What’s hot at Sundance

In theaters Friday: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, John Dies at the End, Movie 43, Parker
New on Blu-ray: End of Watch, Nobody Walks, The Paper Boy

Though still very much ensconced in the Red Stick, The Movie Filter has a few spies on the ground in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. Here are eight of the films I’m getting good feedback on for you to tag on your radar in 2013.

Inspired by E.T. and a decent little novel called Great Expectations, Shotgun Stories director Jeff Nichols returns with this slightly Beasts of the Southern Wild-esque Gothic fable. Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon star in this down-home ex-con drama alongside a few promising newcomers, one that looks like the second coming of River Phoenix.

The “Boy Wizard” Daniel Radcliffe takes on Allen Ginsberg in this pre-Beat Generation tale of heady Columbia students reacting to a murder within their social circle and dreaming far beyond the Hudson. The Harry Potter star calls it an “origin story, but for poets.” Featuring chapters of up-and-coming co-stars from the likes of Emmy-winner Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and Elizabeth Olsen (the upcoming Oldboy) to Jennifer Jason Leigh and the woefully under appreciated Ben Foster (Alpha Dog and The Messenger), this will at least make a worthy watch-at-home double bill with On the Road.

For all those wondering, “Why does Ashton Kutcher exist?” perhaps this is the answer: To play the driven, maniacal genius that is Apple founder Steve Jobs in what promises to be an intense and uncompromising look at the visionary computer magnate.

Sort of a reverse look at the anarchic activity in David Fincher’s Fight Club that could prove to be one of this year’s most thought-provoking films, this thriller stars Alexander Skarsgard, Brit Marling and Ellen Page in the story of a private intelligence firm infiltrating a domestic organization that is terrorizing large corporations.

Starring Shailene Woodley (The Decendents and the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man sequel) and written by the team behind (500) Days of Summer, this could be the one indie drama that gets the darkness and pain of coming-of-age narratives and teen relationships just right.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl certainly generated hype for his rock documentary about the famed (and doomed) recording studio in Van Nuys, Calif., when he appeared with the surviving members of Nirvana, plus some guy named Paul McCartney, and shredded the stage at the 12.12.12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy victims. The picture includes a fresh mix of new songs by an all-star lineup and interviews with the likes of Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Stevie Nicks and more who pitch in to celebrate real music played by people with passion and the passing of the analog era of recording.

Looking like a cross between the Steve McQueen-directed Michael Fassbender showcase Shame and, well, just about any episode of Jersey Shore ever, this character-driven drama is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s first ride in the director’s chair and sees him sport a song of “The Situation” persona and wanting to score with Scarlett Johansson’s comparatively reserved Jersey girl. The film also stars Julianne Moore and, no joke, Tony Danza. Danza revival, anyone?

A former colleague at New York called this one “soooo racy,” and “not deep, but deeply hot.” Not for the squeamish, this relationship drama stars Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as best friends who fall in love with each other’s sons and aren’t too prudish to act on it. At the very least, this could be the eyebrow-raiser of the year.

Watch the trailer for Mud and see the Hollywood Reporter’s new interview with the cast and crew of Kill Your Darlings below: