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 million—this 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 Kim—who raps her feelings in a voice that demands and deserves a record contract—they 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 SMITH—DREAM 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 Smith—Dream 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.

So here are the offical awards given Saturday night for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

See the next entry for Sundance Awards: Mine

You don't think I'd really agree with experts do you?

2008 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AWARDS

Frozen River, King of Ping Pong, Man on Wire and Trouble the Water

Earn Top Jury Prizes;

Audience Favorites Feature Captain Abu Raed, Fields of Fuel, Man on Wire and The Wackness

Park City, UT–The jury and audience award-winners of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by William H. Macy in Park City, Utah. Films receiving jury awards were selected from the four feature-length Documentary and Dramatic competition categories by distinguished jurors. Films in these categories were also eligible for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Film Festival audiences. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Sundance Channel, the Official Television Network of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, beginning Sunday, January 27 as well as on the Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.

In addition to awards for feature-length films, the Shorts Jury awarded Jury Prizes in Short Filmmaking to American and international short-form films. Other awards recognized at the ceremony included the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, awarded to a film which excels in addressing compelling topics in science or technology, and the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award, created to honor and support emerging filmmakers with their next screenplays

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival Juries consisted of: Dramatic Competition: Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Harron, Diego Luna, Sandra Oh and Quentin Tarantino; Documentary Competition: Michelle Byrd, Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki, Steven Okazaki and Annie Sundberg; World Dramatic Competition: Shunji Iwai (Japan), Lucrecia Martel (Argentina) and Jan Schütte (Germany); World Documentary Competition: Amir Bar-Lev (US), Leena Pasanen (Finland/Denmark) and Ilda Santiago (Brazil); American and International Shorts: Jon Bloom, Melonie Diaz and Jason Reitman; and The Alfred P. Sloan Prize: Alan Alda, Michael Polish, Evan Schwartz, Benedict Schwegler and John Underkoffler.

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival Awards Winners

The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to TROUBLE THE WATER, directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival means when they are trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and seize a chance for a new beginning.

The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to FROZEN RIVER, directed by Courtney Hunt, about a desperate trailer mom and a Mohawk Indian girl who team up to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States from Canada.

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to MAN ON WIRE/United Kingdom, directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles French artist Philippe Petit's daring dance on a wire suspended between New York's Twin Towers and his subsequent arrest for what would become known as “the artistic crime of the century.”

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to KING OF PING PONG (PING PONGKINGEN)/ Sweden, directed by Jens Jonsson. An ostracized and bullied teenager who excels only in ping pong descends into an acrimonious struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about their family history and their father surfaces over the course of their spring break.

The Audience Awards are presented to both a dramatic and documentary film in four Competition categories as voted by Sundance Film Festival audiences. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards are presented by Volkswagen of America, Inc.

The Audience Award: Documentary was presented to FIELDS OF FUEL, directed by Josh Tickell. A look at America's addiction to oil, Tickell is a man with a plan and a Veggie Van, who is taking on big oil, big government, and big soy to find solutions in places few people have looked.

The Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to THE WACKNESS, directed by Jonathan Levine. During a sweltering New York summer, a troubled teenage drug dealer trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist, and in the process falls for the doctor's daughter.

The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary was presented to MAN ON WIRE/United Kingdom, directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles French artist Philippe Petit's daring dance on a wire suspended between New York's Twin Towers and subsequent arrest for what would become known as “the artistic crime of the century.”

The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to CAPTAIN ABU RAED/Jordan, by director Amin Matalqa. The first feature film to come out of Jordan in 50 years, CAPTAIN ABU RAED tells the story of an aging airport janitor who is mistaken for an airline pilot by a group of poor neighborhood children and whose fantastical stories offer hope for a sad, sometimes unchangeable, reality.

The Directing Awards recognize excellence in directing for dramatic and documentary features.

The Directing Award: Documentary was presented to Nanette Burstein for her film AMERICAN TEEN, an irreverent cinema vérité which chronicles four seniors at an Indiana high school and yields a surprising snapshot of Midwestern life.

The Directing Award: Dramatic was presented to Lance Hammer for BALLAST, a riveting, lyrical portrait of an emotionally frayed family whose lives are torn asunder by a tragic act in a small Mississippi Delta town.

The World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary was presented to Nino Kirtadze, director of DURAKOVO: VILLAGE OF FOOLS (DURAKOVO: LE VILLAGE DES FOUS)/ France. The film portrays life in a castle outside Moscow, where Mikhail Morozov rules autonomously over young initiates, laying the groundwork for a rapidly growing right-wing movement.

