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Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
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The Sundance "buzz" will soon find its way to Cincinnati. Many of this year's Sundance films came to Park City, Utah with a distribution deal intact. Others were bought during the festival frenzy. A few more will be acquired during post-Sundance deal making. So Cincinnati audiences can have their own Sundance experience. And if you squint hard enough, the guy sitting next to you just might pass for "Bob" Redford himself.
Done Deals
· The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
The debut release of Paramount Classics stays true to the coming-of-age tradition of indie film. Adrian Grenier plays the film's title hero, a young man returning to a New York town in 1984 after a disastrous stay in England with his mother. (Paramount Classics)
· Black Cat, White Cat
Filmmaker Emir Kusturica uses his Danube roots for another slapstick tale of gypsy hijinks. For fans of Kusturica's somber tale Underground, it's a radical change in storytelling. (October)
· Cookie's Fortune
Veteran filmmaker Robert Altman's ensemble drama opened the festival with positive acclaim. An aging Southern debutante (Patricia Neal) and her eccentric nieces (Glenn Close and Julianne Moore) wreak havoc on their quiet community. (October Films)
· Go
Swingers director Doug Liman pairs with TV starlet Katie Holmes for a funky tale from the Los Angeles rave scene. (TriStar)
· Hideous Kinky
Kate Winslet emerges from her post-Titanic celebrity by playing a hippie woman who leaves London and takes her two young daughters on a quest for inner fulfillment in 1970s Marrakech. Winslet's strong performance and Gillies MacKinnon's dazzling filmmaking are a winning pair. (Stratosphere)
· The Loss of Sexual Innocence
Brit filmmaker Mike Figgis turns self-reflective with an artsy meditation on the nature of love, sexuality and violence. The result is a non-linear tale about a British director, Nic (Julian Sands), who is about to embark on a new film project in Tunisia. (Sony Pictures Classics)
· Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
British writer/director Guy Ritchie struck box-office gold in Britain with this stylish and funny homage to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. After losing in a high-stakes card game, a group of buddies seek out quick cash to pay off their debt. (Gramercy)
· Lovers of the Arctic Circle
Spanish filmmaker Julio Medem keeps things dreamy in this love story about a boy and girl who meet at age 8 and their fateful lives together. (Fine Line)
· The Minus Man
Veteran-scribe-turned-director Hampton Fancher plays Hitchcock with this subtle portrait of a serial killer (Owen Wilson) with a winning smile, a quiet manner and a flask of poisoned Amaretto. Rocker Sheryl Crow makes her film debut. (The Shooting Gallery)
· Ravenous
Antonia Bird pairs Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle in this Donner Party-like tale of cannibalism. After Fox fired initial director Milcho Manchevski, it was up to Bird to finish the shoot. (Fox)
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The Blair Witch Project
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· Run Lola Run
Writer/director Tom Tykwer mixes animation, a trippy soundtrack and an energetic lead actress (Franka Potente) into a hip-hop tale of a woman's desperate search for money to save her boyfriend's life. (Sony Pictures Classics)
· SLC Punk!
Two dedicated punk rockers named Stevo (Matthew Lillard) and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) fight the God-fearing folk of 1980s Salt Lake City in director/writer James Merendino's Rock drama. (Sony Pictures Classics)
· Three Seasons
First-time filmmaker Tony Bui interlocks the fortunes of a flower girl, a street urchin, a cyclo driver, an ex-Marine and a prostitute in this tale set in the bustle of postwar Saigon. Bui's film is the first American indie to be shot in Vietnam. (October Films)
· The 24 Hour Woman
Veteran indie filmmaker Nancy Savoca casts Rosie Perez as a TV producer and first-time mother in this frantic comedy about the hectic life of parenting and professional careers. (The Shooting Gallery)
· A Walk on the Moon
Director Tony Goldwyn provides a comeback role for Diane Lane as a Jewish housewife who meets a sexy salesman (Viggo Mortenson) at a Catskills summer camp. (Miramax)
Sold By the Buzz
· The Blair Witch Project
A mock documentary about three supposed student filmmakers chasing witches in the Maryland woods. Think of this as a raw, low-budget version of Scream. (Artisan)
· Happy, Texas
Two escaped convicts evade the law by posing as professional beauty pageant promoters (who happen to be gay) in director Mark Illsley's audience favorite. (Miramax)
· Kill the Man
Two friends win $100,000 in a basketball free- throw contest and use the money to open a copy store. When a copy chain opens across the street, desperate measures prove necessary. (Rogue Pictures)
· Trick
A gay screwball comedy that stays clear of AIDS and other social issues. A music-theater composer named Gabriel (Christian Campbell) is desperate for privacy with his boyfriend Mark (John Paul Pitoc). TV's Tori Spelling plays the best friend. (Fine Line Features)
· Tumbleweeds
Writer/director Gavin O'Connor pulls a page from the Thelma and Louise handbook with this tale of a mother and daughter who take to the road to escape an abusive relationship. (Fine Line)
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Happy, Texas
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· Twin Falls, Idaho
Siamese twins arrive in an unnamed city seeking their mother in this film, written by and starring 28-year-old identical brothers, Michael and Mark Polish. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Forthcoming Wheelin' and Dealin'
· American Movie
Funny documentary follows a redneck auteur named Mark Borchardt and his struggles as a slasher moviemaker wannabe.
· American Pimp
Twin filmmakers, Allen and Albert Hughes, document the genealogy of the urban pimp.
· Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A.
Leuchter, Jr.
Veteran documentary filmmaker Errol Moris dazzles with this study of a self-made execution technologist and his involvement in Holocaust denial.
Sugar Town
Allison Anders and Kurt Voss co-direct a Robert Altman-like ensemble drama about Hollywood life in contemporary Los Angeles.
· The War Zone
First-time director Tim Roth follows in the tradition of British social drama with this stunning tale of a dysfunctional family.
