Sundance Gems

Here are my picks from the non-competitive Sundance 2007 line-up:

Son of Rambow. Garth Jennings new film, oft covered here at film ick and likely to be on of 2007's best films. It's yet another coming of age story, sure, but looks to be a very original one and Jennings is a very gifted filmmaker.

Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan, with Sam Jackson and Christina Ricci. After Hustle and Flow, Brewer's got a Sundance rep to live up to, but this film seems certain to disappoint. I'm not saying that because I expect it to be bad, mind - just that I expect it to be rather different to Hustle and that's going to be enough to disappoint some people.

The Go-Getter has a great young cast - alumni of Thumbsucker, Contact and Almost Famous.

Written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, Waitress also has a great cast - this time featuring alumni of Serenity, May, Schizopolis and... er... Matlock. Actually Matlock from Matlock, too.

Fido is about keeping a zombie as a pet. If only it were a how-to documentary and not fiction, this would rocket to the top of my list.

Its Fine! Everything is Fine! is co-directed by Crispin Glover, and co-written by Glover and Steven C. Stewart. Stewart suffers from the severe cerebal palsy and this autobiographical film will explore how this has effected his relationships with the opposite sex. Countercultural with a capital C, if Glover is to be believed.

Fay Grim is Hal Hartley's semi-sequel to Henry Fool and stars Parker Posey - what more do you need to know?

Bob Shaye's The Last Mimzy was co-written by Bruce Joel Rubin who, until now at least, has written scripts far, far better than the films they became - Ghost, My Life, Jacob's Ladder.

There will also be some films I've already seen, such as Longford, as in Lord Longford, and with the lead played by Jim Broadbent. The film was directed by Tom Hooper from another superb script by Peter Morgan. It screened on Channel 4 here in the UK, and I enjoyed it very much indeed - the script was better, certainly, than The Queen, Morgan's other film this year, but, sadly, Hooper is no Stephen Frears.

Luc Besson's Angel-A is one half of the director's comeback pair and, though I found it a little uneven, it was certainly imaginative and enjoyable enough to give me hope for Arthur and the Invisibles, even in the face of it's dreadful cgi.