Couldn't make it to this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah? No, most people had better things to do in the run-up to the Inauguration (plus, they weren't invited). So here are our picks for the best and worst films from the annual mecca of independent film.

Best:

500 Days of Summer  is an amazing movie which tells the story of the beginning and end of a love affair. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star as Summer and Tom, co-workers at a greeting card company who start a relationship despite Summer’s aversion to commitment. First time director Marc Webb takes viewers on a non-linear journey through their relationship with incredible humor, depth and insight. We predict this will win the Audience Award and turn Joseph Gordon-Levitt into a major movie star. You heard it here first. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

Brooklyn’s Finest is a gritty, violent, thought-provoking film starring Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere, which blurs the lines between good and evil. Director Antoine Fuqua has created a simply brilliant film which feels very similar to Goodfellas (and could there be a greater compliment than that?), but with cops as the bad guys. Expect this one to be a major Oscar contender this time next year. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

Adam made us cry for hours even after we'd left the theater. In this beautiful, simple, heart breaking film, Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy play New Yorkers Beth and Adam, who meet in the laundry room of their glorious Manhattan apartment building and immediately hit it off. What makes the film unique is that Adam suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, which essentially means he’s highly functioning but borderline autistic. He necessitates routine and consistency, avoids eye contact, lacks social graces, rambles on incomprehensibly about science or history until his companion is bleary eyed. But he also creates a planetarium just for Beth, is only capable of complete honesty, offers her the most thoughtful favors and welcomes her into his safe, small world. This is a movie you will simply fall in love with. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

The September Issue made us want to intern at Vogue and be BFF's with Andre Leon Talley. For anyone who dreams in couture, lives for their stilettos and loves The Devil Wears Prada, The September Issue is right up your alley (or runway). The documentary follows Anna Wintour and her staff at Vogue as they prepare their legendary September issue, the largest and most important edition of the year. The film provides unprecedented access into Wintour’s world and humanizes a very daunting fixture of the fashion and publishing scenes. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

Good Hair is a documentary which stars comedian Chris Rock, who also wrote and produced the film, and began when his daughter Lola came to him in tears and asked, “Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?” He decided to do whatever it took to figure out where his daughter, who is only six, got such an idea. The result is a film which travels from hair battles in Atlanta to weave shops in LA to temples in India in order to understand the complicated symbolic relationship between the African American community and hair. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

The short, Short Term 12  is the reason why Sundance exists. Destin Cretton, who won Best Short for this, is going to be a name to remember. In 12, he has created a riveting story about life inside a residential housing facility for kids who have been abused and neglected. The short stars Brad William Henke as the facility's supervisor, and his daughter, Phoenix Henke, as one of the troubled children being housed. It’s a great launching pad for what will undoubtly be a brilliant career to come. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce.)

Honorable Mention:

Humpday is a film about two straight friends who are reunited one night after years of seperation and decide to make a gay porn movie. It also, according to other festival goers, was fantastic. We were never able to catch a screening because of scheduling issues but we give them an unofficial stamp of approval based on all of the buzz.

Worst:

Big Fan is excruciating from start to finish, and is the kind of film that gives indies a bad name.  The film stars Patton Oswald as Paul Aufiero, a 36-year-old loser whose life revolves around one thing and one thing only: Giants Football. Written and directed by current industry darling and writer of The Wrestler, Robert Siegel, the film is a incompetent, lackluster, droning mess. Needless to say, we are not cheering for Big Fan. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

The Informers has an all-star cast, every one of whom should be ashamed to have their name attached to a film whose only redeeming moments revolve entirely around Amber Heard's partial nudity. We were told by  numerous sources that the film, adapted by Bret Easton Ellis from his novel and directed by Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers), was absolutely terrible, but for some twisted, sadistic reason, we thought we need to come to that decision on our own. The film is populated entirely by utterly loathsome narcissists who treat themselves and everyone around them badly while wondering around in a flat, unemotional daze. Do as we say, not as we do: Skip this one for sure. (For a more detailed review, see Gossip Sauce and our video blog.)

– Sasha Perl-Raver