As Seen at Sundance

The talk of the ski town this year was chilly.

- Bilge Ebiri and Fran Hoepfner

IN JANUARY, ACTORS, directors, writers, documentarians, distributors, and an entire Vulture photo studio descended on the 41st Sundance Film Festival. Rumored to be its penultimate time in Park City, there was a bittersweet, muted enthusiasm to the event. Whispers echoed through Main Street: Maybe it was an off year; maybe the festival had lost its juice.

Still, a few gems emerged from the slush. Let's break down the best and the meh-st.

Bilge Ebiri: I've never been a big "This was a bad Sundance year" guy, but I think I finally have to say it: This was a bad Sundance year. Of course, that opinion largely rests on the fact that a lot of the higher-profile projects whiffed. Whether it was the failure of genre titles like Opus, The Thing With Feathers, and Rabbit Trap, or the almost incomprehensible stupidity of something like the cabbage-smuggling comedy Bubble Squeak, or the middling indie homecomings of Bill Condon's musical Kiss of the Spider Woman and Justin Lin's drama based on a true story, Last Days, every day there seemed to be some "huge" movie that we all lined up for and were massively disappointed by. It feels like we're still witnessing some of Hollywood's poststrike doldrums; I was surprised by how many films needed a few more script passes. So maybe this year's lackluster lineup was a one-off. What were some of the highlights for you?