Sundance, Day 8: The bones of winter

Some quick hits before I run into my next movie.

Just came from "Winter's Bone," easily the strongest drama I've seen here yet. Director Debra Granik was last seen here with 2004's "Down to the Bone" (what's with the ossified titles?), which introduced Vera Farmiga to the mainstream. With luck -- if the movie gets picked up for distribution, which it richly deserves to -- the same could happen to Jennifer Lawrence (in photo above), who's completely believable as a backwoods Ozark teenager desperate to find her daddy before the bail bondsman takes her house away and leaves her family homeless. Told with a minimum of Hollywood touches, the movie's gripping and occasionally horrifying, as Lawrence's Ree works her way through a society of vicious, drugged-out men and hardfaced women. The obvious comparison, if you're looking for one, is to "Frozen River," but halfway through, it struck me that I was watching a Sam Spade detective film set in hillbilly country with a resourceful 17-year-old sleuth willing to keep asking questions and maybe take a beating in order to burrow down to the truth. Few Sundance movies sustain their vibe all the way to the very end, but this one handles it with confidence. Terrific film; hope that it gets bought and makes its way to you.

Saw the much-lauded "Catfish" last night and it's all that and both more and less. A documentary about three New York professional 20-somethings who make the acquaintance of a midwestern family online and then start questioning whether their new friends are all they say they are, it's told with breezy, confident cybertouches throughout: When people get on a plane to travel cross-country in this movie, we track their progress via Google Earth zoom. "Catfish" is fascinating for what it uncovers about identity games in the internet age and it eventually settles in to contemplate a situation both bizarre and deeply moving, but I couldn't shake the sense that the three filmmakers were more shallow than their own film. The midsection, as they chase down the  truth, reveals a casual youthful cruelty I don't think they copped to in themselves, and the last act wades into deeper waters than seem prepared for. And then there are the audience members convinced the whole thing's a put-on -- a Sundance con of unparalleled proportions. I think it's real -- when I asked him after the screening, co-director Ariel Schulman wondered in disbelief how anyone could think they could make this up --but I also feel that there's a wiser movie in here that remained unmade. What did get to the screen is well worth seeing and arguing about; at the very least, you may want to screen your Facebook friends a little more closely.

"The Taqwacores": stylish, in-your-face debut drama about Muslim punks in Buffalo, based on a novel I now want to read. Lots of fun and truly eye-opening -- the characters are both devoted to Islam and totally hardcore, and as such are rejected by both their Muslim brethren and American punkers. Too bad director Eyad Zahra blows the ending with a confusing climactic sequence and a limp lead-out. Keep an eye on him, though, and keep an eye on actor Dominic Naderi as the smartest and most ferocious of the crew -- the kid burns with star charisma.