Lisa discovers her inner Werner Herzog in this week’s Simpsons, Any Given Sundance.

Kredit Kookies: No chalk board gag. Couch gag: The Simpson family’s a pop-up in a picture book.

We open on the Simpmobile, which is driving toward Springfield Stadium at dawn. An enthusiastic Homer has lied to his family about the game’s early start time – they’ve come extra-early to participate in the tailgating going on all around them (Ralph Wiggum is eating his own hand, despite his father’s admonishments). Bart complains that Homer’s making them beg, but Homer corrects him – it’s mooching if they’re taking food from people they know!

While Homer cozies up to Hans Moleman, an argument begins between Lenny and Sideshow Mel. They attended rival colleges as youths and their ivy-league argument begins a riot. Lisa, inspired by the chaos around her, takes out her My Little Sony video camera and begins taping the action for a school project.

Cut to Spingfield Elementary, where Lisa argues with her art teacher over the worth of her film. She takes her case to Principal Skinner, who loves the picture: “it had everything! Action! Drama! Milhouse!” He reveals stacks of rejected screenplays – he’s been banned from the Universal Studios Florida Tour. (“There’s one in Hollywood?”)

Determined to get some respect for himself and the school, Skinner asks Lisa to go to the sole source of drama in her life – her own family – and film them for class. The Simpsons are initially reluctant about being filmed, but Lisa soon convinces them to act naturally for the camera – too naturally. Among other everyday incidents, she captures Maggie tossing a shirt over Marge’s head and into her laundry basket, causing her mother to re-fold the same shirt several times, Homer strangling Bart on Marge’s birthday, and Bart strangling his teddy bear in his sleep.

Cut to Springfield Elementary, where Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner confer over Lisa’s project. They decide to enter Lisa’s upcoming documentary into the Sundance Film Festival. When Lisa returns the project to Skinner, he takes the film out of Lisa’s hands and begins to sweeten it, adding orchestration from Mr. Largo and sound effects provided by the bullies. The result is sent through the Sundance Film Festival’s prescreening system, where a movie about Paul Giamatti and Martin Lawrence involving ghosts and fat suits is rejected, but Lisa’s film, which causes a case of fatal over-gasping, is approved.

Homer nearly rips up Lisa’s acceptance letter, but she manages to rescue it and The Simpsons Are Going To Utah. The family makes the trek over twisty mountain roads to get to the once-tiny Park City, where they’re set up in a swanky condo and receive the royal treatment. Chalmers and Skinner, who have formed “Chalmskin”, a production outfit, tag along, but are treated more shabbily.

The Simpsons explore the sights and sounds of Park City, viewing documentaries and bumping into Jim Jarmusch. Marge initially loves the Sundance experience, but soon finds herself depressed by all of the darkly-themed motion pictures playing the festival and Homer, of course, has no idea who Jim Jarmusch is.

It’s soon time for Lisa’s premier, where Chalmers and Skinner are initially denied entrance when Bart pretends they’re strangers – and they injure themselves trying to break into the showing on sleds.

The Simpsons find Lisa’s too-honest documentary embarrassing, and after Comic Book Guy posts about the film on his website (Aint-I-Fat-News), the entire nation is soon aware of it. The Simpsons are soon made a public spectacle, with total strangers coming up to Homer and asking him to choke their baby.

Chalmers and Skinner have regained consciousness and are wandering Park City. International distributors approach them, and they sell the rights to Lisa’s film for a few perks, including foreign distribution rights and entrance to the swankiest bar in town.

Meanwhile, an embarrassed Marge, Homer and Bart go back to their condo to hide from the world. A dejected Lisa regrets selling out her family, but bumps again into Jim Jarmusch, who encourages her not to see her film as a bad thing – to show her she’s not alone, they head to another confessional documentary.

She soon discovers that Chalmer and Skinner didn’t put their eggs in one basket – they gave a camera to Nelson, whose record of life with his trailer-bound mother both skillfully parodies “The 400 Blows” and usurps all of the attention once focused on Lisa. Nelson and his mother glory in the attention, and Lisa is relieved to become another anonymous citizen (at least until the documentary comes out on DVD).

The rest of The Simpsons meet up with Lisa, and Marge expresses pride in her daughter, though she requests Lisa stop trying to film the family. (“One Simpsons movie is enough!”)

As they head off into the Park City night, we pan over to actor John C. Reilly, who’s auditioning for the next ChalmSkin production, this one apparently fictional, as it features “Ghost Willie”. Chalmers finds Reilly desperate, but Skinner approves his performance. Thus we leave the Simpsons again for this week. Over the credits, we see Chalmers and Skinner celebrating the completion of another ChalmSkin production by accidentally shattering champagne flutes.

Red Dress Press: Truly a mixed episode, leaning toward ‘bleah’. Numerous gags fell flat, with lots of little inaccuracies muddling the picture: Skinner’s bobsledding with brides delusion after crashing the sled; Skinner not knowing who Lisa’s family is after years of rivalry with Bart; the Simpsons being embarrassed by a tell-all documentary when they’ve already participated in two reality shows and been fully exposed to the entire town of Springfield by Lisa and Bart’s antics numerous times and jerkass!Homer making a re-appearance in the first quarter of the episode were lowlights.

There was, however, some nice stuff – Nelson’s documentary, Lisa’s epiphany and the set-up behind ChalmSkin being among them. The somewhat-gentle skewering of the Sundance milieu shows the writers have familiarity with the topic but don’t want to burn any bridges that might result in their films not being shown at festivals future. The cameo by Jarmusch was perfect, but John C. Reilly’s appearance felt tacked-on and pointless. Oddly mixed writing-wise, but the animation was beautiful and crisp.

Did it Fail at Masonry?: This wildly uneven but mildly amusing episode isn’t worth recording, but is worth catching in re-runs. DVR rec: fast-forward to the Lenny/Mel argument and start from there.

What The Screwballs Think: The show pulled a 7.6 overnight, which will average out to a little bit above what it’s been doing over the past couple of weeks. You could say it was helped by a new Family Guy, but it was new last week, too.

The Springfield Shopper: The next new episode will be Mona Leaves-A, which is scheduled to air on May eleventh. Be sure to check back here on the twelfth for a full recap!