January 27, 2008 2:40 PM

Based on what I've seen at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and breaking all the rules and categories set up by the Festival poobahs, I humbly offer the following prizes:

FOR DRAMA: BALLAST

The grand jury consisting of directors Quentin Tarantino and Mary Harron and actors Marcia Gay Harden, Diego Luna and Sandra Oh went with Frozen River , a worthy film that tackles serious issues including illegal immigration. The audience voted for fun by picking The Wackness, about a teenaged dealer (Josh Peck) who pays his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy in weed. But the one indisputably great film at Sundance '08 is Ballast, a striking debut for writer-director Lance Hammer about a black family coming apart on the Mississippi Delta. Yes, Hammer is a tall, skinny white dude, but his poetic and profound movie transcends categories and announces the arrival of a major new filmmaker. Runners-up: Sugar writer-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden place a baseball recruit from the Dominican Republic in the middle of Huckabee Iowa and speak volumes about the America Way . Momma's Man a California husband and father moves back in with mom and dad in New York as writer-director Azazel Jacobs examines grave issues with laughs that stick in the throat.

FOR COMEDY: HAMLET 2

Sundance doesn't have a category for laughs. But watch the priceless Steve Coogan try to teach drama to high school kids in Arizona and the laughs don't stop coming. Director Andrew Fleming does wonders with a fine cast that includes Catherine Keener, Melonie Diaz and Elisabeth Shue,who's hilarious playing herself. Hamlet 2, which sequelizes and musicalizes the Bard wth such songs as, "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" and "Raped in the Face," sold for a whopping $10 millionthis year's record. It's worth the tariff. Giggles can also be had at The Wackness, The Deal and Choke, but Hamlet 2 is comedy heaven.

FOR DOCUMENTRY: TROUBLE THE WATER

Good on the doc jury for picking this indelible portrait of New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of a force of nature named Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott Roberts. Gifted filmmkers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal stick it to our absent government and in Kimwho raps her feelings in a voice that demands and deserves a record contractthey have found a human face to put on a national tragedy. Superb in every department. Runner-Up: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Marina Zenovich looks at Polanski's public trial for the rape of a minor as in indictment of the media. Derek is a spellbinder in which director Isaac Julien and actress Tilda Swinton pay tribute to the late gay filmaking icon Derek Jarman.

FOR HORROR: DIARY OF THE DEAD

Leave it to veteran George A. Romero to show the Cloverfield newbies how to use digital video to make a movie that scares us senseless about ourselves, never mind the zombies.

FOR MUSIC: PATTI SMITHDREAM OF LIFE

U2 did it louder and in three dimnsions in U23D and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young did it with social commenrary in CSNY Deja Vu, and the demigods of Canadian metal showed they were still kicking in Anvil! The True Story of Anvil. But in Patti SmithDream of Life director Steven Sebring, using only one camera, makes visual and aural poetry with his fierce focus on the goddess of punk.

FOR JUST PLAIN AWFUL: THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH

Look, I liked what writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber did with Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story in 2004, but what Thurber does to Michael Chabon's beautifully nuanced debut novel should be punishable by movie law. Good actors, such as Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller and Nick Nolte, all suck. The mystery is how this dog ever barked its way into the competition.

FOR BEST ACTOR: SAM ROCKWELL (CHOKE)

Rockwell delivers outageous fun and rending emotion as the sex addict hero of writer-director Clark Gregg's total immersion in the indefinable novel from Chuck Palahniuk.

FOR BEST ACTRESS: TARRA RIGGS (BALLAST)

I had never heard of Tarra Riggs before I saw her as a single mother trying to make a life for her twelve-year-old son in the unforgiving Mississippi Delta, now I know I'll never forget her.

FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: ALAN RICKMAN (BOTTLE SHOCK)

From Die Hard to Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd, Rickman has proved himself a master of villainy. But here, as a wine snob who opens up his mind and his heart to the vineyards of California , he finds the most ardent and appealing role of his career.

FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PATRICIA CLARKSON (PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND)

As a drama teacher for a student (Elle Fanning) with Tourette's Syndrome, the reliably superb Clarkson surpasses even helself as an educator who is part Miss Jean Brodie and part Darth Vader.

FOR BEST SCREENWRITER: ANNA BODEN AND RYAN FLECK (SUGAR)

Two years ago, Boden and Fleck showed their promise with Half Nelson, now they make good on it by crafting a baseball movie like no other.

