CW3PR’s RE:treat Lounge returned to the Park City Marriott's Mountainside for it's fourth consecutive year, and once again drew an impressive number of celebrities at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

RE:treat hosted the official filming hubs for MTV and "Entertainment Tonight."

CW3PR RE:treat celebrity guests included: Matthew McConaughey (Sundance: “Mud”); Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”; Sundance: “Don Jon’s Addiction”); Nicole Kidman (Sundance: “Stoker”); Naomi Watts (“King Kong”; Sundance: “Two Mothers”); Alicia Keys (Singer; Sundance: “Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete”); Kristen Bell (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”; Sundance: “The Lifeguard”); Shia LaBeouf...

Even with the 2013 Sundance Film Festival completed, the dealmaking continues.

Today, Radius-TWC (the video-on-demand/theatrical arm of The Weinstein Company) announced it was picking up North American and French rights to “Cutie and the Boxer,” Zachary Heinzerling’s sweet documentary about Japanese-born “action painter” Ushio Shinohara and his wife Noriko, who late in life comes into her own as an artist. Heinzerling won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary competition.

It was the fifth title Radius-TWC picked up at Sundance this year. It also bought rights to the backup-singer documentary “Twenty Feet...

The second weekend of the Sundance Film Festival is the one where the celebrities have all gone home, and much of the frenzied excitement of the first weekend has died down. The focus is on film — and that's not a bad thing.

I spent the second weekend enjoying films with my wife, who except for a screening of "Anita" on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, had avoided Park City and the festival. While I had spent much of the week at the Broadway Theatre downtown watching the 3 p.m. films (and getting especially bored through most, but I'm not complaining -- seeing movies on work-time is a privilege) and my wife was slaving away at work, it was nice to finally enjoy three films with her durin...

The big winners at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival will get one more screening Monday, for the locals.

The movies playing at the annual post-festival "Best of Fest" screenings have been selected. They are:

Eccles Theatre, Park City: "The Summit" (World Cinema Documentary, Editing Award) at 6 p.m.; "In a World..." (Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, U.S. Dramatic) at 9 p.m.

Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City: "Blood Brother" (U.S. Documentary, Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award) at 3:30 p.m.; "Fruitvale" (U.S. Dramatic, Grand Jur...

Filmmaker Kentaro Hagiwara has won the 2013 Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award, for his upcoming film "Spectacled Tiger."

The award was presented in a private ceremony during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and announced Saturday.

Hagiwara is an alum of the first Screenwriters Workshop in Tokyo, a collaboration between the Sundance Institute and NHK, the Japanese broadcaster. Hagiwara is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and has a short film, "Super Star," on his resume.

"Spectacled Tiger," co-written by Kyohta Fujimoto, will be Hagiwara's first feature film. It's a romantic coming-of-age story about a high school trivia whiz...

It's rare for a celebrity to show up on the final day of the Sundance Film Festival.

But cut Jeremy Lin some slack. He's been busy this week.

Jeremy Lin, the Houston Rockets point guard, will be in attendance Sunday for the festival's final screening, of the documentary "Linsanity."

The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City.

Lin's Rockets are playing host to the Brooklyn Nets tonight -- the sixth game the Rockets have played since Sundance began on the 17th. But the Rockets are in Salt Lake City on Monday night to play the Jazz, so Lin's arriving a day early to make an appearance at Evan J...

"Dirty Wars"

U.S. Documentary

***1/2 (three-and-a-half stars)

Jeremy Scahill is a reporter on a mission: To expose the unsavory -- and probably unconstitutional -- things done in our name as part of the "War on Terror." Those things include secret raids against unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, undeclared war in such nations as Yemen, and the ordered killing of U.S. citizens without trial or conviction. Scahill, a war correspondent mostly writing for The Nation, narrates this documentary, sort of an impressionist investigatory expose, that uncovers uncomfortable truths about what both the Bush and Obama admi...

If you can't make it into tonight's awards ceremony for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, you can live vicariously through Twitter.

The Tribune's Sean P. Means will be live-tweeting the ceremony, starting at 7 p.m. Mountain time. Go to @moviecricket to follow the fun.

...

