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Does hanging out with "good" people make you a good person? New Low attempts to address this question.  Twenty-something Wendell (played by writer/director/editor Adam Bowers) is a slacker video-store employee living in Gainesville. In his free time, he helps write stand-up material for his pal Dave (Toby Turner). He has no desire to venture into the world of stand-up himself, though.  This says a lot about his character: he's lackadaisical with no forward momentum.

He meets dumpster-diving bartender Vicky (Jayme Ratzer), who on their first date points out three of Wendell's physical faults (and sleeps with him anyway). Vicky is happy to troll dumpsters for food or mooch off of free food offered at gallery openings. She appears to be stuck in a rut, but at least (we discover as the movie progresses) she does have goals as far as her art is concerned.

Joanna (Valerie Jones) --...

Rating: 7/10

Writer/Director/Producer: Adam Bowers

Cast: Adam Bowers, Jayme Ratzer, Valerie Jones, Toby Turner

After I popped the screener of Adam Bowers’ film New Low into my DVD player, I decided to watch the film’s trailer in order to get a better idea of what to expect. Big mistake. The trailer was filled with the Woody Allenesque foibles of an apparently 7 foot tall, 90 pound man struggling with life and love, and quickly, a sense of dread came over me. “Not another movie where a self absorbed twenty-something filmmaker makes a movie about a self absorbed twenty-something.” Ugh! With an impending sense of doom, I hit play on the film.

Read more on Sundance 2010 Review: New Low…...

One of the many movies premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Adam Bowers New Low. According to the one-liner:

A neurotic twentysomething struggles to figure out which girl he belongs with: the best or the worst one he’s ever known.

Looking at the trailer, New Low looks like an indie with promise. Also, it’s about the search for love and that’s something we all deal with. Adam Bowers wrote, directed and stars in the film, so I’m sure he’s writing close to the vest and that always make for honest cinema. Check out the trailer and our exclusive poster after the jump.

Here’s the full synopsis:

Who do we really belong with? Wendell is a neurotic twentysomething with no future. Vicky is a dirty, mean bartender who’s dating Wendell. Their relationship is based on a mutual lack of ambition and cleanliness,...

The lucky inaugural eight include: Habib Azar's Armless, Linas Philips's Bass Ackwards, Sultan Sharrief's Bilal’s Stand, Katie Aselton's The Freebie, Barnes Bros' Homewrecker, Adam Bowers's New Low, Michael Mohan's One Too Many Mornings and Eyad Zahra's The Taqwacores - which has nothing to do with the docu film Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam: (same subject, different film). - If you see or hear me calling this the Miranda July's (you'll have to have seen Me and You and Everyone We Know) section it's because of its no greater or lesser than emblem ( < = > ). John Cooper officially had a stroke of genius with the announcement of the section earlier in the year, and the batch of eight shows the festival is certainly getting back into the "indie" spirit of things again or, it will be seen as Sundance stealing some of the...

Yesterday we gave you a list of all the films playing in-competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. We now have the list of the films playing out-of-competition and they’re divided up into four categories: Premieres, Next, Spotlight, and Park City at Midnight. Since combining these lists would be a lot to read for just one article, we’ve broken it up to make it easier on your eyes. You’re welcome.

The “Next” category features filmmakers and actors you’ve probably never heard of before, but that doesn’t mean these films aren’t worth seeing. On the contrary, because there are only eight of them, folks attending the festival may want to find some time to try and check a couple out because part of what makes film festivals so great is you can discover a hidden game and bring it to the attention of others. Check out...