Every January, thousands of bundled-up reporters, celebrities, and hangers-on gather in Park City, Utah, for cold weather, free consumer products, and, oh yeah, films. The Sundance Film Festival is such an event that it’s easy to forget that, at its core, it’s supposed to be a celebration of independent cinema. It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly this happened — some claim it was when Paris Hilton started hanging out there, others chart its path toward irrelevance to Miramax and the boom of indie cinema two decades ago. Either way, it’s not much more than a pile of clichés at this point. Don’t get us wrong, there are a few great movies every year — Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” along with Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz’s “Land Ho!” immediately jump out on the 2014 program — but for the most part, the selection of films is laughable.

Finding Fela
No individual better embodies African music of the 1970s and ’80s—and its pivotal role in postcolonial political activism—than Fela Kuti. After quickly taking his native Nigeria by storm, the pioneering musician’s confrontational Afrobeat sound soon spread throughout the continent and beyond, even as it made determined enemies of the repressive Nigerian military regime. As a result of continued persecution, increasingly unorthodox behavior, and, eventually, complications due to HIV, Kuti’s final years saw his musical output and influence wane.

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A Most Wanted Man is based on le Carre’s 2008 novel of the same name and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as some kind of crazy German spy hunting down some other spy (Grigoriy Dobrygin, giving off a kind of Tom Hardy vibe) who has escaped German intelligence’s grasp. Like most le Carre joints, there seem to be an incredible amount of characters (played by the likes of Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and 2013 MVP Daniel Bruhl) and a whole bunch of shadowy espionage, perpetrated largely by dapper men in cleanly pressed suits.

The movie is directed by the wonderful Anton Corbijn, whose last film, the deeply under-appreciated “The American,” seemed at least partially inspired by le Carre (or the le Carre works that ran on British television).

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Camp X-Ray
A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees. As two people on opposite sides of a war, they struggle to find their way through the ethical quagmire of Guantanamo Bay. In the process, they form an unlikely bond that changes them both.

Intricately constructed, Camp X-Ray is a case study in the power of performance. At still a young age, Kristen Stewart has long been much more than a movie star, and with this nuanced and internal performance, she continues to prove she has serious acting chops.

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Ernest and Celestine

“Mice and bears can never be friends” according to the rules in the charming world of Ernest and Celestine. Celestine is a young mouse in an underground land where cautionary tales of bears are told and all mice are destined to become dentists. But that doesn’t stop Celestine from dreaming of becoming an artist. After being assigned a mission above ground—the world of bears—Celestine meets Ernest, a big bear, clown, and musician who lives on the fringes of bear society. Ernest welcomes her into his home, flying in the face of the established order. But when they are discovered by forces above and below ground, their unique friendship is tested. Will the unlikely pair be able to overcome the long-standing divide between mice and bears?

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God Help the Girl

Eve is a catastrophe—low on self-esteem but high on fantasy, especially when it comes to music. Over the course of one Glasgow summer, she meets two similarly rootless souls: posh Cass and fastidious James, and together they form a group.

In God Help the Girl, first-time writer/director Stuart Murdoch creates a poignant coming-of-age story that doubles as an indie-pop musical. The project began as a suite of songs, written while Murdoch was in between records and tours as lead singer of Belle and Sebastian.

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Song One

For a while now, Franny has been in Morocco researching Bedouin tribes for her PhD in anthropology. The last time she spoke to her brother, Henry, they fought brutally over his decision to ditch college and become a musician. When a terrible accident puts Henry in a coma, Franny rushes home to New York. Desperately seeking clues to his recovery, she dips her toe into the Brooklyn music scene he inhabited, attending a concert by his singer/songwriter hero, James Forester. When James unexpectedly visits Henry’s hospital room, a spark kindles between Franny and this reticent stranger. In the vibrant coffeehouses and clubs they frequent, love and grief intermingle. Franny discovers a new appreciation for her family and the possibility of truly connecting with people, rather than living life solely as an observer.

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Wish I Was Here

Following his celebrated debut feature, Garden State, Zach Braff delivers a new postcard from the edge of existential crisis, this time playing a thirtysomething family man wrestling with a few minor hindrances—like his disapproving father, an elusive God, and yes, adult responsibility. Aidan Bloom is a pot-smoking actor whose last job, a dandruff commercial, was longer ago than he cares to admit. Pursuing his thespian dream has landed him and his wife in tough financial straits, so when his grumpy father can no longer pay for the kids to attend Jewish Yeshiva, Aidan opts for homeschooling. To the chagrin of his hyperdisciplined, religious daughter and the delight of his less-than-studious son, Aidan takes matters into his own imaginative hands, rather than sticking to the boring old traditional curriculum.

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A Portrait of Marina Abramović

This one-take, 3-D film majestically documents legendary performance artist Marina Abramović, capturing the breadth of space in infinite detail: the life of an artist, her keen sense of transition, a space’s decay, and the ripeness of rebirth.

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via  filmguide.sundance.org, blouinartinfo.com, news.moviefone.com.