Movieline Picks 8 Competition Films to Watch for at Sundance 2010

5) Blue Valentine

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Ryan Gosling has made films since 2007's Lars and the Real Girl, but none have been seen yet (since the Weinsteins continue to delay the release of his Andrew Jarecki-directed thriller All Good Things). Blue Valentine, then, affords us the first opportunity to watch Gosling on screen in quite some time. It's the story of a married couple (Gosling and Michelle Williams) flashing back to better days, and if that sounds familiar, it's because (500) Days of Summer and Peter and Vandy used the same format at last year's Sundance. Let's hope for some original spark.

6) I'm Pat Fucking Tillman

Director: Amir Bar-Lev

The story of Pat Tillman was virtually crying out to be chronicled: Already an unconventional player in the NFL, he quit football and enlisted in the U.S. Army alongside his brother in the aftermath of 9/11. Less than two years later, he was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan that the Army Special Operations Command covered up. Amir Bar-Lev, who investigated claims of fraud in the art world with My Kid Could Paint That, directs.

7) Winter's Bone

Director: Debra Granik

Debra Granik made quite the impact with her harrowing 2004 film Down to the Bone, which won the Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance that year and jolted a then-little-known Vera Farmiga into the spotlight. Can she work the same magic for 19-year-old actress Jennifer Lawrence, who plays an Ozark Mountain girl searching for her drug-dealing father?

8) Casino Jack & The United States of Money

Director: Alex Gibney

Guess he's keeping that title!

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