Apple founder and technology visionary Steve Jobs changed the way the world connects and computes, created one of the world’s most revolutionary companies and recently died, so of course he is now being remembered by way of an unsatisfying biopic that could have been far more creative and inspired than the final product. Director Joshua Michael Stern (best remembered for the completely forgettable Swing Vote) works off a script by newbie scribe Matt Whiteley (a former marketing wonk who was commissioned to write the script by his boss, producer Mark Hulme) that, while well-paced and interesting, also fails to illuminate much about the man and skips over large chunks of his life. As Jobs, Ashton Kutcher does a fine job (sorry, had to do it) with his role, though when jOBS amps up its intensity, he can’t quite keep his character compelling or believable.

It was bound to happen. On Day 723 of the Sundance Film Festival (really, just Day 8, but it feels like we’ve been here for years), it snowed. Sundance is, after all, located in a ski town, so frozen precipitation falling from the sky is a thing that is known to happen, but snow during Sundance really does change the landscape of the festival. Everything instantly feels a bit more miserable and, suddenly, trooping through snowdrifts to see yet another film feels like the biggest chore in the world. But it really is the best chore, and when you’re about to troop through snowdrifts to finally (finally) see one of the festival’s instantly-beloved premieres, The Spectacular Now, it really doesn’t feel so bad.

Sharp-tongued Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) is frustrated with his life – his overbearing father (Nick Offerman) does not understand him, his older sister Heather (Alison Brie) no longer lives at home, and he cannot seem to get a minute to himself without someone barging in on him. Joe is not alone in his frustration, his best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) is also feeling trapped with two helicopter parents (Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson) who are constantly bombarding him with inane questions. The two boys want (need) to get out, and Joe comes up with a plan to let them do just that. After escaping a party that was suddenly broken up, Joe finds himself lost in the woods alongside the very strange (but insanely funny) Biaggio (Moises Arias.) The two happen upon a secluded section of the forrest and as Joe looks around at the lush landscape, inspiration strikes and he rushes home to tell Patrick he has a solution to their problems – they are going to build their own house to live in.

According to Carter (Adam Scott), his parents were “married for nine years, but feels like they have been at war for a hundred.” Growing up in the crossfire of his parent’s epic fights and manipulations, it is surprising to discover Carter is now a well-adjusted adult in a healthy relationship of his own, despite being an A.C.O.D. (Adult Child of Divorce.) But when Carter’s younger brother, Trey (Clark Duke), proposes to his girlfriend after only four months of dating, Carter’s issues with relationships, marriage, and (most importantly) his parents, start to come out.

We’re exploring Sundance’s past all week, so we’ve got the usual batch of stellar short films with a Sundance twist. It’s like being there without the snow boots or Harvey Weinstein ruining screenings on his cell phone. Why Watch? If you’re unfamiliar with the soaring brilliance of Don Hertzfeldt‘s work, or if you’re a fan looking for even the flimsiest of reasons to luxuriate in it, take the time out to enjoy the awkward observations that spring forth from his stickman hero Bill (who hit Sundance in 2007). Wry and often so honest it’s uncomfortable, the idiosyncrasatic and the strangely relatable blend together to make something that will make you laugh so hard you’ll rethink your entire life plan. Truly, we are all Bill. What will it cost? Only 17 minutes. Skip Work. Watch More Short Films.

Bob (Casey Affleck) and Ruth (Rooney Mara) are hopelessly in love. Even when they fight, they cannot help but fall back into each other’s arms with Bob reminding Ruth he will always follow her, always be with her. But with Bob down on his luck, a bad decision and a few gun shots have him headed off to jail, leaving Ruth without her husband and a baby on the way. Despite this turn of events, Bob and Ruth never give up on each other, a fact made achingly clear from the way they cling to each other even as Bob is being taken away. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints starts where most heist stories end, showing audiences what happens when the dust settles and the “bad guys” are put away. Skipping ahead four years, Ruth’s daughter, Sylvie, is now grown and the two are now living a quiet life on their own. Bob still writes to Ruth, and she keeps every letter, but beyond that Ruth has not seen him since that faithful day, and Sylvie has never laid eyes on her own father. While there are a few men looking out for Ruth and Sylvie, Officer Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster) has clearly taken a particular interest in the two. Ironically, Patrick is the officer who was gunned down, which then lead to Bob’s arrest, but it is clear his interest in Ruth is not that of revenge. When news that Bob has escaped prison comes out, Patrick takes it upon himself to deliver