The World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic was presented to Anna Melikyan for MERMAID (RUSALKA)/ Russia. The fanciful tale of an introverted little girl who grows up believing she has the power to make wishes come true. She must reconcile this belief with reality when, as a young woman, she journeys to Moscow and grapples with love, modernity and materialism.

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for outstanding achievement in writing was presented to Alex Rivera and David Riker for their screenplay for SLEEP DEALER. Set in a near-future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology.

The World Cinema Screenwriting Award was presented to Samuel Benchetrit for his screenplay of I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER (J'AI TOUJOURS RÊVÉ D'ÊTRE UN GANGSTER)/ France. Told in four vignettes, this existential comedy relates the exploits of four aspiring criminals who hope to improve their lot, but find that they might not have what it takes for a life of crime.

The Documentary Editing Award was presented to Joe Bini for his work on the film ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED. The documentary examines the public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary director Roman Polanski's sudden flight from the United States.

The World Cinema Documentary Editing Award was presented to Irena Dol for her work on THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS/New Zealand. The film profiles artist Vanessa Beecroft and how her obsession to adopt Sudanese twin orphans drives her marriage to a breaking point and fuels her controversial art.

The Excellence in Cinematography Awards honor exceptional cinematography in both dramatic and documentary categories. This year's recipients are:

The Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented to Phillip Hunt and Steven Sebring for their work on the film PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE, an intimate portrait of the poet, painter, musician and singer that mirrors the essence of the artist herself.

The Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented to Lol Crawley for BALLAST. a riveting, lyrical portrait of an emotionally frayed family whose lives are torn asunder by a tragic act in a small Mississippi Delta town.

The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented to al Massad for his work on RECYCLE /Jordan. A Jordanian family man living in the hometown of Muslim leader Abu Musa Al Zarqawi struggles to support his family and define his identity in a tense political climate.

The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented to Askild Vik Edvardsen for KING OF PING PONG (PING PONGKINGEN)/ Sweden. An ostracized and bullied teenager who excels only in ping pong descends into an acrimonious struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about their family history and their father surfaces over the course of their spring break.

A World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Ernesto Contreras, director of BLUE EYELIDS (PÁRPADOS AZULES)/ Mexico. When Marina wins a beach getaway trip for two, her desperate search for someone to take with her leads to a complicated relationship and the revelation that she might be better off on her own.

A Special Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Lisa F. Jackson, director of GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO, for her piercing, intimate look into the struggle of the lives of rape survivors.

A Special Jury Prize: Dramatic, The Spirit of Independence was presented to director Chusy Haney-Jardine for ANYWHERE, USA, a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics.

A Special Jury Prize: Dramatic, Work by an Ensemble Cast was presented to the cast of CHOKE. An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, CHOKE is the sardonic story about mother and son relationship, fear of aging, sexual addiction, and the dark side of historical theme parks. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brad Henke.

The 2008 Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to two films: MY OLYMPIC SUMMER, directed by Daniel Robin, and SIKUMI (On the Ice), directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. The jury also presented the International Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking to SOFT, directed by Simon Ellis. Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking were presented to: Aquarium, directed by Rob Meyer; August 15th, directed by Xuan Jiang; La Corona (The Crown), directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega; Oiran Lyrics, directed by Ryosuke Ogawa; Spider, directed by Nash Edgerton; Suspension, directed by Nicolas Provost, and W. , directed by The Vikings. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Awards were presented by Adobe Systems Incorporated.

SLEEP DEALER, directed by Alex Rivera, is the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) on Thursday announced the winners of the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. Now in its twelfth year, the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award was created to honor and support emerging filmmakers–one each from the United States, Japan, Europe and Latin America–who possess the originality, talent and vision to be celebrated as we look to the future of international cinema. The winning filmmakers and projects for 2008 are Alejandro Fernandez Almendras from Chile with HUACHO; Braden King from the United States, with HERE; Aiko Nagatsu from Japan, with APOPTOSIS; and Radu Jude from Romania, with THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD.

For the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, 125 feature-length films were selected including 87 world premieres, 14 North American premieres, and 11 U.S. premieres representing 34 countries with 53 first-time feature filmmakers, including 32 in competition. These films were selected from 3,624 feature film submissions composed of 2,021 U.S. and 1,603 international feature-length films. These numbers represent an increase from last year when 1,852 U.S. and 1,435 international feature-length films were considered.

After today at Sundance, it's all over except the awards. Walking in the snow toward the shuttle bus that will will ferry me and other Sundancers to various screenings, thoughts of the better movies I've seen keep coming into my head.

