Photo: Countess/Wireimage
Had a chance yesterday to mix it up with my new favorite movie critic—Mike Tyson. The former boxing champion is in Sundance to present Tyson, director James Toback's punch to the gut disguised as a documentary about Iron Mike's hellraising life up till now. More on the doc later, it's elemental, essential viewing. Anyway, I asked the champ—dressed like a fashion icon in suit and knotted tie among the designer-label ski-resort wear sported by visiting Hollywood royality much to the mockery of the refreshingly untrendy locals—what movies he'd seen lately. Turns out Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino was on his mind. "That was a good one," said Tyson with a secret smile, as if reliving the spectacle in his head of Eastwood staring down his rifle at a few hoods who trespass on his front yard. To hear Tyson's trademark lisp as he repeated Eastwood's catchphrase, "Get. Off. My. Lawn," will probably stand as my favorite memory of Sundance '09. Tyson said he had only one reservation about Gran Torino. "I didn't like the ending. He's referring, without spoiling the twist, to Eastwood playing against his violent Dirty Harry image, as he's pretty much done since Unforgiven. "Look, said Tyson, "I'm not stupid and I know what Clint was doin'. I respect it. But there's something in me that wanted to see him just blow people away. Come on, I think a lot of people in the audience want to see that."

Well do ya, punks?

Photo: Carr/Getty
Put this item under the category of "Good New/Bad News." The upside is that a movie has just sold out of the Sundance Film Festival at a time when money is short and cries of doom for indie movies have infected Robert Redford's Utah film festival like a virus. And yet here is Senator Distribution shelling out a cool $5 million for the police drama Brooklyn's Finest. Yup, it's a gigunda deal and on the festival's opening weekend yet. So what's the downside? The movie is a steaming pile of inbred TV crap. No offense to the leading actors: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle as cops and Wesley Snipes as the bad guy. They're above-the-call-of-duty actors. But all the flashy directing tricks trotted out by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua can't disguise that this is Cop Show 101 baloney decked out with intimations of Greek tragedy. Word is Fuqua will be asked to change the ending, which plays like Taxi Driver as directed by Michael Bay. I'd start the changes with the pretentious beginning and move on from there. The really depressing thing about the sale is that Sundance is supposed to be about fresh talent thinking outside the box. Brooklyn's Finest is so far inside the box you can smell the cardboard. Kill me now.

Photo: Harrison/Getty

It begins again. Here I am in Park Cty, Utah, where Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary by trying to bust through the gloom of a nation's economic crisis and the growing pissy impatience among audiences for any movies that don't have cute dogs or horror scenes in 3D. What does that mean for indie films of mind and heart? That's yet to be determined. All I know as I begin my trek through Sundance's movie menu, not to mention the parties and the temptations to chuck it all and go skiing in Deer Valley when the films suck, is that a really good movie—even a despairing one—can lift your spirits. So here are five of the movies I'm most looking forward to seeing as I begin my '09 Sundance journey:

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The cast of Hamlet 2

Based on what I've seen at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and breaking all the rules and categories set up by the Festival poobahs, I humbly offer the following prizes:

FOR DRAMA: BALLAST

The grand jury consisting of directors Quentin Tarantino and Mary Harron and actors Marcia Gay Harden, Diego Luna and Sandra Oh went with Frozen River, a worthy film that tackles serious issues including illegal immigration. The audience voted for fun by picking The Wackness, about a teenaged dealer (Josh Peck) who pays his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy in weed. But the one indisputably great film at Sundance '08 is Ballast, a striking debut for writer-director Lance Hammer about a black family coming apart on the Mississippi Delta. Yes, Hammer is a tall, skinny white dude, but his poetic and profound movie transcends categories and announces the arrival of a major new filmmaker. Runners-up: Sugar— writer-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden place a baseball recruit from the Dominican Republic in the middle of Huckabee Iowa and speak volumes about the America Way. Momma's Man —a California husband and father moves back in with mom and dad in New York as writer-director Azazel Jacobs examines grave issues with laughs that stick in the throat.

FOR COMEDY: HAMLET 2

Sundance doesn't have a category for laughs. But watch the priceless Steve Coogan try to teach drama to high school kids in Arizona and the laughs don't stop coming. Director Andrew Fleming does wonders with a fine cast that includes Catherine Keener, Melonie Diaz and Elisabeth Shue,who's hilarious playing herself. Hamlet 2, which sequelizes and musicalizes the Bard wth such songs as, "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" and "Raped in the Face," sold for a whopping $10 million—this year's record. It's worth the tariff. Giggles can also be had at The Wackness, The Deal and Choke, but Hamlet 2 is comedy heaven.

