R2PC: Road to Park City

Story Line: A naïve, wannabe director (Viener) decides that he too can be the next Steven Spielberg and sets out to make a film that will win at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bottom Line: A good-natured but not entirely inventive combination of the "mockumentary" with typical indie-style features and standard comedy formats, 1999's R2PC comes off like the kind of film-school joke that is sure to split the sides of the filmmaker and cast's peers while eventually boring third parties. Director Stern offers what amounts to a comprehensive tour of all of New York City's filmmaking hotspots, with frat-boyish star Viener conducting jokey interviews with everyone from low-grade celebs playing themselves to equipment-rental operators, film processors and negative cutters. Though it's bound to garner laughs from indie mavens and film-school types, R2PC isn't witty or technically accomplished enough to succeed as satirical fodder for those not interested in the process. That's ultimately not a critical fault, but it nonetheless limits this honest entry's potential audience. Vanguard is also offering the film in bundled with Stern's book How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000 and Not Go to Jail. --C. S. O'Brien