The Sundance Half-Time Report vanityfair.com
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Films
Hottest movie: The documentary Searching for Sugar Man, the first film to find a distributor at Sundance this year and one that left its audience in tears.
Biggest dud: The Comedy, the other Tim & Eric movie that was clearly not a hit, if the steady flow of audience members leaving its first screening on Sunday is any indication. (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie met a slightly happier fate.)
Biggest disappointment: Lay the Favorite. At best, this gambling comedy from Stephen Frears is a fun Friday-night movie, but when an ensemble cast includes Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Vince Vaughn, you expect much, much more.
Most controversial film: Compliance. Based on real-life events, Craig Zobel’s provocative drama centers on a teenage fast-food worker, played by Dreama Walker, who follows humiliating orders from a telephone caller claiming to be a police officer. At the Saturday-morning premiere,The Hollywood Reporter reports, the screening was followed by boos and cheers, while some in the audience catcalled the cast.