Jennifer Phang’s Sundance Frontier entry Half-Life received something of a critical honor recently when producer Mike Ryan, whose thoughtful and passionate reviews can be found at the new Hammer To Nail, cited the film as his favorite of the 34 he saw at this year’s festival.

An excerpt:

We often see an art film that may leap around in perspective, mostly for rhetorical or comic effect, but it is truly rare to be carried emotionally through a film that tells a multi-perspective story through a seamless integration of naturalistic action, animation and self consciously artificial CGI compositing. Half-Life exists on a whole other, higher level of cinematic ambition than any other film at Sundance this year. It is formally inventive, deeply personal and emotionally compelling, all on a tiny indie budget! This is ambitious indie filmmaking at its best!

For more with Phang, check out this interview with her appearing on the KCPW Sundance podcast.

As a side note, Half-Life was one of two Park City films that received mentorship and support from the IFP Rough Cut Labs. The other was Tom Quinn’s The New Year’s Parade, which won the Grand Prize at Slamdance.