Wilf wins some, loses some at Sundance

Park City, Utah

While Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is no doubt preoccupied with stadium negotiations, he has a couple of side projects drawing attention at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie-loving tycoon and his wife Audrey are executive producers of two independent films drawing a fair share of attention from festival watchers.

Director Ry Russo-Young's "Nobody Walks" casts Olivia Thrilby ("Juno") as a New York multimedia artist spending a few weeks in Los Ageles, where her mom's old friend(Rosemary DeWitt) is married to a successful sound designer (John Krasinski) who will help her complete her art project. Thrilby moves into the seemingly secure couple's pool house, her tantalizing presence sending emotional shockwaves through the family's relationships. The film garnered decidedly cool reviews.The New York Post found it "sluggish," "annoying" and "fatally miscast," and Entertainment Weekly found it "a scattershot drama about unbelievable people ... of no consequence at all."

Also arriving under the Wilfs' banner is "Smashed," starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an articulate, intelligent LA schoolteacher grappling with her alcoholism. The film is a low key portrait of the ongong struggles of ordinary people on the difficult path to sobriety. The impressive supporting cast includes Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer ("The Help") as Winstead's wise AA sponsor, and Mary Kay Place as her frequently boozed-up mother. The film fared well with critics as The Hollywood Reporter called Winstead "terrific" and Variety praised the film's "sheer emotional generosity," declaring it "at times almost too entertaining for its own good."