Sundance Day Two: Pop Stars, Homeless Kids, Abused Teens & Sweet Romance

Gina Gershon plays a tough showbiz type in "Delirious." If only the rest of the film was a fierce as she is...

A quick movie rundown on three films I caught yesterday...

the good, the not-as-good and the brilliant Parker Posey

Michael Pitt gives us that scruffy, doofy thing again. Steve Buscemi's high-strung and manic, as usual. They're both good actors, but...

9 A.M.
Up early and bussing across Park City to catch a screening of Delirious, a film by Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion, The Real Blonde) starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman and Gina Gershon. Buscemi plays a New York paparazzo who homeless (and shaggy-haired and dopily hangdog as always) Michael Pitt latches on to. Unrealistically, hardened New Yorker Buscemi allows homeless Pitt to come and stay in his apartment, and then makes him his photo assistant. They chase celebs and soon Pitt accidentally hooks up with pop star Kharma (Lohman). It's something of a ditzy New York fairy tale, but it can't seem to decide if it's a biting comedy, a blithe fable, or what. And there's an annoying running joke where the characters have to repeatedly insist that Pitt's charcter isn't gay. Urgh... What's good? Gina Gershon has fun as a dragon lady-ish showbiz manager, and there's some gorgeous cinematography, but on the whole, it's not terribly impressive.

Ellen Page and Catherine Keener in "An American Crime." Keener is so NOT going to win "Mother of the Year."

1:30 P.M.
An American Crime is getting buzz as one of the hottest (and most intense) hits of the festival. It's already got distribution plans from First Look, and it's boasting killer performances (somewhat literally) from Catherine Keener and Ellen Page (you know, the young girl from the also intense Hard Candy). In this one (based on a true story from the 1960s), Keener plays a single, messed-up mother of six who takes in two more girls whose parents run off to join a carnival (really). Through a series of unlucky occurances, one of the girls ends up on Ma Keener's bad side, which opens her up to a whole big world of very, very harsh and f**ked-up abuse. Belt whippings and cigarette burns are just the beginning.

The film is hard to watch at times, but on the whole, it's impressively made with truly memorable turns from the two leads. Props to gay director Tommy O'Haver (who you might know from fluffier fare like Billy's Hollwyood Screen Kiss and Ella Enchanted) for keeping all the weighty, grizzly drama in check. O'Haver delivers the grueling, and just-brutal-enough scenes of heinous abuse without going overboard or getting gratuitous. Expect award-worthy buzz (it's very Indepedent Spirit Awards) for this one.

Parker Posey takes Paris, eventually, in "Broken English." She's tres magnifique in this one, folks.

7:30 P.M.
Parker Posey is always fun to watch. In Broken English she's especially appealing, she's onscreen nonstop, she looks great, and she's basically just totally "refreshing" (as one character desribes her) in this subtle and deft little romantic film. Director Zoe Cassevetes tells a simple story of New Yorker Nora, unlucky in love, who stumbles into a whirlwind romance with a super-charming and edibly cute French guy, played perfectly by Melvil Poupaud (he's such a cute puppy, you'll wanna take him home). This is one of the most charming, and simply smart romantic films to come along in years, and Posey gets to branch out from her usually slapstick, "wacky"-character mode and play a real person. She's awesome. 'Nuff said.