Manhola Dargis wraps up Sundance

Manhola Dargis is my favorite film critic.  She articulates the nuances of cinema with distinctive authority, and a handful of her movie reviews are among the best writing I've ever read. (Read her NYT review of Charlie Kaufman's rather incomprehensible "Synecdoche, New York" and you'll know where I'm coming from.)

Dargis is back from Sundance with lots to appreciate. Up front, Dargis gives thanks for Beastie Boy Adam Yauch's micro-distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories for picking up Kelly Reichardt's austere Oregon Trail indie "Meek's Cutoff," starring Michelle Williams as one the film's doomed pioneers who take a supposed shortcut and pay for it with their lives. Portland-based Reichardt also directed Williams in the heartbreaking "Wendy and Lucy" (Yes, she has to ditch the dog. Save yourself the tears and know so going in.) and wowed Sundance in 2006 with the magnificent simplicity of "Old Joy."

Hop over to the New York Times and read Manhola Dargis's Sundance wrap. "Meek's Cutoff" opens in April. Thank God.