Me You and Everyone We Know – My absolute favorite film at Sundance. Me You and Everyone We Know is a romantic drama that looks at love from an outsider’s perspective. It covers some of the same kind of ground as Amelie but without the fairy tale. Miranda July does an exceptional job both directing and acting in a film so creative and honest it’s hard not to be an instant fan. Me You and Everyone We Know is one of the finest film debuts from an American female director and establishes Miranda July as a significant force in independent cinema. Me You and Everyone We Know is the kind of film you’ll be thinking and talking about weeks after seeing. When it comes to theaters RUN don’t walk to see this exceptional film. Also expect to see this emoticon used quite a bit online after the film’s release: ))(( Kekexilli: Mountain Patrol – Another one my of favorite films at Sundance, Kekexilli: Mountain Patrol is simply brilliant. Reminiscent of the early work of Zhang Yimou (i.e. The Road Home), Kekexilli: Mountain Patrol follows a band of patrolmen in the mountains of Tibet as they try to protect the Tibetan Antelope from poachers. One of the best shot films I’ve seen a long time, Kekexilli: Mountain Patrol should absolutely be seen on the big screen (do not wait for DVD); many scenes in the film made by corporate video production company look so real it’s almost impossible to believe that they aren’t. At the screening the director spoke about his experience of shooting the film and amazingly the extreme weather you see in the film isn’t an effect. It would be a huge mistake to miss Kekexilli: Mountain Patrol – it’s just that good. The Squid and The Whale – Directed by Noah Baumbach, this film is among my favorite that played at Sundance. The Squid and The Whale starts out as a film about a family dealing with the impact of divorce in the late ’80s and then goes much much deeper, addressing the relationships between parents and their kids and the effect and impact of parents on their children’s personalities. Absolutely fantastic performances from Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels, who gives the finest performance of his career. Newcomers Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline are excellent as the children and Noah Baumbach does a stellar job with both directing and writing on the film. The Squid and The Whale won the Best Dramatic Screenwriting award and the award for Best Direction, and it’s quite deserved. Don’t miss The Squid and The Whale when it comes to theaters; it’s an exceptional movie. The Education of Shelby Knoxx – One of my favorite documentaries at Sundance. The Education of Shelby Knoxx is, on the surface, a film about a high school girl and her attempts to get sex ed taught in her local school. As the film progresses it turns into something much much bigger as it grapples with issues of religion, community and coming of age in the South. The Education of Shelby Knoxx is one of the most entertaining documentaries I’ve seen since Super Size Me and is one that should not be missed. The Education of Shelby Knoxx is set to air on PBS in the upcoming months so it should be easy to get to see, which you should because it’s simply fantastic. Police Beat – Probably the best ‘hidden gem’ of the Sundance Film fest, this film follows the life and love of ‘Z’, an immigrant from Somalia who works as a beat cop in Seattle. While the film is in English, it’s narrated by ‘Z’ in Somalian (with subtitles) – a bold but brilliant choice that gives an insight into the experience of an immigrant in America. Z moves from crime scene to crime scene while dealing with a broken relationship with his American girlfriend, never lingering too long at any one spot. Director Robinson Devor does a great job of balancing these two elements and gets a wonderful performance from Pape Sidy Niang, who plays Z and is a first-time actor. Police Beat didn’t find a distributor at Sundance,