"God Loves Uganda"

U.S. Documentary

***1/2 (three-and-a-half stars)

Are American evangelicals saving souls in Uganda, or engaged in a "new colonialism" and threatening the lives of gays and lesbians in the African nation? That's the question director Roger Ross Williams poses in this moving, on-the-ground documentary. He takes us inside the missionary training at Kansas City's International House of Prayer, and to Kampala, Uganda, where those Christians proselytize -- and bankroll local pastors to set up megachurches and lavish personal lifestyles, while lobbying the Ugandan Parliament for a bill that would ...

"Afternoon Delight"

U.S. Dramatic

*** (three stars)

Kathryn Hahn, always a reliable comic presence in other people's movies ("Girls," "Parks & Recreation," "The Goods"), owns this dark sex comedy. Hahn plays Rachel, a suburban L.A. wife and mother who doesn't want to be just like the other women at the JCC. After a visit to a strip club, Rachel decides to befriend Makena (Juno Temple), a stripper who also bills herself as a "sex worker" (or what old-school folks would call a call girl). Seeking to save her, Rachel brings Makena into her house to be a nanny for her five-year-old son. Makena's arrival doesn't ...

Sundance veterans may remember the 2007 documentary "Crazy Love," which told the story of Burt and Linda Pugach -- whose love story made tabloid headlines in 1959, when thugs hired by Mr. Pugach threw lye in the face of Linda Riss.

Miss Riss was blinded. Mr. Pugach was imprisoned for 14 years. When he was released, he divorced his first wife and proposed to Miss Riss on live TV. She said yes.

Linda Pugach died from heart failure Tuesday in a Queens hospital, the Associated Press reported. She was 75.

-- Sean P. Means

...

Teen tales -- of bullied kids fighting back through film, and a lovelorn girl in a scripture trivia competition -- were the big winners at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival.

Matt Johnson's "The Dirties" was named the Grand Jury Sparky Award winner in narrative features, while Nicole Teeny's "Bible Quiz" won the same award in the documentary category.

"The Dirties" also won the Spirit of Slamdance Sparky Award, which was presented at Thursday's award ceremony by actor/director Thomas Jane.

Other winners:

Audience Award, feature documentary • "My Name Is Faith," by Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres, Tiffany Sudela-Junker.

Audience Award, feature narrat...

The 19th Annual Slamdance Film Festival announced the feature film and short film recipients of this year’s awards in the Audience, Grand Jury, and the Sponsored Award Categories.

The award winners were announced at the annual Closing Night Awards Ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn.

The feature competition films in the Documentary and Narrative Programs are limited to first-time filmmakers working with production budgets of less than $1 million.

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Audience Award for Feature Documentary: MY NAME IS FAITH by Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres, Tiffany Sudela-Junker

Audience Award for Feature Narrative: HANK ...

Director Lauren Greenfield has scored a legal victory in the lawsuit filed against her over the documentary "The Queen of Versailles," which debuted last year at the Sundance Film Festival.

A Florida judge ruled in an evidentiary hearing Thursday that time-share mogul David Siegel's claim that no one from his company signed the filmmaker's release form is "inconsistent and incredible and thus lacking weight," according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter.

Because the release form -- signed by Siegel's son Richard, a vice-present in his father's company, Westgate Resorts -- is valid, the case must be taken to arbitration, rather than being fought in court, THR reported...

Here's what's happening today in pop culture:

• Having revived "Star Trek," director J.J. Abrams will take on directing the next "Star Wars" movie. Do lightsabers give off lens flare? [Entertainment Weekly]

• Speaking of sequels with swordplay, a follow-up to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" starts filming in May. [Vulture]

• It's going to be a very musical Oscar ceremony. [Movie City News]

...

Matt Johnson's "The Dirties" has just been awarded the Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative and the Spirit of Slamdance Award by his fellow filmmakers.

The film, according to the festival, is a "controversial and stark look at high school bullying, and has been the talk of the festival since its premiere screening on Saturday."

As described by the festival jury, the film is “terrifyingly timely and brutally honest.[The film] uses film references to the extreme as dreams of youth and intense growing pains collide.”

Here is the link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYUkdYYy3-U
Official Site: http://www.thedirtiesthemovie.com/
Fa...

