Here’s my unapologetically personal list of five films I am really excited about at the Sundance Fest:

Goat: The word on this college hazing drama is that it doesn’t hold back on the brutality of the rituals, with no moist-eyed pretense that only a few “bad apples” spoil the idyllic virtues of American higher education.

Still, director and co-screenwriter Andrew Neel seems more concerned with the masculine “tropes” of male culture, and its destructive effect on young men, than in doing an expose of university life. In his intro, he said the story is about two brothers whose relationship reaches a dramatic turning point, and resolution, through a hazing ordeal. While teen idol Nick Jonas should get the most immediate attention, it is possible that one or more of a cast of unknowns will get our blood racing.

The Birth of a Nation: I’ve always felt that the story of Nat Turner, who led a doomed slave revolt in the 1830s, had the makings of a great film. William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner remains the best novel I’ve read on American slavery, and it’s surprising that it has taken this long to have a major film about that historical figure.

Triple-threat Nate Parker did the screenplay, directed and stars as Turner. He judged correctly that this would get our attention and, as a career move, it’s as gutsy as you can get. And his titling it the same as D.W. Griffith’s classic clearly announces a revisionist intent.

It will be hard to match what Styron did in the novel though, which was one of the most vivid historical fictions I have read; a transporting experience. But the fact that so little is documented about Turner is a gift, since Parker can present a very personal perspective of this man without feeling limited by historical fact, which remains in dispute. It is likely that any controversy will pump the box office.

Wiener Dog: For those of us who have been waiting for our next meal from Todd Solandz, dinner is served. He reached a peak in Happiness (1998), which made me a devoted fan, but his subsequent work, although uneven, always serves up choice bits of the kind of lip-smacking mordancy that suits my palate. Admittedly an acquired taste, but one that is shared by others.

This film is a sequel of sorts to Welcome to the Dollhouse, which introduced the pre-teen Dawn Wiener – known as “Wienerdog” to her tormentor-classmates – and which won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance in 1996. So you can understand why expectations are high. Dawn was played then by Heather Matarazzo. Wiener-Dog, set twenty years later, finds the adult Dawn as a vet technician, and is now played by Greta Gerwig. However, it seems the real star of the film is a dachshund, playing the title role. I’m chuckling already.

Halal Love (and Sex): This comedy from Lebanon promises an intriguing and refreshing view of Islamic culture by taking a light-hearted look at sexual mores. Writer-director Assad Fouladkar focuses on three couples – a pair of newlyweds, a middle-aged couple dealing with sexual hang-ups and a woman’s pursuit of a man with uncertainties – and offers food for thought along with laughter. At least that’s what the synopsis says. At any rate, Fouladkar’s debut feature, When Maryam Spoke Out, had been Lebanon’s entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Becoming Mike Nichols: I’ve saved my most eagerly awaited film, a documentary, for last. Mike Nichols was one of my most select personal heroes, and I treasure that I got to personally shake his hand on two occasions.

Director Doug McGrath, who started as a writer for Saturday Night Live, has had a varied career, including book writer for Broadway musicals (“Carol King: Beautiful”) and Woody Allen collaborator (“Bullets Over Broadway”). He’s also been a success with documentaries, none of which I’ve seen.

In this film, which was made just months before his death, Nichols talks about his career with his friend, Jack O’Brien. McGrath intercuts scenes from the films intermittently, a technique which can just distract from the subject if not done well. Here’s hoping. But it’s fitting that Sundance should include this tribute to a master.