47 PM

    You should keep this at the top of the page so that its easily accessible over the next few days.

    Posted by: elgarcon at January 29, 2011 6:53 PM

    Ah man. You didnt see Elite Squad 2. What a pity. I would have liked to seen a review.

    Posted by: Muteki at January 29, 2011 9:34 PM

    No love for "Sound of My Voice"? It was a great movie. I also loved "Another Earth," but I did NOT like the "The Lie." If you like watching underdeveloped characters play themselves in "Hipster: The Movie," then you will like "The Lie."

    Posted by: jzhz at January 30, 2011 4:33 PM

    This is driving me crazy (it's a short drive): who's the woman in the header pic? I's gots to know.

    Posted by: Uriah Creep at January 30, 2011 10:05 PM

    Holy shit, there were films WORSE than The Woman?

    Posted by: Maryscott O'Connor at January 30, 2011 10:49 PM

    I can't be sure but I think that the header pic is Methed out Chrystal/panther lady from True Blood.

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