God Grew Tired of Us (2007)

ON THIN ICE Despite its good intentions, God Grew Tired of Us's doc of Sudanese refugees trying to remake their lives in the U.S. doesn't quite bring their story home

If nobility was the measure of quality in documentary films, then dozens of them would be Sundance prize-winners — just like this extra-virtuous, dramatically undernourished portrait of the agony of exile. A group of Sudanese refugees — victims of years of violent turmoil — journey to the U.S. and attempt to make a life here. They have never had electricity, let alone cable or Whole Foods, so there is culture-clash comedy, as well as a few wrenching moments of loneliness. Yet God Grew Tired of Us never brings us half as close to its subjects as the far more penetrating Lost Boys of Sudan did in 2004.