You can go home again, but you probably shouldn’t.  Sometimes, when backed into a corner, we have no choice to retreat in order to regroup, but there’s hardly anything rejuvenating about crawling under the covers in your old bedroom.  Liz A. Garcia‘s The Lifeguard indulges its childish main character’s wish fulfillment as a deranged kind of emotional growth where the protagonist can make hypocritical statements to a kid that doesn’t know any better.  The only real attempt at character development comes from a desperate dramatic ploy in the film’s final ten minutes that closes out this deluded coming-of-age tale.

The Sundance Film Festival recently announced the first round of programming, and we have the first images from a few of the movies playing in the U.S. Dramatic Competition:

• Mother of George - Directed by Andrew Dosunmu, starring Isaach De Bankolé, Danai Gurira, Anthony Okungbowa, Yaya Alafia, and Bukky Ajayi.
• The Lifeguard - Written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, starring Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Alex Shaffer, Amy Madigan, and David Lambert.
• The Spectacular Now - Directed by James Ponsoldt, starring Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Kyle Chandler.
• Touchy Feely - Written and directed by Lynn Shelton, starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, and Josh Pais.

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

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival is a little under two months away, and the first exciting lineups of films have been announced.  Today the lineups for U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions were unveiled, as well as the lineup for the out-of-competitions NEXT section.  A few highlights include the Daniel Radcliffe-fronted Kill Your Darlings, the outlaw pic Ain’t Them Bodies Saints with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, the strong ensemble The Spectacular Now, Primer director Shane Carruth’s new film Upstream Color, and many, many more.

Hit the jump to check out the full lineups, and be sure to check back here on Collider in January for our in-depth coverage from the festival including reviews and interviews.  The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17 – 27.

We’ve got some quick casting stories to report today.  First up, Kathryn Hahn and Emma Roberts have joined Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston in the long-in-development pot comedy We’re the Millers.  Directed by Rawson Thurber (Dodgeball), the film centers on “a pot dealer (Sudeikis) who pulls together a hooker pretending to be his wife (Aniston) and two kids to pose as an RV road-tripping family so that he can smuggle 1000 pounds of pot cross country.”  It sounds like a fun premise, especially since it sounds like the nightmare of an over-zealous DEA agents (“…must stop…family road trips…because of the drugs…”).  Will Poulter (Son of Rambow) recently signed on to play the fake son, and Deadline is now reporting that Roberts will play the daughter.  As for the scene-stealing Hahn, Variety reports she’ll play the wife of a vacationing DEA agent.  Ed Helms and Nick Offerman also have supporting roles in the flick.

Filming on We’re the Millers begins next week in North Carolina. Hit the jump for casting news on the action movie White House Down and the indie flick The Lifeguard.