Sundance 2012 Preview: Premieres & Spotlight

Our Park City Preview Week rolls on with more movies from Sundance. We've previously brought you a look at the dramatic competition films and the fest's documentaries. Today we turn our attention to the big names taking center stage in the Premieres and Spotlight sections. Here's a look at a few of the films that caught our eyes.

Premieres


ARBITRAGE
Nicholas Jarecki directs Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, and Brit Marling (she's baaack!) in this thriller set in the high stakes world of hedge fund management.


FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL
Ari Graynor and Lauren Ann Miller play two girlfriends who move in together and start a secret business in Jamie Travis's feature directorial debut. Justing Long, Mark Webber, and Seth Rogen co-star.


LAY THE FAVORITE
Stephen Frears (The Queen) returns to the place he launched 1991's The Grifters with this big cast sports book romantic comedy starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Joshua Jackson.


PRICE CHECK
Parker Posey plays a manically ambitious grocery store manager in this Michael Walker comedy. Eric Mabius and Sundance rock star Josh Pais co-star.


RED HOOK SUMMER
Clarke Peters (of The Wire and Treme fame) stars in this multi-generational dramedy from none other than Spike Lee.


LIBERAL ARTS
Actor/director Joshua Radnor follows up falling in love with Kate Mara in Happythankyoumoreplease by falling in love with Lizzie Olsen in this sophomore effort. Richard Jenkins and Zac Effron co-star.


CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER
Rashida Jones co-wrote (with Will McCormack) and stars alongside Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Emma Roberts, and Elijah Wood in Lee Toland Krieger's (The Vicious Kind) relationship comedy.


BACHELORETTE
Leslye Headlund makes her directorial debut with this knot-tying comedy featuring an all-star cast of Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fischer, James Marsden, and Adam Scott.


THE WORDS
Bradley Cooper plays a plagiarizing writer in Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal's psychological drama co-starring Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, and Zoe Saldana.


RED LIGHTS
Rodrigo Cortes made a splash at Sundance two years ago with Buried. He returns with this supernatural thriller starring Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Lizzie Olsen, and Toby Jones.


PREDISPOSED
Jesse Eisenberg killed it as a drug dealing Hassidic Jew in the woefully underappreciated 2010 Sundance dud Holy Rollers. Now he's back as a drug dealing piano prodigy in Philip Dorling and Ron Nyswaner's comedy co-starring Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Spotlight


THE RAID
You've heard plenty about it - and if you are at Sundance then you are in for a real treat. Gareth Evans's Indonesian actioner will kick Park City in the head with its nonstop silat swinging martial arts. Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Yayan Ruhian star. Don't fear, rest of the world. Your chance to see one of the best action movies in decades is coming very soon.


YOUR SISTER'S SISTER
Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass star in Lynn Shelton's TIFF hit follow-up to Humpday.


OSLO, AUGUST 31ST
Joachim Trier's Anders Danielsen Lie starring Reprise follow-up about addiction is, without a doubt, a masterpiece.


WUTHERING HEIGHTS
People have been expecting amazing things out of Andrea Arnold after 2010's sleeper Fish Tank. But people haven't been saying too many amazing things about her adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic. The fact it was accepted to Sundance is a good sign.


WHERE DO WE GO NOW
Nadine Labaki's Caramel follow-up about women banding together for peace in Lebanon was that country's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Feature.


THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
It seems like there was more buzz over the weird stills that came out of Paolo Sorrentino's Sean Penn-as-aging-80s-rocker drama than from the actual movie when it premiered at Cannes. Now Sundance audiences will get a chance to make up their own minds.

We'll be back tomorrow with a look at much anticipated Midnight and Next sections.