--That moment in Azazel Jacobs' Momma's Man —an extraordinary movie in every way that was stupidly left out of the dramatic competition to make room for, what, The Mysteries of Shitsburg?—when the protagonist decides not to rejoin his wife and child in California but to move in with his parents in New York in the apartment where he grew up.

--The emotinal bond between Melissa Leo, as an abandoned wife, and Misty Upham, as a Mohawk woman estranged from her tribe in upstate New York, as they run lilegal immigrants across the border in Courtney Hunt's touching and vital Frozen River.

--The sheer beauty of the California wine country in Randall Miller's Bottle Shock, with Alan Rickman giving a deliciously wicked performance as Steven Spurrier, the Brit who put Napa Valley wines on the map in 1976 by arranging a blind tasting of French and California wines and creating a revolution that is still being felt after Napa takes down the French.

But the last two movies I see today also leave lasting impressions:

--Tom Kalin's Savage Grace gives the lie to the argument that Sundance films are all granola-fed tributes to human uplift. This toxic baby tells the true story of Barbara Daly (Julianne Moore) an actress who marries Bruce Baekland (Stephen Dillan), the heir to a plastics empire, and proceeds to, well, just watch and hold your jaw up with both hands. Kalin (Swoon) is a huge talent. And Moore's tour de force performance is unforgettable, espcially in the scene where she straddles her son (Eddie Redmayne) and offers to suck him off when he can't come. There's murder as well as incest and what could have been TV trash becomes savagely moving. There were a few Sundance walkouts. This is Utah, after all.

--Bernard Shakey's CSNY Deja Vu couldn't have made a better capper to my Sundance experience. It's a record of the concert tour organized by Neil Young, who persuaded his former bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Sills and Graham Nash to joing him on a cross-country tour pegged to Young's Living With War abum. The music rocks—how could it not? But the punch comes from the fans, who don't always relate to the band as it tries to move its style of Sixties protest to the Iraq war. Some fans cheer a song, such as "Let's Impeach the President," others storm out and tell you why. It's a kick to watch these rockers mess with our heads. For me, anyway, they end Sundance 2008 on a roaring high note.

Just in case you missed it, be sure to check out Rolling Stone's collection of photos of the many musicians attending this year's Sundance Film Festival, from the men of U2 to Dave Matthews to Diddy. For the full gallery, click here.

[Photo: Getty]

In the current issue of Rolling Stone, Peter Travers interviews iconic film director Sidney Lumet about the breadth of his career, from 1957's 12 Angry Men to last year's excellent Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Click on the video above to take a look at Travers' thoughts on some of his favorite Lumet titles, including Dog Day Afternoon and Network.

Look for Sugar to pick up award love on Saturday when the Sundance Film Festival hands out its merit badges. Among the other fifteen contenders in the dramatic competition, only Lance Hammer's Ballast and Courtney Hunt's Frozen River have the creative juice to make it a race. Sugar, written and directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden—the team who gave us the formidable Half Nelson in 2006 with an Oscar nominated performance by Ryan Gosling—practically defines what independent cinema is. Miguel Santos, nicknamed Sugar, and played with disarming naturalness by Algenis Perez Soto, has only one thing to lift him out of the poverty of his life in the Dominican Republic—his pitching arm. Chosen by scouts for the minor leagues, Sugar—who barely speaks English—is sent to Iowa to train and to learn about America first-hand. His lessons involve curve balls, sexual twists, racial rivalry and the underside of winning. I won't say more since the movie brims over with surprises. But Sugar is immensely satisfying in the way it drives a stake into the heart of the cliches that send most baseball movies to the benches. If they can stay this trenchant and uncompromisd, Fleck and Boden are good news indeed for the future of movies. *Sugar * lights up the landscape of film. It's a triumph that doesn't just belong at Sundance, it rocks it.

