Brooklyn was one of my favorite films of the Sundance film festival. Nick Hornby (About a Boy, An Education) adapted the book for the screen, and I especially loved some very sharply written funny dialogue -- the boarding house dinners were an absolute stitch.

Saorise (which we learned is pronounce Ser-shay) Ronan stars as Elis, a young woman with little prospects in her town in Ireland in 1951. Her older sister has arranged through a priest in Brooklyn for her to immigrate with a job already waiting for her. She has a difficult crossing, and is taken under the wing of her roommate who has just been returning to Ireland for a family visit.

Elis lives in a boarding house with several other girls, but is crushed by loneliness and homesickness. She works as a shop girl in a high end department store. The priest, played by Jim Broadbent, arranges for her to start night school for bookkeeping.

Her life turns around when she meets Tony, a young Italian plumber, at a church dance. Tony is madly in love with her, and is like an incredibly sweet young Marlon Brando.

Tragedy strikes back at home and she has to return to Ireland. Tony is fearful that she will forget him and not return.

His fears are well founded, because both her family and friends do all they can to get her to stay. She meets a young man played beautifully by Domnhaill Gleason, and is truly torn both between the two young men, and her prospective life in both countries.

My husband didn't like the character of Elis when she returned to Ireland, and was angry with her for cheating on Tony. There was an audible gasp in the theater when you see that she has not even opened Tony's letters. A love triangle like this is the kind of story I read often, and I could sympathize with how torn she was between the two alternatives. She makes the right choice, but it is difficult and wrenching to do so.

I cried watching this film, and it affected me the strongest of any film I saw at the fest. I heard lots of sniffles all around me in the theater, too. It sold immediately the next day, and is already being talked about for next year's awards season. The performances are particularly strong, especially Saorise Ronan who can convey her inner turmoil with the slightest of changes of expression. I have never seen Emory Cohen's (Tony) work before, and I will definitely be watching out for him in the future. I was pleased to see Domnhaill Gleason get a more serious, and less silly role than most of the other films I have seen him do. He was great, and a formidable alternative to Tony. Julie Waters was a RIOT as the strict landlady of the girls' boarding house, and gets some of the funniest lines of the script.

My husband and I were intrigued by this documentary's premise -- how would we humans react if aliens did in fact visit our planet? Director Michael Madsen has created a hybrid science fiction film with a documentary. He has several talking heads who directly address the camera and us, the audience as if we are "The Visitor". These experts range from a director of SETI, former military and PR officials, a UN representative for Outer Space (who knew there was such a thing?), and various scientists from NASA and Europe.

The director earnestly poses the thought experiment to these experts -- how would you react to the reality of first contact? The former government officials try to draft a press release that won't set off mass panic in the public. The biologist tries to explain to (us) the alien why he'd like to swab the alien's "skin" for tests. The former British Defence minister tries to explain to the alien that we are concerned if the visit is meant to be a threat.

Madsen, the director, uses a lot of super slow-mo high speed camera work -- of street scenes in Vienna and various museums in that city. In the Q and A after the film, he explained that he wanted to give a unique perspective -- as if the alien would see humans in a completely different way. The problem is there was SO much repetitive slow-mo paired with very slow droning music that the effect was soporific. I will be honest that I dozed off more than once during the film.

My husband and I came away admiring the ambition of the film, but were disappointed in the execution and the directorial choices made. It's difficult to make a gripping talking head movie, but there had to be a better way, faster peppier music or something.

Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.firstshowing.net/2014/trailer-for-sundance-doc-the-visit-are-we-ready-to-meet-aliens/

Before the film Sembene! began, Samba Gadjigo told us that until the age of 12 he had never seen a movie, seen television or heard a radio in his village in Senegal. All he had were storytellers. He said he was giving us a gift - the story of Ousmane Sembene. And what a gift it was.

My husband and I knew absolutely nothing about the father of African cinema, Sembene. He started life as the son of a fisherman in Senegal. He left Africa for France and was a dockworker. He broke his back when a huge bag a coffee landed on it, and during the 6 months he spent lying on his stomach in a hospital, he educated himself, reading as much French literature as his union's library contained. He was a communist, and was sent to Russia to learn filmmaking.

He arrived back in Senegal with a 16 mm camera, and made the first African film -- told from an African perspective. His films were a sensation at Cannes, and he was the first African jury member. His films tackled racism, corrupt government in Africa and female circumcision.

In his later years, he became somewhat forgotten in his own country. In the Q and A, the director said there is only one run-down theater left in a major city in Senegal. Mostly, his films have been shown at international film festivals.

The movie is also the story of Samba Gadjigo's long friendship with his "Uncle" Sembene, and how he is trying to share his work with the world. Samba Gadjigo grew up in Senegal, and is now the foremost expert of Sembene. He teaches African Studies at Mt. Holyoke College.

The documentary was wonderful. Very well edited and put together with many clips from Sembene films. Sembene was quite a colorful character! We were lucky to have his son, Alain, at our showing, and he participated in the Q and A after the film. English is not Alain's first language, but he expressed very movingly what it means to him to have his father's work honored with this film.

The revelation of Mississippi Grind is Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn as the sad sack middle aged gambling addict Gerry. Before Sundance, I had never seen his work, and Mississippi Grind was the second film -- the first the excellent Slow West where he plays a central supporting role. His role as Gerry couldn't be more different than the flamboyant bounty hunter he plays in Slow West.

Gerry is deep in debt to the local loan shark -- played so amusingly by Alfre Woodard! He meets Ryan Reynolds at an Iowa River Boat casino. Ryan Reynolds here plays to type as fellow gambler Curtis. He's a garolous gambler always with an amusing story. We're not sure if he's a con man or what, and his back story is slowly somewhat revealed over the course of the movie.

Gerry and Curtis become fast friends, and they embark on a gambling trip down the Mississippi at various river boat casinos on their way to a big stakes poker game in New Orleans.

It's an effective buddy road trip movie, and takes some unexpected twists. Ryan Reynolds is good, but Ben Mendelsohn is excellent.

One of the funniest movies we saw at Sundance this year, in a slate of many comedies. Leslye Headland, the director, is a riot just herself -- the Q and A was worth it alone. Two people tried to leave the Q&A early after the film, and she said, "You're leaving already?! Mom!"

I have never seen Bachelorette (but you better believe I will now), so I wasn't sure what to expect. How do you have a modern Rom Com and keep the key romantic pair apart in this day and age? The film starts with Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie meeting in college and losing their virginity to each other. Years later they meet up again -- at a sex addiction meeting!! They vow to not have sex again, because that would ruin their friendship. So they do have sex with other people, as the title says, while forming a deep bond.

The funniest scene may be Jason Sudeikis teaching Alison Brie how to masturbate -- demonstrating on a large juice bottle. "Be rude to it, and act like a DJ." It was HILARIOUS!

Adam Scott and Amanda Peet are some of the Other People that the two leads sleep with, and both are particularly strong in their roles. I just loved Jason Sudeikis as a romantic lead. It was very refreshing to watch a rom com that DIDN"T star Matthew McConnaughey or Katherine Heigel.

This was probably the most commercial movie we saw at Sundance, and I will bet it will be a big hit. Loved it.

We saw the premiere of Last Days in the Desert at Sundance.

The film is absolutely beautifully shot -- all the desert scenes are from California. It's a very arthouse kind of film, and while I admire it, I didn't love it. Ewan McGregor has the daunting task of playing Jesus AND Satan. The dual roles work very well. At the Q and A he said they used his long time stand in to help him, and that they rehearsed extensively together to get the timing right.

I'm not familiar with Rodrigo Garcia's film work, although I'm sure I've loved TV episodes from In Treatment and other HBO shows he's directed. Last Days he both wrote and directed, and he also was daunted by writing a script where Jesus' name repeated on the page. He started using the Hebrew Yeshua to get past the fact that he was writing fictional dialogue for Jesus.

Jesus is wandering the desert and fasting when he comes upon a family living in the wasteland. Ciarand Hinds plays the father, and he is absolutely fantastic. The mother of the family is quite ill and in fact dying. There is a young boy who dreams of leaving the desert to live in Jerusalem which he has only seen from the distance., but he feels trapped by his father's expectations.

Satan wagers Jesus that he cannot solve the dilemma of this family, making all three satisfied. Jesus stays with the family helping them to build a stone house ("My father was a carpenter.")

There are many quiet still moments in the film, which frankly made the movie seem longer than it actually was to me. I most enjoyed the scenes of Satan taunting and talking with Jesus. I thought Ewan did a fantastic job with those scenes. I talked with other people at the fest who loved this movie, but it just was not my favorite. I admire the audacity of the director, and wonder if the "faith community" will respond to it since it creates a fictional narrative outside scripture for Jesus.

The End of the Tour is an adaptation of David Lipsky's book about a 5 day weekend he spent with Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace at the end of his book tour. David LIpsky was a reporter for Rolling Stone, but the article he was sent to write was never published in the magazine. He tape recorded his conversations with Wallace, and after Wallace's suicide at 46, he published his memoir of their time together, which he said was transformative.

David Lipsky had published his own book, to very modest success and couldn't believe the glowing reviews of Wallace's Infinite Jest. He read the book himself, and was crushed to find the reviews were true.

Jesse Eisenberg plays David Lipsky and an almost unrecognizable Jason Segel is David Foster Wallace. This is not a traditional biopic, but the tape recorded converstations were wide ranging in scope, giving Segel's David Foster Wallace opportunity to pontificate on loneliness, excess and modern life.

Full disclosure, I have never read Wallace's work. At times, it felt like the film was just an excuse to cram the maximum number of David Foster Wallace quotes in. There isn't much of a plot really -- just a buddy road trip. I enjoy Jess Eisenberg in more acerbic roles, like Mark Zuckerberg. I'm not sure I really bought his connection as LIpsky to Wallace and his tears near the end.

