Well, we made it. We braved many a blizzard (record snowfall, people), spotted unlikely attendees (Spike Lee, Common, Ice-T), and trudged endless wait-list lines. (Note to self: Keep whiskey on your person.) After sorting through loads of cinema, we narrowed down the favorites that had festers abuzz.
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The Gist: Bit player Melanie Lynskey steps into the spotlight as Amy, a sad divorcee using sex with a teenager as a Band-Aid to cover the sting of having to move back in with her parents.
The Buzz: Todd Louiso’s comedy opened the fest, and said teenager, played by Christopher Abbott (you may remember him from last year’s Sundance success Martha Marcy May Marlene), has found his breakout role.
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The Gist: Four Aussies (including Joel Edgerton, who just wears conflict so well) head to Cambodia for a hedonistic tropical romp, but only three return home.
The Buzz: Animal Kingdom actor-turned-director Kieran Darcy-Smith shared script responsibility with his lead actress (and wife), Felicity Price. Their debut — told in nonlinear form and based on truth — made audiences gasp first, applaud later.
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The Gist: Indie genre darling Brady Corbet is Simon, a recent college grad who takes his dark soul (and killer playlist — here’s to you, LCD Soundsystem) to the City of Light.
The Buzz: Director Antonio Campos’s use of long, tedious shots and nonstop sexcapades make it a tough sell but a brilliant watch for Borderline Films fans. (Mainstream buyers bailed left and right during the press and industry screening, but any film that can divide an audience is worth your time.)
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The Gist: Richard Gere’s turn at playing unfaithful gets him into a pickle requiring help from a gone-straight criminal.
The Buzz: Gere’s celebrity factory may have drawn the masses, but it was Drive composer Cliff Martinez’s score and Nate Parker’s performance (reminiscent of Friday Night Lights’s Vince) that stole the show.
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The Gist: Ari Graynor delights in a lighthearted comedy about two college frenemies who hang up the conflict and start a lucrative, naughty biz.
The Buzz: Focus Features answered its (booty) call.
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The Gist: Indie sweetheart Katie Aselton (remember The Freebie?) directs and stars, with Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth, in her thriller about a girls’ trip gone wild — and brutal.
The Buzz: Part of the Park City at Midnight series (a the-rule-is-there-are-no-rules kind of film section), it premiered to a loudmouthed, rowdy bunch and hooked the buyers at LD Distribution.
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The Gist: The man who stuck Ryan Reynolds in a box back in 2010 returns with a paranormal head-scratcher starring Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro, and Elizabeth Olsen.
The Buzz: During his film introduction, director Rodrigo Cortés seemed apologetic for making such a polarizing film. His advice: “Don’t expect anything; it has an energy of its own.” We concur.
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The Gist: Benh Zeitlin’s debut narrative composed of nonactors follows 6-year-old Hushpuppy, whose father, Wink, gets sick. With the apocalypse looming, she leaves her Southern delta known as the Bathtub to find her mother. Just go with it.
The Buzz: Audiences stood with roaring applause; several big-time buyers, including The Weinstein Company and Sony Pictures Classics, bid on rights to tame the beast. In the end, Fox Searchlight secured the reins.
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The Gist: Spike Lee surfaces with a sincere portrait of a young Atlantan who moves to Brooklyn for the summer to live with his preachy grandfather, whom he’s never met. (Lee’s cult-loved Do the Right Thing character Mookie has a supporting role, too.)
The Buzz: A very verbal and defensive Spike Lee swears (with very colorful language, mind you) Red Hook is not a sequel.
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The Gist: Terriers writer Leslye Headland commands the lens with her hard-core comedy about three hot chicks (you know who they are) playing second fiddle to the fat girl from high school.
The Buzz: There wasn’t an empty seat up for grabs, and hundreds of wait-listers were turned away. Looks like the mean film already has a mean following.
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The Gist: A paralyzed graffiti artist lives strong and gets his creative stroke back with the invention of a device that reads his eye movements (think The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
The Buzz: This inspirational documentary actually belongs to ultra-indie film fest Slamdance but tags a special place in the heart of Lance Armstrong.
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