Film fans will be happy to know that the first night of Sundance usually features films with… lower expectations, so it should get significantly better from here on. There’s the Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd starrer We Came Together, by director David Wain. Rudd plays a corporate exec tasked with shutting down a small store run by Poehler. Eventually, a romance develops. The cast alone means this is a 2014 must watch.

Amy Poehler, They Came Together Set
Poehler, Rudd and co. filmed They Came Together last summer.

Richard Linklater returns to Sundance with Boyhood. The cast includes Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, but it’s this film’s innovative technique that makes it stand out. Boyhood was filmed in in pieces over the course of 12 years from 2002-2013. Linklater will host several special screenings.

 

Another one to look out for is "Love is Strange." John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play a New York gay couple who get married after after nearly 40 years together. When prejudice causes one to lose his job at a Catholic school, the couple have to move out of their Manhattan apartment and temporarily split up to live with neighbors and family. The film is directed by Ira Sachs, winner of the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

On the not-so-profound, quirky end of the spectrum, there's the off-beat "Frank," with "12 Years A Slave" actor Michael Fassbender starring in the title role as an eccentric musician who wears an unusual "head" made out of plaster.

 

The festival will run until Sunday, January 26th. The full lineup can be found on the official Sundance website.