The first thing we’re supposed to learn about Lilly (Dakota Fanning) and Gerry (Elizabeth Olsen) is that they are best friends – no, like, best friends, sisters, totally bonded, deeply close, passionate friends. This is a fine sentiment – really, one of the best – but it’s a hard one to grasp when Lilly and Gerry, the center of Naomi Foner’s Very Good Girls trashcan their years-long friendship because some dude (and, also, this dude? Of all the dudes? This one?) is temporarily sexually attractive to both girls. Yes, it’s this story again. To be fair, Foner’s film does throw a few wrenches into this now-standard formula – namely that both girls are virgins looking for someone to change that before they head off to college, and that only one of the girls is aware that she’s involved in a love triangle – but it’s otherwise just another destructive addition to a genre of romance films that needs to go away, or at least be handled in a far more mature and compelling manner.

For whatever reason, the story of adult film legend Linda Lovelace has proven to be particular enticing material as of late, with Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s Lovelace only the first of two Lovelace biopics to hit screens this year. Epstein and Freidman’s film is the one that stars Amanda Seyfried as Lovelace (or Boreman, or Marchiano, depending on the particular period of her life you are referring to) and Peter Sarsgaard as her bastard husband/Svengali, Chuck Traynor (because, really, who better to play the necessary bastard/Svengali role than Sarsgaard?). A generally straightforward and uninspired biopic (beyond a somewhat interesting storytelling conceit that pops up about midway through the film), Lovelace tracks Lovelace’s unlikely rise from regular girl to America’s most famous porn star, thanks to her starring role in 1972’s seminal hardcore pornographic film, Deep Throat. Like a lot of porn, Lovelace is often aimless, basically boring, and dead unsexy.

Kate (June Diane Raphael) and Chloe (Casey Wilson) have been best friends their entire lives, finishing each other’s sentences, sleeping in the same waterbed, they even have a catch phrase when introducing themselves to people (“Kate and Chloe! Her Chloe, me Kate. Kate and Chloe.”) It is endearing how the girls support each other unconditionally with positive affirmations and constantly reminding each other they are on the verge of greatness – Kate is the CEO of her own company! (Kate is an egg doner.) Chloe is on the verge of becoming a big star! (Chloe is a go-go dancer.) But unfortunately, Kate and Chloe are co-dependent messes who have no idea how far from greatness (or even acting their age) they truly are. Despite living large in New York City, when the girls receive an invitation to return to their hometown’s beauty pageant circuit, you can tell they both want to go back and compete. Kate and Chloe came in dead last when they competed in the pageant as children and they believe this could be their chance to show everyone they are no longer losers. After getting evicted from their apartment (a minor set back!), the girls hit the open road and the hi-jinx hit the fast lane.

A close up of a beaten and bloodied Shia LaBeouf (who plays the title character) hanging upside down is the first image of The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and brings one question to mind: what did Charlie do? A voice over (from John Hurt) explains simply that “love is pain” as the story takes us “back to the beginning” to a stark hospital room where Charlie’s mother (Melissa Leo) lies dying. As she takes her final breath, something strange happens, and suddenly a healthy looking Leo sits next to Charlie to impart some last words and wisdom. This idea that Charlie can hear from the dead (complete with a tongue-in-cheek joke about The Sixth Sense) is touched upon throughout the film, but unfortunately ends up being more distracting (and sometimes laughable) than a necessary trope to help drive the story along. Charlie’s mom tells him he should go to Bucharest, essentially because she thinks he will “have fun” there. So he does.

