The 11th annual Gen Art Film Festival concluded last night with a screening of SXSW darling Live Free or Die, followed by the presentation of jury awards. 

Wristcutters: A Love Story took home the Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Feature and, honestly, you could tell the folks from Live Free or Die were pissed. In fact, and I don't know if this was his reason, but Michael Rapaport abruptly left immediately following the awards and was the only cast member not to participate in the Q & A. Judging from our reviews of both films, it appears Wristcutters was more worthy of its award. And I agree.

A film called The Intervention won the Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Short and my personal favorite from the festival, Behind the Mask, took the coveted Feature Film Audience Award. Why is it coveted? Well, because Gen Art claims they have the best audience. And since yours truly was in attendance for a few of the nights, I can't really disagree with that statement.

The first ten minutes are the funniest part of Live Free or Die, a comedy about one of the dumbest criminals ever. In the opening sequence, we see Rugged (Aaron Stanford) stealing quarters out of a paper stand-up for charity, pocketing a pack of rebate coupons for vodka and then covertly ripping bar codes of the backs of the bottles, and trying to sell "stolen" speakers out of the back of his van (it turns out he buys the speakers himself, but figures people will pay more for hot goods). I couldn't stop laughing.

Unfortunately, Live Free or Die doesn't sustain the goofy momentum of the opening sequence. The story sets up Rugged as a legendary criminal, the New Hampshire equivalent of Clyde Barrow, and flashes back to show how he earned that reputation. He teams up with his old clam-shack coworker Lagrand (Paul Schneider), who never seems to have a grasp of what's going on. Most of their crimes are inadvertent, and of course nothing goes the way Rugged plans.