The titles to look out for from this year’s Sundance Film Festival
Returning to its natural home on the often snow-flecked streets of Utah’s Park City after two years of virtual screenings, the recent Sundance Film Festival certainly didn’t disappoint when it came to offering a taste of exciting cinema to come over the next 12 months.
There was something for everyone in the 100 feature-length projects and smattering of TV series on show. Among the prizewinners were the inspiring teacher drama Radical, and Iranian-American familial dramedy The Persian Version, Australia’s Shayda and documentaries The Eternal Memory, Beyond Utopia and 20 Days in Mariupol.
Some titles have already been picked up for proposed cinema or streaming service release. Apple TV+ has acquired the Eve Hewson-headlining (The Luminaries) Flora and Son, Netflix nabbed Australian horror Run Rabbit Run and Prime Video is the home of documentary Jude Blume Forever and Filipino tale In My Mother’s Skin.
Stuff to Watch checked out more than 30 movies during the festival and has come up with this list of 15 fabulous flicks we can’t wait for Kiwis to see.
Cassandro
Gael Garcia Bernal delivers a fabulous performance in this inspired-by-a-true-story tale about a gay Mexican amateur wrestler who is determined to shake up the sport by taking off his luchador mask and creating an ‘‘exotico’’ persona that will win over crowds and also fight.
Roger Ross Williams’ (Life, Animated) smart, sensitive drama is set to unspool on Prime Video.
Cat Person
Based on the viral The New Yorker 2017 short story of the same name by Kristen Roupenian, this blackly comedic thriller looks at the perils of modern dating as college student Margot (Coda’s Emilia Jones) tries to navigate a relationship with the much older Robert (Succession’s Nicholas Braun). A kind of cross between The Sex Lives of College Girls and Promising Young Woman, Susanna Fogel’s (The Spy Who Dumped Me) film features a scenestealing turn from The Broken Hearts Gallery’s Geraldine Viswanathan.
Eileen
New Zealand’s Thomasin McKenzie continues her ascent by anchoring this evocative drama about a young prison worker who is brought out of her shell by the arrival of a glamorous new colleague (Anne Hathaway). Based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2016 book, William Oldroyd’s (Lady Macbeth) tale is full of twists and turns and memorable imagery.
Fair Game
One of the most talked-about movies at Sundance, writerdirector Chloe Domont’s feature debut is a highly charged thriller that brings back memories of 80s hits like Fatal Attraction and Wall Street. Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor and Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Alden Ehrenreich play a power couple whose relationship starts to unravel when an opportunity for promotion opens up at their New York hedge fund. Netflix snapped it up almost immediately after it debuted.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize, Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson’s documentary is a fascinating portrait of highly opinionated and always entertaining Black poet Giovanni.
While the contemporary interviews and performances delight, it is some of the archival footage of her appearances on talk shows – especially an extended debate with writer James Baldwin – that truly compel.
Infinity Pool
Brandon Cronenberg’s (Possessor) latest slice of visceral, sci-fiinfused horror offers more evidence of Mia Goth’s (Pearl, X) ability to light up the screen and unnerve in equal measure.
She plays Gabi Bauer, a young woman who draws Alexander Skarsgard’s struggling author into a strange world of hedonistic pleasures and deadly games while he holidays on a remote island with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman).
A Little Prayer
Although writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s familial drama initially seems likely to do for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s Jane Levy what his Junebug did for Amy Adams almost two decades ago, it turns into a tour de force for the always reliable and hugely underrated David Strathairn (Where the Crawdads Sing). He is terrific as a family patriarch determined to protect his daughter-in-law from the fallout from his son’s affair with another woman.
Magazine Dreams
Set for stardom as Kang the Conqueror in what is likely to be a series of appearances in the Marvel Cinema Universe over the next couple of years, Jonathan Majors delivers a fully committed performance in this intoxicating tale of dangerous obsession.
Killian Maddox is determined to become an elite bodybuilder, no matter what the toll is on his body, or relationships with those around him. Elijah Bynum’s tale took home a special jury award for Creative Vision.
Polite Society
Already set for a cinema release here on April 27, hit British sitcom We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor’s feature debut is a riotous cross between Bend it Like Beckham, Kill Bill and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Believing that her older sister’s impending marriage is a terrible mistake, aspiring stuntwoman Ria Khan (Bridgerton’s Pria Kansara) hatches a plan to ensure the nuptials never take place. However, she is up against some powerful forces.
Scrapper
Likely to be seen as this year’s Nowhere Special or Aftersun, this emotional father-daughter tale picked up a World Grand Jury Prize. Writer-director Charlotte Regan’s gentle drama is the story of 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell), whose enforced preternatural independence is threatened by the arrival of her estranged father (Where the Crawdads Sing’s Harris Dickinson).
Shortcomings
One of festival’s most unexpected delights and sheer crowd-pleasers, actor Randall Park’s (Young Rock, WandaVision) feature debut behind the camera is a hilarious and thoroughly entertaining adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s 2007 graphic novel.
It follows three young AsianAmericans as they navigate the joys and pitfalls of modern relationships.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Hilarious and heartbreaking, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) takes us on an emotional journey through the life and times of the Back to the Future, Family Ties, Spin City and Teen Wolf star.
Taking its cue from the actor’s quartet of books, Fox offers an intimate glimpse into what it was like suddenly going from struggling to make ends meet to being Hollywood’s hottest property – and then trying to hold on as Parkinson’s Disease began taking its toll. Coming to Apple TV+ later this year.
Talk to Me
Likely to be one of the cult horror hits of the year, this Australian tale follows a group of teens who dare to dabble with the occult powers of what appears to be a severed hand. A heady combination of Flatliners and It Follows, Danny and Michael Philippou’s fright fest features a fabulous young cast and a compelling performance from Miranda Otto as a concerned mum.
A Thousand and One
Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize, writer-director AV Rockwell’s debut feature is an emotion-filled drama about the relationship between ex-con Inez (Coming 2 America’s Teyana Taylor) and her young charge Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola/ Aven Courtney/Josiah Cross).
Like Barry Jenkins’ Oscarwinning Moonlight, it’s a story told across three specific points in time, beginning with the moment Inez decides to ‘‘kidnap’’ the then 6-year-old to ‘‘save him’’ from the foster care system.
When It Melts
Evoking memories of the best of the Dardenne brothers (The Kid With a Bike) and Celine Sciamma (Tomboy, Petite Maman), former star of The Broken Circle Breakdown – Veerle Baetens – steps behind the camera for this evocative, provocative drama about a young woman still haunted by an incident from her childhood. The now 17-year-old Rosa Marchant won a Special Jury Award for Best Performance for her turn as the young Eva.