baho-1

One of the best parts of Sundance is seeing movies that you would otherwise almost certainly miss. Unless you're a real art-house devotee, you probably don't catch many documentaries. Only a handful get any recognizable distribution. Fortunately, Sundance has increased its commitment to documentaries in recent years.

Shakespeare Behind Bars is a powerful documentary about a dramatic production group at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. Every year a group of inmates present a Shakespearean play. Director Hank Rogerson and his crew follow the troupe as roles are self-selected, interpreted, rehearsed and ultimately performed.

The movie is filled with fascinating revelations for those of us that have not been exposed to prison environments. Despite the labels we know them by (convict, felon, murderer, etc.) we soon began to appreciate and respect these men as thinking feeling human beings. Serendipitously, the play chosen for the year of filming was The Tempest, with its penetrating focus on forgiveness and redemption. The actors all grapple with the relevance of the play to their lives, finding patterns and parallels with their characters and the meaning of the drama.

For a documentary film, like a book, the best that can be hoped for is that we experience something that changes our lives. Shakespeare Behind Bars was a personal revelation for me. "O brave new world, that has such creatures in it."

The Hero was made completely in Angola, which is noteworthy given the country doesn't have a movie industry. So making the movie at all is a fairly remarkable accomplishment, but The Hero was sufficiently impressive to win the World Dramatic Grand Prize at Sundance. (Apparently, this was something the director had never expected, as he had left the festival before the winners were announced. The "sales agent" was the only one left to talk about the movie at the awards screening!) This is a powerful, touching and compassionate film about the intersecting lives of individuals as Angola attempts to rebuild from within after a devastating 30-year civil war. First-time director Zeze Gamboa clearly has an intimate understanding of the challenges facing the country. (Interesting fact, there are over three active land mines in Angola for every one person!) But at the same time, you can feel Gamboa's conviction that humanity can shine through the challenges and adversity. And while rebuilding the infrastructure and curing the social ills will take time, the human spirit can still triumph through individuals.

This is an inspiring and enlightening movie.

From the producer of the raw crime flick Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as Snatch, comes another gritty British gangster movie. This is a genre that has become increasingly popular lately, typically featuring highly stylized violence, gratuitous sex, at least 100 F-words and a few mandatory plot-twisting double-crosses in the end. Layer Cake follows the formula carefully, but a lack of inspired writing causes it to miss the mark as a great, or even really good, crime movie.

Having said all that, this film has two things going for it: a steady funnel of action that keeps a firm grip on audience interest, and a compelling performance by Daniel Craig.

Unfortunately, I missed quite a bit of dialog in the movie because I'm not fluent in British. Oh I could catch a word here and there, but I do with they'd speak more slowly for us foreigners.