I have batted a dismal 0-4 at the box office this year. I have seen X-Men 3, The Break-Up, Mission Impossible III, and The Davinci Code and they have all been medicore at best and leave much to be desired. I went in to all four movies with an open mind and had no reservations and still came away robbed. It seems that every year the explosions get bigger but the script gets worse. I cringed during most of these movies at how bad the dialogue comes across in pivotal scenes in these larger than life blockbusters. So I decided to compile a list of upcoming movies that did extremely well at Sundance this year and should be out this summer.

Half Nelson

Ryan Fleck returns to Sundance with Half Nelson, a feature-length version of his Jury Prize-winning short, Gowanus, Brooklyn, that looks at an unlikely friendship that brings hope to a man trapped by his own demons. Dan Dunne is an idealistic inner-city junior high school teacher. Though he can get it together in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives precariously separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey, catches him in a compromising situation. From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship that threatens either to undo them, or to provide the vital change they both need to move forward in their lives. Half Nelson neither condemns nor sanctions Dan’s actions, but rather depicts characters who are “wrestling” with various aspects of themselves and their roles in the larger world around them. Ryan Gosling perfectly renders Dan, imbuing him with layers and dimensions rarely seen in film. Equally exciting is newcomer Shareeka Epps’s performance as Drey; she displays a remarkable ability to convey both wisdom and innocence. Fleck has delicately crafted a film about the universal struggle to achieve vital change in one’s life–and also about the role friendship can play in that struggle.–© Sundance Film Festival

Sherrybaby

Sometimes life gets in the way of your best intentions. Even if you have everything going for you, an emotional wound from childhood can reemerge as a monster in your adult life and swallow you whole. Director Laurie Collyer returns to Sundance (her documentary Nuyorican Dream played in the 2000 Festival) with Sherrybaby, an emotionally powerful dramatic debut about a young woman struggling to keep her life on the right track–but she doesn’t really know how. Sherry Swanson is recently released from prison and dreams of getting a job, settling down, and being a mother to her five-year-old daughter. Big problems arise when she realizes her brother and his wife are invested in raising the child themselves. The constricting realities of unemployment and parole complicate things even more. Sherry is determined to weather the storm that has developed in her life, but she must first find a way to overcome a demon in her closet that holds her hostage emotionally. Collyer’s sharply observed characters are brought to indelible life by all-around strong performances, led by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s deeply inhabited Sherry. Sherrybaby is an intensely compelling experience and marks an exciting directorial debut.–© Sundance Film Festival

The Science of Sleep

“The Science of Sleep,” a playful romantic fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his waking life.While slumbering, he is the charismatic host of “Stephane TV,” expounding on “The Science of Sleep” in front of cardboard cameras. In “real life,” he has a boring job at a Parisian calendar publisher and pines for Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the girl in the apartment across the hall. While Stephanie is initially charmed by Stephane, she is confused by his childishness and shaky connection to reality. Stephanes co-worker, Guy (Alain Chabat) a vulgar but practical man, offers advice on the opposite sex, but Stephane is too far in the clouds to listen. Unable to find the secret to Stephanies heart while awake, Stephane searches for the answer in his dreams.Written and directed by Michel Gondry, the boundlessly inventive creator of award-winning films (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), music videos and commercials. “The Science of Sleep” is a whimsical trip into a cut-and-paste wonderland fashioned from cardboard tubes, cellophane, and imagination.–© Warner Independent

Little Miss Sunshine

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE tells the story of the Hoovers, one of the most endearingly fractured families ever seen on motion picture screens. Together, the motley six-member family treks from Albuquerque to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. On their travels through this bizarrely funny landscape, the Hoovers learn to trust and support each other along the path of life, no matter what the challenge. -via Wikipedia