Sundance, sunny side up

"What Just Happened," "Hamlet 2," "American Teen" and "Choke." Remember those flicks? Darlings of the Sundance Film Festival last year that sold for decent ducats and arrived in theaters thereafter with a resounding thud?

That was the unfortunate drill in '08. Crossover hits like "Little Miss Sunshine," "Napoleon Dynamite" and the art house grandaddy of them all, "sex, lies and videotape," sure seem like a long time ago. ("Little Miss Sunshine" won an Oscar for its original screenplay, and Steven Soderbergh was Academy Award-nominated for his "sex" script).

So it's Sundance again -- the 25th year of the event launches today in Park City, Utah -- and what to expect this go around?

THR says there are some smallish, as-yet unheralded (read: inexpensive) films that could end up causing a stir -- "Black Dynamite" sounds like fun, in a "Super Fly" parody kind of way  -- though the anticipated star-driven flicks could still, against the economic morass that indie film finds itself in right now, cause distributors to spend cold, hard cash.

Go here to keep up with THR's view of all things Sundance, here to see if the Carpetbagger can stop schmoozing long enough to make it to any movies this year, and here for SpoutBlog's walk down memory lane ("Sundance Stories of Yore") and reasons why journalists are staying away.