Sundance - Indie?

I just read an article in TIME (January 29, 2007 - woah! its from the future...shit. get the tin foil caps out!) by Richard Corliss, TIMEs movie critic, where he argued that sundance has gone main-stream. basically the gist of the article, was that the movies that come out of the Sundance Film Festival have become predictable and have lost their originality - "…they have devolved into a genre…the theme is relationships, beginning in angst and ending in reconciliation…the focus is often ona dysfunctional family…" reading throught his article (btw, interesting and good article, read it) got me thinking about how i label movies and what "original" movies are.

so now then, ive always been interested in original and quirky movies, and movies that break the mold, so to speak, and i have felt that the words "official selection Sundance Film Festival" have been synonymous with this - low-budget movies, made with passion and a love for films, and often very different from what we are used to seeing in theatres. but are they actually that original? i cant say that ive seen many films that came out of sundance last year, pretty much only Little Miss Sunshine (which is AMAZING, see it.) and i still really want to see Half Nelson and a cpl of others, but nevertheless i havent seen what they had to offer last year, but even according to my image of LMS and the image i have of sundance movies, richard corliss could be right. they do involve dysfunctional families and usual end in a feel good ending (nothing wrong with that per se) and are made with an earthy/real feel to them. now imo theres nothing wrong with this, but if this becomes the standard, and sundance just starts churning out films that are each more similar than the last, then whats gonna happen to the indie-film?

i feel like this is the same phenomenon as i keep seeing in our "youth culture", where its become, during the past year, hip to be different. and if youre not different youre not in or cool. which is in itself a contradiction, "Be yourself, just like everyone else" (thnx axl). and this could be the case with sundance/indie movies as well, couldnt it? i dont know. all i can say is that i hope it isnt the case and never will be. but with movies from sundance all seeming similar (i base this on what ive seen, and trailers [not very solid i know, but its the image i get, or is it just because of this article i read?]) we might be losing indie-film to conformity. what i think people need to think about/learn/realise is that being different is not something to try to achieve and it is not that different actually, people should just accept themselves and be what they are - themselves. human. erronous. flawed. but still wonderful in their OWN quirky ways.

so dont be different. be yourself.

hope this didnt sound too pretentious, and please tell me what you think about this. cos the article really got me thinking, but then i couldnt completely decide whether this is actually the case with sundance movies, or if im just lettting myself be influenced by a well written article.... i gotta watch more sundance movies, and then ill get back to you.

and now ill leave you with a song from one of my favourite movies



xoxoxoxxXXx
(kisshugkisshugkisskissbigkissbigkisslittlekiss)
anton