"Cutie and the Boxer"

U.S. Documentary

***1/2 (three-and-a-half stars)

Love, marriage and art intersect beautifully in Zachary Heinzerling's charming documentary. Ushio Shinohara, at age 80, is a Japanese-born artist in New York with a long reputation for his "action painting" -- abstracts he paints with paint-soaked sponges fastened to boxing gloves. His wife, Noriko, 22 years his younger, is his patient assistant and most constructive critic, but as the movie begins she's eager to restart the artistic career she set aside to be a wife and mother. Intimate archival footage catches Ushio's early career and a...

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two
Lord, they get me off so much
They pick me up when I’m feeling blue
Now how about you?
— Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
The Swampers were the crack house band at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in tiny Muscle Shoals, Ala., until they left Hall and opened their own studio down the road, called Muscle Shoals Sound.
Immortalized by the most famous song about Alabama — sorry, Bob Dylan, “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” isn’t that famous — the interesting thing is that the band didn’t take on that name until it was name-checked in Lyn...

In the United States, narcissistic musicians say all the time that music is a life-or-death matter.
In Mexico, some musicians say the same thing, but in a literal sense.
Shaul Schwarz is the director of “Narco Cultura,” screening in this year’s U.S. Documentary Competition in the Sundance Film Festival. An Israel native who has gained fame through photojournalism, Schwarz has dived in the deep end with his first feature.
Just as Americans once celebrated criminals such as Billy the Kid and Jesse James, Schwarz argues that some Mexicans glamorize the narco-traffickers as outlaws awash in fame and money.
Musicians are largely responsible for the imag...

Thomas Jane is determined to revive the Western. He’s headed back to the movie genre’s roots and back to Utah to do it.

He will be starring in and directing a film he co-wrote, “A Magnificent Death from a Shattered Hand,” which is scheduled to begin shooting in Monument Valley in southeastern Utah in April.

“It’s something I always wanted to do,” Jane said while in Park City to promote another project - “Sirius,” a still-in-production documentary about UFOs. “I’ve always been a big Western fan. We haven’t seen a really good one since ‘Unforgiven.’”

His project harkens back a lot fa...

Now I'm wishing I waited to buy my Sundance T-shirt.

Starting today, Utah residents get a 10 percent discount on merchandise at the Festival Stores (on Old Main, at the Eccles Theatre, and at the HQ Marriott in Park City).

There's some cool stuff available, including designer items from Todd Oldham as well as Sundance Instiute-supported artists such as Amy Sedaris, Parker Posey and Stacy Peralta. Proceeds go to Sundance Institute programs.

-- Sean P. Means

...

"There Will Come a Day"
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Grade: two-and-one-half out of four stars

The lush, awe-inspiring rainforests of the Amazon is a main character in Giorgio Diritti's third film, and he and cimenatographer Roberto Cimatti capture the dark as well as light elements at play in this intriguing film that ultimately loses its focus. Subjects such as as colonialism, loss, faith, isolation and a colorful life crowd the film from exploring the main character Augusta (played by Italian Jasmine Trinca) and her struggles as he joins a favela community that works alongside the river. Augusta, who is running away from an unfathomable loss, isn't given a w...

"Il Futuro (The Future)"
World Cinema Documentary Competition
Grade: two out of four stars

Chilean director and screenwriter Alicia Scherson's third film chronicles the struggles of Bianca, a young woman left orphaned in Rome after her parents die in an auto accident. Entrusted with caring for her directionless brother Tomas, she is convinced to engage in a get-rich scheme by some of Tomas' shady friends: initiate trust between her and a blind former Mr. Universe and film star Maciste, played by Rutger Hauer. Once that trust is established, she must rob Maciste, a largely defenseless hermit inside his rococo mansion. The relationship between Bianca (played b...

Andrew Bujaski's "Computer Chess," a black-and-white "existential comedy" about the guys who programmed the first chess-playing computer, has won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute announced Thursday.

The prize, presented by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, goes to a film that explores science or technology as a theme or depicts a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

The Sloan Prize has something most other awards at Sundance don't have: Cash. The winner gets $20,000.

"Computer Chess" is playing in the Next program at Sundance.

The institute also announced the recipient of ...

Wednesday was Volunteer Appreciation Day at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival -- a day to pay tribute to the army of 1,800 red-vested souls without whom the festival could not function.

Part of that appreciation was a four-minute film, "Heroes Don't Wear Capes," that played before each of the day's screenings.

