Dances With Films: 10 Sundance movies to look out for

Buried (Dir. Rodrigo Cortes)



As any fan of the films of Sidney Lumet will tell you, films set in one location can often be intense and claustrophobic. Director Rodrigo Cortes takes the intense and claustrophobic one location idea to an extreme by setting an entire 90-minute movie in a coffin. Ryan Rynolds is the man in the dark. All he knows is that he's a Westerner literally trapped behind enemy lines in Iraq. It's an eye-catching premise but whether there is enough in the high-concept idea to sustain a feature film remains to be seen.

Howl (Dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)



A film about a beatnik poet in San Francisco who faced an obscenity trial for publishing his poetry; this is the kind of film that really appeals to the liberal hearts and minds of the Sundance fraternity. James Franco was excellent in another film set in the political hotbed of seventies San Fransisco last year in Milk and now he has further chance to display his acting chops as the central beatnik figure, Allen Ginsberg. Co-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman seem to be inspired by the approach used by George Clooney in Good Night, And Good luck by incorporating actual TV footage into the narrative. An avant-garde animation within the film has also caught the eye.

The Company Men (Dir. John Wells)



For all the acclaim given to Jason Reitman's Up In The Air, the portrayal of corporate down-sizing was more than a little toothless. The Company Men will hopefully delve deeper into the murky world of down-sizing as it follows an ensemble playing casualties of the recession doing some major soul-searching in the wake of major industrial change. The impressive casts includes Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner as a bricklayer. Hopefully this will be the meaningful exploration of the problems facing the modern business world that the cinema industry is yearning for.

Animal Kingdom (Dir. David Michod)



An Australian film about a teenager battling for his survival within the confines of a dangerous criminal family, Animal Kingdom looks like it could be a heavyweight crime thriller in the vein of Heat or Goodfellas. Delving into the seedy underbelly of Melbourne, the film depicts an explosive clash between Australian authorities and the powerful and ubiquitous criminal underground. Director David Michod's film triumphed in the World Dramatic category.

Winter's Bone (Dir. Debra Granik)



You can't really profile a list of films to impress at Sundance without mentioning the winner of the top prize at the festival, the much coveted Dramatic Jury prize. Last year it went to Precious; this year the top honour was rewarded to the adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone. Directed by Debra Granik, the film is a thriller about a determined 17-year-old girl who braves the Missouri mountains and drug gangs that reside there to hunt down her fugitive father. Early footage suggests the tone of the film is inline with the continuing downbeat mood and world-weariness that has been present in a number of films of late. The consensus from the festival is that Winter's Bone is an interesting mixture of mystery and family drama. The buzz is growing.

Other films of note featured at Sundance include Blue Valentine, potentially this year's (500) Days of Summer with an organic relationship between Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Welcome To The Riley's promises to do something new with the tired cliché of 'businessman befriends tart with a heart' - Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini feature. The Kids Are Alright is a film that probes compellingly at the impossible reality facing a mother trying to feed her family in tough economic circumstances. Restrepo, meanwhile, is a film following a platoon in a deadly part of Afghanistan - it took the top honour in the Documentary category.

Looking for a pattern from forthcoming films is usually senseless given the eclectic nature of film genres. This year though, there is a strong theme emerging. The independent film industry seems to be reflecting a number of the social anxieties and darker themes that have began to permeate the current world. Of late, cinema has been incredibly downbeat; it seems as if that trend will continue.

Ironically, the darkest subject is handled in the lightest fashion in the only out-and-out comedy profiled at Sundance, namely Four Lions. Independent cinema may not be about to provide a light barrel of laughs but the films to come in 2010 will surely be discerning, thought-provoking and meaningful.