Sundance 2010: The Kids Are All Right, Blue Valentine, Winter's Bone, Shock Doctrine, Teenage Paparazzo, Smash His Camera, Exit Through The Gift Shop

THREE FILMS WITH GREAT ACTING
Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right (right) was the first bona fide buzz film of the festival, later going for $4.5m to Focus Features. I can see why, even though I wasn't exactly bowled over by it. The chief reason Focus bought it, I think, is because it features powerhouse performances by Julianne Moore and, in particular, Annette Bening as a pair of married middle-aged lesbians who each have a child by artificial insemination. Unknown to them, their kids become curious about their father and contact the sperm bank, which puts them in touch with Romeo restaurateur Paul (Mark Ruffalo), and for a while this new and rather odd family unit has fun finding out about itself. But when one of the moms falls for Paul, all hell breaks loose, and Cholodenko balances the serious notes with the comedy very well, even if the set-up will be a bit too bohemian for mainstream audiences.

A more sombre affair was Blue Valentine, in which Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling play a young couple falling out of love in a film that resembles [500] Days Of Summer if it had been made by Ingmar Bergman. Like everyone here, I thought it was sensitive and smart, if a little long and rather indulgent of its actors' choices.

Similarly stony-faced was Winter's Bone, a languid, poverty-shack drama in which a poor white hillbilly girl (Jennifer Lawrence) must make sure her missing jailbird father makes his upcoming court appearance – because if he doesn't, the local bondsman will take the family home as collateral. The few laughs are sardonic and grim, and the general mood is dour and a little grubby. Lawrence, though, is just amazing; I imagine she'll get a special mention at the awards ceremony on Saturday night.

FOUR DOCUMENTARIES
I missed most of the more political docs, like Waiting For Superman, Restrepo and Gas Land, but I made an effort to catch Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross's Shock Doctrine, even though it was on More 4 recently. Short and sweet, it offers a page-turning speed-read of Naomi Klein's famous book, but, despite some good archive footage, it didn't really tell me much I didn't know already or hadn't gleaned from Michael Moore's recent Capitalism: A Love Story.

Much more fun were the docs on the subject of celebrity. Teenage Paparazzo, by Entourage's Adrien Grenier, was an enjoyable but really messy doc-cum-expose of the snapper life that began when Grenier was paparazzi'd by a young 13-year-old boy called Austin Visschedyk. Hanging out with the paparazzis, and even becoming one, Grenier explores our fascination with celebrity culture in a film that loses its way in an ever more elaborate series of sidetracks (which include Grenier showing the boy his film and interviewing him after).

Much slicker, and far more satisfying, was Leon Gast's Smash His Camera, a portrait of longtime paparazzi Ron Gallela, a street photographer who became famous for his pictures of Jackie Kennedy, an obsession that led to a huge, unwinnable court case in the 70s. Gallela is at once charming, oily, creepy, wacky, smart, awful and delightful, and the pleasure of Gast's film lies in its reluctance to judge him.

Another film that doesn't judge, partly because it may not be true, is street artist Banksy's film debut Exit Through The Gift Shop, a delirious account of the rise of cheapjack post-graffiti artist called Mr Brainwash (who we are asked to believe is the alter ego of an ego-centric LA-based Frenchman called Thierry Guetta). All the entertainment in this great little film come from its revelations, so I won't say any more, but whether it is true or not, the filthy business of art trading has never been so artfully critiqued.