Don Jon (Joesph Gordon-Levitt) is — as his name suggests — a modern-day “Don Juan.” He’s a ladies man the girls just can’t seem to say no to. Every weekend Jon stands in the middle of the club with his buddies, scans the room, sets his sights on whichever girl is closest to “dime” status, dances up on her, makes out with her, escorts her into a taxi, and then, well, you can imagine what happens next. At the beginning of Don Jon’s Addiction, Jon tells us there are only a handful of things that matter to him: his body, his pad, his car, his family, his boys, and his girls. But there is one thing that trumps them all: his porn. Jon explains that it’s something “all guys do,” and while he likes the real thing (and certainly has no trouble getting it), he always enjoys his porn more. After a while of running through the same routine, Jon finds himself bored and longing for something more. That “something more” seems to come in the dime sized package of Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson), a curvaceous blonde who fits all of Jon’s stereotypical requirements. Barbara is different, Barbara is special, Barbara is making Jon wait. Barbara wants a real relationship and Jon obliges because Barbara is the “most beautiful thing he has ever seen.” But after finally sealing the deal with Barbara, Jon still finds himself hitting the power button to lose himself in his laptop.

Zero Dark Thirty may have focused the forty minute raid which successfully captured and killed Osama bin Laden, but Greg Barker’s Manhunt takes you a few decades back when a small group of female C.I.A. analysts (nicknamed “The Sisterhood”) came together and uncovered the, now known, worldwide terrorist group, al-Qaeda. Where Zero Dark Thirty is a fictionalized look at these events, Manhunt features the real life C.I.A. analysts, operatives, and targeters who first discovered the group, and diligently worked to end their reign of terror. Others at the C.I.A. thought those in The Sisterhood were simply obsessed with bin Laden, and had no real reason to be tracking him because back then, bin Laden lived out in the open, claiming he had no ties to terrorism. But The Sisterhood kept discovering he was the thread that tied these various terrorist groups together. The question then became: was bin Laden simply contributing funds to these groups, or was he the founder of the movement?

We can never really know the truth behind another person’s eyes. Even friends and lovers who’ve shared laughs and beds for decades and think they know it all will never be completely aware of each other’s inner thoughts. So where does that leave a new couple still fumbling with the other’s strengths, weaknesses and behaviors? And what happens when that still fresh couple are dropped into an uncertain and terrifying situation? Tom (Iain de Caestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert) only met two weeks ago, but the two hit it off well enough that when he asks her to join him for a road trip to a music festival she accepts with only the slightest hesitation. The plan is to meet other friends and camp the night before the fest begins, but cheeky bastard Tom surprises her with a hotel reservation in the Irish countryside. As the hours wear on they find themselves driving in circles, befuddled by seemingly contradictory hotel signs and growing more tense by the minute. Soon irrational fears become concrete as they find themselves targeted by one or more menacing but briefly glimpsed strangers. When it comes to loyalty and trust, where does the line between uncertainty and liability start?

We’re exploring Sundance’s past all week, so we’ve got the usual batch of stellar short films with a Sundance twist. It’s like being there without the snow boots or Harvey Weinstein ruining screenings on his cell phone. Why Watch? Based (pretty loosely) on L. Frank Baum’s “The Tinwoodsman of Oz,” this fantastically clever short blends serial-style filmmaking with a metallic love story. In it, a bold firefighter earns the town’s ire while the preacher’s daughter falls for him. The citizens conspire to end him, but his friend is able to save his life by remaking him in tin. That’s just the start of our hero’s problems in this tale of miraculous intervention, Communism done for love and tongue-in-cheek melodrama. The director, Ray Tintori, made a name for himself with music videos for MGMT and The Killers as well as doing Special Effects for Beats of the Southern Wild. This short won an Honorable Mention at Sundance in 2007 with a DIY look and an electric feel. What will it cost? Only 12 minutes. Skip Work. Watch More Short Films.

If Orca taught us anything it’s that killer whales enjoy the taste of Republican lady gams. If it taught us anything else though it’s that some animals are best left alone. If we have to cage something (which we don’t) make it something small, manageable and stupid, and exclude creatures that fall outside those parameters. Animals that weigh 12,000 pounds for example… Tilikum is just such a beast, but ever since his capture off the coast of Iceland in 1983 he’s been performing (or being milked for sperm) in parks like SeaLand and Sea World. Want two more facts about Tilikum’s sad life? He’s directly linked to three human deaths. And he’s still performing at Sea World.

