The Sundance Film Festival recently announced the promising lineups for a few of the festival’s categories, and we’ve now got the first images from some films that will be playing in competition as part of the U.S. Dramatic category.  Briefly:

• Afternoon Delight – Written and directed by Jill Soloway, starring Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, and Jane Lynch.
• Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – Written and directed by David Lowery, starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, and Keith Carradine.
• C.O.G. – Written and directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, starring Jonathan Groff, Denis O’Hare, Corey Stoll, Dean Stockwell, Casey Wilson, and Troian Bellisario.
• Concussion – Written and directed by Stacie Passon, starring Robin Weigert, Maggie Siff, Jonathan Tchaikovsky, Julie Fain Lawrence, Emily Kinney, and Laila Robins.

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.  The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17 – 27.

This week, Sons of Anarchy gave the club — and us viewers — some time to mourn, regroup, and refocus.  Jax wants to move to club away from “the shit that’s killing us” and try and get back into business with girls instead of guns and drugs.  The dealings with Pope have caused the club to reconsider itself, which is certainly a good thing.  The “blood for blood” retaliation that they were focused on under Clay has seen its day, and it was a great little moment when Chibs and Jax put their guns down to prevent a “hood war.”  As Chibs sagely said, “we’ve got to stop killing each other over a bit of gash.”  Speaking (derogatorily) of women, they were at the forefront of “Stolen Huffy” and did not get the good side of anything, but what else is new in Charming?  It’s a dangerous place to be a bit of a gash.  For more on that and why everyone seems to have a Gemma-sized problem right now, hit the jump.

Since I have to save the heavy, spoilery shit until after the jump I’ll start off by taking a moment to comment on some of Sons of Anarchy‘s lighter fare, which amidst everything else actually got a little screentime in this episode.  Something that has been sorely missing from the series in its last few seasons is the trademark humor that made it so uniquely engaging to begin with.  We got hints of it tonight, with Juice “graduating” and Gemma beating the crap out of Ashley Tisdale from Disney’s High School Musical (file that under dark humor, and how many women has Gemma assaulted at this point?)  Sons continues to get darker and darker, and with it, much of the weird fun has been snuffed out.  Remember when Bobby was really Bobby Elvis?  And Tig was afraid of dolls? (one of my favorite recurring plot points) and Gemma took Half Sack’s girl out with a skateboard?  Those were the days.  Maybe they weren’t as big a part of things as I seem to think, but they made such an impact I remember almost every one.  For other unforgettable moments that you’ll wish you didn’t see, hit the jump.

Well that certainly opened with a bang. There were many of us in the SAMCRO fandom who feared the series was beginning to lose some of its luster during its meandering third season spent partially in Ireland. But not all who wander are lost — enter Season Four, which had the best cold open of any to date for SOA, and brought things (mostly) local again, focusing on club politics and betrayals (some of them quite severe). The end of the fourth season was compelling (Jax taking the clubs’s reins with a totally badassed-up Tara in support, a direct callback to Gemma and JT), but what made it even better was all that it set up for Season Five. Clay, The King, is not dead, the club is not rid of outside influences (in this case, the CIA via the Galindo cartel); they’re still running guns and drugs, and the members themselves, and their families, are in constant danger. Though there was no time jump from the end of last year’s run to the start of this one, things are already incredibly busy and incredibly dark. For a reminder of where things left off last year and a look at how things kicked off with the new season, hit the jump.

Actress Maggie Siff has been making a name for herself with memorable roles in film, television and theater. She had a series regular role on the first season of Mad Men, had recurring roles on Nip/Tuck and Life on Mars, did guest roles on Grey’s Anatomy and Law & Order, and appeared in the feature films Push, Funny People and Leaves of Grass.

Now, she can be seen on the popular FX drama Sons of Anarchy as Dr. Tara Knowles, high school sweetheart of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), who left Charming to get more out of life, but returned, still in love with Jax and now more entrenched than ever in his world. During this exclusive interview with Collider, Maggie Siff talked about the journey that her character has been on since Season 1, how the events of the finale will affect things this season and getting to work with Stephen King, who guest stars in an upcoming episode. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

At the end of my “Sons of Anarchy” set visit, I was surprised to find myself alone.  The other journalists had gone home or to other engagements, but since my schedule was surprisingly free, I said I’d hang around for a few more minutes.  Less than five minutes later, I was presented with the opportunity to conduct exclusive interviews with Katey Sagal (Gemma) and Maggie Siff (Tara), and naturally I immediately accepted.  Sagal is, of course, the brilliant actor of “Married With Children”, “8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter”, and “Futurama” fame.  Maggie Siff, in addition to her major role in “Sons of Anarchy”, also currently appears in the immensely popular AMC show “Mad Men”, so it was a real treat to be able to sit down with the two and talk about the show.  We talked about shaping their character’s personal motivations in the new season, the inherent misogyny of biker gangs and how it’s been overcome, and how the characters they play on “Sons of Anarchy” are different than anything they’ve ever done before.  Check out the entire interview after the jump.