All reviews of films shown at the Sundance Film Festival are by Daily Herald film critic Cody Clark.

"The Wackness"

(Independent Film Competition: Dramatic; 1 hr., 40 min.)

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm speaking a different language from almost everyone else in the room. Other people laughed at this movie. I didn't actually grit my teeth, but I gritted them so hard in my head that by the time the end credits arrived I felt like I'd contracted mental lockjaw. "The Wackness" is determined to be quirky in the same way that a mindless, hungry zombie is determined to gnaw your leg off. It's a coming-of-ager about a dope-dealing kid who's fresh out of high school and has never had sex. He discusses this shortcoming in meetings with his therapist, who accepts in-kind payments of marijuana in lieu of an hourly fee.

The kid, puckish Luke Shapiro, is played with beautifully laid-back timing and effortless charisma by Josh Peck. The therapist is played by Ben Kingsley with long hair, a goatee and a "watch me be all hip and fun" demeanor that feels about as organic as a plastic salad fork. The movie is phony on the familiar level of lazy filmmaking (as in a "funny" incarceration snippet), but transcends its own boilerplate phoniness with scenes that are both bogus and alarmingly irresponsible, as when Luke and the therapist dive into a pile of every narcotic imaginable and then are no more than mildly hung over the next morning.

"The Last Word"

(Independent Film Competition: Dramatic; 1 hr., 34 min.)

"The Last Word" has one of those "only at Sundance" premises: The main character, Evan, is a writer who specializes in composing suicide notes. Wait, there's more! Evan (Wes Bentley) is a solitary fellow, but gets drawn out of his bubble of reclusiveness by Charlotte (Winona Ryder), who meets our man Ev after he loiters at the graveside service for her deceased brother, whose last words were, yup, courtesy of a certain professional note-writer. Free-spirited Char won't take no for an answer -- she's determined to date somebody, and the odd duck from the funeral is it. Add to all of that the fact that good old Evander is currently coping with a needy client (Ray Romano) who's a composer of hold music, and you've practically got a handbook for how to make a festival-friendly film.

The still-sprightly Ryder and somewhat stolid Bentley aren't a very convincing romantic pair. There's also an awkward divergence of tones for a lot of the movie, with the love match veering into tension over Evan's withholding of key information about the nature of his acquaintance with Charlotte's brother. The drama pulls the movie in one direction, while the light romance and funny business want to take it in another. Writer and director Geoff Haley does have an ear for comedy, however, and Romano does just fine handling the lion's share of the movie's laugh lines.

"Sleep Dealer"

(Independent Film Competition: Dramatic; 1 hr., 30 min.)

Like "The Matrix" once did, "Sleep Dealer" plays around with the idea of humans retreating from objective reality by means of computer software that connects to their conscious minds through ports built into their bodies. The twist here is that people willingly acquire their "nodes," and use the technology to, among other things, directly oversee the manual labor done by robots. The film takes place almost entirely in Mexico, where young Memo Cruz's rudimentary attempts to break outside the confinement of small-town living -- by hacking into global computer transmissions using homemade equipment -- have tragic consequences for his family.

There can't have been much of a budget for first-time director (and co-screenwriter) Alex Rivera to work with, but "Sleep Dealer" has the visual polish of a major Hollywood production. It also has a hugely inventive, engrossing story anchored by excellent performances from Luis Fernando Pena (as Memo) and the stunningly attractive Leonor Varela (as Luz, a sort of blogger encountered by Memo after he goes to Tijuana looking for work). Action-oriented sci-fi is something of a rarity at Sundance, but "Sleep Dealer" is a bold demonstration of the possibilities this somewhat neglected genre has to offer.

"The Wave"

(World Cinema Competition: Dramatic; 1 hr., 41 min.)

Everyone knows, or thinks they know, that fascism is corrupt, including the smart-mouthed kids who slouch into a special class on autocracy for Projects Week at a German high school. The teacher, who is also the school's water polo coach, had hoped to be assigned to teach anarchy and is almost as unengaged as his students ... until their comments give him the spur-of-the-moment idea of turning the class into a fascist collective. The kids respond to his enforcement of authority almost immediately, quickly adopting a united identity, a dress code, a salute.

The story is based on an actual classroom experiment conducted at an American high school in 1967 that inspired a novel, a play and a 1981 short film starring Bruce Davison. This German version expands the concept to feature length without losing any of its power. Jurgen Vogel gives a very grounded, convincing performance as the teacher, Rainer Wenger, who leads the way. Director Dennis Gansel keeps the film's energy crackling from start to finish, and his screenplay (written with Peter Thorwarth) retains the scope of the original experiment while logically evolving its outcome and thoughtfully developing the individual students.