There are many legends that surround the music industry, but Sound City was an actual place that embodied a mythology. Located in Van Nuys, California (i.e. the Valley, i.e. this is when you groan), Sound City was an outdated dump that refused to let the digital revolution through its front doors, but bands continued to seek it out because of two reasons: the staff that welcomed you in like you were one of their own, and the Neve console. The beautiful board that lived at Sound City was custom ordered and gave the studio its signature sound – a perfect distribution that made even distortion sound good. But it was not that this board was magical or that the studio was designed to create this effect (it ironically was not designed at all, just lucked out on having such good acoustics), it was thanks to the “magic” of analog recording which provides a warmth that digital is not yet able to duplicate. Dave Grohl‘s documentary Sound City is certainly a story about the studio and all the artists that recorded there, but that story focuses truly on this board and the one-of-a-kind sound it was able deliver.

I should have known it was coming on Sunday, when a perfectly attractive young lady who was sitting next to me on a Sundance Film Festival shuttle loudly huffed to a pal sitting behind us, “I haven’t even kissed anyone in a year! I just need to make out with someone tonight. Anyone!” Her sentiments were matched by just about everyone else on Day 5 of the Sundance Film Festival, as I witnessed high school dance-style bump and grind dancing at a swank party at the Grey Goose Lounge, a drunk man on Main St. screaming at a cab driver that he knew that the cab driver won’t pick him because he wanted to have sex with him (surely, sir, it could have nothing to do with the fact that you’re drunk and screaming in the middle of Main St. at two in the morning), and another taxi passenger asking random strangers if they had hookers or blow. Everyone at Sundance has gone mad and sex-obsessed and insane. Me? I was just tired.

I started the day with a naked, drugged up Shia LaBeouf – a concept that would have thrilled me five years ago, but did not quite do it for me this morning. No – I did not wake up after a crazy night down on Main Street, but I did wake up to head down to Eccels (a venue I quite dig) for The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, featuring Mr. LaBeouf, some nudity, and drug use. Review to come, but I was sadly disappointed with Charlie Countryman as it tried to pack a few too many concepts into a single film. My next film was Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut, Don Jon’s Addiction. Sometimes when you are in the middle of a festival, a film that happens to simply entertain you is a welcome respite, and I found Don Jon’s Addiction to be quite entertaining. Gordon-Levitt, who plays a Mike “The Situation” archtype, actually worked really well, delivering the laughs thanks to the film’s sharp cuts and a dynamic relationship with Scarlett Johansson‘s Barbara Sugarman. Before heading out to my final film of the day, I met up with White Bear PR’s Chandler Poling to check out the ASCAP Music Cafe’s cocktail party. Having never made it over to the Cafe (a crime considering it’s across the street from my condo) it was a welcome break and a good time meeting composers and fellow music writers. Plus – you know – free booze.

The first thing that director Sarah Polley asks of the subjects of her documentary debut, Stories We Tell, is for “the whole story.” She asks for it with little fanfare and with an obvious desire to allow her subjects as long as they need to tell that whole story. But, more than anything, Polley asks for that truth honestly, believing that there actually is some whole story to be revealed and that enough time and patience and questions will allow it to show itself. It’s a wild idea, really, asking for honesty and cohesion, even when it comes to documentary filmmaking, a process that, more than anything, aims to illuminate truth and real stories. And yet, it’s also an insane demand – stories are subjective, memory so fickle, experience so fractured – can we expect people to give Polley one satisfying story? On the other hand, we can’t blame Polley for asking for such truth because, after all, she’s not just the film’s director – she’s also its subject.

Jack Kerouac is best known for his novel “On The Road,” which helped inspire the Beat generation and brought the author fast fame, but his next novel, “Big Sur,” told the story of how success only made Kerouac feel more lost and trapped. Director Michael Polish attempts to bring the novel to life with Big Sur as we watch Kerouac (Jean-Marc Barr) travel to the beautiful area to secretly stay in his friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s (Anthony Edwards) cabin and try and find some peace.