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Now that the Sundance Film Festival has announced the 112 feature films and 64 short films in the 2012 lineup, let the reading of the tea leaves begin.
We're all working in the dark about which movies will be worth your time — after all, 89 of those 112 films are world premieres, and some are still being edited and mixed.
The indicator many people use is star talent. E! Online, for example, compiled a list of "15 buzzworthy flicks" that predictably played up the movies with the big stars — names like Bradley Cooper, Kirsten Dunst, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Robert DeNiro.
Sometimes betting on star talent pays off. After all, how often has DeNiro steered you wrong? (Actually, after seeing him in "New Year's Day" this week, I take that one back.)
A better bet is the talent behind the camera. Some of the directors — like Stephen Frears ("Dangerous Liaisons") or Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing") — are known quantities. Others have made great movies before, so there's a good chance that their new ones will be good, too.
Here are 10 Sundance 2012 titles that demand attention because of their filmmaking pedigrees:
"Black Rock" • Director Katie Aselton made last year's low-budget romantic comedy "The Freebie." The screenwriter, Aselton's husband Mark Duplass, is known as an indie director ("Cyrus," "Baghead," "The Puffy Chair," all with his brother Jay) and actor ("Humpday"). So this thriller, about three old friends on an outing that turns nasty, sounds intriguing.
"Detropia" • Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are good at making documentaries with a sense of place — having highlighted a Christian summer camp ("Jesus Camp") and a Florida street corner where an abortion clinic and an anti-abortion "pregnancy crisis center" reside ("12th & Delaware"). Now they turn their attention to the battered city of Detroit.
"The First Time" • The director of this high-school romance, Jonathan Kasdan, has pedigree two ways: He made "In the Land of Women" in 2007, and his dad is director Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill").
"The House I Live In" • Director Eugene Jarecki thoughtfully plumbed the history of America's military-industrial complex in "Why We Fight," and gave a sympathetic portrait of the 40th president in "Reagan." His latest doc, examining 40 years of the War on Drugs, could be fascinating.
"The Invisible War" • Kirby Dick has channeled fury at the system into powerful exposés of the Roman Catholic Church ("Twist of Faith"), the movie ratings system ("This Film Is Not Yet Rated") and closeted gay politicians ("Outrage"). His latest looks at the epidemic of rape and sexual assault of servicewomen in America's military. (Bonus: One of the movie's executive producers is Geralyn Dreyfous, founding director of the Utah Film Center, who was also an executive producer on the Oscar-winning "Born Into Brothels.")
"The Last Elvis" • This Argentine film, about an Elvis impersonator in Buenos Aires, is directed by Armando Bo — who co-wrote Alejandro González Iñárritu's heartbreaking drama "Biutiful."
"Payback" • Canadian director Jennifer Baichwal made one of my favorite documentaries of the past decade, "Manufactured Landscapes," which looked at industrial extremes through the artful eye of photographer Edward Burtynsky. This time, Baichwal adapts Margaret Atwood's best-seller about how debt has become a central organizing principle in everyone's lives.
"Save the Date" • The synopsis — woman (Lizzy Caplan) dealing with rebound relationship as she's attending her sister's wedding — sounds like your typical light comedy, like a knockoff of "Bridesmaids." But the director, Michael Mohan, showed promise with his 2009 alcoholism comedy-drama "One Too Many Mornings," so his new one is worth a look.
"Sleepwalk With Me" • If you've ever heard comedian Mike Birbiglia's stories on public radio (he's featured often on "This American Life" and "The Moth"), you'll be interested in this movie, which Birbiglia (who co-directed) adapted from one of his one-man shows.
"Wrong" • Sundance's bizarre plot synopsis — a guy looks for his lost dog and encounters a nympho pizza-delivery girl, a jogger and "a mysterious righter of wrongs" — doesn't tell half of the story for this France/Canada co-production. The other half is that the writer-director, Quentin Dupieux, made the horror movie "Rubber," whose main character was a telekinetic truck tire. What's not to love?
Sean P. Means writes The Cricket in daily blog form at http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/moviecricket. Contact him via email at movies@sltrib.com. Follow him on Twitter at @moviecricket or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/themoviecricket.