In the film, three celebrities are each suffering crises during the festival: Alan Cumming can't find his glasses, Rachel Dratch can't find the perfect hat for her red-carpet look, and Edward Burns is grousing that his credentials don't properly identify his many talents. Each of them calls the same person: Fashion designer Kenneth Cole. Cole, in turn, calls in his ...

"Blackfish"

U.S. Documentary

**** (four stars)

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite lines up her facts, and her interviews, like cannons to take a shot across the bow of one of America's most popular group of tourist attractions, SeaWorld. The film examines the unhappy life of Tilikum, an orca captured in his youth in the North Atlantic, and held in captivity first at a Victoria, B.C., resort and ultimately to SeaWorld Orlando. The movie details the conditions of captivity, Tilikum's value to SeaWorld as performer and breeding stock, and how Tilikum was involved in three deaths -- most recently a trainer at SeaWo...

"American Promise"

U.S. Documentary

*** (three stars)

At two hours and 20 minutes, the documentary "American Promise" is either too long or too short. Husband-and-wife directors Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson train their cameras on their son Idris and his friend Seun as they enter The Dalton School, a prestigious private school in Manhattan. The student body is predominantly white, and Idris and Seun find themselves as part of a handful of African-Americans in class. Brewster and Stephenson proceed to capture both boys' educational lives from kindergarten through high school, a remarkable achievement th...

Three stars

Horrific divorce hardly seems the stuff of comedy, but — with the help of a stellar cast — director Stu Zicherman pulls it off in “A.C.O.D.”

The title of the film, which premiered Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival, is an achronym for Adult Children Of Divorce. And Carter (Adam Scott, “Parks and Recreation”) is the child of a particularly horrible divorce. The kind nightmares are made of.

It’s been decades since his parents, Hugh (Richard Jenkins) and Melissa (Catherine O’Hara), broke up, but time has not cooled their white-hot hatred...

In “Parks and Recreation,” Amy Poehler’s and Adam Scott’s characters are in love.

In “A.C.O.D.” - not so much. They hate each other.

In the film, which premiered Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival, Scott stars as Carter - an Adult Child Of Divorce. Poehler has a supporting role as his stepmother, Sondra. Really. Stepmother. She’s the third wife of his philandering father, Hugh (Richard Jenkins). And, boy, do they hate each other.

Carter is a nice guy. Flawed, but nice.

Sondra, on the other hand, is not so nice.

“I was e...

Tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 23) is the annual BMI Snowball music event, and it will celebrate the “Muscle Shoals” doc (debuting this weekend and only screening once) by celebrating the sound of Muscle Shoals.

Performances at this year’s Snowball will include Grammy Award-winners John Paul White of The Civil Wars (who appears in the music documentary “Muscle Shoals”), Terence Blanchard and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Percy Sledge, singer-songwriter Dan Penn and keyboardist Spooner Oldham (all of whom appear in the documentary.)

“Muscle Shoals” focuses on the incredible story of this small Alabama town from which an incredible amount of hits emanated that changed ...

Shows to check out the final weekend of Sundance:

Paul Oakenfold
The perennial trance and house DJ is taking the stage in Park City to help wind down the final weekend of the Sundance Film Festival.
When • Friday, Jan. 25 at 10 p.m.
Where • Star Bar, 268 Main St., Park City
Tickets • $75 at starbarutah.com

George Strait
The country stalwart is making a stop in Salt Lake City as part of his “The Cowboy Rides Away” tour. Strait will be accompanied by special guest Martina McBride.
When • Friday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Where • EnergySolutions Arena, 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $69.50-$89.50 at SmithsT...

Here's what's happening in pop culture:

• Adele will sing her James Bond theme, "Skyfall," at the Oscars. [Vulture]

• If you're a fan of "Don't' Trust the B---- in Apt. 23," you shouldn't trust ABC, which cancelled the abrasive sitcom. [Entertainment Weekly]

• Another film festival -- SXSW -- has rejected the Paul Schrader-directed movie "The Canyons," starring Lindsay Lohan, over "quality issues." In other words, the movie (which was also reportedly submitted to Sundance) stinks. [The Hollywood Reporter]

...

Grzegorz Zariczny's "The Whistle," a Polish short film about a lowly football referee striving for something better in life, was picked as the best short film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The festival threw its awards party for short films Tuesday night at Jupiter Bowl in Park City.

Other winners:

Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction • "Whiplash," written and directed by Damien Chazelle.

Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction • "The Date," written and directed by Jenni Toivoniemi (Finland).

Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction • "Skinningrove," directed by Michael Almereyda.

Short Film Jury Award: Animation • "Irish Folk Furniture,"...

“Manhunt: The Search for Osama Bin Laden”

U.S. Documentary

**1/2 (two-and-a-half stars)
Now we know why director Kathryn Bigelow had to embellish parts of “Zero Dark Thirty” for dramatic effect. Greg Barker’s documentary covers parts of the same story as Bigelow’s Oscar-nominated drama in a straight-ahead, just-the-facts presentation. Barker starts the story well before 9/11, with the CIA analysts -- most of them women -- who first identified Osama Bin Laden as a financial mastermind organizing an international terrorism network. Interviews with analysts, field agents, and such military notables as Adm. Mike Mullen and Gen. Stanley McChrystal get the details down, and c...

Appearing on the red carpet for “Very Good Girls” were Dakota Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Jenny Lewis, formerly of the rock band Rilo Kiley, who served as composer and music supervisor on the film, and screenwriter/director Naomi Foner. Also appearing in the film are Elizabeth Olsen, Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss and Ellen Barkin.

“Very Good Girls” screened for the first time at Sundance at the Eccles Theatre in Park City on Tuesday, Jan. 22. The coming-of-age tale explores the dynamics of family and friendships as it tells the story of two best friends, Lilly (Fanning) and Gerry (Olsen) who, during their last summer before parti...

"Mother of George"

U.S. Dramatic

** (two stars)

What seems intended to be a personal and intense slice-of-culture drama comes off as grand soap opera. Adenike (Danai Girura) and Ayodele (Isaach de Bankole), Nigerian immigrants living in Brooklyn, get married -- with much pressure to produce offspring. But after two years with no children, Adenike is desperate. She even contemplates a visit to a fertility clinic, though no one on Ayodele's side of the family is willing to admit that he's the cause of their continued childlessness. Ayodele's mother (Angelique Kidjo), eager for a grandchild, gives Adenike some ...

"Upstream Color"

U.S. Dramatic

**** (four stars)

Telling you too much about Shane Carruth's surreal science-fiction trip would be unfair, not to mention quite difficult because so much is packed into it. The main story focuses on Kris (Amy Seimetz), who has to rebuild her life from scratch after an encounter with an unusual kind of identity thief (Thiago Martins) who uses mind-controlling grubs. Kris meets, in what seems like pre-destined romance, Jeff (played by Carruth), a hotel accountant who similarly had to start over in life. What they have to do with a pen full of pigs, and with a mysterious man (Andr...

Is it ever OK to make jokes about rape? Is it acceptable if the rape jokes are made by a woman?
Apparently. At least in "Afternoon Delight," which premiered Monday night at the Sundance film festival.
Writer/director Jill Soloway's film opens with an affluent Los Angeles housewife, Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) telling her therapist (Jane Lynch) that she knows that, compared to the woman of Darfur, her life is easy. That the women of Darfur have to walk 14 miles for water, and they're raped along the way. They get raped again when the get the water. Then they're raped again on the way back home, causing them to spill the water.
It's played for laughs. And there was laughter in the theate...

New shows announced for Park City Live this week:

Taboo (of Black Eyed Peas) on Jan. 22

Neon Trees on Jan. 23 - CANCELLED

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on Jan. 24

Kaskade on Jan. 25

Ke$ha & Kill Paris on Jan. 26

All tickets available at SmithsTix.

Park City Live is at 427 Main Sty. in Park City.

— David Burger

...

What happens to a dream deferred? The story could end up at a film festival.
First-time filmmaker Neil Drumming, a former Entertainment Weekly staffer, is debuting “Big Words” at the Slamdance Film Festival.
Drumming, a music geek, wrote a story about three friends — once members of a hip-hop trio — bumping into each other again and thinking about whether their once-promising career could be rekindled. When they meet each other again, in Brooklyn on the eve of President Barack Obama’s 2008 election, they wonder if Obama’s message of “Change” can mean something for them, too. Will the dream continue to be deferred?
Besides having music as a sig...

Anita Hill showed up to the second screening of the Sundance documentary "Anita' Monday night at the Salt Lake City Library, and the same brave spirit that she showed during Supreme Court Justice's confirmation hearings two decades ago showed up during the Q-and-A afterwards.

