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  3. 11 Influential Sundance Movies

11 Influential Sundance Movies

Before the annual film festival kicks off in Park City, Utah, we look back at some of the films that shook up audiences and the industry
By Christine Spines Updated January 17, 2007 at 09:00 PM EST
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John Lurie, Eszter Balint, ...
Credit: Stranger Than Paradise: Everett Collection

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Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Andie MacDowell, ... | Writer-director Steven Soderbergh's debut feature exploring the intersection of emotional and sexual ennui laid the foundation for the hegemony of the two empires that would…

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Reservoir Dogs, Harvey Keitel, ... | High school dropout Quentin Tarantino put himself through a self-styled film school while working as a clerk in a video store, where he devoured everything…
Credit: Reservoir Dogs: Everett Collection

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El Mariachi, Consuelo Gomez
Credit: El Mariachi: Everett Collection

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Clerks | Kevin Smith, inspired by Stranger Than Paradise , turned his camera on his own nothing-much-happens life, shooting at night on a budget of $28,000 in…
Credit: Clerks: Photofest

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Spanking the Monkey, Alberta Watson, ...
Credit: Spanking the Monkey: C. Strother

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3. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

The Blair Witch Project | This ingenious mock-documentary jumps off from the premise that three young filmmakers, journeying into the Maryland woods in search of the legendary Blair Witch, have…

This ingenious mock-documentary jumps off from the premise that three young filmmakers, journeying into the Maryland woods in search of the legendary Blair Witch, have mysteriously disappeared. What we're seeing is the recovered footage they shot — a raggedy home-movie descent into hell that plays like MTV's Road Rules crossed with Rosemary's Baby. The Blair Witch Project became the ultimate indie crossover hit because some believed it was real, but also because it dips into primordial terror — not just ''darkness'' but genuine, godforsaken night.

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Memento, Guy Pearce | Inspired by his brother's yet-to-be-published short story about an amnesiac avenging his wife's death that plays out from end to beginning, Christopher Nolan had no…
Credit: Memento: Danny Rothenberg

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Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder, ... | Written by married Mormons Jared and Jerusha Hess, this hilariously warped tale of arrested development and geek love had Hollywood scratching its head when Fox…
Credit: Napoleon Dynamite: Aaron Ruell

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Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock | Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's intrepid human-lab-rat experiment — he ate exclusively at McDonald's for a month — tapped a rich vein in the zeitgeist as…
Credit: Super Size Me: Julie Soefer

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LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail Breslin, ... | Sundance audiences have never been stingy with their standing ovations. But Little Miss Sunshine unleashed a charm offensive so powerful, Park City cheered like Red…
Credit: Little Miss Sunshine: Eric Lee

Nominated for Best Picture, this dysfunctional-family-on-the-road comedy — starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette, and Paul Dano — plays out like the indie version of National Lampoon's Vacation.

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    7 of 11 3. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
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    11 of 11 LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006)

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