PARK CITY — The Sundance Film Festival has now officially come and gone, leaving behind some of the best and worst independent titles for 2015.

Over the last week-and-a-half, we’ve been checking out screenings and compiling our lists of the most memorable films — though not always for the reasons filmmakers had hoped. Some we loved, some we loathed, but we always have a great time in Park City.

I must have grabbed the short straw this year, because there were more misses than hits among my tickets. Here are the five that stood out the most.

"Last Days in the Desert"

An interesting what-if film, “Last Days in the Desert” details the entirely fictional account of Jesus ending his 40-day fast. Ewan McGregor stars and co-stars in “Desert,” playing both Jesus and Lucifer. When the two of him are on screen, the movie is genuinely compelling. Unfortunately, his “Multiplicity” moments are a distant sub-plot, leaving close to 90 minutes of Jesus walking around or spending time with a dull and relatively pointless family of side-characters.

As a short film, “Desert” would have been pretty amazing. As a feature-length film, it’s mostly uneventful with a few compelling moments throughout. Still, I found myself thinking about those moments for days after the screening, making this an easy pick for my list of stand-out projects.

Related:

5 films to watch for at the Sundance Film Festival

Not only does the film festival premiere some of the best, original projects of 2015, but it's one of the few settings where a completely unknown talent can showcase work next to some of Hollywood's elite. No sequels, no remakes, just beautifully personal expressions from filmmakers dying to tell a story.

"The End of the Tour"

“The End of the Tour” is a movie we’ll probably see as a wider release around award season. The story is a true one about the events surrounding a Rolling Stone interview with author David Foster Wallace, and a great deal of the film’s dialogue is taken directly from actual recordings of the exchange.

Easily my favorite film of the festival, and a big shift for the usually funny Jason Segel. There are so many big projects coming out this year, it’s hard to guess who will eventually be deserving of award recognition, but at the very least, Segel’s Wallace proves he’s more talented than 2014’s “Sex Tape.”

"The Overnight"

“The Overnight” is a film that asks the question, how long would a normal, suburban couple subject themselves to an uncomfortable social gathering? On that level, “Overnight” is wildly successful, because as an audience member you’ll keep asking yourself, “How long should I sit through an uncomfortably terrible movie?” And in that way, anyone forced to endure this movie will share an experience with the characters on the screen. That’s art.

Seriously, a completely competent cast wasted on a totally inept writer/director. To any distributor stupid enough to pickup this title, you have my permission to use that line on the movie poster.

"Nasty Baby"

Possibly the worst film at the festival this year, “Nasty Baby” is an aimless, fragmented disaster. Beginning as a story about a delusional artist switching mediums, “Nasty Baby” takes so many mundane an uninteresting turns along the way that when it finally decides to stick its landing as a story about murder, no self-respecting movie-goer will care. Had Kristen Wiig not attached herself to this title, theaters would have been left empty at every showing. Which begs the question, why did Wiig give her time and talent to “Nasty Baby”? I bet that story is way more interesting than anything embedded in this giant splat of a movie.

"The D Train"

Jack Black and James Marsden star in one of Sundance’s many 2015 comedies. Black plays a middle-aged dad, still delusional about his back-in-the-day high school status. When given the opportunity to prove himself at a high school reunion by showing up with the most popular kid from his class, Black spirals down a self-destructive drain of lies. Sound funny?

There’s definitely an audience out there for “D Train,” but it’s not a mainstream title waiting for the masses. If it does find a distributor, it’s destined for those $5 DVD bins you run into from time to time, but I remember it most as a missed opportunity.

Travis Poppleton has been covering movie news, film reviews and live events for Deseret News and KSL.com since 2010 and co-hosts the FlixJunkies podcast. You can contact him at tspoppleton@gmail.com.

Related topics