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Actresses Misty Upham and Melissa Leo from the film 'Frozen River'

So here are the offical awards given Saturday night for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

See the next entry for Sundance Awards: Mine

You don't think I'd really agree with experts do you?

2008 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AWARDS

Frozen River, King of Ping Pong, Man on Wire and Trouble the Water

Earn Top Jury Prizes;

Audience Favorites Feature Captain Abu Raed, Fields of Fuel, Man on Wire and The Wackness

Park City, UT–The jury and audience award-winners of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by William H. Macy in Park City, Utah. Films receiving jury awards were selected from the four feature-length Documentary and Dramatic competition categories by distinguished jurors. Films in these categories were also eligible for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Film Festival audiences. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Sundance Channel, the Official Television Network of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, beginning Sunday, January 27 as well as on the Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.

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After today at Sundance, it's all over except the awards. Walking in the snow toward the shuttle bus that will will ferry me and other Sundancers to various screenings, thoughts of the better movies I've seen keep coming into my head.

--That moment in Azazel Jacobs' Momma's Man —an extraordinary movie in every way that was stupidly left out of the dramatic competition to make room for, what, The Mysteries of Shitsburg?—when the protagonist decides not to rejoin his wife and child in California but to move in with his parents in New York in the apartment where he grew up.

--The emotinal bond between Melissa Leo, as an abandoned wife, and Misty Upham, as a Mohawk woman estranged from her tribe in upstate New York, as they run lilegal immigrants across the border in Courtney Hunt's touching and vital Frozen River.

--The sheer beauty of the California wine country in Randall Miller's Bottle Shock, with Alan Rickman giving a deliciously wicked performance as Steven Spurrier, the Brit who put Napa Valley wines on the map in 1976 by arranging a blind tasting of French and California wines and creating a revolution that is still being felt after Napa takes down the French.

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Just in case you missed it, be sure to check out Rolling Stone's collection of photos of the many musicians attending this year's Sundance Film Festival, from the men of U2 to Dave Matthews to Diddy. For the full gallery, click here.

[Photo: Getty]

Look for Sugar to pick up award love on Saturday when the Sundance Film Festival hands out its merit badges. Among the other fifteen contenders in the dramatic competition, only Lance Hammer's Ballast and Courtney Hunt's Frozen River have the creative juice to make it a race. Sugar, written and directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden—the team who gave us the formidable Half Nelson in 2006 with an Oscar nominated performance by Ryan Gosling—practically defines what independent cinema is. Miguel Santos, nicknamed Sugar, and played with disarming naturalness by Algenis Perez Soto, has only one thing to lift him out of the poverty of his life in the Dominican Republic—his pitching arm. Chosen by scouts for the minor leagues, Sugar—who barely speaks English—is sent to Iowa to train and to learn about America first-hand. His lessons involve curve balls, sexual twists, racial rivalry and the underside of winning. I won't say more since the movie brims over with surprises. But Sugar is immensely satisfying in the way it drives a stake into the heart of the cliches that send most baseball movies to the benches. If they can stay this trenchant and uncompromisd, Fleck and Boden are good news indeed for the future of movies. *Sugar * lights up the landscape of film. It's a triumph that doesn't just belong at Sundance, it rocks it.

Her name is Kimberly Rivers Roberts. Your never heard of her. Not yet. That's what Sundance is all about—finding new talent, such as Lance Hammer, the writer and director of Ballast. Roberts didn't write or direct Trouble the Water, the behind-the-camera artistry is handled by the extraordinry team of Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Trouble the Water is a documentary that will pin you to your seat. It's an account of Hurricane Katrina from the inside. Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott Roberts were stuck in New Orleans, without the money to get out. So they stayed and helped their neighbors and shot footage of Katrina as she attacked, footage like you've never seen, jaw-dropping scenes of the city before, during and after Katrina struck.

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Live from the streets at the Sundance Film Festival, Peter Travers delivers his thoughts and views about U2:3D, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Hamlet II and The Wackness, all of which are gathering buzz at what is fast becoming the most exciting Sundance in years. Click above to watch the video.

Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

[Video: Jennifer Hsu and Pete Maiden]