It’s a huge movie week for Seattle: David Lynch’s Inland Empire opens at the Neptune today, Sundance Film Festival began last night, Oscar nominations are coming in on Tuesday.

At Sundance, Seattle is being represented by two decidedly perverted films. Up first: Charles Mudede and Rob Devor’s Zoo, screening tomorrow through the coming week.

Since it’s about the Enumclaw horse fucker, no writer can resist dropping a line or two into festival previews. But what will the prurient think when they see the picturesque, crypto-sympathetic film? Charles should be checking in to the Slog sometime this weekend to keep us updated on all the parties and gorgeous women in Park City. Calvin Reeder’s Little Farm, which screened at Northwest Film Forum during the Local Sightings festival, is getting a bunch of screenings prior to the horror feature The Signal next week. But you can watch it on the internets! Click here to see incest and exploding heads.

Other movies of note at Sundance include Chicago 10—Josh Feit’s new favorite movie even though he doesn’t know it yet—about the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, liberally spiked with animation and Eminem: The Chicago Tribune has an interesting preview here. I’m queasily fascinated by Teeth, a horror movie about abstinence education and an actual vagina dentata, by Roy Lichtenstein’s son Mitchell. Catholics (or at least, the Catholic League, which is like the Anti-Defamation League, and just as prone to going waaaayy off topic) are up in arms about the Dakota Fanning rape scene (and short shorts) in Hounddog, which sounds like Bastard Out of Carolina, but with more blue suede shoes and less Jena Malone. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (here’s an interview) is about the prison; and fans of Stomp the Yard should take note of How She Move, featuring 14 step dance sequences. For the Bible Tells Me So is this year’s Jesus Camp; it’s about what the Bible actually has to say about homosexuality. Jessica Yu (who blended animation and reportage to lovely effect in the Henry Darger doc In the Realms of the Unreal) unveils an unconventional documentary with a Greek chorus played by puppets. And, of course, everybody’s talking about Waitress, by murdered actor/director Adrienne Shelly.

Will Tuesday bring an Oscar nomination for Stranger Genius James Longley, director of Iraq in Fragments? British film critics discuss his chances and admire the film, which opens in London today.

In the film section this week: Michael Atkinson reviews David Lynch’s three-hour experimental film Inland Empire.

Be sure to check out his interview with Lynch. (And, if you missed it, Sean Nelson’s Slog post about the film and Lynch’s Q&A at the Cinerama.)

Also opening today: the French police procedural Le Petit Lieutenant, opening at the Varsity, about a Billy Budd-like figure in a tough Paris precinct. I review the film here. And Charles Mudede revels in the greedy, nasty, despicable specimens of humankind in The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover at Northwest Film Forum.

________________

Film Shorts this week include reviews of Double Indemnity, Romántico, and Eve and the Fire Horse.

UPDATED 5:20:
Lindy West reviews The Hitcher: Strictly for people stuck under a rock since 1985.