At Sundance, an Austin director makes good

It’s the fourth day of the Sundance Film Festival, and about two-thirds of the sixteen dramatic competition titles have been trotted out. Last year, the winner of the competition was Precious -- which seems poised to earn a Best Picture nomination next week -- so folks are especially curious about this year’s line-up.

Thus far, nothing has quite emerged as an obvious contender. The phrases you hear most often are “charming” (Josh Radnor’s happythankyoumoroeplease) or “well-acted” (Debra Granik’s tale of rural dysfunction, Winter’s Bone) -- but the praise is generally qualified.

That might change, however. Sunday afternoon brought the world premiere of Bryan Poyser's Lovers of Hate. I saw a just-about-complete version of the film two weeks ago, and this acidly funny, sharply etched comedy-drama -- about a pair of sibling rivals wreaking all sorts of emotional havoc in a giant ski house -- is the kind of small movie with big ambitions that gives Sundance a good name.

This is especially good news for those of us rooting our home state heroes along: Poyser is an Austin-based filmmaker who showed great promise in his rough-around-the-edges debut, Dear Pillow. This time he makes an admirable leap forward: The writing is witty; the direction is precise; and the movie is completely plugged into how people can be mercilessly cruel to those they know the best.

If Sundance wants to re-embrace modest budgets and indie values this year -- as the festival organizers have insisted from the start -- then Lovers of Hate might just prove an upset victor when the prizes are announced on Saturday. It probably want have the legs of Precious, but it’s also impossible to resist.