If, at the end of the day (make that 10 days), any consensus had emerged about the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, it was that this was one of the coldest and snowiest years on record; that Park City was more overrun than ever with corporate sponsors and aspiring industry players less interested in seeing movies than in being seen themselves; and that when it came to the actual movies, this year’s crop wasn’t as good as last year’s (which almost certainly wasn’t as good as that of the year before). All of those observations — which seemed to be shared by critics, industry folk and even a couple of festival staffers speaking under condition of anonymity — have their basis in fact, but for those of us who see Sundance primarily as an annual opportunity to hold a mirror up to the nose of American independent cinema to see if it’s still breathing, this year’s edition was not without its vital signs. Provided, that is, one... More >>>