10/10 people. I was not expecting to be blown away by anything with a Sundance seal of approval. More often than not, Sundance endorsements are about quirky people patting other quirky people on the back and telling the rest of us we're idiots for liking Terminator. I do have an artsy fartsy streak, and I admit I'm a sucker for music-oriented films. Hell, I love That Thing You Do! How many grown men admit that?!
Once feels like real time. It has a deliberately slow pace allowing the music and lyrics to tell a lot of the story. (not too slow -- it's not even 90 minutes) And please, fellow rockers, don't panic at the cover. Sure this is singer-songwriter territory. I have Lars Ulrich on my desktop wallpaper, ok? Some Kind of Monster is a work of genius. But this music is flat out good. I mean really, really good.
Boy meets girl, boy very fond of girl. Both are lonely and at crossroads in their lives. Both are trying to determine if they're rebounding from previous loves or if they truly belong with those loves. The video montage toward the end with the dude's girlfriend got me up on the edge of the couch. As cute as these two musicians are together, you see that spark they have for their respective partners and want them reunited where they belong. Great, great message. Married? Good - MAKE IT WORK!!!