Her name is Kimberly Rivers Roberts. Your never heard of her. Not yet. That's what Sundance is all about—finding new talent, such as Lance Hammer, the writer and director of Ballast. Roberts didn't write or direct Trouble the Water, the behind-the-camera artistry is handled by the extraordinry team of Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Trouble the Water is a documentary that will pin you to your seat. It's an account of Hurricane Katrina from the inside. Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott Roberts were stuck in New Orleans, without the money to get out. So they stayed and helped their neighbors and shot footage of Katrina as she attacked, footage like you've never seen, jaw-dropping scenes of the city before, during and after Katrina struck. The heroism on view here is indisputable. You never see fear as Kimberly, 26, rushed to help her friends and family. She lived hard, buffeted by poverty and racism, sometimes dealing drugs to get by, but when catastrophe forced her to step up, boy did she ever. Kimberly's star power comes from the music she writes and sings, music that was almost lost in the storm. The moment in the aftermath when she finds it and raps about her feelings will knock you off your feet. Here at Sundance, that moment gets audiences standing and cheering. Never mind Katrina, Kimberly Roberts is the real force of nature. Want more proof? Last night, I visited Kimberly and Scott at the condo where they're staying for the festival's duration. Kimberly was enjoying everything about the experience. What's remarkable is that after Trouble he Water premiered to ovations on Sunday night, the pregnant Kimberly's water broke. Rushed at midnight in a snowstorm to a Utah hospital in nearby Salt Lake City, she gave birth to daughter Skyy (that's right, two ks) on Martin Luther King day. "I guess drama just follows us around," she said with a laugh. And here she is three days after giving birth doing an interview with me, showing off the baby and eager to bring Skyy to New Orleans. Kimberly and Scott didn't want to have a child until they were in a good place. Despite the political incompetence that continues to devastate New Orleans, the couple is going home with only positive vibes. The repair needed in their city has gotten Scott a job in construction. And Kimberly's music has attracted producers. No wonder, a glory abides in this woman's voice. With apologies to Robert Redford, Skyy is truly the Sundance Kid. "Inspiring" is an overused word in the movie business. But with Kimberly Rivers Roberts, it fits. Trouble the Water, you do not want to miss.*

Live from the streets at the Sundance Film Festival, Peter Travers delivers his thoughts and views about U2:3D, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Hamlet II and The Wackness, all of which are gathering buzz at what is fast becoming the most exciting Sundance in years. Click above to watch the video.

Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

[Video: Jennifer Hsu and Pete Maiden]

Forget Cloverfield! I'm going with zombie master George A. Romero for using a handheld digital camera to cut deep into the YouTube-ification of America. The Sundance Film Festival offers midnight screenings of new movies to scare the bejesus out of you. And pride of place for 2008 goes to Romero's Diary of the Dead. Yes, it's the fifth chapter in a zombie series that began with the classic Night of the Living Dead forty years ago. The great thing about Romero is that his horror movies always have a subversive subtext. "I see something shitty happening in the world," Romero told me, "and I slap some zombies on it." Romero tacks a wicked laugh onto his statement, but he's dead serious. The something shitty this time—joining dehumanization and consumerism—is our tendency to stick a camera in front of everything. As one college babe tells her student filmmaker boyfriend, "for you, if it's not on film it never happened." Unlike Cloverfield, which uses the woozy handheld camera as a gimmick, Diary of the Dead uses it to ask what the hell out there is turning us into a nation of peeping Toms and Tinas. His characters, in the process of making an amateur horror flick outside of Pittsburgh, find terror for real: the dead are rising from their graves and looking to chow down on new victims. The students try to make their getaway in a Winnebago, but zombies are persistent. A mindblowing sequence in a hospital—one of Romero's most nervefrying— turns a place of safety and healing into a breeding ground for ravenous, drooling creatures who can only be stopped by blowing off their effing heads. And through it all, the camera is always there, showing the worst of us, such as two good old boys using zombies for target practice. Romero is asking us: do we stop at the scene of an accident to help or to look? The best scary movies show the monster invading us from the inside. This is one of the very best.

Here in the cinemas of Sundance, sex is everywhere — at least on screen. As if the sight of Mary Kate Olson making out with Sir Ben Kingsley in The Wackness wasn't enough to make you choke, along comes Choke, an entry in the dramatic competition that twists sex into exotic new shapes. The movie is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, which should tell you something. The author of Fight Club cooked up fresh shocks in this one.The book opens with these words:

"If you're going to read this, don't bother. After a couple of pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece. Save yourself."

Try resisting that. The movie version, adapted by director Clark Gregg, stars Sam Rockwell in the role of sex addict Vincent Mancini. Rockwell is now and always has been a swing- for- the- fences actor. And to see him screwing his brains out in various public places, including a recovery meeting, reveals a new side to his acting. Rockwell told me me it took eleven hours to film one scene of him getting a blowjob in a confined space. When I mentioned there could be worse acting assignments, he said that they sent the girl home after two hours. "The other nine hours," he says, "was just me faking an orgasm." On the basis of this performance, Rockwell is hereby declared the Brando of cum shots. As a movie, Choke is all over the place. But they plugged in a livewire with Rockwell, an actor with the skills to capture Palahniuk' s dark humor without missing the pain that keeps the character human. When the great performances of Sundance 2008 are tallied at the end of the week, Rockwell has to be up near the top. No wonder Fox Searchlight bought Choke for $5 million. Rockwell and Palahniuk are kindred spirits, fearless tightrope walkers in a Hollywood of image-shining wussies.