Jason Segel, however, I thought was terrific as David Foster Wallace. It was wonderful to see him in a dramatic role.

Being an Illinois native, I nudged my husband at the footage of the highway sign for Bloomington, Illinois, where Wallace was teaching at ISU at the time of the film. Driven that stretch of road many a time!

It feels revelatory to watch a coming of age film truly from the perspective of a teenage girl. It's so uncommon that it feels absolutely radical.

Diary of a Teenage Girl also feels very authentic. It is based on the graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner and tells of the sexual awakening of young Minnie. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie so honest about the sexual feelings of a young teenage girl and that comes both from the assured debut direction of Mareille Heller and the amazing portrayal of young actress Bel Powley. Bel Powley's performance is incredible, and I will be so excited to see her future work.

The film is set in the mid-1970's (with wonderful costumes and art direction) in free wheeling San Francisco. Kristen Wiig plays Minnie's boozy cocaine snorting mother, and Alexander Skarsgard Minnie's mother's boyfriend, Monroe.

Minnie and Monroe have a secret affair, and Minnie loses her virginity to Monroe, Unlike his powerful character in True Blood, here Skarsgard plays Monroe as a rather feckless man. Not overtly creepy or predatory, but a guy so laid back that he just lets things happen to him, and seems surprised when they blow up in his face.

After Minnie and Monroe break off their affair, Minnie has a sexual encounter with a young rich boy from her school who seems quite taken aback at her sexual experience.

Christopher Meloni plays Minnie's step-father, divorced from her mother, but still wanting to have an influence in her life. He is a stark contrast to the shiftless Monroe.

I hope this film is a success as we need fresh perspectives and stories like this one, both by women and about girls and women.

Slow West was my favorite narrative film of the Sundance Film Festival.

It's a Western, directed by an Englishman and filmed in New Zealand to stand in for the American West of the late 19th century. Of course, the taciturn Michael Fassbender is perfect to play Silas, a loner bounty hunter in the old West, He has the presence to express much while saying nothing, like the perfect Western hero.

Kodi Smit-McPhee (who I saw in the futuristic set Western Young Ones at last years Sundance fest) plays Jay, a young nobleman on the search for his lost love. He is fresh off the boat from Scotland, and Silas rescues him , and then offers his services as protector for a steep fee.

The movie moves at a slow pace as they travel together, punctuated with startling action scenes -- all the more startling coming suddenly out of the slow quiet we have been lulled into,

Along their journey, they run into the gang of another bounty hunter, played by Ben Mendelsohn in an outrageous big bearskin coat,. (The actor wore the very coat to the premiere). We find out that there is a huge bounty on the girl that Jay is infatuated with, and her father, and there are many bounty hunters looking for the pair. Silas is among them, although he hides that fact from young Jay.

What I loved about Slow West is how it took the audiences expectations of what happens in the Western genre, and turned them on their head. The final climax shoot out scene, which we all see coming, goes nothing like what I expected, and I loved the movie for it. I won't spoil it by listing in detail what surprised me, but I especially loved that Rose (the object of Jay's infatuation) was quite simply kick ass and no damsel in distress.

While you could complain that Slow West was too slow in parts, I felt like it just added to the impact of the action scenes and the New Zealand scenery was gorgeously shot. It's hard to believe that this is the debut feature of director/writer John Maclean. It well deserved the World Cinema Dramatic Jury prize it won at Sundance.

This was my favorite documentary of Sundance 2015 bar none. The film has two directors, and one is Morgan Neville who won the Oscar for 20 Feet from Stardom. The film is so well edited and solid -- it has a narrative that really keeps you engaged. It doesn't hurt to have two of the most fascinating and witty subjects in William F. Buckley and Gore VIdal.

The film begins at Gore VIdal's home on the cliffs of Revello on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. He is showing off the bathroom which is the only room that he has photos of himself. Pictures of the 1968 debates with Buckley have the pride of place over the bathtub!

The directors set the stage, interviewing people like the former president of ABC. "ABC was a distant third in the ratings If there had been four networks then, we would have been in fourth place." ABC could not afford the extensive convention coverage that the other networks were doing, so tried something radical and new, bringing William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal together to debate the issues. There is wonderful archive footage of both conventions. The debate clips are riveting as each man tries to score debate points and skewer the other. The moderator barely gets a word in edgewise.

The penultimate moment comes in a debate in Chicago when Vidal calls Buckley a Nazi and Buckley uncharacteristicly loses his cool and threatens to punch Vidal in the face! He never gets over the fact that he lost his cool like that. The two men hated each other for the rest of their lives.

There are interviews with Buckley's biographer and Gore Vidal's editor, and cultural commentary by the NPR On the Media host, Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens.

The film concludes with a montage of clips from FOX news, MSNBC, etc. Buckley and Vidal's debates changed TV forever. The model of their debate can be seen everywhere on the TV landscape now.

Just a wonderful film, and so relevant to our times.