One

Tony Barbieri
USA, 1998, 88 mins.

Producer/Production Designer: Wendy Cary
Screenwriter: Tony Barbieri, Jason Cairns
Director of Photography: Matthew Irving
Editor: Jeffrey Stephans
Music: Todd Boekelheide
Principal cast: Jason Cairns, Kane Picoy, Autumn Macintosh, Paul Herman, Ed Lynch.

Delicate, mysterious, authentic, and precise, One - as in one chance, one life - was recognized by a number of influential critics as an unheralded gem at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Two boyhood San Francisco pals, ballplayer-turned--garbageman Nick and newly-paroled medical supply courier Charlie, work to overcome the tragedies of their pasts and repair their friendship. When Charlie begins dating his supervisor Sara, the men begin to slowly drift apart again. First-time filmmaker Barbieri has made a quiet and balanced character study that embraces the languid long-take rhythms of a European art film while dissecting the macho posturing of an American guy movie. One is a rarity, a blue collar psychodrama made with power and grace. - Eddie Cockrell