FOR BEST DIRECTOR: LANCE HAMMER (BALLAST)

We end where we began with the film of this Sundance year, no matter what the audience and the jury thought. Ballast has the feel of a classic that will stand the test of time. Hammer, defying Hollywood 's sensationalistic, sure-thing aesthetics, defines the independent spirit. Long may he endure.

Peter Travers

Posted: Sat., Jan. 19, 2008, 6:12pm PT

VE1117935837.html?c=-1

Ballast

A rock-ribbed sense of committed, personal cinema and a core belief in people being able to pull themselves out of misery supports "Ballast."

A rock-ribbed sense of committed, personal cinema and a core belief in people being able to pull themselves out of misery supports "Ballast," an extraordinary debut by editor-writer-director Lance Hammer. Though his name would be better suited to sign high-octane action movies, Hammer quickly establishes himself with the only film he's ever made as a humanist artist working confidently and quietly with the cinema's most basic and expressive tools. Following a Mississippi Delta family shattered by suicide and violence, pic runs a course from wrenching death to possible uplift that seems real every second, but will prove a challenge to potential distribs even while winning over fests worldwide.

A rare case of a Sundance competition film also in the running at Berlin , such a one-two punch suggests a notable work, but also perhaps creates inflated expectations, even though unknowns are involved on both sides of the camera. Hammer's achievement is to create a thoroughly engrossing experience that attends to everyday life's small (and in a few cases, significant) moments, and is certain to command high respect as a film that operates by its principles and engages audiences' best human responses.

Opening passage isn't small but stark, as Lawrence (Micheal J. Smith, Sr.) is found in mute shock in his living room by neighbor John (Johnny McPhail). Lawrence 's twin brother, Darius, has fatally OD'd in his bed, and Lawrence 's response is to shoot himself. Badly wounded, he recovers over weeks in the hospital.

The portly Lawrence 's connection with single parent mom Marlee (Tarra Riggs) and her 12-year-old boy James (JimMyron Ross) is gradually revealed, as James drives his scooter over to Lawrence 's place and demands money from him at gunpoint--money which belonged to his father, the late Darius. James, who seems to love Marlee as much as any 12-year-old lad can express it, is also getting into trouble with some teen dope dealers (with Ventress Bonner as the lead guy in the group) for whom he does some drops and to whom he also owes money.

Both Lawrence and Marlee are also on personal precipices; he's so shell-shocked by Darius' death that he can barely talk and hasn't re-opened his small food market, while Marlee is fired from her cleaning job. James' release comes from his wanderings in the nearby fields, and his connection with nature and animals (including the family dog who's half-wolf); his total lack of friends set him apart as a unique lad.

The ensuing reconciliation between Marlee, bitter at both Darius and Lawrence for "fucking up my life," and Lawrence, who reminds Marlee that her past drug addiction hardly made her a saint, is extremely well-earned and well-observed by Hammer's intimately involved camera (with powerful widescreen support by gifted lenser Lol Crawley, also in his feature debut).

Impact of the Dardennes brothers' films on world cinema is hardly news, but few prior Yank filmmakers have embraced the Belgian siblings' love of immersion in the lives of poor folks, finding them in the immediate moment during moral crises. Other film touchstones for "Ballast" include Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep" (as an unvarnished look at African American families) and Carlos Reygadas' debut "Japon," also a case of a born filmmaker arriving out of left field with a cinematically audacious statement.

Perfs by non-pros are stunning, led by the dynamic and emotionally magnetic Riggs as Marlee and Smith in a role that builds from meek silence to strength. Ross, whose deep Southern accent is a bit difficult to comprehend, also grows impressively as James. Only pro is McPhail, as the caring neighbor.

Exquisite soundtrack should be studied by American filmmakers of all types, since it relies on actual sound derived from the story's evocative environment, without a drop of composed music.

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Other "Ballast" Movie Reviews

REALTVFILMS.COM

http://www.realtvfilms.com/blog/?p=31

EMANUELLEVY.COM (CRITIC)

http://www.emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=8208

INDIEWIRE.COM (MOVIE REVIEW)

http://www.indiewire.com/people/2008/01/park_city_08_in_19.html

SPOUT.COM (MOVIE REVIEW BLOG)-ALSO HAS A SOUND INTERVIEW YOU CAN LISTEN TO

http://blog.spout.com/2008/01/22/sundance-2008-ballast-interview/

CINEMATICAL.COM (MOVIE NEWS)

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/01/18/sundance-deal-celluloid-dreams-grabs-ballast/

CINEMATICAL.COM (MOVIE REVIEW)