Sundance focus is on 11 movies
The very thing that makes Sundance such a thrilling prospect to cinemaphiles is also the scariest: Unlike many other festivals that happen later in the year, we are dealing with entirely unknown quantities when it comes to the lineup. Unlike, say, Toronto International Film Festival ( TIFF), which culls some of the best- reviewed and most exciting films from Cannes, Berlin, ( and even Telluride) among their premieres, very little is known ahead of time about the Sundance lineup — and even less in years in which no particularly big name indie directors have work to premiere there. Last year, practically everybody in attendance was hotly anticipating Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea ( for good reason, it turns out). This year is a lot more of a crapshoot.
That’s not to say there won’t be wonderful films there for the viewing — in fact, I can say with some certainty that there will be a goodly selection of really winning fare — but heading up to the mountains, none of us are too sure what those might be. If last year’s TIFF was a formidable assemblage of amazement, this year’s Sundance is a complete unknown. Nevertheless, here’s our best guess for some of the films that we will breathlessly be extolling ( or condemning) on Film Twitter over the next week or so.
A Ghost Story: On the strength of his ( likely) Oscar nomination for best actor in Manchester by the Sea ( which premiered at Sundance last year), Casey Affleck returns to the festival in director David Lowery’s follow- up to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Affleck plays a ghost, forced in spectral silence
to witness the pain and suffering of his widow, played by Rooney Mara. With the talented but enigmatic Lowery at the helm, this will likely move in strange and mysterious ways.
Brigsby Bear: Saturday Night Live writer Dave McCary has collaborated with childhood buddy Kyle Mooney and several SNL alumni ( including the Lonely Island boys) to create a curious- sounding comedy involving a completely sheltered man- child, played by Mooney, who is suddenly thrust into modern society by his suppressive parents, and decides to film a conclusion to his favorite kids’ TV show — one that only he has ever watched.
Crown Heights: After a wrongful conviction back in 1980 sends young Colin Warner ( Lakeith Stanfield) to a brutal life in prison, Carl King ( former NFLer Nnamdi Asomugha), his best friend, devotes himself to overturning the conviction, tirelessly spending a decade of his life in pursuit of justice. Based closely on a true story, Matt Ruskin’s film could be one of Sundance’s signature breakout mainstream offerings.
Golden Exits: You might say the moody, offbeat stylings of director Alex Ross Perry are something of an acquired taste, but the young auteur has rattled off an impressive array of films — including Listen up Philip, and The Color Wheel — and his new film, which involves a young intern ( Emily Browning) coming to Brooklyn from Australia to help a staid family man with an archival project only to disrupt the delicate balance of his life, will almost surely be a hot ticket at this year’s festival.
Killing Ground: Ah, pity the poor urbanites who go seeking solace out in the wilds of nature. Tasmanian director Damien Power’s thriller follows a young couple who venture out of their comfy citified habitat to go camping
out in the wild, only to discover an unattended toddler at the deserted campsite next to them. Tension, apprehension and brutality ensue. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World
Anymore: Beloved actor Macon Blair, who has appeared in celebrated director Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room comes to Sundance this year with his directorial debut, about a woman whose house is burglarized and takes it upon herself, with the help of her peculiar neighbor, to track down the culprit. What could be taken as a comedy sounds a good deal more dark and potentially disturbing in Blair’s hands, which seems appropriate, given childhood friend Saulnier’s body of work.
Raw: This grisly horror film, which famously played at last year’s TIFF and led to various critics and industry folks stumbling out of the theater physically sick from what they had witnessed, has earned big word- of- mouth buzz ever since ( to some folks, that just sounds like a worthy challenge to their sensibilities). Julia Ducournau’s film follows a young woman in her first year at a veterinary college. A vegetarian, she’s forced into several
bizarre meat- eating rituals at the school, which leads her to seek ever more disturbing ( and unlawful) carnivorous pleasures.
Thoroughbred: A pair of celebrated young Sundance veterans — Anya Taylor- Joy ( The Witch) and Olivia Cooke ( Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) — highlight Cory Finley’s wry drama about a pair of misfit high school friends who reunite after years of distrust, and begin to plot the murder of the stepfather who is threatening to send one of them to reform school. Also noteworthy is the appearance of the late Anton Yelchin, in one of his last roles.
Wilson: The work of graphic novelist Daniel Clowes is well known to comics people, and also to a lesser degree, to film fans. The excellent adaptation of his Ghost World — an early Scarlett Johansson showcase — earned critical, if not tremendous, box- office success. This film, based on Clowes’ graphic novel of the same name, follows the misadventures of its titular protagonist, a curmudgeonly misanthrope played by Woody Harrelson, who discovers to his great elation that he has a teenage daughter whom he has never met.
XX: Horror anthologies got a bit of a bump after the relative success of 2012’ sV/ H/ S — which showcased short works by filmmakers such as Ti West, Joe Swanberg, and Adam Wingard, even if the sequel wasn’t considered much count. The most interesting element of this anthology is that each of the four short pieces was directed by women, including Karyn Kusuma ( The Invitation), and Annie Clark, better known by her stage name as musician St. Vincent — giving the venerable genre a considerable and necessary shot in the arm.
The Yellow Birds: A pair of young soldiers ( Alden Ehrenreich and Tye Sheridan), who buddied up at boot camp, go into the Iraqi war together, but only one of them returns. What ensues in Alexandre Moors’ perplexing mystery drama is the search for what happened, both by military investigators and the deceased’s mother ( played by Jennifer Aniston). With all the attention suddenly given to Ehrenreich — who has been cast as the young Han Solo for yet another Star Wars prequel — we can expect this film to generate a good deal of attention.