Life isn’t fair, and that should piss us the hell off.  But as we grow older, we learn to accept that the world doesn’t owe us anything, and that some people get more rough breaks than others.  What we should never accept is allowing unfairness to come from our own selfishness.  George Tillman Jr.‘s The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete puts a friendship based on mutual survival at its center as an unfair and selfish world closes in on its helpless main characters, Mister (Skylan Brooks) and Pete (Ethan Dizon).  Brooks and Dizon’s tremendous performances keep Inevitable Defeat from the overwrought melodrama Tillman and screenwriter Michael Starrbury try to bring down on the picture.  Unfortunately, the filmmakers end up coming off as more uncaring than the world they want to depict.

Yesterday, Sundance announced their stellar Premieres line-up and we have the first images from a few of the movies playing in the category:

• A.C.O.D. – Directed and co-written by Stuart Zicherman, co-written by Ben Karlin, starring Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Amy Poehler, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

• Don Jon’s Addiction – Written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, and Julianne Moore.

• The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete – Directed by George Tillman Jr., written by Michael Starrburry, starring Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, and Jeffrey Wright.

• The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman – Directed by Fredrik Bond, written by Matt Drake, starring Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, and Mads Mikkelsen.

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