Hill was asked about Vice President Joe Biden, who led the hearings when Hill was called to the Hill to talk about Thomas' alleged sexual harassment. In the film, Biden is shown to at best, overwhelmed by the media firestorm, and at worst, dismissive to Hill's complaints.

"I do criticize his leadership in those hearings," Hill said on the same day Biden was sworn in for his second term as Vice Presi...

Utah filmmaker Jerusha Hess and South Jordan author Shannon Hale can pop the sparkling cider: Their movie, “Austenland,” has a distribution deal.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sony Pictures Worldwide Releasing has picked up worldwide rights to the goofy comedy, for a rumored price tag around $4 million.

The movie, which stars Keri Russell as a Jane Austen-obsessed woman who travels to a Regency-era theme park for a chance at Austen-esque romance, was for a while the subject of a bidding war between rival distributors.

"A River Changes Course"

World Cinema Documentary

*** (three stars)

This gently sweeping documentary uses striking imagery to detail the human toll of overfishing, deforestation and industrialization in Cambodia. Director Kalyanee Mam follows the lives of peasants living on the rivers and in the hillsides, where the fish and rice crops are increasingly rare -- and the next generation is moving to the cities to work in factories. Mam's camera finds beauty in this environmental devastation, and in the resiliency of families struggling to survive.

- Sean P. Means

"A River Changes Cou...

"Narco Cultura"

U.S. Dramatic

***1/2 (three-and-a-half stars)

Shaul Schwarz's brutally frank documentary examines the deadly carnage of Mexico's drug war through two whose lives are defined by it. Richi Soto is a crime-scene investigator in Juarez, where business is all-too abundant, with thousands of murders a year, but arrests and convictions are rare.. Edgar Quintero is a musician in Los Angeles, a narco corrido singer who writes songs praising the lives of those on the side of the drug cartels -- a musical genre growing in popularity in Mexico (despite being banned on Mexican TV and radio) and the United...

“The Way, Way Back” opens with a painful scene. A 14-year-old boy is asked by his mother’s boyfriend to rate himself on a scale of 1-10. He says six; his prospective stepfather rates him a three.

And the scene was autobiographical for co-writer/co-director Jim Rash (“Community”).

“It happened to me,” Rash said. “I was asked by my stepfather at the time. I thought that a hunble answer would be six.

“I was wrong.”

Well, he turned it into a movie.

“And I’m proud to say I’m a 4.5,” Rash said.

<...

Two stars

Midway through “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,” there’s a scene in which one of the characters is hit by a car. As he lays injured in the street, a little person and dog stare at him.

Does it mean anything? No. Is it an interesting visual? Yes.

Is it indicative of just how self-indulgent director Fredrik Bond’s film is? Absolutely.

“Necessary Death” is sort of a cross between a Guy Ritchie movie and “Twin Peaks.” It’s horrifically violent, bloody, loud, confusing, bordering on soft-core porn and compl...

Three stars

If awkward wasn’t funny, there’d be no movie in “The Way, Way Back.”

But awkward can be very funny, and there are a lot of laughs in this comedy/drama, which premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival. A lot of poignancy. And a lot of, well, awkwardness.

The story centers on Duncan (Liam James), an, um, awkward 14-year-old boy who’s headed on summer vacation by the seashore with his mother, Pam (Toni Collette); her obnoxious boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell); and his surly daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin).

For odd...

Shia LaBeouf gets the crap beaten out of hom in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.”

Well, the character he plays - the title character - gets beaten to a bloody pulp.

You’d think it was all movie magic. It had to be, right?

Except that when LaBeouf was asked about those scenes, he wasn’t exactly expansive. He wasn’t eloquent.

Heck, he was barely coherent.

He babbled about preparing for those scenes. “Fear does wild things to you, you know,” was about the best he could come up with.

** a half (two and a half stars)

With its four directors, five co-directors, three editors, three co-editors and about 100 collaborators, “99%-The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film” is a marvel of collective film effort. As such, it proves its own ideological assertion that collaboration and hierarchy can co-exist to produce a marketable good, whether it’s a social movement or film. Other than that, this extensive document of the protests that gripped the nation in the fall of 2011 is another installment in the long-running story of angry people out to change the world. Passion runs high throughout, as ...