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Show its greatness lies in its involving ensemble of characters in desperate situations. If "Maria Full of Grace" is the most powerful film in competition that I've seen, "One Point O" is the strangest. Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson have created a futuristic world that that's a bit of "Brazil" and a bit of nothing you've ever seen before. The film " is a combination film noir, Luis Bunuel and David Cronenberg. While the sinister plot can sometimes drag as much as it intrigues, it's the best looking film in competition so far. SUNDANCE continued from page R7 make a film that's at times entertaining and at times disturbing. The World Cinema Documentaries category, starting its second year, is quickly becoming a fascinating realm as well, with the striking "Screaming Men," an exploration of a Finnish performing arts troupe. One of the most topics of the festival is in the Canadian film "The Corporation." An audience hit at several previous festivals, the movie uses interviews with icons and experts and humorous clips from old classic, educational and propaganda films. In over two hours of studious material, the filmmakers argue that the drive to make money goes beyond moral and immoral people because the corporate structure itself causes the problems since by its design, it limits personal liability yet claims the protective rights of a person. J d A - UV. -- 1 A Ui; it ' ti-if- - 1 i if. 1 s MONDAY DRAMATIC COMPETITiOH STRONGEST IN YEARS seen two more strong films in dramatic "Primer" and "The I've With other films I've yet to see like "Napoleon Dynamite" receiving strong word of mouth and "Maria Full of Grace" and "Garden State," this competition program is becoming quite solid, if a little short on masterpieces. There are small independent films, and then there's "Primer," Shane Carruth's $7,000 science fiction drama in competition. Despite his lack of funds, Carruth put digital filmmakers to shame and shot on Super film and got strong performances out of his unknown cast. The film is a puzzling time travel story that avoids the standard time-travparadoxes for developments that are all its own. Carruth, who decided to act in the film because he knew he'd always be on the set, and David Sullivan play two corporate technological scientists who operate a side business with two other friends in their spare time. They decide to work on an ambitious project without their friends and the ramifications of their discoveries slowly SUNDAY THE NIGHTMARE OP "THE MACHiHiSF AND 16-m- si ju it REAL-LIF- E ri Two ' Ill ir l!l L . i'M ' M ' .rrrf ' (' 4 OF "MARIA FULL OF GflACr of the festival's best films debuted with Brad Anderson's premiere "The and the dramatic competition entry "Maria Full of Grace." "The Machinist" is a masterpiece that fully enters the mind of a troubled, sleepless man. In one of the most transformative and brilliant performances ever, Christian Bale looks like a starving man as a factory worker who has withered away after not sleeping for one year. "If you were any thinner, you wouldn't exist," he's told, and it's true. I desperately asked Bale, who lost 64 pounds for the film, if the footage was digitally altered to make him look any thinner, UHiV 1 HORRORS become clear. The film's spiral structure creates layers of puzzles that will likely appeal to fans of works like "Pi," "Mulholland Drive" and "Memento" that demand multiple viewings for full appreciation. At the same time, it communicates thoughts on trust and friendship on the first viewing instead of being a convoluted mess and we understand that if it's a bit complicated, it's because the characters have put themselves in complicated but no, it was all him. His character, Trevor, is a lonely factory worker who finds company only in a prostitute (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and an airport diner waitress (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon- ) whom he tips big. His insomnia begins to play on him psychologically as the film spirals toward a conclusion that denies the standard pitfalls of puzzling films while combining with Xavi Gimenez's cinematography for a hypnotic experience. First-tim- e writerdirector Joshua Marston's "Maria Full of Grace" debuted as one of the best films in competition. With a wonderful cast of unknowns, it is a mostly Spanish-languag- e film about a 17 year-ol- d Colombian girl whose situation of poverty and newly discovered premarital pregnancy leads her to transport drugs to New Jersey. It follows the recruitment and mission, as she swallows capsules full of heroin. If any of them break, she dies, and they must stay in her stomach until she gets out of customs. A riveting scene on an airplane shows Maria and three other women sweating and worrying as they stay on the plane without any control over their fates. While there are certainly political connotations to the film, . 'i situations. Nicole Kassell's "The Woodsman" sees the humanity and personal struggle of a man who could easily be dismissed as a monster. Kevin Bacon plays Walter, a convicted child molester who returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and has to try to readjust to a normal life. The film admirably tries to understand the struggle and the horror that the perpetrator feels about his own reprehensible deeds, while examining the way others treat him. Kyra Sedgwick plays an employee at the lumber yard where Walter gets a job, and she tries to understand and forgive him while most people want him dead. An amazing scene toward the end of the film reveals both the frightening danger of Walter's impulses and himself coming more see Sundance two, page sg ) f 1 1 T J4 k .I'M R8 January 22, 2004 RED Magazine ; . |