Sundance film shorts serve a variety plate

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get with a short-film compilation, though with these seven works — selected from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival — the batting average is pretty high.

The content ranges from the white-on-white animation of the sci-fi themed "The Eagleman Stag" to the dark Russian submarine tale "Deeper Than Yesterday."

A couple of road dramas are intriguing: "The Strange Ones" (about a possible child abduction) and "We're Leaving" (about a Southern couple relocating their pet alligator).

Comedy is well represented by the single-shot Swedish comedy "Incident By a Bank" (about a botched robbery), and actor Lake Bell's directing effort, "Worst Enemy," about a woman (Michaela Watkins, formerly of "Saturday Night Live") who continually shoots down her best intentions.

But the most fascinating is Trevor Anderson's five-minute documentary "The High Level Bridge," a tribute to an icy bridge in Edmonton, Alberta, and the people who have committed suicide by jumping off of it. —

HHH

Sundance short films 2011

Opens Friday, Dec. 9, at the Tower Theatre; not rated, but probably PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language; some shorts are subtitled; 86 minutes.